Tribesmaid Allison (whom some Offbeat Home & Life readers might remember from this amazing rat house) and her partner Chris made these rat-themed Save the Dates. Here's how with bonus templates…
We went with rats for our Save the Date cards because 1) we have pet rats, 2) we love street art and it's a bit of a nod to Banksy, and 3) they will surely survive the apocalypse (and are way cuter than cockroaches!).
I sketched out two rats with tails that make a heart shape together.
The perfect Save the Dates for your Harry Potter-themed wedding
Chad and Casey are having a "Harry Potter-esque" wedding. So what better way to introduce their guests to what magical wedding experiences await them than... Read more
Chris traced out my sketches on the computer and worked out how to make them into a stand up 3D card. We were inspired by a corporate Christmas card that he got a few years ago (it looked like this) and really liked the idea that people could keep our Save the Dates out on display.
We sized the card to fit flat into envelopes we already own.
Using Photoshop, I made the background image of a concrete wall with a circus poster and fallout shelter sign (there's an arrow that you can't really see in the photo). The poster features me and Chris, as well as the wedding date. The spray-painted fallout shelter sign is referencing our venue, a Cold War-era underground bunker.
We used a paper cutting machine and assembled all the little pieces for their outfits — gluing on the top hats and tutus!
Here are the templates my fiance and I made, just in case other Offbeat Brides want to make their own post-apocalyptic rat cards!
You so had me at the title of this post! Fantastic!
OMG this is one of the legit awesomest things I’ve seen in a long time. Superlike!
This looks so professional and cute, how lovely!
This is brilliant! Not good for my rat-phobic sweetie tho!
What kind of cutting machine do you use?
Thanks for sharing!
I second the brilliant and would also love to know what you mean “paper cutting machine.” Love the idea of pop-up but totally intimidated by idea of cutting these out by hand!
We used a KNK Zing which is a pretty awesome machine, but you could use a Silhouette or any other paper cutter.
Before we got our Zing, we used http://www.ponoko.com/ to get projects like this laser cut for us.
Another option is to contact your local hacker space. In our city they let people use their laser cutter and 3D printers for a small fee.
Thank YOU!!!!!!!! Ponoko is apprently the exact thing I was looking for but didn’t know to ask for!
Superfly!!!
Very beautiful work!
That is just so cool! I think the 3D concept can apply to all sort of invitations. Still, is it easy enough to mass produce?