Sharing with you the invitations we made for Miss Kaia's birthday party. They are pretty simple affairs. I folded a piece of scrap paper in half and drew half a castle on it, then cut it out. (So it will be symmetrical.) The door is cut out the way it is so that it is easy to trace the shape, and I know where to stop cutting to leave paper "hinges" on.
I used that first piece as a template to trace out the rest of my castles, and cut them all out. The doors are cut up the center, then down each side about halfway, leaving them attached and openable.
Using a glue pen with a sponge tip, I applied a light layer of clear glue to the backs of the castles. I adhered them to card stock, leaving the backs of the doors unglued.
To make so many windows easier to do, I cut potato stamps in three shapes. A large window, and smaller window, and a point for using on doorknobs. I dipped them in embossing fluid and stamped my windows, dusting them with embossing powder, which I then set. I outlined the windows and rooves with a glue pen and dusted them with sparkles, as well as adding a big "K" to the front. (For, "Kaia", of course.) The embossing adds some neat texture to the castles, as the windows actually bubble out, something not really picked up by the camera.
Inside the doors, I drew a bunch of balloons, and touched them with a glitter pen. I outlined them with pen, and also used pen to add a couple flag poles on the turrets. I cut tiny pennants out of card stock, and glued those above the towers on the "poles".
I added all the party info to the backs, (what I would give for a printer!) and what I would like to say now is that I immediately slipped them into addressed envelopes and sent them on their way!
Unfortunately, what really happened is that I set them in the middle of the table to do just that, and while I was was not watching, (probably cooking, doing laundry, or *gasp* in the bathroom, heaven forbid,) my inquisitive little 18 month old, Miss Katalin, got them all down and "happened" to them. Kataclysm! Oh, this age. Such fun.
So I have remade just a handful to send out to Grandparents, which I am doing quite belatedly. Ah, life.