Make Surprise Party Invitations

Making handmade surprise party invitations is that one little extra touch to make the surprise party even more of a phenomenal event. The surprise party is classic! It can be a sentimental event for both those who are plannig the party as well as the person you are surprising. These invitations are a great keepsake for such an event. They will look great in the scrapbook you make with the pictures from the party too!

Tools needed to make these surprise party invitations:

8 1/2 by 11" cardstock (in 2 different colors)
Colored or construction paper
plain printer paper
decorative border scissors
scrapbooking embellishments
(optional) large square punch
glue-stick

Step One: Creating the Invitation's text. Use a desktop publishing program to set up the text on the front of the card. The text should be set up in a 4-up (or four to a page) click here for more info. Create each "surprise" text in a different font and color, increasing the font size with each. For the last "surprise" text I made each letter a different color and used the programs rotating tool to turn the letters askew.
Next create the text for the inside of the invitation. The easiest way to do this is to create a box on the DTP program. Make sure it is the correct size to fit inside of the invitation card. For the best effect make it slightly smaller in size. Create the text to fit inside of the box. Select File> select all and then copy and paste the box as many times as you can fit it on a page. To copy select Edit> Copy (or CTRL+C). To paste select Edit> Paste (or CTRL+V).

Print the "surprise" 4-up text onto 8 1/2" by 11" cardstock. Print the the text for the inside of the invitation onto plain white or colored printer paper.

Step Two: Cutting the Surprise party invitations paper. There are two ways to go about this step of the process.

* For the quick and easy (but costs a little extra money) - visit your local copy shop. Call ahead to make sure they have paper cutting services. Most copy and small print shops have hydraulic cutting machines which can cut large volumes of paper all at once. By using a machine like this you get a perfectly measured, straight, clean cut. It is usually very inexpensive and super fast.

* For those trying to save as much money as possible and don't mind a little extra work - cut the invitation paper by hand using a good personal paper cutter click here for more info on paper cutters and where you can get your hands on one for discount prices).

Cut the Cardstock base of the invitation into quarters. You should also have a second cardstock in a different color. Cut this cardstock into rectangles sized at 5 1/2" by 2 3/4". These rectangles will become the actual open and shut card part of the invitation.

Step Four: Decorating the front of the Surprise Party Invitations. What you will actually be doing is decorating the front of the folded squares of colored cardstock. Start by making a decorative square frame. These little square frames are not intended to be perfect. They will still look good if they are not cut straight. They do however need to be the right size. They should be cut to be about 2 1/2" by 2 1/2" or slightly smaller. It is easy enough to simply hold the paper up to the square card to make sure you are cutting them small enough. Now, there are two ways to create these decorative frames as well

A. Use a large square paper punch to punch a square out of some colored paper. Now use some decorative border scissors to cut around this square about a 3/8 of an inch from the edge to create a frame. Again - doesn't need to cut perfectly. You just need to create a decorative frame.

B. Cut a square out of colored paper using decorative border scissors. Using a cutting mat, ruler, and X-acto knife cut another square about 3/8 of an inch to the inside of this square to create a decorative frame.

Using a gluestick attatch the decorative frame to the front of the small square cards. To finish off this decoration you will need to place another decoration to the front of this card. I used a Birthday cake scrapbooking embellishment.
Embellishments are great to use if you do not mind spending the extra money on them. They are quick and easy and usually come with adhesive on the back of them so that all you have to do is stick em on! Another way to decorate these surprise party invitations would be with a cool paper punch. Try maybe a ballon shaped punch, or maybe a birthday hat punch. You could even get your kids to make you some little cakes or party hats using construction paper.
When you attatch these to the front of the card make them large enough that you can slightly overlap them over the decorative frame. It just plain looks nicer, more pleasing to the eye.

Step Five: Assemble the surprise party invitations. Attatch the small square cards to the front of the cardstock base of the invitation. Make sure and center it to the bottom half of the card. Once they are dry they will be ready to pop into an envelope and into the mail!

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