Welcome back!
Over the years it seems the sending of party invitations has decreased significantly. At least, that's what I can gather from my own very archaic polling. I'm not surprised. We're all trying to cut back - cutting back on spending, cutting back on using paper and postage, cutting back on time-consuming projects! Of course, there will always be the die-hards - those who still send paper invitations because it's a special occasion, or because it's a way to get their crafty wiggles out, or because they remember how exciting it was to receive mail back when they were a kid... Whatever the reasons, one thing is certain, we party planners have OPTIONS! Lots and lots of options!
Let's begin with traditional paper invites, shall we?
I'm one of those who has always enjoyed sending mail. Sure, I've made the switch-over to email nicely (though I'm struggling as a texter, should anyone have any suggestions they'd like to share!), but over the years I've sent lots of invitations (mostly in the month of April). So I spent Sunday night digging through my boxes of kids' stuff to see what I could track down to share with you.
I came up with nothing!
Somehow I forgot to keep extras for myself. AND I CALL MYSELF A SCRAPBOOKER! Sheesh!
Lucky for us, it's March, and I'm well aware that I have 3 birthdays coming up in just under (gulp) a month and a half. Have no fear, there are party invitations to be made!
Every year, since the time my kiddos were 1, we've celebrated their birthdays with large-ish parties. This year, however, we've told each kid that they can invite two friends to do something special and celebrate their birthdays.
This year Noah has his heart set on a mid-day trip to the skateboard park and donuts with sprinkles on them. A few months back, Cheryl shared some pretty cool home-decor ideas, in which she shared these very cool skateboarder dingbats. Using those and the free lined paper download that Candice shared with us last week, I created an image which I then printed off and mounted to stamped cardstock. I used FontWerks' "Wooden it be Nice" set to create the tone on tone stamping. This is how it turned out:
Took no time at all, and best of all, I used items I either had on hand, or could download easily (and for free!).
And look, using the same dingbats, I put together the following thank you cards for Noah to use once the party's over. He's in kindergarten and writing is difficult for him, so I added some "guides" to help him.
ETA: The font I used for the dashed-print is called "Print Clearly" and is found at Dafont.com. Print Clearly comes in 2 styles -- solid and dashed.
The lines came by using the space bar of the font "Life Lessons" which is also found at Dafont.com.
It took a little finessing in Illustrator (you could use Photoshop or use text boxes in Word) to get both fonts to line up. Of course, if you know of a dashed printed font that comes with lines, please share! :)
Both the fonts I used are available for FREE!>
Want to see some more? Our dear Elizabeth Dillow shared this sweet and simple invitation she created for her daughter, Gracie's birthday. (They've since moved to another state completely so Elizabeth says we don't need to worry about the address showing.)
I just love this one that super-mom Aly Dosdall made for her little girl's birthday! Remember when High School Musical was all the rage? I love the star paper, the white pen and the line, "Class is dismissed at..." - clever work, Aly!
Paper invitations are fun! Do you have some paper invitations you've created that you'd like to share? Come on over to our Flickr gallery and post away. I'd love to see them! I'll marvel not only at your designs, but also at your ability to save and find past party invitations. Still kicking myself over that one...
Let's move on to non-paper invitations. I'm not talking about the verbal invite. I'm talking EVITES!
For years I avoided Evite invitations, but nowadays it seems like everybody's using them! Of course, there are loads of reasons:
- convenience
- they organize your rsvps for you
- they're free
- they're instant (no waiting to get stamps or for the mail to be delivered...)
- and best of all, they're easy to send.
I sent my first Evite invitation last year when my kiddos had a bowling party. There were lots of bowling designs to choose from, and all I needed to get started were my recipients' email addresses. See, I TOLD you I could email. ;)
Recently, however, my daughter received the cutest Evite invitation I've ever seen. I didn't know they had those designs available! When I asked the party-throwing mom how she found that cute design, she let me in on a little secret...
She created her own.
Turns out there's one more bonus to using Evites...
- they're customizable!
I tried to capture a screen shot of my customized Evite, but it wasn't working. I beg you -- go try it for yourself. I played around for nearly and hour creating different templates!
So tell me what you do. I'd love to know, so you send paper invitations? Do you send Evites? And don't forget to upload your designs to the Flickr gallery so we can oogle at your creativity!
Next up, PARTY DECOR! You won't want to miss it, so please check back in tomorrow.
See you then! Happy Tuesday!
