Handmade Invitations For Any Occasion

Digital Designs 
The marriage of digital photography with computer software and color printers makes it easy to customize handmade invitations on your PC. For your next birthday party, try printing a photo of the lucky person wearing a colorful birthday hat on the front of the invitation. Or, print a photo of your new home on the handmade invitation for your house warming party. It's a personal touch and a good way to help everyone find your new home for the first time.

In addition to photos, it's easy to add borders, symbols, clip art and other design elements that can help create a theme. Both blank-stock and pre-printed invitations are usually available at office supply stores, party supply or hobby shops, neighborhood printers, on-line retailers and even some department stores. Before purchasing invitations to customize on your PC, refer to the owner's manual of your color printer to determine what paper sizes, weight and thickness it can accommodate. For best results, make sure your printer produces color with at least 300 dpi (dots per inch).

 

Many local printers and party supply stores will also do the printing, and they offer a variety of custom options as well. Simply choose from a menu of designs and card stocks, provide your specific wording (and even a digital photo) and your custom invitations will be ready in no time.

Easy Accessories
You don't have to involve a printer or even your PC to create great handmade invitations for any occasion. Here are some of our favorite ideas for little touches that create fun and thoughtful invitations.

Wine Charms: Punch a small hole in a corner of each invitation with a micro hole punch, and attach a wine charm for each adult invited. Packages of wine charms are available at party supply stores and most wine retailers. Your guests can bring their unique charms and attach them to their wine glasses at your dinner party or wine tasting. Other types of inexpensive charms in various styles and themes are available as well.

Ribbons, Bows & Silk Flowers: A lacy, sheer white bow adds elegance to a wedding invitation. Use your micro hole punch to attach a small charm of two wedding rings joined together to your bow. Including a small silk flower inside the handmade invitation to an outdoor wedding reception or garden party is a nice touch, too.

 Earthy Leaves: Create crafty embellishments and save money by spray-painting the leaves of a silk plant. Cut scrapbook paper to size to create the base of the invitation. Choose another pattern of paper and cut a small piece with a square cut out of the middle. Glue the paper together and add the leaves to create unique and earthy handmade invitations.

Colorful Confetti: Festive, foil confetti for every occasion is available at hobby shops and party supply stores. Sprinkle pumpkins and candy inside a Halloween party invitation, for example. Your invited guests will know they're in for a fun evening from the moment they open their invitations.

 Stamps: Just like the confetti, colorful stamps are an easy way to make an invitation hard to decline. Attach red and orange leaves to your fall-themed party invitation, or gold stars to a "five-star" dinner party. Old-fashioned rubber stamps that use an ink pad also are popular and widely available in various designs and colors.

3-Dimensional Invites: Sketch a simple pattern or drawing (like flowers) on quality paper stock and then cut various pieces of thin cotton fabric to glue over the tracing to create a 3-dimentional look.

Envelopes: Splurging a little on envelopes will help your handmade invitations stand out from other mail. Try using dark colors or clear envelopes that allow the invitation to show through.