Getting Crafty….Baby Shower Invitations

My little sister is having her first baby in February.

I am SO excited!

I’m throwing a shower for her with some other girls, and since she’s my sister, and since I think that an invitation sets the tone for well, anything… I wanted to do them. You all know enough about me by now to guess that I just had to make them.  After all…it is for my sister.

I have to tell you though, these things were crazy labor intensive.  I worked on them here and there…a little each day for about a week.  I’d say all total each invitation takes about 8 minutes to make…and I made 30 of them.  Of course, I could have cut out lots of the steps and they’d still have been really pretty…but like I said…it IS my sister (and thankfully she just needed to send 30…otherwise I’m sure I’d have been cutting steps out for sure.)

So, today I thought I’d tell you how I made these invitations.

First of all, I decided how big I wanted them to be based upon the envelope size I wanted to use.  I bought scrapbook paper and used a paper-cutter to cut each sheet so that the outside dimensions of the invitations were about 5 3/4 inches by 8 inches (because the envelope I bought was like 6×8 1/2 or something close to that.)  The inner dimension of the cream part of the invitation is 5×7.  Might I suggest if you don’t want to spend this much time…buy precut cards in the size you want for the inner invite part and cut just the outer piece.

To make these you’ll need…

• paper for both the inner part of the invitation and the outer layer
• envelopes
• a coordinating paper for the circle
• a stamp that suits your event (could be for Christmas, or a wedding…whatever you want.)
• 12×12 sheet of super cool scrapbook paper to create a ribbon effect around the middle (you’re going to cut this into 1 inch strips)
• ribbon (I ended up needing about 22 inches per invitation)
• a stamp pad (I used a walnut colored distressing ink pad)
• a circle hole punch (mine is almost 2 inches I think)

First, cut out all of your paper.  I have a corner rounder too, so I did that on both the green sheet for the outer layer, and the cream inner layer….I just like the look of rounded corners.

I designed the invitation using Microsoft Publisher, but you could use any publishing program or even a Word or Open Office type program.  Just find a cool font…neat fonts make all the difference in the world.  There are loads of great free ones out there for download too.  One of my favorite sites is UrbanFonts.com,  For this invitation I used a font called “Little Lord Fontleroy” for all of the main wording and information, and then for my sister’s name, I used a font called “Cursif” and plugged it into a part of Publisher that will add outlines, and drop shadows and stuff to it.  I’d measured the circle I was cutting out first, and then figured about where I’d want it to stick on each invitation and that helped me determine the margins for the type.  Once you format your invitation, I suggest doing a couple of trial prints on plain paper cut to size just to make sure it’s printing in the area that you want.  When I got them how I wanted, I then printed the cream portion of the invitations and set them aside.

Next I used my circle cutter to cut out all of the circles I used for the stamped portion of the invitation.  Once I cut those out, I stamped each one with the vintage pram stamp using the walnut colored stamp pad.  I happen to have supplies for embossing from way-back-when, so I actually embossed the stamp as well….but have mercy…don’t go out and buy that stuff if you don’t have it.  It looks nice, but if you don’t already own it all, it’s not worth the extra expense unless you plan on doing this sort of thing ALL THE TIME.

Once you’ve stamped all of your circles, keep out your stamp pad.  I then held the stamp pad at about a 45 degree angle and brushed it along the edges of all of the circles, the cream layer, and the green layer of the invitations… to add a bit more dimension, as well as an aged feel.

Once you’ve done all of this, use a glue stick to adhere all of the layers together.  Glue the circle to the invitation, and then glue the invitation to the backing.

My next step involved sewing around the edge of the cream layer.  Yes…I actually ran these invitations through my sewing machine using a thread that complimented the rest of the invitation colors (which were chosen from my sister’s nursery bedding by the way.)  Once you finish sewing around the edges, use a seam ripper or a needle to pull the thread sticking out of the front, to the back of the card.  I then gathered all of the loose ends of thread and secured them on the back with a small piece of clear tape.

The final part was to make the pretty ribbon around the invitation.  I bought 3 sheets of sparkly, dotted 12×12 scrapbook paper and cut it into 1 inch x 12 inch strips.  I centered the strip where I wanted it on the invitation and folded the sides of the strip around to the back of the card.  Next, I tied a piece of satin ribbon around the strip and made a bow at the front.  I positioned it so that my sister’s name would still be visible when the invitation is opened, but this part slides right off to reveal more details.

I put them into cream envelopes, used the vintage pram stamp again on the back of each envelope at the flap for another little touch, and they’re finally going into the mail tomorrow!

I’ve loved making them, but I have to be honest and say that I’m glad to be done too!  So here they are….in all of their glory!  I hope my sis likes them!

(Please note that they do look better in person…since they actually contain all of the necessary information!  It looks a little funny on here to have it all removed, but you get the general idea!)