Well, as I mentioned in a previous post, The Dude is turning 2 in the next month. I'm still in a dull shock at how quickly 24 months have just flown by. I could go on and on about my little boy growing up and all that jazz, but that's material suited for another time. In this post I wanted to discuss party invitations or, more specifically, Children's party invites.
Growing up, my birthday parties were usually pretty simple, my mom would blow some balloons up, hang a banner, invite my friends and order a cake. We would open presents, play with my new toys a bit, have cake and then it would be over. Themed parties weren't my mothers thing. She was busy enough just raising us, maintaining our home and working her part-time job. Invitations to birthday parties were usually a generic card of whatever she could buy at the local Zellers and carefully filled out by hand with the details.
These days, birthday parties can get quite extravagant and expensive! However, an affordable way to give your child's party a little something extra is with personalized professional printed invitations. They set off the theme and tone of your child's party and they don't need to be elaborate to do so. For example, The Dude is still quite young, but he is definitley all boy. He loves his trucks and cars. We decided to go with a simple Monster Truck theme for his little birthday party.
We found Monster truck themed party supplies at our local dollar store, and I did up a very simple invite. It's one sided, printed on 100 lb glossy card stock and reads like an admittance ticket to a Monster Truck event. I ended up designing 2 different styles, and had them printed 4 up on a single piece of stock and then trimmed to the correct size of 2.75"x8.5". For 32 of these tickets, including the design fee and printing cost, I would charge between $25-30 excluding postage if you were unable to pick-up.
So, The Dude will be celebrating his second birthday in about 3 months time. I am flabbergasted. Seriously, where has the time gone. I know parents say that all the time, but man is it ever true. I am in awe everyday at the new things he is picking up and how quickly he has mastered them. It seems as though it was only yesterday we were just bringing him home for the first time.
It's also hard to imagine that in less than 2 years time we've had a baby, moved from Whitehorse YT to Drumheller AB. Travelled to Belleville ON, Vancouver BC, Grande Prairie AB and to Las Vegas NV before moving again, this time to Cornwall ON. We've made some incredible friends in that time that we were sad to leave, which brings me to the point of this post. The Dude's second birthday.
Last year for the first one, were in Alberta, away from our families and the majority of our close friends, we had a small party for him with a couple of friends we had made in town, but it was pretty low key. Some toys, some decorations and some cake. Now at that age I realize the party is more for mom & dad than it is for the birthday boy. This year, we're closer to all his extended family and all our friends, some of whom we haven't seen in years but have kept in contact with phone calls and Facebook. I want to plan something special. Not only a birthday party for The Dude, but a "We're Back" shindig. I guess I better pick a theme and start designing the invites!
This is last years party invite. At the time I was experimenting around with Apple's Pages program. I used elements from one of their flyer templates and made it into a one sided flat invite sized to fit into a letter size envelope. Trying to figure out how to print it up properly was frustrating using the program, but in the end they turned out kinda cute!
Growing up, my birthday parties were usually pretty simple, my mom would blow some balloons up, hang a banner, invite my friends and order a cake. We would open presents, play with my new toys a bit, have cake and then it would be over. Themed parties weren't my mothers thing. She was busy enough just raising us, maintaining our home and working her part-time job. Invitations to birthday parties were usually a generic card of whatever she could buy at the local Zellers and carefully filled out by hand with the details. 
