Make Your Own Pool Party Invitations

The pool party invitations will be a great way to kick off your summer parties. These are easy to make and will certainly make a splash amongst the guests. All you need is some cardstock, some cool decorative paper, and maybe some cool stickers or a paper punch or two. Here's how to make em'...

Materials needed to make your own pool party invitations
8 1/2" by 11" cardstock
decorative paper with a water or pool theme
sticker letters
a paper punch or two
glue runner or glue stick

Step One: Getting the invitation wording onto your paper. Either set up the text for the invitation as a 2-up invitations format (or two invitations to a page)

simply cut your cardstcok in half before you print them and set up your document to be 8 1/2" by 4 1/2". In this instance you will set up the invitation wording so that it is on the bottom half of the page. Center the text and change the fonts to match you theme or style.

print out a free invitation template from the printables section of the site. Here's where to go to download a template that will work perfect for this invitation.

When printing the text onto your invitation paper make sure and print onto a good cardstock in the color of your choice. Not to dark though, you still want to be able to read the text.

Step Two: Cutting the invitation paper to make pool party invitations. There are two separate papers to cut to complete this pool party invitation. The first is the cardstock base of the invitation. Since most of you will probably make this invitation in a 2-up format, first you will need to cut the cardstock in half. You should have printed the wording onto a sheet of 8 1/2" by 11" paper. After cutting you will be left with two sheets of paper sized at 8 1/2" by 4 1/4".

The next paper to cut down to size is your chosen decorative paper. I chose a scrapbooking paper that has a pattern on the front that is actually a picture of water. In fact, it even looks as though it is a picture of pool water. If you want to look for this exact same paper it was made by Provo Craft, and it is named "Sea Parties Water" by Jeff Goodsell (#42-6205).
Cut this paper into rectangles measuring about 3 1/2 by 5". Once these rectangles are cut it is time to create the decorative wavy edge on the top of the rectangle. I created this using decorative border scissors. Just flip the rectangle over and make a guideline on the back using a pencil and ruler. I recommend making this guideline about 1/4" from the edge. Next cut the edge of the paper using your decorative scissors. Use the guideline to help keep this decorative border straight on the paper.

Step Three: Making paper punch decorations. I used a simple circular paper punch to make these decorations. I used two sizes to create contrast. Don't be afraid to get creative! Use a different shape. There are so many different shapes to choose from when it comes to paper punches. Why not use a tear drop shape, or sea horse? Or even a sun or tropical drink?
Choose a colored paper or two to create these decorative accents and punch away. Just make yourself a nice big ole' pile of them to work with.

Step Four: Assemble the pool party invitations. OK all you need here is a glue stick or glue runner, and some cool letter stickers. I chose to use white stickers because it went with the color scheme and the theme too.
Start by folding your invitations in half. Apply a thin layer of glue to the back of the decorative paper rectangle with the decorative edge. I used a glue runner to do this. Using a glue runner is great because it will not cause the paper to warp or wrinkle. You can use far less of it to keep the paper in place as well. Plus, once it is stuck on, it will not budge. I applied a small amount to all four corners, and a dab or two in the middle. Place the decorative paper onto the invitation so that it is aligned to the bottom right hand corner.
Next attach your decorative paper punches. I used a glue stick for this. Apply the glue to the back of the punched paper. Stick the shapes to the card as evenly spaced as possible. Sometimes placing them askew from each other (if you are using a different shape than circles, of course) can look very appealing to the eye.
Last but not least, place on your sticker letter across the top of the invitation. To make sure they come out spaced correctly first place the very first letter and very last letter. Then determine how much space you want each word to take up. Place the last letter of the first word, and then the first letter of the last word. Now fill in the rest.

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