Birthday Party Invitations Part Three: Bear and Swimmer

This month, I am writing a three-part series to share some of the birthday invitations I have made for parties we have hosted over the years.  In the first post, I described how to make spider, Elmo, and Cookie Monster invitations.  In the second post, I provided instructions for Cinderella and Charlotte's Web-inspired invites.  In this post, I will share invitations we created for two different destination birthday celebrations. 

SWIMMER / POOL PARTY INVITATIONS
After planning family/friend parties for several years, my husband and I told our daughters we would forgo friend parties and choose a special outing for our family instead.  Our older daughter decided she was interested in visiting The Beach Water Park, in Cincinnati, to celebrate her birthday.  I immediately agreed because I had just come across a deal for this water park on Groupon!  My daughter is a member of a local swim team, and she helped me design the invitation.  Even though her dad, sister, and I were the only people joining her for a day of fun at the water park, we sent invitations to her grandparents and uncles, hoping they could join us for a special birthday dinner that evening.

I used the following tools:

• Fiskars 12 Inch Trimmer
• Creative Memories Circle and Oval Cutting System  (You may be able to find this product online, but if not, the EK tools Scissor Pro Circle Cutter received good reviews on Amazon).
• Cricut Personal Electronic Cutting Machine

To make this invitation, you need:

• white cardstock (this invitation happened to be 5" x 6")
• blue cardstock, 2.25" x 6"
• red cardstock, 4" circle
• flesh-colored cardstock, 4" circle
• navy cardstock:  2, 1" x 1.25" ovals (for the goggles) and some scraps for the straps (0.75" x 0.25")
• silver/reflective cardstock or vellum (1" x 0.75" ovals, for the lenses of the goggles)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Cut the pieces as suggested above.
2. After cutting a 4" circle of red cardstock, either use the edge of an oval cutter to cut the bottom edge of the swim cap or draw a light line with a pencil and cut with scissors.
3. Use a wavy paper cutter to cut the blue paper.  I used the Creative Memories Wavy Trimmer.  
4. Using a glue stick, adhere the swim cap to the head, the lenses to the goggles, the goggles and straps to the face, and the head to the cardstock.  Glue the water to the cardstock, slightly overlapping the chin of the face. 
5. Write party details on the back of the cardstock.  *If using a printer, print the party details on the white cardstock before cutting the invitations to the 5" x 6" dimensions suggested above.

BUILD A BEAR INVITATION
As I mentioned, my husband and I told our daughters we would forgo friend parties and choose a special outing for our family instead.  Our younger daughter decided she wanted to go to Build A Bear for her seventh birthday. She and her sister had the opportunity to build an animal before returning home for a special birthday dinner with family.

We came across an adorable teddy bear invitation (from Etsy) on Pinterest, and it inspired the invitation pictured above.  
I used the following tools:

• Fiskars 12 Inch Trimmer
• Creative Memories Circle and Oval Cutting System  (You may be able to find this product online, but if not, the EK tools Scissor Pro Circle Cutter received good reviews on Amazon).
• Cricut Personal Electronic Cutting Machine

To make this invitation, you will need:

• background patterned or solid cardstock:  red--4 1/2" x 6 1/2", brown--5" x 7"
• dark brown cardstock:  bear's belly--3 1/2" circle, bear's head--2 1/2" circle, arms (2)--1 3/8"x 7/8" ovals, legs (2)--1 1/8"x 1 5/8" ovals, ears (2)--1" circles.
• light brown cardstock for the bear's muzzle:  1 1/4" circle
• pink cardstock for inside of ears (2)-- 3/4" circles
• white cardstock for invitation wording--3 1/4" circle
• red cardstock--small scrap for bear's tie (1/2" circle and two triangles)
• black cardstock--small scrap for bear's nose
• googly eyes--1/2" eyes were used for this invitation.

Directions:

1. Cut the pieces as suggested above.
2. Arrange the pieces for the bear on the cardstock rectangle as desired.
3. Use a glue stick to adhere the belly, arms, legs, and head to the cardstock rectangle.
4. Glue the party details (white cardstock) the bear's belly.
5. Adhere the components of the face to bear's head. 

Since most of my readers are Girl Scout troop leaders, I will explain in my next post how we made the invitations for our bridging ceremony.  I invite you to visit again soon.  Thank you for reading!