My Creative Journey: Party invites...

Hey guys-

I recently did a post about Juliette's birthday theme....titled Miss Juju is almost 2! please click on the link to get the details about the party (if you are interested in knowing a little more)....but any ways I completed the invites and sent them out and thought I might share with my fellow bloggers how I did them. They were simple to complete, but having the right tools is a must....if not...it would take hours of cutting!!

Here are how they turned out...

Since the theme is Juliette's Vintage Candy Shoppe....I wanted the invites to be in the shape of a Lollipop. I searched on Etsy for days looking for the prefect invites...but nothing quite caught my eye....I wanted to save some time and just order them because I have so many other projects up my sleeves for this party...I thought that would be best....well I came across TomKatStudio....which I have seen her work, but when I found a printable lollipop invitation...I immediately knew what I wanted to do with them! So, I ordered just the printable invitations on etsy and requested that the colors be printed in red, aqua, and pink...instead of the bright candy shoppe colors that I had been seeing all over....Here is a pic of what inspired me....

Picture from The TomKat Studio

Within a few days of my order...The TomKat Studio sent me a digital file of the center circle and the red and white stripe pattern paper. I printed everything out on white cardstock and then began the assembly process! I decided to use three layers...first layer being the center circle with the party details, second layer the red and white stripe paper, and the third layer craft paper (which I feel always adds a nice little vintage feel to my projects!)

To get started you will need a few important supplies...here are a few....

1. First things first...if you plan on making any type of invitation that involves cutting circles...do yourself a favor and go buy the Martha Stewart circle cutter...it is inexpensive plus very easy to use (I bought mine from Michael's and used a 40% off coupon, but I posted a link to amazon where they are also priced between $12 -$15) ...it cuts circle that range 1" to 5.5" (I don't recommend using this circle cutter for very small circles like 1" - 2"....I find using a circle punch is much easier for smaller inch circles.)

2. The only thing I hand cut for Juliette's invitations was the center circle...the reason I did that was I wanted a really close cut near the aqua polka dots and the circle cutter wasn't giving me that. I distressed the edges of each circle for all three layers (if you look close in the above picture that is how I got the rough edges going around). You can use an edge distresser or if you don't have one (a small steak knife works just as good!)

3. Next, I used the circle cutter to cut 4" circles of the red and white stripe patterned paper and 4.5" circles of the brown craft paper. I also distressed all the edges to those circles. I glued all the layers together and then attached the white cookie stick (these can be found in the baking sections of most stores) You can use either masking tape or packaging tape to adhere the stick to the back of the invitation. Make sure to select your envelope after you create your first sample...reason for this....is if you make the invitation too large or the stick is too long...you will need to adjust...so always nice to have a sample to practice with.

4. I used a variety of tulle, pink bakers twine, and raffa to tie around the lollipop. I wanted to use something a little different than the traditional ribbon and I feel like it added a nice touch to the invitation.

5. Last, I completed the envelopes...I used masking tape and a brown sharpie in the place of traditional printed labels...