Tuesday, January 17, 2017

Pirate Birthday Party: The Invitations




It's halfway through January and time for another birthday party!

My Little Man is turning three and requested a pirate themed celebration.  I happen to adore pirates, so I'm really excited for this party, but I'm a little nervous about the cake.  I let Little Man scroll through Pinterest with me and he saw a cake in the shape of a pirate ship that he is dead-set on having.  I can't turn down his request, "Peease, peease, peease pirate ship cake birthday Mommy????"  So I'm going to make it happen....somehow...😁

But for now, read on to see how I put together these invitations for my little buccaneer:



Materials

For this project I used scrapbooking paper, stickers, a sharpie, scissors and a lighter.  Since I already owned everything pictured here, these invitations were completely free to create.  That is my favorite 😁



Step 1:  Trim

I chose this paper from my scrapbooking stash because I wanted a older, antique-y looking paper.  The burgundy and golden swirl border wasn't working though, so I trimmed it off.



Step 2:  Cut

Once my paper was trimmed up, I cut the sheets into thirds.  I like to take into consideration the size of the envelope that I'll be using before cutting πŸ˜‰



Step 3:  Burn

This was probably the most enjoyable step - setting the invitations on fire πŸ˜„

I wanted the invitations to look old, tattered and worn as though they had been hidden away by a fearsome pirate ages ago.  This was easy to do with the help of a lighter; just run a flame along the paper until it begins to curl up and blacken.

Be careful though, as paper can catch the flame quite quickly.  Also, I recommend doing this outside.  Even if the paper doesn't hold an actual flame, there is still quite a bit of smoke that is given off.



Step 4:  Add Wording

I used hot glue to attach my wording to the tattered background paper and intentionally placed the wording sheets on a slight diagonal.  I didn't want things looking too neat or proper πŸ˜‰

After combing through Pinterest I ended up taking five different invitation examples and combining them to create my own wording.

In case you can't see it in the photos, here it is typed out:

Ahoy there matey, ye be invited to a swashbuckling party!
-captain (child's name here) is turning 3-
Join us for adventure on the high seas when our ship sets sail:
(date & time)
Meet the crew in (child's name here)'s quarters for lunch and dessert.
Come if ye dare!



Step 5:  Decorate

As I was making these (and thinking about treasure maps) I ended up grabbing a red marker to make an 'X' on each of the invitations.  Add a few hash marks in black and you have a symbol for buried treasure.



Step 6:  Embellish


Lastly, I added a pirate sticker and colored the eyes in red.  And there you have it, invitations perfect for a seafaring soiree πŸ˜„

I hope you enjoyed this how-to post.  There will be lots more to come as we raise the sails and set off for our newest adventure, thanks for stopping by!

-Jennifer

© Jennifer Adams Flowers 2017

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