DIY Menus...Or What I Spent My Saturday Night Doing

I randomly decided I "needed" menus and proceeded to invent what seems to be the most time-consuming method for creating said menus. And, considering the fact that I think I just wanted menus because I thought my photographer would take cute pictures of them, I probably could have just made one and pretended after the fact that they were at each place setting.

Rest assured, I'm not that jaded about them and I know they will look cute on the tables, but I did spend the better part of my Saturday working on these and I'm only 1/3 of the way done.

The principle behind the menus is very simple (which is why it seemed like such a good idea at the time!) - I took green card stock and cut each piece into thirds horizontally, so that each piece was 2.83" x 11". I then scored each piece into quarters for ease of folding. This, my friends, was the easy part...and the part of the process that I did over a month ago and left until now (crunch time!) to finish.

I laid out our menu items in Microsoft Publisher, each item in a 3" x 2" rectangle. I then printed the menu "innards" onto white cardstock and used my handy paper cutter to cut each rectangle.

Salad and entree:

Dessert and celebration message:

Each rectangle was taped onto the green card stock, strategically placed so that the heart-shaped hole punch I used would not go through the white card stock. I'm sure there is a much handier, craftier way than double-sided tape to attach the white cardstock. I know that Glue Dots are great but I didn't have anything like that on hand this weekend and, to be honest, I don't want to spend any money on this project! The down side to saving money, however, is the time consuming process of taping everything!

The skinny black and white stripe ribbon that I love so much is perfect for tying these closed, and my handy scallop punch strikes again for the menu cover!

Could I have done something easier or not have menus at all? Of course. Do I regret not testing out putting a few of these together before a cut and scored all of the card stock, leaving me no room for changing my mind? Definitely. But the end product is super cute...now only 90 of these to go!

Have you decided to make menus, and if so, what do they look like?