Birthday Invitations Tips

The Basics of Invitations

Always include in invitations: location, starting and ending times, whether parents and all siblings are invited, and if special activities are scheduled that might require special clothing. Specify an R.S.V.P. date, including your full name and phone number.

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Party Invitation Wording

Looking for birthday party invitation tips? Be careful what you say. For your party invitation, wording can give a strong indication of the tone of the party. If the birthday person is under 18, it's common to announce the age. However, a party invitation for older people usually doesn't announce the age unless it's some milestone marker.

If your having a themed party and want guests to dress up, make sure the party invitation wording conveys that clearly and gives some ideas. If you want young guests to bring a certain toy (stuffed animals or dolls are common), make sure that's spelled out as well. Teenage parties might invite guests to bring their favorite music or a video.

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Child Birthday Party Invitation

Looking for birthday party invitation tips? For a child birthday party invitation, remember to include the basic information. The name of the birthday child, the age, the date and time of the party, and what, if anything, each guest should bring. Provide a phone number and/or an email address for responding and include an RSVP date if you need to have a firm number of guests (for events held at commercial establishments like skating rinks or if you need t buy movie tickets in advance). If you're going to be transporting the children somewhere, include the details of that so that parents can opt to drive their own child if they'd rather. Including a map of the party location is a nice touch.

*For casual parties, two weeks' notice is usually adequate, giving everyone time to make plans and do any shopping necessary. More formal events require a longer lead time, especially if any travel from out of town is required.

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State What to Expect

"State clearly what guests should expect, for example:

• Open House - "Please drop by between the hours of 2:00pm to 4:00pm"
• Cocktail Party - "Join us for drinks and snacks from 5:00pm to 7:00pm"
• Potluck - "Please bring your favorite dish for dinner at 6:00pm"
• Surprise Party - "Park your car a block away and help surprise Marty with a buffet celebration"

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Scrapbook Invitations

"You can create "scrapbook" invitations with pictures too using shaped scissors, cut out designs in various themes, and other crafted materials found in stationery stores. Plan ahead, as this type of project can be time consuming, but memorable too."

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Party Invitation Etiquette

One of the best birthday party invitation tips is that party invitations should give a clue as to what kind of party you're having. You probably wouldn't use a hand drawn casual invitation for a formal black-tie affair. But if you're having a casual outdoor barbecue, have fun with the invitations. If it's a family event, it's especially appropriate to involve your children in all aspects.

Let them help deliver the invitations for a neighborhood potluck. They'll be much more willing to help out when it's time to clean up and organize for the party if they feel like it's partly theirs. Give each child some responsibility during the party if you'd like. In fact, if you are having an adult-only evening, let your young children pass around appetizers, refill snack bowls now and then, and take a plate of party food back into their rooms for a special treat while they play games or watch television away from the party.

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Sample Party Invitation

A sample party invitation can give you good ideas if you want to make your own invitations or just choose the appropriate party invitation wording for your own party. You can find lots of samples online or look at advertisements for various printed invitations for ideas. You can find pretty verses and poetry for special occasions or quote one of your favorite heroes or celebrities. Look at the various fonts and lettering styles used as well as the actual wording.

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Child birthday: Party Invitation and Thank You Notes

After the child birthday party invitation and the party itself comes the question of thank you notes. Traditional etiquette says thank you notes are not necessary when the gift has been opened in front of the giver and the person has been thanked in person. However, it is a nice habit to get younger children into this courtesy will be appreciated as they get older.

If you can print your own photos, you can have the child write a quick thank you, mentioning the specific gift, on the back of a picture from the birthday party. (Any gifts sent by mail definitely deserve a written thank you note.) The thank you note doesn't have to be a long letter but it should mention the specific gift and have a sentence or two that is meaningful to the child and the gift giver. If something is duplicated or not well-liked, there's no need to mention that. Just thank the person for the thoughtfulness.

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Ideas for Birthday Backgrounds

When you are making birthday invitations, you often need quite a few birthday backgrounds for the fronts of the cards. Making elaborate backgrounds for invitations is much too time consuming for most people. After all, there's an entire party to put together, too. However, there are plenty of quick, but attractive background ideas.

With a rubber stamp that says happy birthday, a rainbow ink pad and a piece of cardstock, you can make four simple hand stamped backgrounds at once. Stamp the rubber stamp image over and over on the cardstock. Cut the stamped cardstock into quarters and you have a colorful background for four invitations. Repeat this process until you have enough birthday backgrounds for all of the invitations.

For an even faster background, grab some tissue paper with birthday images on it. Crumple it up, smooth it back out and lightly rub a gold ink pad over the surface. Cut or tear the tissue paper to the size of the invitation card stock and glue it into place.

Another idea for a background is to use your favorite graphics program to make a picture of the birthday boy or girl that is almost completely transparent. This image will print very lightly, making it ideal to use as a background layer.

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Easy, Child's Birthday Invitation Ideas

When you aren't throwing a surprise party, the birthday invitation can be a fun project for the birthday boy or girl to help with. There are so many great ideas for simple invitations that are cute, but easy enough for kids to make. A few ideas for kids' birthday invitations include:

• Gather unwanted CDs and their plastic jewel cases. Print labels to put on the CDs that give all the information about the party. Take out the old cover inserts and use one of them as a pattern to cut paper to fit the cases. Decorate the front of each paper cover with original artwork and address the back. Tape the jewel case shut and mail out to the potential guest.
• Buy blank cards and a big container of foam shapes. (Self adhesive shapes are so easy to use and stick much better than plain shapes that need to be glued on.) Let your child design colorful fronts for the cards using the shapes. Print up invitation inserts with all the important party information on them and tuck them into the cards.
• Let them use a die cut machine to cut out a large, fun shape, such as a fish or a dinosaur, and write the invitation details on it.

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Go Online for Free Birthday Invitations

You're trying to throw a cheap, but nice, birthday and are looking for ways to save money on some of the less important things you'll need. Free birthday invitations would be great, but is it possible to find them? The answer is yes, as long as you don't mind going virtual. To send free invitations, you should:

• Look for a site that does more than send out the invite. You can actually have all the guests RSVP and send them a reminder the day before the party with some virtual services. Evite.com and Americangreetings.com are two services that offer free invitations and give added help to organize the party RSVPs.
• Consider designing your own invitations instead of using one of the templates that are already made up. While it is faster to use one of the templates that are already there, using the site to make your own invitations gives them a special touch.
• Make sure you look for additional options the site offers, such as asking guests to bring an item from a list. This option works like online baby shower registries, removing items once guests have chosen them as the things they will be bringing.

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Fun Birthday Invitation Card Ideas

You could buy those blah birthday invitations from the local party store, but you want something different for the special party you are throwing. You need some fun birthday invitation card ideas that don't look like all the invitations everyone else sends. However, you are on a budget, so you'll have to give up on the idea to hire someone dressed up in old fashioned livery to deliver the invitations in person.

Well, while you can't hire someone to do the honors, you can still have some fun. Try sending the invitations in something that relates to the party theme. For example, for a cocktail party, write the invitations on cocktail napkins using gel pens and tuck them into empty cocktail shakers.

For a party for a pre-teen crowd, why not try sending invitations in code? Kids will love solving the code to find out all the party details. Just make sure you include a note addressed to the parents with the key to the code so they can lend a hand in case the kids get stuck.

Depending on the party theme, adults may also enjoy invitations that are a bit of a puzzle. Buy a copy of a paperback book for each guest and use the books to create a coded invitation. Don't forget to include a note with the page number where each word of the coded message appears.

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Birthday Greeting Card Ideas

With the increase in greeting card prices and the cost of gas, the thought of making your own birthday greeting cards seems much more inviting than it used to. However, now you need some fun and easy ideas to make nice cards for your friends and family. For some cards that are sure to impress the recipients, try some of these ideas:

• Record a short movie about the party and burn it onto DVDs. Make cards that are a bit wider than the DVDs and create a pocket on the inside of each of the cards. Decorate the card fronts with stickers or clip art that relates to the party theme. Slip the DVDs into the pockets and mail them out.
• Use your favorite photo editing software to create a collage of photos that feature the birthday boy or girl. Upload the collage to your favorite digital photo service and order cards with the collage on their fronts.
• Make paper dolls and print out pictures of the birthday honoree's face. Glue the pictures on the paper dolls. Make clothes for the dolls, including a pocket on the shirt or pants. Print up invitations and tuck them into the pocket.

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