So why are so many invitation artists, scrapbook makers and other paper artists fascinated with translucent vellum paper? Perhaps it's because translucent paper has a real personality about it. At the expense of sounding like a hopeless romantic, is it because vellum is rather like translucent sea glass gems found on a walk along the beach—a treasure no artistic soul could ignore? Or one might compare it to whimsical and airy cotton candy—so ethereal but so full of impact. It reminds us of romantic old parchment love letters but simultaneously has a modern hip translucent trendiness similar to that possessed by the latest translucent phones and CD players. There is something inherently appealing about translucent objects, and translucent paper is no exception.

Vellum paper harkens back to earlier times, but obviously the production of this paper differs from those days. From ancient times up until the 19th century, vellum was made by skinning a calf, then painstakingly scraping the leather and finally smoothing the skin with a pumice stone. One of the wonders of modern paper manufacturing is that this visually delicate yet highly sturdy paper is now made by refining 100% cellulose fibers into a gelatin-like mixture. Air and water is rapidly removed, the fibers are pressed into a smooth sheet and baked in an oven with sizing or glue added—and presto—you've got a sheet of beautiful, smooth vellum—not to mention, a lot of happy vegetarians ready to create vellum invitations.

The creative possibilities with vellum is so great because it allows colors and patterns to visually interact just as layered glazes in an oil painting would. Let's focus in on vellum envelopes. What's particularly nice about vellum envelopes is that you can design your handmade invitation specifically so that your invitation design peeks through the envelope, allowing visual elements of your invitation to interact with those of your envelope. Your envelope is transformed into something more than a protective enclosure for your invitation and becomes a work of art in itself.

Here are some examples of handmade invitations that make the most of translucent qualities of vellum envelopes in the manner described above. In this first example a wedding invitation inviting guests to a botanical garden wedding is created by rubber stamping a romantic Victorian drawing of a fern onto the front of a folded card using a green ink pad. This is placed in a clear vellum envelope that is rubber stamped with impressions of dragonflies using a gold ink pad. The layering of this imagery through the use of vellum produces a soft atmospheric feeling. Victorian and botanical-themed rubber stamps can be found at www.stampin.com or www.stamplandchicago.com.

Again making the most of vellum's "peek through" quality is this handmade invitation design created using a radiant white folded card rubber stamped with a Victorian rose. The outside of the card could also be customized with the bride and groom's name and wedding wording is presented inside the card. Loose rose petals are enclosed in the envelope. The romantic Victorian rose image and fragrant dried rose petals showing through your blushed pink vellum envelope make a beautiful introduction to your rose-themed wedding before the envelope is even opened.

Another exciting way to create an envelope presentation with real impact is to wrap your invite in a Japanese paper or cover a folded card with the paper as done in this illustration. Text inside the card could be colored to pick up one of the rich colors in the Japanese paper or even hand calligraphed with gold ink to repeat the metallic ink used in the Japanese paper. A lovely accent touch would be to rubber stamp a metallic gold butterfly inside the card as a repeat of the butterfly motif. When your completed invitation is placed inside a clear vellum envelope, the brilliant color and pattern of the paper softly shows through. Again the imagery on your Japanese paper is enhanced by the atmospheric vellum envelope. Here a mailing label is made by printing addresses on a sheet of Japanese Tairei paper; then the label is cut and glued to the envelope.

Let your imagination take flight with all of the possibilities for accenting your translucent vellum envelope using rubber stamping, stickers and seals along with inserts such as dried flowers, confetti and patterned paper.

Tags: vellum envelopes, vellum, handmade invitations, garden wedding invitations, rose wedding invitations, japanese papers