How to Create an AWESOME {cheap} Birthday Invite

The FUN has begun! My Lou is turning 4 next month which means…birthday planning time! Planning my kids birthday parties has to be one of my favorite things to do HANDS DOWN. Most years I get to talk her into the kind of party I want her to have but this year she is getting to do most some of the deciding. Over the next couple of weeks I am going to be updating on how the planning is going. I considered posting all the party planning information on my party planning page however I REALLY don’t want to open THAT can of worms. Therefore I will post it here then report it over there as well. NOW for this years theme….

::DRUMROLL PLEASE::

TINKERBELLE!

Why Tinkerbelle?

I’m not really sure but that’s what she wanted..and she’s really cute and pretty much gets what she wants..




Last year she had a Little Mermaid pool party at a local indoor pool and that is what she wants to do again. The indoor pool near our house has an AMAZING kids area complete with kids slide, REALLY shallow water and lots of cool water sprayers. The pool ALSO has a 2 story adult water slide and a lazy river of sorts. It is AWESOME anyways but the fact that it cost approx. $2 per kid makes it unbeatable! We had over 20 kids there last year and paid less than $70 INCLUDING adults! Another great thing about the pool party is that you don’t have to plan anything. The kids swim the whole time then come to the party room for food (PB&J) and Cake (cupcakes) and you are DONE! The only things I really have to plan are:

Invitations

Cake

Goody bags

So THAT is what I will be posting about. Obviously this pool is a hot commodity so if you have one in your area be sure to contact them in advance to see when and how to reserve the party room. Haley’s party is in the middle of March and they started taking reservations on February 1st at 8:00am. I showed up at about 5 till and was 3rd in line! I cannot stress the importance of acting fast!

I am currently awaiting my invitations in the mail but let me tell you how I got CUSTOM designed invitations for $3.00!

I wanted to make them myself however I am graphically challenged so I ended up getting help from an AWESOME friend! I first googled “how to make a custom birthday invitation” and ended up on http://www.ehow.com/. From there it instructed me to pick a couple pictures that I went to http://www.bing.com/ and searched their images for Tinkerbelle and water pictures. I found a TON but these are the ones I chose:

I then attempted to cut and paste using http://www.picnik.com/ http://www.gimp.com/ and http://www.photofiltre.com/ (which are all free) but since I had never used them before I was pretty much lost and could not get them to do what I wanted them to….here’s where Amber came in! I sent her these pictures:

And gave her a description of what I wanted it to look liked and she sent me THIS




NOW she did charge me a VERY small fee to do this but I am sure that if you can’t do it yourself you know of someone who could help you too! (TWITTER is GREAT for this!) I then searched the internet (well really my fhttp://www.southernsavers.com/riend’s blogs) for sites that are offering FREE photo prints! Turns out http://www.snapfish.com/ was having a special last week for 50 free prints when you signed up for a new account (which took literally 2 seconds) so I got my 50 4x6 photo cards for the cost of shipping ($3.00) You CANNOT beat that! In the past I have been known to pay $1 EACH for a similar card!


What are some ways you have made/purchased photo cards in the past?