First Birthday Invitations

The first step I took in creating these photo birthday invitations was to select a digital photo from the albums I had uploaded. I opened the photo in a free program you can download from the internet called Paint.net. I cropped the photo down and then changed the photo to black and white by choosing "black and white" from teh "Adjustments" menu. I then saved the photo as a Jpeg file and saved it on my desktop.
You will also want to re-size the photo so that it is the correct size on the front of the card. I would recommend re-sizing so that the width adjustment is 4.25" and then select "canvas size" to change the height to 5.5".

Next I used my favorite desktop publishing program to set up the picture to print 2 times on the far right hand side of my paper. I printed this onto heavy weight 110Lb. white cardstock using my printer's highest quality photo settings.

After printing the next step to take is to cut the paper in half. I used a personal paper trimmer. If you are making a huge quantity of invitations you may want to have them cut for you at a copy or print shop. I first cut the paper in half width wise. Most printers do not print directly to the edge of the paper when printing in this manner, so you may also want to trim to the printed edge, as I did.

Next hold a ruler across where you want the card to be folded and use a bone folder to score and then fold the cardstock to create a folded card for the base of the invitation. The front of the card will now be the photo you selected for the first birthday invitations.

Now to decorate the front of the invitations! I first created a 5" number "1" using my Cricut personal die cutting machine. But you could also easily simply use Paint.net to print some numbers backwards across the back of some decorative paper, and then cut them out by hand. It seems a bit elaborate but I have used this method plenty of time. You could also choose to use some paper punches to spell out "one year old" or something similar. And there is also the fallback of using a die cut cardboard one as a stencil!
After cutting my number 1's out of some decorative scrapbooking paper, I used some blue distressing ink to add some texture, and make them stand out a bit more. The paper I chose had a dinosaur print, and since my lil' guy is completely obsessed with all things dinosaur, I had to use it! To apply the distressing ink I just used a cheap paintbrush I had on hand, dipped it into the ink, and brushed it onto the edges of the paper with quick swift motions.

Next I cut out two small paper rectangles using white and green cardstock. I used an extra large tag punch to create the rectangles. Next I punched the word "party" onto the white rectangle using a clear stamp and some blue stamping ink. I attached the rectangles together with a glue runner.

I attached the rectangles to the bottom center of the card by dabbing some glue runner adhesive to the backs. I also applied the same adhesive to the large number "1" and attached it to the front at a slight angle.

For the finishing touch, which I found a bit shabby but in a sort of good way, was to simply cut out one of teh dinosaurs from some scrap s of the decorative dinosaur paper. I cut it out using a craft knife, applied some quick dry glue to the back and then attached it to the front of the card. In the future I might have bought some matching stickers or something similar to add this last embellishment. But sometimes you just gotta work with what you've got!

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