Tales from the Studio - How we design and create your foiled invitations and stationery

From the very first time I used gold leaf in my calligraphy work, I've been mesmerised by flashy gold and silver. Adding gold leaf to each invitation would be not only impractical but unaffordable.

Gold leaf was used throughout manuscripts since the very first time ink touched vellum.... but we rarely use ink these days.... never mind vellum. Calligraphers still use Gold Leaf.... but sparingly because of it's high price. 

I've been making invitations and stationery for around 20 years, but it wasn't until 8 years ago, I stumbled upon this machine.... and I was blown away by how much it changed the flat, lifeless printing of invitations into something worthy of Royalty.... and what's more... I could offer 17 stunning colours AND make it AFFORDABLE to almost every couple in the country!

I remember how I whooped 

and jumped for joy 

the first time I converted my plain black lettering...

 into bright, shiny foil, which jumped off the page 

as it caught the light....If you think 

'Mad woman on the loose' 

it's fair to say, you'd be pretty close 

The foil is exactly the same as used in a conventional plate made hot foiling... just the process is slightly different.

It's hard to explain to our couples the exact process that starts, once the consultation is over. the design agreed upon and we set to work on their order....so here it is.... in picture form.....

First is the drawing stage....my favorite weapon of choice is a fine line pen. 0.8mm seems to be the one I pick up most often. I think because the thicker the lines, the more the foil....if that makes any sense? We LOVE foil.... Lovely shiny foil....

Then, it's off to the scanner and photoshop 

to create some magic...

Once I'm happy, off we go to the printer...

(Did I mention the first printer didn't work

for this particular technique? 

EXPENSIVE mistake!)

And out it comes... Printed black....

From there each one is hand fed 

through the foiling machine

And comes out like this.....

Them the folding machine. If you've ever made your own invitation and tried to fold neat, clean and crisp folds, you'll understand why we love this piece of cleverness so much! 

Then each one is trimmed.....

And trimmed again....

And voilà.... there we go!

We are only one of a handful of companies in the whole of the UK offering this foiling service. The machine we use was bought from a company in the US and omits the need for expensive plate making that conventional hot foiling machines use..... which has a knock on effect and make the buying of foiled stationery affordable to even the most budget savvy Brides!

Foiling screams luxury, elegance, class and style!

Your guests will love it! 

But then.... we are totally biased ...

so don't take our word for it!