You're Invited...

I was chatting with Alice Golden this weekend about how much our "papercrafting for family" skills have waned over the years. Where we would once create elaborate ensembles for a birthday party, we're now lucky to get a proper invitation off.

It reminded me of my last-minute birthday party invitation I whipped up for Savannah's 12th birthday last year. I went to look at it, in my invite file (yes, I have one) and found a few others I took the time to scan and save. Thought I'd share them with you this morning.


We were going to see "Horton Hears a Who" for Savannah's birthday, so I grabbed some images from the HHAW website and created this very quickly on Photoshop. I added a little Ranger Glitter glue to the flower puffs (my only little 'touch') and I was done.



Here's another quick invite (I think they almost always are 'quick'. This is a few years old, but again, found a cute picture of a baby boy, did most of this on the computer, but did punch out a star and staple a little jute to the top. Sometimes my laziness amazes me :).



Another 'oldie'. This was another birthday party for Savannah, Hawaiian style. Both of these images are rubber stamps...way easy. I'm thinking now it would have been fun for Savannah to color in the surf boards, but if I remember correctly, it was pretty last-minute...again. Seeing a pattern here?


This was intented to be an email invite, so I created this in Photoshop. This is my handsome brother, Andy!




I love the story behind this invitation. One of Steve's co-workers was giving his wife a surprise trip to New York for Christmas and asked me to create a fun card to enclose the tickets in. Maybe I should make one for me and leave it on Steve's desk as a hint?



For a while, a few years back, I had a business making custom invitations & other papercrafting items. This was a very custom ensemble I made for a couple from Texas celebrating their 10th wedding anniversary by renewing their vows. The ensemble included a save-the-date card, an invitation, a thank you tag (for the favor), knapkin holders (the wreath) and a memory album.



I made this pocket invitation for my son's wedding in 2005. We had a really short planning window, so I had to keep it pretty simple.


My sister-in-law had a bridal shower for Tiffany, but I offered to make the invites.



Lastly, I created a wedding announcement/invitation for my nephew. I did most of the work in Photoshop, but wow, with such gorgeous pictures it was pretty easy.

So, Alice, now that I've reviewed a few of my personal (non-published) creations, I realize that maybe I've haven't been quite so neglectful. Then again, I could always take it up a notch. Savannah's 13th birthday is less than 2 months away, so I'd better get started. Those notches always a lot of work!