Make First Birthday Invitations

Your baby's first birthday invitations really should be something worthy of holding onto. This is a very special celebration worthy of a scrapbook page, or even some framed photos with the birthday invitation as a decoration. Either way you will want to hold onto this invitation for memories sake.
Most babies birthdays are really for the adults. For a babies first birthday they have no concept of what is going on except that there are lots of people at their house and they get to eat cake. The birthday invite will also be for the adults and if you have a family like mine they will probably want to tuck this little memento away to look back on. The first birthday invitations are a keepsake.
I came up with this cute patchwork pattern because it reminded me of an old toy box I had when I was a kid. Someone gave it to me on my first birthday.

Tools needed to make baby's first birthday invitations:
8 1/2" by 11" card stock
decorative papers
white paper or card stock
ribbon
glue stick, craft glue
or glue runner

Step One: Getting the printed words onto paper. You will be printing out text for both the front and inside of this invitation.

For the text on the inside of Baby's first birthday invitations - Set up this text as a 2-up layout (or two cards to a page). One way to get around this would be to have your card stock cut in half ahead of time and simply adjust your document size and printer settings to print onto the smaller paper. You can also design the same invitations to print onto blank invitations.

For the text on the front of first birthday invitations - The main text is the "Baby's First Birthday" on the front. These words should be printed

* A little something extra (optional step) - The text in the upper right corner of these first birthday invitations is not a decorative paper. It is text I created and printed straight onto the card stock. I placed decorative paper all around it. To create this text block all I had to do was type the same words over and over again ("one year old") keeping it limited to just that upper right corner. Of course this step is optional because you can just as easily replace this with another piece of decorative paper instead.
* If you want to achieve this same look but aren't sure how to pull it off correctly you can download a printable file here complete with the words for the front of the card and inside too.

Step Two: Cutting the paper for these invitations. If you used a 2-up text layout then the first thing you will do is cut the card stock in half to make separate cards.
You should have chosen two or three decorative papers also. Each of these papers must be cut into squares measuring 2 1/8" by 2 3/4" (or sized at a quarter of the size of the front of your cards if you are using a different sized blank invitation). There are two ways to go about this. The easiest would be to bring your papers to a local copy or print shop and have them cut the paper for you. They can cut large volumes of paper to size perfectly. It is fast, inexpensive and easy.
You could also cut it by hand if you are looking to save a few bucks. The easiest way to cut it by hand is to use a ruler to draw lines that measure out the correct size you intend to cut. Use a good personal paper cutter (click here for more info...) to cut along the lines. A lot of decorative scrapbooking papers actually have a line grid across the back of them to make this sort of project easier.

Step Three: Folding the cards. Speaks for itself! Fold all of baby's first birthday invitations in half. If you are using a thick card stock and the fold in coming out wrinkly you may need to score the paper before folding. You can do this by purchasing a scoring tool. Some sliding paper cutters come with a scoring attachment. If this is not an option try going over the crease with the straight edge of a ruler or something similar. This sometimes works to kind of "iron out" the crease.

Step Four: Attaching the decorative papers. Using a good glue stick applied to the back of the decorative papers attach them to the front of the invitations. Attach them so that no two of the same papers are directly next to each other. On my invitation I put two of the same papers diagonally across from each other. I made one facing right side up and attached the opposite side facing in a different direction.
To top it off use a glue stick to attach the plain squares of paper with the "Baby's First Birthday" text printed onto it. Glue it down as close to being perfectly centered as possible.

Step Five: Attach some ribbon bows. Cut a small length of ribbon, long enough to tie into a bow. Tie a bow with the ribbon pulling out the ends until it is the right size and shape. Snip off some of the length using scissors and cutting at an angle so that the ribbon is small enough to fit onto the square on the front of the card. Use a thicker craft glue (like elmer's) to attach the bow to the front of the baby's first birthday invitations. I would recommend making a small puddle of glue on a separate piece of paper or a paper plate and dip the bows into the glue.

Let it all dry and the project is done!

More ideas and tips for making baby's first birthday invitations...

* Instead of attaching bows to the front try adding some cute scrapbooking embellishments, like diapers, baby blocks or toys. It will look so cute!

* Mix and match colors and papers to match a different theme or to make an invitation more suited towards a boy's birthday party.

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