"Ticket" Invitation Tutorial

So, we are throwing our soon to be 5 year old a "carnival" themed party in March.  I made his invitations last week, and I am really happy with how easy they were and how bright and cheery they turned out to be. 

There are several birthday themed parties that would be great with a "ticket" invitation.  If you have a movie themed party, you go to a show, you have a circus theme, you have a carnival theme, you hold an amusement park party, you go to the zoo, or you celebrate in any venue that usually has tickets, you can use a twist on this fun invitation.

First, choose your colors.  I bought 2 kinds of cardstock:  Blue for the background and yellow for the printed ticket.  Also, buy a scrapbook paper pattern to hold your ticket and glue onto the background. This is a fun place to get creative with your theme.  Finally, buy your envelopes in a coordinating color.

I wanted to do all my scrapbook paper in red and white carnival stripes, but the store only had 2 sheets left.  I did not want to drive all over the place, so I bought blue polka dotted paper and did scalloped edges with the red and white stripes.  That is why my invitation required 2 types of scrapbook paper.

The first thing to do is measure your envelopes and cut your background cardstock accordingly.  I had A7 envelopes, so I had 5x7 shaped background cardstock.

Next, cut your scrapbook paper about 1/4-1/2 inch shorter on each side.  This will let the "trim" of the background cardstock show when you glue down your scrapbook paper.

You need to use a razor to cut a slit in your scrapbook paper.  This is into where the ticket will be tucked.  I cut my slit about 2/3 of the way down.  It needs to be wide enough to hold your ticket but leave at least a 1/2 inch or so unsliced on each side.  I did this out in my hubby's organized workbench area.  Using a straight edge helped me cut in a straighter line.

To make the ticket, I downloaded some carnival fonts off of Dafont.com.  I used carnival, ringmaster, circus and big top fonts.  Once I wrote my initation, I printed it onto my cardstock.  I cut the font to be narrow and long like a ticket. 

Once I had the narrow rectangle, I was able to scallop the edges with scissors and then use a 1" punch to cut out a half circle in the middle of the two sides.

When you glue the invitation together, don't glue below the slit on your scrapbook paper (unless you want a small line of glue along the very bottom edge).  Otherwise, your ticket won't have a little air pocket into which it can slide down.

Glue it all together, assemble and voila!  Have fun with different colors, themes, fonts, and papers. 

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