The Princess Invitation

My grand-daughter, Jillian, is turning four next week and I got the privelege of making the invitations for her princess birthday party.  I thought you might enjoy a little tutorial on the process.  NOT that I am anything special when it comes to paper crafting, but I have to admit that I almost enjoy playing with paper as much as I enjoy playing with fabric!

My daughter picked out the paper.  She knew exactly the look she wanted and she has a great eye for papers that don't really go together, but yet they do. 

 I love the Shabby Chic look paper.

The first thing I did was sit down at my computer and design the wording part of the invitation.  My favorite program for this sort of thing is Microsoft Publisher.  Microsoft Word would work fine but I just love the ease of use with Publisher.  Once I got the wording figured out and aligned the way I wanted it, I printed them up on solid pink cardstock. 

I designed the invitations to be 5 1/2 inches wide by 8 1/2 inches long (so that the folded size would be 5 1/2 by 4 1/2 and fit perfectly in the envelopes I had on hand).  Also, that means that all I had to do was cut the  8 1/2 inch by 11 inch cardstock in half after printing.  Saves a lot of cutting time.  There are many, many paper cutters on the market these days.  But me?  I LOVE my heavy duty old fashioned paper cutter.  I cut all the cardstock in half after printing. 

Because I really like invitations to have a nice crisp fold, I use a little tool that is made just for that (its called a bone folder).  I do not like invitations that are just folded without a crease, they just don't look professional.  So, I placed a nice crease in each invitation and then set them aside.

I measured and cut all my little squares of paper, according to the design that had in my head! 

I set all these aside until I had the number I needed.

I like to ink the edges of paper to give it more dimension.  I felt that these little squares of paper really needed inking.  I'm sure that "real" paper crafters have a much more professional way of doing this; but I just hold the inkpad in one hand and my paper in the other and just run the edges lightly over the ink pad.  Once I had all the little squares inked, I began to assemble.

This picture above really shows how inking the squares brings them to life, don't you think?

Don't be too alarmed if you feel like you smear the ink, or over-ink your paper.  It really

doesn't seem to matter. 

After all the squares of paper were adhered to the invitation, I set them aside. 

I used my Cricut to cut out the glittery princess crown for the front of the invitation.  If you do not own a Cricut, its time you get one! (You can read about them here.)  I love mine.  I feel like paper crafting with the Cricut is a life saver.  The only thing I see as a disadvantage is the cost of the cartridges; however, every one that I own I was able to buy on ebay for a very good price. 

The cartridge I used is called Once Upon A Princess and I love the crown with the

cut out number inside. 

I adhered a little scrap of paper behind the number so that when it was attached to the invitation the number 4 would really stand out.

I used pop dots at a few points on the back of the crown to cause it to really "pop" when placed on the invitation.  It really gives it a 3D effect.  (Unfortunately, on the invitations we mailed we didn't use the pop dots, the thickness can cause problems when they run through the postal machines.)

And there it is!    The perfect invite to the Princess Party! 

Sharing at these fabulous link parties:

"My entry to Uncommonly Yours link party @ Uncommon sponsored by Appliances Online and the Bosch Washing Machines."