5 Tips for Printing Vellum Layered Baby Announcements

Vellum adds so much elegance to stationery, but can be tricky to print on.
Here’s our top 5 tips to successfully create see-through birth announcements.

So baby is coming, and you want special cards to announce the new arrival, among the other fun details of getting ready for baby. If you want to amp up the wow factor, add a layer of vellum on the card. The peek-a-boo effect is awesome. However, printing on vellum can be a little tricky. That’s where our five top tips could make the difference between wow and oops.

1. What is Vellum?

Vellum for printing may not be what you think of as true vellum paper.

The little sheet of paper that protects an invitation in the mail is often called vellum. It’s also referred to as parchment or tracing paper. The difference between the three is translucency and weight. Parchment is not quite as see through as vellum, and only comes in white or ivory. Vellum can be produced in many colors.

Our vellum for this project looks like frosted glass and feels almost like plastic.

And like plastic and ink, ink and vellum don’t always play well together. One of the keys to success is the type of vellum you use.

2. What Type of Vellum to Buy.

Like with most stuff, the highest quality you can afford will give the best results.

Look for 29# vellum for using in your home printer. Your local print shop with bigger machines can go heavier, up to 54# vellum.

You’ll have to experiment to find the brand of vellum that works best with your printer. The link below is a vellum that has worked for us.

Vellum-Ribbon-Birth-Announcement-elements-kimenink — Print the info on vellum, and back it with a photo on cardstock.

3. How to Print on Vellum.

The biggest detail for printing success is giving the ink time to dry before handling. It might need as long as overnight, depending on your printer and the way it prints.

If you use a laser printer, the print comes out dry, so you don’t need the drying time. The problems with laser is flaking and peeling later with handling.

Ink jet printers have a better success rate. Setting your printer for light weight paper, photo paper or fine art paper may work better than the default setting of plain paper. I have an HP Officejet Pro 8715 and I fed the vellum through like regular printer paper. It seemed dry in a minute, and printed clearly. So the precautions are if you run into trouble with your printer.

A printer that feeds the paper flat is better than a printer that takes the paper around rollers. Don’t let the printed vellum fall on top of newly printed sheets. Take them out of the tray as they come out of the printer, and lay them in a single layer for drying.

Print only a few pages at a time. When the printer warms up it can do funny things like jam, smear and act like a little brat in other ways.

Most vellum accepts ink on either side of the page, but not all. Vellum absorbs more on one side than the other. Moisten your thumb and a finger and pick a sheet up. The side that sticks to your skin is the side that gets the ink.

Another way to decide which side to use is to mark the papers “front” and “back” as you take them out of the package. Feed them through the printer, then print on the side that works best.

4. Cut the Vellum.

Cutting vellum isn’t hard. Just make sure your cutting blade is very sharp.

You can use an exact-o knife, guillotine cutter or rotary-style trimmer.

A Cricut or Silhouette works well for more complicated cuts. Use an older cutting mat with less stick so the vellum won’t bend out of shape when you remove it. Also, use at least a 29# weight of vellum. The possibilities with using a cutting machine are endless!

Vellum-Ribbon-Birth-Announcement-kimenink — Buy this card in our Baby Shop

5. Attach the Vellum to Card Backing.

You can use the vellum all by itself (if you use a heavy weight of vellum) or you can layer it on top of colored or printed card.

When you layer vellum you need a way to attach it that doesn’t leave a blotchy mess. Liquid glue is not the best option unless the spot will be covered with an embellishment. If you do use it, apply it in a thin layer to the card stock first and allow it to dry a bit before attaching the vellum. There is a special type of glue that isn’t as obvious. Find the link in the Supplies list.

Good options are brads, colored staples, stitching or glue dots. Glue dots will show a little, but not as much as liquid glue. What you use will be determined by the style of card.

Our method for this baby announcement is punched holes laced with satin ribbon and tied into a bow.

You can also buy lovely baby announcements, wedding invitations and more from our Paper Love Shop.