The Cupcakes' Accordion-Fold Pocket Programs

photo by The Wiebners

Thank you all for the lovely compliments on my recap post yesterday, and especially for your enthusiasm over our programs. As promised, I'm taking a break from recapping today to show you how I created our programs!

When we had our invitations engraved, I asked my printer to hold onto the die-cut scraps from the top layer of our invites. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with them, but I knew that I could use them for something. After all, they're so cute, and bonus: we'd be recycling! I had ordered 125 invitations, but a lot of extras had been printed since the design was fairly complex and something they hadn't done before, so there were well over 250 die-cuts left over for me to use.

Once I received the scraps, I was playing around with ideas (place cards? tags for our welcome bags?) and I suddenly remembered an accordion-fold pocket program that I had clipped out of Martha Stewart Weddings many months before.

My scroll scraps (that's what we'll call them, m'kay?) were smaller than the dimensions of the cover panels in Martha's tutorial, but I loved the idea and knew I could adapt it to what I had to work with. Plus, I love the idea of programs being pocket-sized, so guests can fit them in their pocket or purse and take them home with them. I used Martha's example as inspiration and improvised my own dimensions.

The laser printer I use at work can print 11" x 17", so I started with the width of 17". My scroll scraps were about 4.75" from top to bottom, so I decided to make my layout 4.125" high (to allow for a little wiggle room when affixing the inside to the scroll scrap cover).

In order for the accordion-style to work, I needed an even number of panels. Four panels (like Martha's layout) wouldn't be enough for the information I wanted to include, and it would not work with the width of my scroll scraps that would become my covers. Fortunately, six panels would work just perfectly with the size of my scroll scraps, with each panel being 2.833" wide.

I set up an Adobe Illustrator layout with my dimensions and got to work laying out the different panels.

Click to enlarge

When it came time to print, I was able to print two layouts up on an 11" x 17" sheet of paper. I copied and pasted the layout one on top of the other, and I added small rules to the top and bottom of each layout, along the fold-lines, so I would know where to cut and fold. (I made the marks darker in the below layout for you to be able to see them; ultimately, when doing this yourself, you want to make them as faint as possible so they are not noticeable to your guests, but are still a subtle guide to help you see where to fold.)

Click to enlarge

One thing to be aware of is that not all printers will print close to the edge of the paper. You will have to play around with both the rules that you set up to be cut-guides and the type in your layout to make sure that nothing important gets cut off when you are printing. It's all about trial and error!

Once the interior of my programs were printed, I cut them down to size using a Rotatrim and I then used the fold-guide lines on the top and bottom edges of my layout to fold all of the interiors down to size. Below is a guide to show you how I folded everything — I started with the center fold and worked my way out to the edges to make things as symmetrical as possible. (Just make sure you're folding the right way so that your front and back covers can be affixed to the non-printed side of your outside panels!)

Click to enlarge

Once the interiors were completed, it was time to get to work on the covers.

I used my Gocco to print some simple information (in the Albemarle and Souvenir fonts that I also used on the interior layout) about our wedding ceremony on the front cover, leaving a good gap of space for where I knew I wanted to tie a bow. (I apologize that I don't have photos of the Gocco process, but if you check out the Gocco Wiki you will see lots of tutorials if you are unfamiliar with the Gocco!) Since the scroll scrap covers were already cut down to size, there was no way I could have gotten them through a laser printer if I wanted to, so the Gocco was the perfect solution. Plus the silver ink looked spectacular on the teal paper!

Then it came time for the back covers. The ribbon I used was 1/8" wide silver satin ribbon from Papermart.com. In order to make sure the ribbon stayed where I wanted it to on the programs (and to make sure that little silver ribbons wouldn't end up all over the floor of the church) I found an inexpensive clear gel glue that I used to glue the ribbon to the back covers of all of my programs.

Once I had all of my individual pieces completed (interior accordion-fold, front cover with Gocco design, and back cover with silver satin ribbon attached) it was time to put everything together. I put double-faced tape on the back side of the last panel and affixed the interior (still folded and stacked) to the back cover (on the side opposite the silver ribbon). I then put double-faced tape on the back side of the first panel, and affixed the front cover to it (trying to keep things as centered as possible by doing it fairly slowly).

The last thing left to do was tie the ribbon around the program and into a bow. I had allowed myself a few extra inches on each strand of ribbon, so it would be easier to tie my bows. Once each bow was tied, I trimmed the excess ribbon, and voila! Done!

Photo by The Wiebners

Here's a rundown of what was included on each panel:

Panel 1-2: the wedding ceremony (see below)
Panel 3-4: the wedding party
Panel 5: note of appreciation (see below)
Panel 6: here in spirit

Panel 1-2

Panel 5

I hope this tutorial helps some of you and isn't too confusing... I apologize if it's too much "design speak" as that is what I'm used to, but I tried my best to explain things. Please feel free to ask questions — it may take me a little while to answer each one, but I will do my best!