Save the Date!

Some of you have read my engagement ring instructable (here). The natural next step was save the dates!

We wanted to make something we hadn't seen before, and I always like silly puns, so we went with saving dates with a life ring.

The life-ring around the date has our names and the date embossed, and has a strip of paper with the details typed. The container has a magnetic base, and a slot for the strip of paper to protrude

Because this was a high effort and perishable save the date, we only made this for people we would see in person over Christmas 2014 (close family/friends) as this was when we announced our date saving. For those who would needed their save the date posting we had some cards printed with the same pun theme.

I designed the life-ring in solidworks, but I am sure many packages are more than capable.

Dates can vary in size but they are quite squishy so on size will fit a single variety on the whole. Measure your dates to get the Internal diameter right. The other dimensions where just chosen to make it look good while ensuring enough space for clear writing.

Because our 3D printer is a single colour printer I would be colouring it in so I embossed not only the writing, but also the white quarters in order to make edges to colour in up to.

Obviously print one and check fit before printing the whole batch. I also found that the embossing needed to be deep (1mm+) to make it clear once printed.

When we were making the save the dates I had just bough a beautiful 1930's typewriter. I couldn't resist typing out the paper strip...

Being old school this meant repeatedly typing the message and avoiding typos as there is no deleting with backspace! The ribbon was quite old giving a brilliant aged look to the text.

Before fitting the paper strip the life-ring needs colouring in. I did this carefully with a Sharpie. You have to be quick with the nib to avoid the ink wicking into the surrounding white areas, while being careful not to go out of the lines. You soon get the knack though

I then cut the page into the individual strips and cut in waisted sections to make the strip tie neatly around the life-ring. A single horizontal staple attached the paper in a stylish minimalist way.

Dates are sticky so I needed to add a container...

I found a shop that sold some lovely magnetic spice containers for £1 each that were just the right size and had a window to see the date through without needing to open it. Even better, they also had a slot for pouring spice through that was perfect for the strip of paper to poke through.

I lined the pot with crumpled blue tissue paper to be the 'water', making a hole in the middle for the date to sit in so it doesn't rattle around. I then added the date and life-ring and carefully fed the paper strip through the slot in the pot base and then through the slot in the lid.

With that the date is saved.

I hope you have enjoyed this instructable. If you have I am entering it into the wedding contest, so please vote:)

You'll notice the date is not too long ago. Katya and I had a great wedding and have just returned from honeymoon. As you'd expect there were lots of DIY aspects to the wedding, so watch this space for more instructables...