Barnyard Birthday: Invitation Part 2

Dylan’s barnyard birthday was a huge success!

Planning and organizing this themed party left me a bit burnt out (hence my lack of blogging).  Now that I have had a chance to recover from an overload of crafting, I am here to show you the bits and pieces that made up this barnyard themed birthday.

The Invitation:
Let’s start with where it all began… the invitation!   Back in January I created a prototype using supplies I already had in my craft room (you can check out this post here).  For the most part I stuck to this design with a couple exceptions.  I ended up finding some adorable pink gingham print cupcake wrappers at Michael’s and I just knew they would be the perfect addition.  To create a scalloped edge on the cupcake wrappers I just folded the wrapper in half over and over until I had a narrow triangle shape and simply rounded off the end with my scissors.

I also decided to go with a traditional size for the card base (4.25″x5.5″ when folded) and chose one type of animal to represent the barnyard theme.  I also added a bit of rustic charm to some of the paper by distressing the edges with a brown ink (VersaMagic in the colour Jumbo Java).  Keep reading after the pictures to see what I did for the inside of the card.

Inside the Invite:
I designed the inside of the invitation in Adobe Illustrator and had them printed on heavy weight card stock at my local Staples (four invitations fit nicely on one 8.5×11 sheet of paper).  The vintage animal illustrations were a freebie I found on vintagevectors.com (click here to get them for crafty endeavours).  To add a bit of whimsey I drew a couple of party hats on the horse and bull.  And for the text portion of the invite I was inspired by all the graphic typography layouts I’ve seen on invitations via Pinterest.  I really like how it turned out and I think my guests liked them too!

So there you have it – a vintage inspired invitation to a barnyard birthday bash.  What is your favourite way to invite guests to your parties?  Do you like the handmade card approach or perhaps the ease of the digital e-vite?  I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments!