Dress Up Your Invite: How to fake the laser cut look!

Laser cut wedding invitations are gorgeous but way too expensive for today’s budget-minded couples. But, wait. When has that ever stopped you before? You can get the laser cut look without the price tag, and we’ll show you how!

Step 1. Shop, Shop, Shop
Find the wedding invitation of your dreams (and within your price range). Ann’s Bridal Bargains has lots of inexpensive wedding invitations with simple designs that will work beautifully with any number of paper punches. As you’re shopping, pay attention to how much room you have to work with around the edge of the invitation and how deep the punch will go. You don’t want to punch any designs or wording on your invitations. Be sure to order plenty of extra invitations to practice.

Step 2. Roll with the punches!
Spend some time scoping out border punches in the paper craft aisle at your local hobby store or online. You’ll find a nice selection of elaborate designs. We decided to work with two different designs: the Wildflowers Craft Punch Set and the Swirling Lace Craft Punch Set courtesy of Martha Stewart crafts via Amazon.com. Each set contained a corner stamp and border stamp. We found that using both all the way around the invitation is a lot of work so we used just the border stamp to save time, and they look amazing!

Step 3. Get some punches in!
Once you find a punch you like, you will want to play with it and get the feel for it. Just grab a few sheets of scrapbook paper or heavyweight card stock at your hobby store to practice on. Your goal is to get comfortable using the punch before you start your wedding invitations. You will inevitably have a few mishaps when you first start trying to get the right look, so make sure you have those extra invitations handy. After a few, you should be ready to punch away!