So Inviting

I didn't do birth announcements when Riley was born and I was sad about the missed opportunity. We planned a big baptism when she was 8mo so I made the invites myself in paint shop pro with lots of pictures to make up for not having birth announcements.

I was really proud of those even if the event got bumped by back surgery. Next up was Riley's first birthday. I envisioned a bright, happy hedgehog. Mike added the pop-up element and we worked together on the poem.

The poem says: "Come have a roly-poly day with me. We'll tumble and laugh and play with glee. I'll have some cake to share and wear. So don't get prickly, don't despair. With the 52 weeks of life I've had, I'm pretty sure I'm as old as dad! Don't curl up and hide in three quarter's crescent. Come to the park on the fifth and bring me a present." We handmade the first one. When we were happy with it we took it apart and took digital pictures (we didn't have a scanner yet) of the pieces. After we uploaded them to the computer we printed them on cardstock. After that it was a lot of cutting, gluing and folding.

Now that we have our new big backyard we're hosting an Easter event the first weekend in the new house. I made this in paint shop pro.

I stole the cheese ball rhyme from the internet, but cut me some slack I'm trying to move a family of four I don't have a ton of time to be witty. I really like how this one came out. For the baptism invites I uploaded them to a drug store website and printed them as 4x6 photos, but for the Easter one I just emailed the jpg as an attachment. Save a tree and all that, but really it was the time crunch.

Next on my list are change of address cards to offically announce the move, save the dates for the wedding, and I've already statred working on Riley's 2nd birthday invites. I don't think it ever would have occured to me pre-digital photogrphy, photo editing software, etc to do my own invitations. Then again I love this kind of thing so much I probably would have handmade less attractive versions if the technology wasn't available.

I've become a stay at home mom whose creative outlet is designing kids birthday invitions...not sure I should be proud of that.