Make Something: Fiftieth Fiesta Invitation!

My mother's birthday was a couple of weeks ago, on Halloween to be exact.  This birthday was a little extra special because it was her 50th birthday.  Because her birthday is on Halloween she basically hasn't had a birthday party since I was born.  Being the fantastic children that we are, my siblings and I schemed to throw her the most awesome surprise 50th birthday party ever.  My mom isn't one to appreciate "over the hill" jokes, so we decided to throw a Fiftieth Fiesta.  The theme set the tone for a great party, and everything turned out really fantastic.  It was incredibly  a little exhausting getting everything in line and making sure she didn't find out, but the look on her face when she walked through the door was worth every second, stressor, and penny spent.

And in case you're wondering what I've been up to the last couple weeks, it's been this.  I've been crafting like crazy, but haven't been able to post anything for fear that she'd read it and find out.  I'll be posting various things from the party over the next week.  Initially, I planned on posting the full party details first, and then featuring particular things.  Buuuuuut I accidentally formatted my camera card and deleted all 400 pictures from the party.  Somewhat devastating.  I'm trying a couple of things to get them back, but for now I only have about 30 grainy iPhone photos from various phones.

And if any of you are Canon gurus any tips would be greatly appreciated!

50th Fiesta Invitations

What you'll need: 

• Precut cards and envelopes, whatever size you choose.
• Bandanas in various colors
• Scissors and glue
• Silver Ribbon
• Computer program and printer

Instructions:

First up, is designing the invitations on a computer program.  You can make a great card without using Photoshop, you just may need to be a little more creative.  To prove this, I designed these invitations using Pages for Mac.  I opted for Pages instead of Word, because Pages has a guideline functions, which makes it easier to work with than Word.  If you only have Word, you can simply change the page size and then eye ball where the text boxes should go.

Here's basically what your card should look like.  The first horizontal line is the middle of the card, and the other lines are margins.  By setting up all of the margins you can make sure your words will be in the proper location on the page.  When you think you're ready, always always print a test page.  I can't tell you how many drafts I go through before I print on the actual cards.  You'll always have little things to tweak, and figuring out how the paper should feed into the printer is always tricky.  

Once you're satisfied with your card design, print them out on your actual cards.  Cut out a bunch of tiny little triangles.  I drew them with a pencil and then cut them out.  It was a little tedious, but don't they look so cute all piled up?

Glue the triangles on a ribbon and allow to dry.  Once dry, drape the flags onto the card until you're happy with the placement.  Glue down and let dry.

There you have it!  A great card for a great party!

And here's a sneak peak of the actual party.  Hopefully I'll have plenty of other ones to show you soon!