Make Real Linen Invitations Using These Fabulous Tips

Make Real Linen Invitations using these fabulous tips. And yes, you can absolutely send these through your inkjet printer!

It’s almost impossible to buy handmade linen paper. Most “linen” paper is actually a good quality regular paper with a linen-look texture.

And these papers are beautiful, too.

But if you are adventurous and a genuinely “offbeat” bride, you can make your own from linen fabric and freezer paper.

And a cheap inkjet printer (because you don’t want stray threads getting into an expensive printer).

Handmade Flax Paper, made from fiber from flax stems. Very different look than the starched linen fabric invitations we make in this post. (Linen fabric is also made from flax stems, but in a different process.)

Make Real Linen Fabric Paper

Warning: this project is not for the faint-hearted.

There’s quite a few steps involved in this process, but you know, the “offbeat” bride puts a lot of energy into unique things considered weird by the traditional people that make up the majority of the population.

Some of us have offbeat in our DNA.

We don’t do offbeat because we want to impress others. Because very few will be impressed. We do it purely for our own satisfaction. We do it to channel our creative brain, which feels that doing something special (offbeat) is an expression of love.

Okay. I’ll get off my soapbox now and get to the job at hand.

Supplies:

lightweight 4 to 5 oz per yard linen fabric*
laundry starch*
freezer paper*
steam iron and ironing board, scissors, transparent ruler*, rotary cutter with extra blades, self healing cutting mat
inkjet printer with rear feed*

make-pure-linen-invitations-1-kimenink-com — This is the texture/look we want on the linen invitations.

Directions:

The freezer paper in the link is pre-cut 8.5″ x 11″ sheets, which is super handy. You can get two 5″x7″ invitations on that size.
Cut the linen fabric slightly larger than the freezer paper sheets. If you want 100 invitations, cut 50 pieces.
Mix the laundry starch following the “heavy starch” recipe on the box.
Soak the linen fabric pieces in the starch. Pull from liquid, and squeeze excess starch back into the bowl. Lay onto a waterproof surface to dry slightly, then iron with steam until the pieces are flat. This is totally tedious, but very necessary.
When the fabric pieces are dry and smooth, iron them onto freezer paper. This makes them stiff enough to go through the printer.
Cut the invitations with a sharp rotary cutter and transparent ruler.
Peel the freezer paper off the back.
Stack those invitations until you’ve got them all printed.
Put your invitation and other papers into envelopes and mail! (6 to 8 weeks before the wedding.)

offbeat-linen-invitations — via offbeatbride.com, the source of today’s project.

Helpful Tips for Making Linen Wedding Invitations

Test drive several weights of linen fabric to decide which works best for the look you want. The link is for a light to medium weight.
We all know woven fabrics can get wavy. Be sure to cut and iron the linen pieces so the weave is as straight as possible.
Design your invitation and save as a high resolution image, either a jpeg or png file. Position 2 onto a printer size page. I use Microsoft Publisher for both those steps, then print from there, also. (Let me know if you need help operating Publisher. When you learn it, you’ll never want to format on Word or Slides again.)
My printer is a wide format Epson Photo printer. The printer itself is cheap, but the ink is crazy expensive. I linked you to a cheaper HP regular width printer, which I plan to try when my Epson gives out. I love HP’s ink program, which seems much more economical that Epson cartridges. You’ll need to sign up for their highest number of copies for the month you print your invitations. Then if you typically don’t print very much, you can easily switch to a basic subscription. Both my current HP All-In-One OfficeJet and my Epson photo printer print very true to color. And if you print in black, you have no worries.