Make your own Barbecue Cookout Invitations

Summertime is prime time for the backyard barbecue. Why not make your own barbecue cookout invitations for your very own backyard bash? The tradition ffor this sort of party is generally to just call everyone you know and let them know the date and time. If you make your own invitations than you give your guests something to remember the event by. Besides, sometimes there is more to the party than just the barbecue. Maybe it's for a fourth of July celebration, or a birthday party.
I tried to make these invites relatively quick and easy to make. These are put together using cardstock, decorative paper, and a grass scrapbooking embellishment. The scrapbooking embellishments are optional as you can certainly make them yourself with some green construction paper. The scrapbooking embellishments are really just a shortcut as you can just slap them on really fast and be done with the invitation.

Tools needed to make these barbecue cookout invitations:
8 1/2" by 11" cardstock
decorative paper
grass scrapbooking embellishments(optional)
gluestick

Step One: Printing the words "Barbecue" onto the backyard cookout invitations. This is relatively easy. The easiest way to do this in my opinion is to use some desktop publishing software to set up the invitation's text in a 2-up format (or two to a page). For the front of the card it should be simple as all you will be printing is the word barbecue cookout invitations 2-up invitations "Barbecue" unless you decide to change it at all. Center the word from about three inches from the edge of the page about one inch down from the top of where the card will fold. The inside text of the card should just plain be centered all the way through and also centered from top to bottom on the bottom half of the page.
To make it slightly easier you can also either have you cardstock cut in half ahead of time and design the text onto a document sized to your paper. This avoids the 2-up layout. You can also print onto a blank card.
Either way you will print these text pages back to back or double-sided. Another option would be to print each page seperately onto plain white printer paper and bring it on over to a local copy shop. Enlist their services to copy the text back to back on some cardstock. They can even cut it for you!

*Wanna skip this step? Go here for a printable 2-up barbecue cookout invitations template.

Step Two: Cutting and folding the paper. The first paper to cut is the cardstock base of the invitation. The 8 1/2" by 11" cardstock must be cut in half to produce two pieces measuring 8 1/2" by 4 1/4". Next fold the cardstock in half by holding the paper so that is facing the long side up and fold top to bottom.
Next cut some decorative paper into rectangles. The rectangles should measure 4 1/4" by 2 1/2". After you have cut these rectangles you can go a step further by cutting a decorative border on one side. To do this draw a margin on one of the long sides of the paper about an 1/8" from the edge. Make sure and draw this margin on the back to that there is no trace of it on the finished invitation. Use this margin as a guide to cut along the edge with decorative scissors.

Step Three: Assemble the barbecue cookout invitations. Start by using a gluestick to attatch the decorative paper rectangle to the left hand side of the front of the card. Next attatch the decorative grass scrapbooking embellishments. I layered two different shades of green grass together but of course this is not necessary. For information on where to get the grass embellishments click here. Apply the grass to the invitation using a craft glue like elmer's.
You can also choose to make the embellishments for the bacbecue cookout invitations yourself. Use green construction paper or a lightweight cardstock. Cut out the shape using small scissors. An exacto knife works well for projects like this too.

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