By now anyone that we’ve invited to watch the season premier of LOST with us this year has gotten their invitations in the mail. So it should be safe to write this post and make it public, I hope.
Eliza and I wanted to invite a few of our friends over and I thought it’d be a good opportunity to create an invitation since it is something I’ve been waiting to do for a while. Being that I’m not all that creative or talented I decided to do something simple.
Here are some photos to show the process of creating our invitations in a bottle.
Simple custom DHARMA logo made in Illustrator.
Used watercolor paints and coffee for dirt and blood effects.

Dried the paper a few times between paintings.

Cutout art paper for name tags.
Same dirt/blood treatment for name tags. Spatter!
Crinkle the paper, a few times, to make it seem aged.
The finished invitation.
I used Dollar Store bought bottles, wrapped up the invitations like a scroll, and tied a short piece of twine around them to keep them from unraveling and threw them inside. The corks were from our cork collection, so they were easy to find.
All materials used: Art paper, water, watercolor paints, coffee, a lighter, hot glue gun, twine, bottles, corks, my printer, printer paper, Adobe Illustrator, some scissors and a pencil.
I’m pretty happy with how they came out and I already know what I want to do for next year (something completely different). Have you ever done your own custom invitations? Care to share them?




Awesome idea! They came out great!
Way cool to create invitations… I’ve done some invites with origami that needed guests to put together (not that difficult, some cranes, some dragon type origami) before they could enter the secret party location (ha that was fun but tiring to explain after the 35th guest). At another time it was handmade cards (yes made paper from scratch – pulp and everything). I think I’m going to start that again. I’ll take photos and liveblog about it this time if I do.
Awesome! My friends and I are big LOST fans and will be having a party, but we haven’t done anything that creative, just Google Calendar invites.
But um, you have the date wrong? It’s Jan 31. Or are you watching it DVRed the next day?
gRegor: Due to conflicts in scheduling (haha), we’re watching it the next day via Tivo. You are correct!
Very cool Colin. Wish I had a big tv to watch it on myself, or I’d steal your idea totally!
Robin: Actually creating the paper? That is beyond my reach I think. I’d love to see the process documented though.
WOW. This is amazing and creative. Love it.
Lea: Thanks!
I love these. They’re incredibly creepy and perfect for a LOST invite.
Those came out awesome! Very creative!!!
Daniel: Good, glad you approve. Creeeepy!
Diana: Thanks!
These are just great, I would jump on a plane and cross the pond just to attend if I received an invite like that.
But then I gave up trying to keep up with lost as British TV is about 12 months behind I think.
That’s so over-the-top, Colin, I just don’t know what to say. Except, I love you for lovin’ LOST this much. Wish I could be there!
Adam: Perhaps I should have tossed one of these babies in the ocean just to see if it’d reach you?
Mark Schoneveld: LOST fan too? Awesome. Perhaps we’ll plan a screening of one of this year’s episodes at Indy Hall or something, and we can get together?
Actually that is not a bad idea for a project.
Seal up some info and details for yourself and a custom url; time capsule style, then cast away into the big blue and see if and when it ever turns up some where.
Then again I think there is enough crap floating about all over the place, just would be cool to see if some one responds and how far it got.
who told you you’re not creative or talented?!? cool idea!
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