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Cheap, easy, attractive handmade party invitations!

Some friends and I have decided to combine talents and host an afternoon garden tea party! I put my hand up to make the invitations because cutting and pasting is one of the few things I managed to excel at at school...

Hand making invitations sounds like a fair bit of hard work but really its all about availability of resources (the bits you will need) and turning the event into a production line - remember the labour is going to be cheap! I had a ball making these and the only hitch I had was waiting for my husband to bring the printed part of the invitation home from work after the home printer went kaput on me!

Here's what I did...

First, I bought a rose calender for a $1 (late January is the time to grab cheap calenders for the pretty pictures) and using an envelope as template - cut out the pictures that I liked until I had as many pictures the right size. I tend to use a 1/4 or 1/3 of an A4 sheet size for this sort of thing as it fits in a standard envelope and the fancy papers are easy to get.


Then I cut various papers all the colours that went with my theme - garden afternoon tea - pastels, especially pink to the right shape.


 Then I added some old paper doily's making the layers;
  • coloured paper
  • doily
  • rose picture

Have a look at the finished images to get some ideas or just make it up as you go along. There is no right or wrong way to do this! Do this for each invite before moving on to the next step.

Then I cut strips of paper and stuck a similar coloured piece or complimentary shade of ribbon along the length of it.


I backed the word "invitation" in a matching or complimentary shade of card


and then mounted it on a piece of thicker cardboard to vary the levels and add interest.


Then I put a stick on 1/2 pearl on each side of the word invitation to add a bit more texture (and glamour!)

I made these parts up and then played with the layout before gluing down the card and ribbon and then the raised "invitation" on top of that. If you have a look at the pictures of the finished invitations further down you will see how different some of then are. Different layouts went with different pictures.

Finally - I added the pre-printed invitation details to the back of the card (added another couple of 1/2 pearls to keep the theme going from front to back)


And... Voila! Lots of different but similarly themed invitation cards for the total outlay of $1!



I found that doing all the doily's, then all the pictures, then all the ribbons etc made it less time consuming than making one invitation at a time. By turning it into a production line, you iron out the kinks as you go. Your technique gets better by the time you get to your twentieth item! too!! It also pays to check that you have enough paper, sequins, ribbon etc to do as many invites as you are planning - plus a bit more for the inevitable mistake. Don't forget to print more "invitation" and detail sheets as well - it gives you a couple to practice on as well!

Happy invitation making!

Score card:
Green-ness:
  5/5 for using papers and ribbon that may have other wise gone in the bin
Frugal-ness:  5/5 Twenty individual invitations for $1??!! That's gotta be a bargain!
Time cost: A couple of hours.
Skill level: Medium - you need more confidence than skill! Just give it a go and you may surprise yourself!
Fun -ness: Heaps and heaps!!

Comments

Practical Frog said…
Aha! Got the comments button to work!! Comment away! - Kara
Wonderful work! Those invitations are beautiful looking and you have good ideas.
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