Sand Dollar Shaped Wedding Invitation

Here is a Sand Dollars beach wedding invitation project that is beautiful, classy, and easy to do. If you are having a large wedding with quite a few guests this fall I highly recommend asking some of your bridesmaid and even the grooms men to help make these wonderfully unique Sand Dollar invitations.

Beach weddings are a fabulous opportunity to try something a little whimsical and out of the ordinary for your guests. Sand Dollars Beach Wedding invitations are the perfect opportunity to incorporate your beach wedding theme, show your personality, and even save a little money making them yourself.

For this Beach wedding project you will need:

Heavy grade watercolor paper

Watercolor paint or acrylic paint

Sanding Watercolor Medium

Water

Paint Brushes

Sharp Scissor or Exacto Knife

Pencils

Sand dollars

This is an easy Sand Dollar beach wedding invitation project if you break it down into a number of different steps and don't let them overwhelm you.

The first step is to find some Sand Dollars. I find them all the time at the arts and craft store and you can always find them for free at the beach. Look for different shapes and large sizes. Wedding invitations traditionally have quite a bit of information printed on them, so your Sand Dollars will need to be big enough to include all of the information you want on there.

Once you have found a variety of Sand Dollars you will want to lay them out on some regular drawing paper, trace them and cut them out. You can make a variety of different Sand Dollar beach wedding invitations or stick with one pattern. Cutting them out allows you to see how well your beach wedding invitation information will fit on the Sand Dollars.

Now you are ready to lay your chosen Sand Dollar patterns out on your heavy water color wedding invitation paper. Trace them lightly with pencil and then cut them out. For super sharp edges onto your wedding invitations I highly recommend using a very sharp exacto knife. You may need to change the blade if you are doing a lot of invitations.

Tip: When you are deciding on a shape for your beach wedding invitation you should try playing around with one sand dollar or two overlapping sand dollars aside by side.

Once your Sand Dollar beach wedding invitations are cut out you are ready to start painting. I like to take a paper plate and lay out a palette of beach and sand paint colors from my watercolor paints. You can use any color you want. Before I paint my Sand Dollar cutouts I always practice a little on a piece of scrap watercolor paper. This way I don't waste a lot of my Sand Dollar cutouts trying to get the look I want.

For a crisp look try buying some watercolor gum medium. This paints on like glue and dries like rubber. You can paint on the paper to outline your Sand Dollar lines as well around the small opening in the middle. When you paint it will keep those areas from absorbing paint. Then when you paint dries you can rub it off and reveal crisp whit outlines to your Sand Dollar beach wedding invitation.

Now, use some of your water to dilute the watercolor paint and gentle start brushing it along the edges of your Sand Dollar beach wedding invitations. Slowly work your way in to the middle of the Sand Dollar.

I like to add more water as I work my way in so that the paint becomes more sheer and translucent towards the center of the invitation. This allows your information on the Sand Dollar beach wedding invitation to really stand out.

There are special water color mediums you can buy at any art supply or craft supply store that are meant to be added to water color paints to create different effects. The sand textured medium is perfect for this wedding invitation! Simply add some to the water color paints and you are ready to go.

You can also find shimmering effects and others that just keep the paint wet longer allowing you to really work it.

These watercolor mediums can be found right next to the watercolor paints. Typically a bottle will cost you about $6, give or take a little depending on what brand you are buying.

Allow your Sand Dollar beach wedding invitations to dry thoroughly then you are ready to add your writing. I personally like to write in calligraphy on these beautiful beach wedding invitations, but you could also print on them as well. I have printed directly on them before from my computer and I found it better to print first with waterproof ink, then cut the Sand Dollar out and then paint. To do this I typed and printed my wedding invitation information first, then printed them. Next I laid my Sand Dollar cut outs on top and carefully traced around them.