Make Your Own
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When I designed these duckie birthday invitations I had a small child or baby's birthday party in mind. In the case of a baby's birthday party a lot of times the party is geared more towards the adults so that the card itself can be just a tad bit more mature then say, for a five year old's birthday party.
Most baby's parties I've been to were more like a cookout with gifts than a typical children's b-day party. The guests were mostly adults. The babies who attended were too young to enjoy typical birthday entertainment like a pony or a bouncy or a clown!
So these invites are intended to be viewed and enjoyed by adults although still themed to a baby's party.
Two ways to make duckie birthday invitations
To make the duckie birthday invitations is quite a bit more complicated than some of the others I have outlined on this website. With this in mind I will outline tips to on making this process a little easier. Essentially there are two ways to go about this.
In designing this card the tools I used were: 8 1/2" by 11" blue colored card stock, 20lb. plain white paper, 12" by 12" scrapbooking background paper (duckie pattern), medium width light blue ribbon, a glue stick and some elmers glue.
Step One: Laying out the text.
You will need to
create two different text layouts
as there is printing on both the front and back (inside) of this invitation. To aid in laying out the text correctly you will need to measure out the folds on your paper first. This way you will know exactly where to place the text.
For this card the fold is more complicated than a simple fold in half card.
For the front of the card, the overlapping flap measures 1 1/4" inch. That makes the overall measurement of the card to be about 4 7/8" by 8 1/2".
* Of course you can change the size dimensions of the fold on the front of the card to any that suit your needs. That's the beauty of do it yourself invitations. You are the one in control so do whatever comes easiest to you.
The layout for the front text should look something like this:
* pink lines indicate where folds are on the card
Next design the text for the inside of the card. You can eitherA - lay out the inside text by the measurements of the card so that you can print it directly onto the card stock .
or...
B - you can lay the text out several times on a page and print it onto 20 lb. plain white or colored paper. This way you can have it cut and then just glue it down centered in the middle of the card. This also adds an extra decorative accent to the card. For this particular text you could probably fit about six to a page.
Step Two: Printing and cutting.
A -If you choose to print both sides of text onto the card stock you will only need to cut your scrapbook background paper. Have it cut to the size of the front of the card (in this case 4 7/8" inches by 8 1/2" inches).
B - If you choose to to print 6 to a page onto 20 lb. paper, then you will have to get your paper cut into the sixth of a page cards to adhere to the inside of your birthday invitations card. You can do this pretty easily by hand using a good personal paper cutter. To make things even easier on you just print out one copy of this text onto regular white printer paper and bring it on over to a local copy shop. Once they have copied it for you you can then enlist their paper cutting services to have the paper cut perfectly with no hassle.
*For more info about utilizing copying services, or about personal paper cutters visit the Cardmaking Basics section of the site.
Step Three: Fold your invites.
These cards can be folded by hand. The easiest way would be to measure where the folds would land, then use a scoring tool to hand score the cards first. A scoring tool makes folding invites fast and it's a cinch. You can also opt for having them folded in a folding machine at a local copy or print shop. Not all copy shops will have folding machines so make sure and call around to find out where to go, and how much it will cost. It is generally quite inexpensive and it's fast to boot.
Step Four: Adhere your scrapbook paper and/or text paper. If you chose to print the inside text onto separate 20 lb. paper then you will now need to adhere this text to the inside of your invitations. The best way to do this would be by using either an adhesive machine, which will turn the entire piece of paper into one big sticker, or apply adhesive to the back using a glue stick.
Next adhere the scrapbook paper to the front cover of the duckie birthday invitations. Do this using a either a glue runner or glue stick to prevent any wrinkling or puckering of the paper (a glue runner will produce the best and quickest results although of course an adhesive machine can also be used.)
Step Five: Embellish the invitation with ribbon.
For the last step adhere the ribbon around the card horizontally centering it between the words "Happy" and "Birthday". I did this using a craft glue like elmers. I simply spread it on lightly with my fingertip. This can also be done using craft glue and a small paintbrush, or a glue runner instead. I first adhered it to the back, then wrapped it around to the seam (make sure an leave about half an inch of dry ribbon before the fold of the card) and tied it in a bow. Just leave it like this until dry. (Make sure you do not glue the ribbon or the card shut!)
More tips for making duckie birthday invitations...
* Of course, you do not HAVE to make these as "duckie birthday invitations". You could change the theme quite easily by using a patterned paper with another animal or theme.
* Change the card stock color to pink for a girl's invitation.
*To make the duckie birthday invitations a little easier to put together omit the scrapbook paper layer for the outside cover. You could make it "as is" or glue on a duckie embellishment like a die cut, stickers, or scrapbooking embellishments.
See also...
Kid's birthday party invitations
Printable kid's birthday party invitations
Printable birthday postcard invitations
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