Make Unique and Stylish
Sweet Sixteen Invitations

To make these sweet sixteen invitations I used a lilac/purple colored card stock, and also some scrapbook background paper. For your lighter weight paper you will need to find a 8 1/2" by 11" paper with an eye-catching pattern on one side and plain white on the opposite side (scrapbook background paper or specialty printer paper) as you will be printing on the one side of this paper.
I used a thin ribbon to embellish this invitation.

Tools you will use to make sweet sixteen invitations:

8 1/2" by 11" card stock
8 1/2" by 11" 20 lb. or similar weight paper
decorative paper
ribbon
glue or adhesive

Step One: Laying out the text. You will layout the text for this invitations in a 4-up (four to a page - postcard) format. You will use this same format for both the front of the card and also the inside text. Although this is the format you would normally use to design a postcard type of invitation, we will not be creating the sweet sixteen invitations as postcards. When finished they will be postcard sized (4 1/4" by 5 1/2") but have embellishments that are too fragile to send through the mail unprotected. Luckily this size is a common size for envelopes also.

* Wanna skip this step? You can by downloading the printable text PDF file and simply print it onto the papers of your choice.click here!

Step Two: Printing your text. Once you have your text in format you will need to print them out onto paper. There are two ways to go about doing this.
You can print both pages onto plain white printer paper and take them to a local copy shop to have them copied onto your chosen papers (this will save you money on your ink jet or toner in your home printer)
OR
you can simply print them each separately at home on your computer printer onto your chosen papers.
You will print the front of the card onto the card stock, and the inside text onto your patterned paper making sure to print on the plain white side of this sheet.

Step Three: Cutting the paper. Both sheets of paper will need to be cut into quarters. If you have a very large amount of invitations to make having them cut at a copy or print shop will make more sense. It is quick, easy and inexpensive. And the cut will come out perfect.

Step Four: Folding your invitations. In making these sweet sixteen invitations you will only need to fold your lighter weight paper. This is the paper that becomes the birthday gift embellishment on the front of the card. This fold will have to be done by hand although it is quite a simple fold.
Here we will merely be folding the paper into quarters. You will need to hold the text up to the card to see where you will want the fold to land in orientation to the card. (You will want this folded paper to be attached to the card how it is shown above and fold accordingly also.)

Step Five: Attach ribbon embellishments. You will attach the ribbons to your folded little paper quarters to make them look like gift packages. First attach a short length of ribbon horizontally across the front of the folded piece of paper. I did this using a tacky craft glue much like Elmer's. (Another really easy way to do this is by using a glue runner.) I spread it onto the back of the ribbon somewhat generously using my fingertip. A Q-tip would work well also. Make sure to cut off or fold over any overhanging bits of ribbon.
Next you will take a much longer length of ribbon and wrap it vertically all the way around the folded paper. There should be many inches of ribbon left dangling over the edges in order to tie a bow at the top of the folded paper to complete the look of a wrapped gift package. This longer piece of ribbon should be attached at the back of the paper only.

Step Six: Attach your second text sheet to the card stock. Using a craft glue like Elmer's attach your "birthday gift" little folded piece of paper and ribbon to the front of the card. Be careful to align it centered between both the printed words on the front of the card and the edge of the card to create a border around the "birthday gift".

Step Six: Just tie your ribbon at the top of the paper gift box and let your sweet sixteen invitations dry!

Printable birthday postcard invitations templates

"You're Invited" postcard invitations

go from sweet sixteen invitations back to Birthday Invitations