Invitations Made me Insane

Hive, I'm not kidding, designing my invitations are driving me carazzzzzy! I have invitation ADD and I have an addiction to looking at invitations, it makes for a very bad combination. Just when I think I finally found something I just have to have, along comes something else I have to have a little bit more. I'm designing my invitations, all my paper rather, by myself...with the most basic processing platform: Microsoft Word. Don't get me wrong, I'm enjoying it. I wish I had the funds to purchase Adobe Illustrator to just make it a tad easier. Here's my all-over- the-place train of thought:

It started with simple font and simple hearts:

{iHeartyou via Etsy seller, Little Sparks Creations}

I was fixated on the heart invite for a few months, and I love that Mrs. Lox went with this awesome design. Then I started migrating towards tree or nature inspired invites.

Lovebirds in a Tree Invite:

{Oh So Beautiful Paper}

Willow Tree Invite:

{via Invitation Crush}

I sat with a blank document forrrever and tried to figure out how I could re-create something like this, but everything I did just looked like clip art. I altered my searching and came across the image below which convinced me I needed banners and white font.

Oh pretty banners:

{Invitation Crush by Oh My Deer!}

Banner with Chevron Stripes:

{via Etsy seller Cheerupcherup}

The colored paper and white typing makes the statement in this suite, courtesy of Mrs. Pain au Chocolat:

{Miss PAC, Weddingbee}

Solid color with white text:

{I Should Have Been An Astronaut}

Next came the brackets:

{via Etsy seller Shine Invitations}

{Image via Minted}

So, to summarize, I like hearts, trees, banners, chevron, brackets, color and white text. Sweet, Honey, way to be all over the place. Looking at the images I have saved and comparing them to the ones I have recreated, I've learned this:

• I love letterpress
• I like dark backgrounds with white text
• I'm drawn to non-computer generated images
• I like having something to use on all paper elements (bracket, banner, etc.)

And you know what outlining this tells me? I have a challenge ahead of me. I can't afford letterpress. My home printer doesn't allow for white text printing. And, I'm no artist so all my abilities lie in the computer generation. I'm screwed ya'll.

I'm going to walk away and:

{via Typophile.com}

Hive, who else had invitation scatterbrain while searching for inspiration?!