"Ticket" Invitation Tutorial

So, we are throwing our soon to be 5 year old a "carnival" themed party in March.  I made his invitations last week, and I am really happy with how easy they were and how bright and cheery they turned out to be. 

There are several birthday themed parties that would be great with a "ticket" invitation.  If you have a movie themed party, you go to a show, you have a circus theme, you have a carnival theme, you hold an amusement park party, you go to the zoo, or you celebrate in any venue that usually has tickets, you can use a twist on this fun invitation.

First, choose your colors.  I bought 2 kinds of cardstock:  Blue for the background and yellow for the printed ticket.  Also, buy a scrapbook paper pattern to hold your ticket and glue onto the background. This is a fun place to get creative with your theme.  Finally, buy your envelopes in a coordinating color.

I wanted to do all my scrapbook paper in red and white carnival stripes, but the store only had 2 sheets left.  I did not want to drive all over the place, so I bought blue polka dotted paper and did scalloped edges with the red and white stripes.  That is why my invitation required 2 types of scrapbook paper.

The first thing to do is measure your envelopes and cut your background cardstock accordingly.  I had A7 envelopes, so I had 5x7 shaped background cardstock.

Next, cut your scrapbook paper about 1/4-1/2 inch shorter on each side.  This will let the "trim" of the background cardstock show when you glue down your scrapbook paper.

You need to use a razor to cut a slit in your scrapbook paper.  This is into where the ticket will be tucked.  I cut my slit about 2/3 of the way down.  It needs to be wide enough to hold your ticket but leave at least a 1/2 inch or so unsliced on each side.  I did this out in my hubby's organized workbench area.  Using a straight edge helped me cut in a straighter line.

To make the ticket, I downloaded some carnival fonts off of Dafont.com.  I used carnival, ringmaster, circus and big top fonts.  Once I wrote my initation, I printed it onto my cardstock.  I cut the font to be narrow and long like a ticket. 

Once I had the narrow rectangle, I was able to scallop the edges with scissors and then use a 1" punch to cut out a half circle in the middle of the two sides.

When you glue the invitation together, don't glue below the slit on your scrapbook paper (unless you want a small line of glue along the very bottom edge).  Otherwise, your ticket won't have a little air pocket into which it can slide down.

Glue it all together, assemble and voila!  Have fun with different colors, themes, fonts, and papers. 

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Carnival Party Planning

My big boy is turning FIVE in March.  To me, five has always been a big birthday.  Baby and toddler days are behind you and now you are officially a kid!  I can't believe it has gone by so quickly. 

Since both my boys have March birthdays, we are alternating the big friend party every year between the boys.  Micah turned one last year, so he got the big party.  You can see the post about his barnyard bash from last year here.

Carter is obsessed with roller coasters, water slides and any sort of amusement park.  I couldn't rent a roller coaster, so we are doing a carnival themed party. 

As soon as I started researching carnival party ideas, all kinds of fun, creative decorating ideas and activities popped into my head.

I got some great ideas at these posts on Lil Luna and Cute as a Fox. 

I bought a slew of premade carnival type games at Party City, which I can spread around the backyard.  We also have a bounce house we bought with two other families, and we rotate that amongst us as we need it.  I'll have the bounce house and our swing set ready for play.  My nephew got a cotton candy maker and a popcorn maker for Christmas and his birthday, so I hope to borrow those--I still have to ask. I want to have a soft pretzel station where the kids take some dough, shape their pretzel and then I'll bake them up hot and fresh.  We will have face painting and a "photo booth" station area.  I also got some sacks for a sack race!  I plan on having "popcorn" appearing cupcakes (SO adorable) and a candy station.  Whew!  I love this kind of thing--theme parties are so fun.

For the invitations, I knew I wanted to do some type of "ticket" invitations in primary colors.  I have never been a scrapbooker or card maker, so I knew I needed to keep it simple.  I think it turned out pretty cute from someone who is not a perfectionist.  There was also a cute idea of putting popcorn in a popcorn bag and writing on the bag as an invitation.  I just didn't want to hand deliver all the invites--too much work. 

The tickets slide into a slit in the invitation (below)

I'll share pictures of the various activities, food, crafts, decorations, etc. as we get closer.