So my fiance and I decided to go the do-it-yourself route with our invitations. We loved the pocketfold invitations because they seemed like a good way to organize all those extra inserts - the RSVP's, the directions, the hotel info, etc.
So I pretty much figured out how to do these by myself. There aren't too many decent instructions online yet, at least not that I could find by a google search. So I thought I'd post photos of the step by step process that I followed. Hopefully this will be of some help to future brides that may decide to make pocketfold invites themselves too. The invites below are for a finished size of 5'' x 7''. The actual pocket portion is 2.75 inches. These have a envelope flap that is straight-across. You could angle it to look more like an envelope flap, but I considered that unnecessary extra work so I did not do that.
First up, the supplies:
-Paper (I used 19'' x 25.5'' Artist's Charcoal Paper in Kimono Red) - I cut this paper into 5 strips of 19'' x 5''.
-One bone folder
-One rotary cutter (I used fiskers brand)
-One 18'' ruler
-One self-healing cutting board
-Glue lines by GlueDOTS
Now take your paper and lay it out on the cutting board. Put the ruler at the 2.75 inch mark from the left side of the strip.
Now with the bone folder, slide along the right side of the ruler two to three times to make a crease in the paper. Hold the ruler and the paper in place while doing this. This part will eventually be folded over to make the flap of the pocket.
Now repeat this process again, but at a distance of 9 and 5/8 inches from the far left edge of the paper (or 6 and 7/8 inches from the first crease mark).
And lastly, repeat the process one more time, but at a distance of 16 and 5/8 inches from the far left edge of the paper (or 7 inches from the last crease mark). Now you will have a 2 and 3/8 inch size remaining on the right side of the paper, this will be the "flap of the envelope".
After you make all of the above creases, you should have a strip of paper that looks like this, with 3 total bone folder creases.
The next step is to fold the paper into its folder shape. I fold the pocket flap first, to the right as shown.
Then I fold that over onto itself, so the entire middle portion is folded over now. Then fold that remaining flap over. That will be the flap of the pocketfold. I plan on sealing it with a nice envelope seal or sticker once my invites are all finished. You could be really crafty and use a wax sealer to seal that flap. You can find sealing wax and stamps at any craft store.
Sometimes when I folded my pocketfolds the edges wouldn't line up properly. To fix this I would press a ruler on the edge of the pocketfold and carefully trim off the uneven edges using my rotary cutter. Be careful not to take off too much or your inserts will not fit properly since the pocketfold measurements will change.
The final step of this process is to actually make the pocket portion. I used glue lines by "glue dots". I found these at Michael's craft store. I lined up one glue line on one edge of the pocket flap.
Then I lined up another glue line on the other edge of the pocket flap.
Remove the cellophane backing from the glue lines. Now fold over this pocket flap. You now have the folder part that will actually hold all of your inserts!
And here you will see the finished product! Ta-da!
I hope that this tutorial has been helpful. If you have any suggestions or comments on how to improve this process feel free to let me know below!
I'll show you the final product and assembled invitations in my wedding recaps.
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