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!