Carnival Theme Birthday Invitations

Hudson's Birthday Invitations: Part II

In my previous blog entry here, I went through the design process for some pretty cool Star Wars birthday invitations. When else would I have the opportunity to create glittering light sabers? Then, I found out that Hudson changed his mind about Star Wars, and what did he pick instead? A Carnival Theme! Melissa said that there would be things like cotton candy, a jump house, and face painters. I instantly got thinking about carnivals that I've been to and after discussing some other elements with her, it was time to sketch out some ideas.

Everything was so different than the types of things I draw for wedding invitations, so this was a fun challenge for me. I started sketching out tents, admission tickets, ferris wheels, cotton candy, balloons, and little signs to point to other fun activities. Then I began trying to come up with ideas on how to put all of those ideas on one invitation without it looking really randomly placed. The main issue that I ran across was that there were too many ideas to fit on one 5" x 7" invitation, especially because I had to include information like when and where the party was. So, I opted out of the tent, and came up with the following invitation.

I created blue and orange carnival admission tickets with "Hudson" in place of the ticket numbers. The ferris wheel seats had "H" on them to personalize them for Hudson's birthday. The lights on the ferris wheel were hand-glittered in orange and blue to match the lettering. There were signs pointing to different activities that they will actually have at the birthday party, with some colorful balloons tied to the signs. There was also a cotton candy machine where I hand-glittered the cotton candy in blue and pink. To link all of the elements together, they are all on a path surrounded by grass, so it looks like the ferris wheel is in the distance, and you are only seeing one small part of the carnival.

Aren't these invitations super cute? They are made of a pearlescent white metallic cardstock, with an onyx black metallic cardstock backing. The onyx black metallic envelopes matched the invitation perfectly, and the 35 guest names were hand-lettered in block letters and white ink. Melissa was really happy with how these turned out, and in my opinion, Hudson was able to be the coolest five-year-old to pass out invitations in black metallic envelopes to his classmates at school. If you're interested in these invitations or another custom design, contact me at info@pinkorchiddesigns.com!

~Emilie