While there are many styles of party invitations on the racks at card shops, it's sometimes hard to find just the right one that reflects your personality and the theme of your event. Whether it's a birthday, weekend cocktails, a dinner party or a backyard barbecue, sometimes the best--and most memorable--solution is to design the invitations yourself. Does this Spark an idea?
Materials
Card stock and matching envelopes in a rainbow of colors are available at craft and stationery shops as well as online through companies such as PaperSource. The A-7 size provides the most versatility for artwork, comes in a fold-over format or flat, and feeds easily through home printers. If you're affixing photographs or fabric, rubber cement is recommended rather than paste, white glue or spray-on fixatives because it comes off easily if you accidentally use too much. To trim images, use a paper-cutter. Dimensional art can be purchased at crafts stores or online scrapbooking websites. Unless you're good at calligraphy--and only doing a few cards--type and print out your invitation messages on the computer in a font that matches the mood of the event. Any writing or printing should be done on the card before it is adorned with photos or dimensional art.
Photo Cards
Birthdays, anniversaries, reunions and new homes lend themselves especially well to invitations with photos on the front. For milestone events such as a 60th birthday or a silver/gold wedding anniversary, find pictures of the guests of honor from when they were toddlers, teens or newly married, and make enough copies that you can affix to the front of each card.
An invitation to a reunion could be an old photograph of the school or a mini collage made from scanned yearbook pages--including senior headshots of the invited guests. An alternative spin would be to scan one of the inside covers of the yearbook that's full of best wishes; reproduce copies on cream colored card stock, then cut into it rectangles to fit the front of the invitations.
A housewarming party invitation can be a photo of your new address--which will also help your guests be able to locate it the day of the event--or a joke photo of a dilapidated barn, outhouse or abandoned shack.
Ticket To Adventure
Use brightly colored card stock to create 2-inch-by-4-inch "Admit One" ticket stubs containing the date, time and location. Put numbers on the tickets so they can be used for surprise drawings during the party.
If you're doing an Oscar-themed evening, go glam with silver and gold glitter on black card stock with a white interior for the message. Go to film websites such as the Internet Movie Database to capture jpeg images of celebrities and scenes from new releases and classic films and use these in a collage along with dimensional art of spotlights, cameras and limos.
Affix travel postcards to the front of your invitations that relate to the theme of your party (tropical locales, for example, for a backyard swim party or luau).
Create trifold "airline ticket" invitations that display the destination, the arrival time, and permissible "carryons" such as wine, dessert or game gear.
Some More Creative Spins
If you're not a good artist, don't despair. There are dozens of Internet sites that allow you to upload free clip-art images as well as photographs to decorate the front of your cards. You also might want to go trolling for vintage maps that you can reproduce on parchment paper along with a big red "x" that marks the spot for fun and frivolity.
If you're doing invitations for a book-club meeting, scan copies of some of your favorite book covers and cut them up so that each recipient gets a different looking invitation.
For foodies who love to throw dinner parties, design the outside cover like an elegant restaurant menu; on the inside, display the courses that are going to be served.
A murder-mystery party calls for some intrigue. Fashion your invitation after a ransom note cut from colorful magazine letters. Another spin is to create some fake Scotland Yard stationery and compose a letter requesting each guest's assistance in solving a crime. The suspects, the letter states, will all be assembled at a specific date and time.
Gift wrapping paper makes a nice "matte" for affixing a photograph to a card. Fabric and ribbon work well, too, although you should do a test piece first to make sure that the rubber cement doesn't soak through.
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