Tuesday, August 14

Hope's Birthday Invitations

Oh boy.  I can't even believe I'm hosting a birthday party in 3 days.  I guess I've been a little distracted lately, because this seems to have sprung itself on me!  Hope wanted a gymnastics themed birthday party this year (what a surprise), so after we booked the venue we knew we needed to make fun party invitations to match.  The inspiration for these came from my friend Becky, who posted some paper doll photos on Instagram.  I instantly knew this was the way to go-- bendy, flexy Hopes for a gymnastics bash!


I began the process by sketching out a body for "Hope" on graph paper.  My original idea was to have the doll large enough to print the party info on, but that ended up being a HUGE doll after you added all the limbs.  After we found a body size we were happy with, we had some heads printed up and together we cut out the bodies.


Hope added the glue with a paint brush and sprinkled the glitter.  After the bodies dried overnight I poked the holes for her and she added the brads.


We used separate cards for the party info.  We used a stamp for the lines and Hope filled out the rest, using her fanciest handwriting.


These were pretty fun and extremely time-consuming to make.  After I thought we were finished, Hope INSISTED that the dolls needed hands and feet.  That really was the most tedious job.  Trimming around all of the fingers... let's just say I'm happy to be finished with that part.

Every year we do a fun homemade invitation featuring Hope's head from that year on a card that matches the theme of her party.  I really need to dig out some invitations from years past and do a little show and tell here on the blog!


37 comments:

  1. Hope has amazing handwriting for her age! I am impressed - both with that and the super-cute invitations!

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  2. You are one crafty momma! Your girlies are lucky to have you. I love how awesome the invitations came out!

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  3. oh this is just precious and adorable. when hope is off to college and you are sad, you can go thru all her party invites with a big smile.
    SO ADORABLE!

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  4. he he =) this is a great idea and looks so much fun! VEry unique invitation!

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  5. These are the cutest invites, Katie!! Wishing Hope an amazing birthday and party! And wishing you the sanity to survive the party hoard! hahaa!
    Luvluv,
    Sway xx

    Ps. How stinkin' cute are Becky's paperdolls! Love her!

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  6. I would love a show and tell of past invites! This is so cute!

    -Lindsey
    Et tu, tutu?

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  7. Oh, those are so cute! What a great idea!

    Becky
    xx

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  8. These invitations are just adorable! I love them.

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  9. Oh that's such a great idea! Very nice invitations :)

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  10. It's so nice doing projects with our kids. She will remember it forever.

    Vintagehoneybee.blogspot.com

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  11. So cute!!! What a great idea. I love that you use her photo every year too.

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  12. Soooo cute! It´s great that not only the invitation is unique, but also that you and your daughter did it together.

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  13. Oh these are sweet! Such an awesome idea. We sort of have a tradition like that. I stuck my daughter's face on a picture of Tinkerbell for one invitation and it was stinking adorable. I think I'll make some paper dolls of our whole family just for fun!

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  14. These are so cute! Using Hope's face for invitations every year is such a great way to document how she's changed, in our family we do the same with my niece by adding a new picture of her to her Happy Birthday banner every year. :)
    Faye x

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  15. These are the most amazing invitations I've ever seen! I hope you can fine the ones from years past to share!

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  16. oh man, these are so cute, and now i totally want to see old ones too!

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  17. They came out great! Good work momma!

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  18. They turned out to be super duper sweet! Great idea!
    Merrily Merrily,

    Nini
    http://ninilopette.blogspot.com/

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  19. Oh my, such cute invitations!! :)

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  20. That is literally the cutest idea for invitations I have ever seen!! So clever-- just adorable! And I also adore that the birthday girl herself contributed.

    http://aclosetintellectual.blogspot.com/

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  21. Ummm, brilliant! Holy crap, these are amazing! You are such a good mama :)

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  22. LOVE THESE! they turned out so lovely and love that Hope helped you so much! please, please do a show and tell of invitations past.

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  23. These are so cute. Its a neat tradition to use Hope's head in all her birthday invites. Would be very interested in seeing past years too!

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  24. This is absolutely brilliant! You are such a good mom!

    xoxo Sarah
    theantiquepearl.blogspot.com

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  25. These are the cutest things I have ever seen. Bravo mama!

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  26. Where did you get that adorable little cup?!

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  27. HOW CUTE. I'd love to see invitations from the past years. xo!

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  28. So cute. She's lucky to have a crafty mom. I was lucky that way too. We made slumber party invites once that looked like little sleeping bags and when you opened them you could see the girl inside. We drew each one individually to look like the girl who would receive the invite. It's a great memory.

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  29. I'm the Editorial Assistant for Fun Family Crafts and I wanted to let you know that we have featured your project! You can see it here:

    http://funfamilycrafts.com/paper-doll-gymnast/

    If you have other kid-friendly crafts, we'd love it if you would submit them. If you would like to display a featured button on your site, you can grab one from the right side bar of your post above. Thanks for a wonderful project idea!

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  30. That's a very creative birthday invitations. I love it, i wish i can make that for my daughter 3rd birthday party but its going to be difficult for she wants a frozen themed party. Anyway, thanks for sharing this post.

    Cheers,

    Cathy

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