This is a prop I've wanted to own for a while, and it's finally about time I gave it a go. After a trip to the nearest craft shop over six months ago, I have a set of four envelopes to use for the project. I think I managed to track down the correct shade of blue, and the envelope size is C5 (slightly bigger than an A5 sheet of paper).


http://tardisbuilders.com/index.php?topic=5889.msg70277#msg70277
This workshop thread has been very useful in researching how to make the envelopes, and the links in posts #8 and #10 were particularly helpful when it came to tracking down the stamps for my first invitation: Amy and Rory's. Some of the stamps in the Instructable were inaccurate, so I had to mix-and-match with the ones from the RPF link. However, I've managed to find the most accurate ones, so I printed them off and glued them onto a piece of cereal box card.


In the next post I'll have hopefully attached the stamps for Amy and Rory's envelope, and then I can move onto the lettering, before turning my attention to the invitation itself.
Kind regards, The14thDr

For those of us in the US (or "Envelope Making for Dummies" - like me ), what are the measurements of a "C5" envelope? And can we get a photo of the envelope's back (just to see how far down the "point" on the closing flap goes)?

And yes, at least to my stanky old wizzard eyes, that color blue looks perfect! (And I love the stamps.)

Dino.

Quote from: galacticprobe on Aug 21, 2015, 04:46 am
For those of us in the US (or "Envelope Making for Dummies" - like me ), what are the measurements of a "C5" envelope?

According to Google, the dimensions are 157 mm x 225 mm (approximately 6.4" x 9").

Quote from: galacticprobe on Aug 21, 2015, 04:46 am
And can we get a photo of the envelope's back (just to see how far down the "point" on the closing flap goes)?

Quote from: galacticprobe on Aug 21, 2015, 04:46 am
And yes, at least to my stanky old wizzard eyes, that color blue looks perfect! (And I love the stamps.)

Thanks Dino. The lighting in that shot was a little bright, so the envelopes look a shade darker in real life (but still pretty close to the originals). It took me around half an hour of digging to find the correct stamps, but most of them are screen accurate when compared to Amy and Rory's invitation.

------ Update ------
This morning I had a few minutes to spare, so I took the opportunity to cut out the stamps using a ruler and a knife.


Most of the stamps are the exact ones that were used on the screen envelope, but the following four were chosen in the absence of a better option. They are the same colour and size as the originals, so I'm fairly happy for now (at least until I can find better copies).


This afternoon took me an hour of straining my eyes at reference pictures, trying to get the layout of the stamps perfect on the envelope. After that I was able to stick them all in place using PVA glue.


Aside from the lettering and the invitation itself, I'm pretty much done with the Ponds' envelope. My only complaints are that the stamps are too thick (I should have used normal card instead of cereal box card, a mistake I will correct with River's and Canton's envelopes). Also, I think my envelope may be a tad too big, as the stamps are too spread out when I compare them to a screenshot from the episode.

Nevertheless, in my next post I'll move onto the silver lettering and the invitation. Kind regards, The14thDr

Looking very nice! I was one of the many on the RPF trying to identify the stamps. One of the things stopping me from making my own was working out how to do the white lettering.

Thank you. If it wasn't for that thread, I wouldn't be working on this prop right now. I think I may have a way to achieve the lettering, so stay tuned for the next update.

Thanks for the measurements, 14th! And I also think that envelope looks just great - doesn't look that much larger than the actual one. (I'd call it a win.)

Dino.

Quote from: galacticprobe on Aug 22, 2015, 05:03 am
Thanks for the measurements, 14th! And I also think that envelope looks just great - doesn't look that much larger than the actual one. (I'd call it a win.)

Dino.

Your welcome Dino. If you need any more photos or measurements, let me know.

------ Update ------
This afternoon I got round to completing Amy & Rory's envelope. After looking at more reference photos I discovered that the lettering was in fact white (as opposed to silver), so that created a problem: my lack of a white pen.  
After wracking my brains all night I saw no solution for the lettering other than writing it by hand. For this I had to sacrifice total screen accuracy, as the closest match pen-wise was a silver gel pen. Using a photo of a replica from another site, I was able to slowly and carefully recreate the lettering.



Not perfect, but I'm happy with it. The hand-written look is quite nice in my opinion, so I won't be making any changes any time soon. To finish off I added the number on the flap of the envelope.


Next up: The Doctor's envelope.
Kind regards, The14thDr

Marvelous, marvelous. I'd love one of these but far too much detail involved in making one for me to tackle. Brilliant job, well done.

Nice! Sadly my handwriting is never going to be neat enough to hand-letter something like that. I wish I knew how they printed white on blue for the real ones. Specialist white printer-ink?

Quote from: Oblivion on Aug 22, 2015, 06:09 pm
Marvelous, marvelous. I'd love one of these but far too much detail involved in making one for me to tackle.

Says the man that did all of that amazing work on Missy's zapper device from "Dark Water/Death In Heaven" and the phone and cradle from "Mummy on the Orient Express"! Oblivion, please don't underestimate your capabilities; you've got far more talent than you're giving yourself credit for.

Quote from: Angelus Lupus on Aug 22, 2015, 08:29 pm
Sadly my handwriting is never going to be neat enough to hand-letter something like that.

Angelus, I'll bet you could manage that. Have confidence. And at worst, if you really can't manage it (after practicing on some scrap bits of paper first), just get a friend who has a decent hand to do the writing for you.

Quote from: Angelus Lupus on Aug 22, 2015, 08:29 pm
I wish I knew how they printed white on blue for the real ones. Specialist white printer-ink?

I'd almost be willing to put money on them having done it by hand with a white/silver "paint pen". Paint pens are great. They come in almost all colors, certainly in colors like gold, white, silver (I used a hot pink one to stencil the handheld radios in my electronics shop when I was stationed aboard ship; it kept people from making off with my radios; even if they took one without signing it out properly, they always returned it because they couldn't stand the hot pink!)

You can find paint pens at craft or hobby stores. They work like Sharpies, only you have to shake them (like you would a spray paint can) and you have to give the "paint" (a.k.a. ink) time to dry before touching it. And like Sharpies they come in various thicknesses, from wide markers like one would use on a large shipping box, to almost ball point-sized that you could use on small decorating projects. They're inexpensive, and I'll bet the BBC Props Department had some lying about from other things and used them (and maybe even had Matt Smith write those envelopes out himself for accuracy - anyone check his handwriting lately? I don't mean his autograph signing writing, but his letter-writing handwriting?).

Anyway, even if they had someone from the props dept. do the writing, it would have been far less expensive than trying to find white or silvery specialty ink for a printer, and then work up the graphics for the lettering. Just grab a paint pen, get some props guy to write out the envelope, and Bingo! You're done in less than five minutes. So stamps aside, this has to be one of the easier props to replicate (provided you can get the right color blue to make the envelopes, or the blue envelopes themselves).

Dino.

Quote from: Oblivion on Aug 22, 2015, 06:09 pm
Marvelous, marvelous. I'd love one of these but far too much detail involved in making one for me to tackle. Brilliant job, well done.

Thanks Oblivion. Don't be too hard on yourself; I'm sure you could build this easily (especially after the fantastic work you did on that Big Finish sonic).

Quote from: Angelus Lupus on Aug 22, 2015, 08:29 pm
Nice! Sadly my handwriting is never going to be neat enough to hand-letter something like that.

Thank you. I'm not entirely happy with the lettering, but for the lack of a better method, I think this is as good as it's going to get. If it helps, a good idea would be to carefully sketch out the lettering in light pencil, then trace over it in pen and rub out the pencil afterwards. If you look really closely, you can just about make out the pencil lines I drew to keep the lettering straight.

Quote from: Angelus Lupus on Aug 22, 2015, 08:29 pm
I wish I knew how they printed white on blue for the real ones. Specialist white printer-ink?

Quote from: galacticprobe on Aug 23, 2015, 06:38 am
I'd almost be willing to put money on them having done it by hand with a white/silver "paint pen". Paint pens are great. They come in almost all colors, certainly in colors like gold, white, silver (I used a hot pink one to stencil the handheld radios in my electronics shop when I was stationed aboard ship; it kept people from making off with my radios; even if they took one without signing it out properly, they always returned it because they couldn't stand the hot pink!)

That's a good idea Dino. I don't think we could get any closer to the real method, save by asking the creators of the actual prop themselves. However, I had another look at some reference shots, and the lettering looks perfectly uniform (as if the text had been printed), so either the Props Department created a really fine stencil to paint over, or the envelopes were somehow printed on.

Quote from: galacticprobe on Aug 23, 2015, 06:38 am
Anyway, even if they had someone from the props dept. do the writing, it would have been far less expensive than trying to find white or silvery specialty ink for a printer, and then work up the graphics for the lettering. Just grab a paint pen, get some props guy to write out the envelope, and Bingo! You're done in less than five minutes. So stamps aside, this has to be one of the easier props to replicate (provided you can get the right color blue to make the envelopes, or the blue envelopes themselves).

True, Dino. Specialist printer inks can be very expensive (and all for nothing if the Props Department had to buy some purely for the sake of 4 envelopes). And I agree, finding the stamps was the most difficult part of the build; after that it was all plain sailing. For UK members, the envelopes I bought came from Hobbycraft (£3 for a pack of 5).

Kind regards, The14thDr

EDIT: The exact colour of the envelopes is labelled as "Oxford Blue" (the very same colour most members use on their TARDIS builds ).
EDIT: My apologies Dino. It appears that the envelope measurements I posted above were incorrect. According to Google, a C5 envelope measures something like 162x229mm, but the envelopes I have are actually 157x225mm (although there isn't much difference either way). I also edited my earlier post to avoid confusing anyone with the incorrect dimensions.

Quote from: The14thDr on Aug 23, 2015, 03:40 pm
EDIT: My apologies Dino. It appears that the envelope measurements I posted above were incorrect. According to Google, a C5 envelope measures something like 162x229mm, but the envelopes I have are actually 157x225mm (although there isn't much difference either way). I also edited my earlier post to avoid confusing anyone with the incorrect dimensions.

No problem, 14th. I'm not that much of a Rivet Counter that I'm going to squabble over a few millimeters, especially when you consider that 4mm is just a tad over 1/8th of an inch... which makes it only 1/16th of an inch all round! (In clothing or building materials, yeah, that matters; but with an envelope? Nothing to worry about.)

Dino.

I've decided to give this one another shot, so the other day I picked up some more blue envelopes. Looking back at the reference photo, the envelopes I used originally (C5) look too big, so this time I went for a smaller size - C6 (114 mm x 162 mm)

Here's a screengrab for reference:


And the two envelopes together for size reference.



On a little side note, I'm 100% certain we had a reference topic for this particular prop, but now I'm looking for it, I can't find it anywhere. In fact, I'm fairly certain I was the one who created the topic, but it's not listed on my profile. Is it possible the thread may have been deleted at some point?

Kind regards, The14thDr