Make Luau Invitations

A luau can be thrown for many different kinds of parties. There's potential for so many kinds of Luau invitations! A Luau can be thrown for anything from a birthday to a wedding! Here is an idea for an invitation for a luau that has a little more of a feminine touch. This could be for a party thrown with a woman as the guest of honor or maybe even a wedding Luau.

Tools I used to make luau invitations:
81/2 by 11" card stock
decorative or scrapbooking background paper
flower embellishment
glue-stick

Start by creating the invitation's text. I did this using desktop publishing software. For this invitation you will only need to create the text for the inside of the invitation unless you prefer the "Luau" on the front of the card to be a printed word.
The best way to go about this would be to set up the text as a 2-up layout (or two to a page in other words). This way you get two invitations out of one sheet of paper. This should save money but also makes sense as a standard size of paper is 8 1/2 by 11". When you cut this in half and then fold the halves to make cards they are a perfect size to buy envelopes in. Most stationary stores carry this size of envelope as a standard size.
Once your text has been created print it onto a cardstock of your choice.
You could certainly take the short cut and visit the printable invitations page and print out a free template for the inside of the invitation. Or if you are looking for a more customized invitation but don't feel up to tackling desktop publishing you can visit my custom invitations page and order some custom text. I can design a printable file for you in a 2-up layout so all you will need to do is print it onto cardstock and finish decorating the card!

Next cut your cardstock and decorative papers. Start with the cardstock. Cut these in half to create two pieces measuring 8 1/2" by 5 1/2".
You will also need to cut the decorative paper you have chosen to ornament the card with. This should be a hawaain or luau themed paper of course. cut this paper into rectangular squares measuring 3" by 4 1/4".
There are a couple of ways to go about having your luau invitations papers cut. you could:

A. cut the paper by hand. There are many very good personal hand paper cutters available now. These will make it relatively easy to tackle the job by hand. Although if you happen to be making a very large quantity of luau invitations than cutting by hand could become very tedious.

B. Visit a local copy or print shop. Many of these shops offer paper cutting services. There are very large hydraulic cutting machines made especially for making precision cutts in very large quantities of paper. Even if you are only making a small amount of invitations these services can be very useful. The cutt is never uneven or off of the measurement. These services are usually very cheap as well. Call around to find out which shops have a cutting machine and compare prices.

You will also need to fold the luau invitions. The next step to take is to fold the cardstock base of the invitations in half. Some very thick cardstocks need to be scored before they can be folded or the fold will look wrinkled. If this happens to you and you do not want to worry about scoring try running a flat edge (like the edge of a ruler) across the fold. This sometimes irons out the crease.
Psst. Many copy and print shops also offer folding services!

Attatch the decorative luau paper. Using a glustick apply a layer of glue to the back of the decorative papers squares you cut earlier. Attatch the paper to the front of the invitation aligning it to the bottom of the card.

Here's an optional step - To class it up just a little cut a length of ribbon measuring about 5" long. Choose a ribbon in a color to match the theme of the card. Apply a craft glue like elmer's to the back of the ribbon and attatch it across the front of the invitation to cover the seam where the cardstock and decorative paper meet.

Attatch fake paper flowers. I actually bought this flower in the craft section at Walmart. I attatched it by simply adding s small dollop of craft glue and placing the flower there. I waited for it ti dry before going on any further. but don't worry - almost done!

Add the word "Luau" to the front of the invitations. You certainly could have added this wod in the beggining using desktop publishing software. A good idea would be to change the color of the text so it matches the decorative paper and color scheme. You could also use letter paper punches to make it a little easier.
What I chose to do is actually freehand the word using an eXacto knife. An exacto knife is a small razor blade attatched to the end of a stem to make it kind of like using a pen. I cut the letters out of the same decorative paper I used for the bottom of the invitation. There are many ways to go about this finishing touch for the luau invitations. Choose whichever fits the best for you!

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