Here’s a quick guide on how to make save the dates using cotton rag paper and a personalised rubber stamp. The high-quality feel and texture you get from stamping hand-made paper like this just can’t be achieved from digital printing, so get stamping! I recently made save the dates just like this for my own wedding and my friends and family went nuts for them. They may have been overly kind as I’m the one in the gang that runs a rubber stamp company and they knew I made the stamp. However, since then I have been asked by some friends where I bought the paper from as they wanted to buy a stamp from me and then copy my wife and I’s save the dates! So, it must have made genuine impression on some of them at least. here’s how I made them.
The paper is Cotton Rag paper from Khadi
This paper is handmade in India and is exported all over the world. It’s a beautiful, high-quality paper with a natural deckle edge. It’s very reasonably priced for how good it is if you ask me. You can get higher quality rag papers made in the UK which are even nicer and are probably worth it if you’re drawing or painting, but they are more expensive. So, for what we’re doing I think the Khadi paper is perfect.
These ‘Save the Dates’ are A7 in size. Khadi make A7 paper in the thinner weight of 150gsm which would work nicely. Or if like me you want the crazy thick stuff, you can get the A6 640gsm paper and tear it in half using a deckle edge tearer. You could also just tear it by hand if you’re careful. So, get enough of these for all your guests plus a few spare for the odd dodgy impression, there’s always going to be a few.
Now you finally get to use your charming new bit of wedding stationery. This step is fairly self-explanatory, stick on your favourite Love-Songs playlist and start stamping. Maybe I’m a weirdo but I find the monotonous task of making a hundred and fifty handmade save the dates with a rubber stamp quite enjoyable.
If you have a lot of patience, you could even make multi coloured save the dates using multiple ink pads and some sponge daubers. It’s a fiddly, time-consuming task, but boy does it look pretty.
