If you decide to go with handmade invitations, you don’t have to stick to the standard invites. You can print your message and attach it to a candy bar, or a small gift box or some other item to get your guests attention.

There are so many things out there these days to make creating handmade invitations easy and fun to make. I love all the decorative stamps, and colorful card stocks. You can even add a bit of ribbon, or make your own paper.

I enjoy making handmade cards, so in the next few weeks I’m going to be back with some handmade invitation ideas and some step by step instructions to give you some inspiration for your holiday cards.

Image  (c) istockphoto

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Younger children, especially during the toddler years, don’t really have friends yet. So most of the guests are friends of the family, and the children can be a broad range of ages.

When children get a little older, and start to make friends, then it is important to let them have some say in the guest list.

A couple things to keep in mind when you’re planning your children’s party guest list include:

• Your child’s age, the rough guideline is to invite as many children as your child’s age. So if your child is turning 6, let him invite up to 6 friends.
• Where will you hold the party? Are you having the party at home, or in another venue?
• How many adults will be attending? When younger children come to a party, often at least one adult parent stays with them. You may also have adult friends and relatives who will attend the party.

It’s really important to think about these things when you’re developing your guest list, not at party time.

Image via sxc.hu

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First up is an invitation for a summer barbecue. It uses a few stickers, and some contrasting paper to make a fun invitation.

Image (c) L Gerlach

Here are a couple fun ideas for handmade garden party invitations. You can use buttons, felt, paper, ribbons , leftover plastic or pressed flowers to make your handmade invites.

Image (c) L Gerlach

Image (c) L Gerlach

I love handmade invitations. I think they make everything more personal.

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Pingg is an online invitation company that lets you design your own invitations with your own image or theirs. The best part? You can create your designs for free.

Here are a few of my favorite Spring party invitations.

Here’s more information from pingg about their invitation services:

· pingg is the only online invitation company with a print feature, and will stamp & mail printed versions of your invitation to those guests you choose. (like your grandma, who doesn’t check email!)

· You can use your own artwork or photographs for the invitation artwork. You can also turn off the RSVP function, if you’re not planning a party and just want a fancy way to save the date.

· You can add a gift registry, collect money, sell tickets or, through a clever partnership with ChangingthePresent.org, set up a charitable donation from the group.

· pingg offers an ad-free experience for $5 per event page

· personalized event pages with photos, youTube videos, Google maps, guest list details, an extended message, even a news feed to give guests the up-to-the-minute status on all event details.

If you want to send out unique invitations pingg is definitely worth checking out.

I’ll have more invitation and party ideas coming up!

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Party invitations are a big business. Even if you’re purchasing store bought invitations for a kids’ birthday party you can spend $10 to $20 after they’re all mailed out. Plus, if you’re having a small party, save five or so kids, you end up buying a whole pack of invitations, most of which you won’t use. Fortunately, there are a few ways to save money and waste.

1. Use Evite or another online invitation service. Evite is free and sends a custom designed (by you) invitation to your guests’ email addresses. You can set it up to ping you every time someone RSVPs or to send out reminders to those who don’t respond. I use it for the women’s club I belong to as it makes it easy to keep track.
2. Make and print your own invitations. You can find hundreds of patterns online or you can add your own decorations or clip art. If you send a lot of invites and greeting, you can even buy a program to help you design your own cards.
3. Don’t use envelopes. Instead roll the invitation and tie it with ribbon or twice.
4. Hand deliver invitations. My son is not allowed to give out invitations at his school because we’re only inviting a few kids and we don’t want anyone left out. Instead, we’ll be dropping the invitations off in his friends’ mailboxes, saving us the postage. Kids who are allowed to bring invitations to school can hand deliver them there as well.
5. Buy from the clearance bin. Clearanced invitations and blank cards are just as good as the latest design. You can save 50% to 80% buy buying items on clearance.

What ways can you think of to save money on invitations?

Image: Buy at AllPosters.com

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If you are throwing a Mardi Gras party most likely you will send out some invitations. Since Mardi Gras is big on costumes, beads and bright colors, use your imagination when it comes to the invitations.

My favorite Mardi Gras invitation idea is to go buy some of those Metallic Mardi Gras Half Mask and attach the invitation to it. These masks are small enough to fit inside a large brown envelope or small box that you can buy from any packaging store, or even your local Wal-Mart.

Be sure and ask the guest to wear their mask when they come to the party. Now this is an easy and affordable Mardi Gras invitation idea.

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A pirate birthday party is one of the most popular birthday party themes around. I don’t know many little boys who haven’t wanted to or dressed up as a pirate for Halloween. I know my two have already and they still love their costumes!

There is SO much you can do with a pirate birthday party and it can be a lot of fun. So hold on to yer’ hats mateys, we’re going to help you throw the most awesome pirate party around! Today we’ll start with the invitations and decorations.

Invitations

• You can buy your pirate invitations at the store. There are a lot of great ones to choose from like the Pirate Party Postcard Invitations. My favorite pirate party birthday invitation is the Pirate Party Invitation In A Bottle. Imagine how excited your kids’ friends will be when they receive one of these! You can also buy invitations that are pirate party pack.
• An option as far as making the invitations yourself is to make a map to your home on brown paper. Put a big red X on your house or party place and include the time, date and rsvp information. Burn the edges of the paper to make it look authentic. You can either deliver it this way or roll it up, tie it with a ribbon and make your own invitation in a bottle.

Decorations

• One thing that every pirate party must have is a Treasure Chest. You can either buy an inexpensive one, go all out or even make one yourself.
• Hang fishing nets all over the house or yard. Include some sea life in the nets and maybe even a skeleton or two.
• How about letting the kids set sail like a real pirate and at the same time have the most awesome decoration ever? If that sounds fun to you, then you may want to include this Happy Birthday Pirate Ship. Here’s a picture of it below. How great would it be to take each child’s picture in front of this ship and send it to them later in a thank you card? They would LOVE that!

• A scary Caged Peg Leg Piratemight set the pirate scene also. Beware: it might not be best for little ones who get scared easily. he’s kind of creepy!
• Some other decoration ideas are a personalized pirate banner, pirate mylar balloons, and pirate flags.

Alright, you have some invitation and decoration ideas. Stay tuned for more pirate birthday party ideas.

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Although they are meant to be used as just a card, I also thought they would make great invitations to a holiday party. You could print up the necessary party invitation information on some pretty paper and slip it into the card. This would save you some time from having to write it out on each card. On the card itself you could write “Merry Christmas” or “Happy Holidays” and sign your name.

Here’s a description of this card set and the company who makes them:

R. Nichols cards are a delightful slice of life. Printed on card stock from original hand-cut collages by Designer R. Nichols. Designs by R. Nichols are sure to delight the sender and receiver. They make great gifts for the partier, dog aficionado, mom-to-be, gardener, urbanite, shopper, relaxer – just about anyone! R. Nichols is also the illustrator of New York Times Best Sellers “French Women Don’t Get Fat” and “French Women For All Season”. All cards are printed on heavy card stock and come with matching envelope. Every card is hand picked and packaged in a stylish black box. We package and ship our product with great care so the customer receives perfection!

I would love to receive an invitation like this in the mail. The people holding the gifts all dressed up and under the chandelier, completely puts me in a party mood!

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