Celebrate doodle by Stephanie2, Paper from Reach the Stars by Stephanie2, Fontologie Giggles font. All at The Daily Digi store.
Since January is our birthday month, we thought it would be fun to share with you some ideas for using your digital supplies in your birthday party planning. First, every great party needs an invitation…
It is so easy to make a digital invitation to go with the party theme of your choice. You might even want to consider some ready made templates to save time.
Remember the post on digital greeting cards the other day? Several of our readers asked for help with finding greeting card templates (which would also work perfectly for invitations!) These would make wonderful thank you cards as well.
Brag book templates also work wonderfully for making cards, thank you notes, and invitations!
Several of our readers also asked for some advice on printing cards. I (Katie) rarely print at home except for cards. They are an easy project to print yourself and in small batches they don’t use up too much ink. I simply size my front card image at 5.50 inches wide and 4.25 inches tall (for landscape orientation) or the opposite for portrait orientation (5.50 inches tall by 4.25 inches wide). Then I can fit 2 full cards on a standard size piece of paper to print.
see previous post for card credits
You can also fill the entire page with 4 images to print and then trim the images and mount them on pre-made blank cards, or your own folded cardstock cards. Another great way to do this is to simply print the images as photos (I use Costco for this) and then adhere them to cards.
When I print my own cards I have always used white cardstock, but Steph shared her secret weapon when it comes to printing: “I always use HP premium presentation paper. The colors turn out great, the images look really good, and I have found if I let it dry completely, I can even Mod Podge it without it running.”
The great thing about designing party invitations digitally is that you can either print them out, or you can send them electronically in emails to the people you are inviting!
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Of course the invitation is only the beginning. Look at all the fun things you can do with digital scrapbooking supplies to make the most amazing party ever!
If you want to minimize your work load, there are some wonderful party kits available that have everything in them you might need from invitations to party decor and favor ideas. The nice thing is that you can print as many as you need, whenever you need them!
or you can completely customize your own party using any digital scrapbooking kit(s) that fit your theme and some hybrid helpers like these:
Create your own party hats
Print out a special party banner
Make your own cupcake wrappers with this free download from The Daily Digi and Skip to My Lou. You can fill them with any type of digital paper to customize them for your party!
Create customized party favor bags
There are plenty of fun projects to make your party special in this pack. The water bottles would be fun for a spa party!
You can even create the entertainment using your digital scrapbooking supplies!
It would be a blast to make a memory matching game to play at the party. This isn’t only for little kids, I recently went to a 40 year old’s birthday party where his wife arranged a photo matching game that told stories about the birthday “boy” – it was so much fun!
How about making your very own Bingo game for some entertainment? Bingo is fun for all ages and a great party game!
There are a lot of advantages to using digital techniques and supplies for your party planning. You can control the number of hats you make, or invitations you print. Even with printing costs, you will find that this is a very economical way to make a party festive and fun (and you can reuse templates over and over in the coming years!) My favorite reason is the creativity of being able to turn any theme into a fabulous party!
For my daughter’s 13th birthday we threw her an outdoor camping theme party. I created everything we needed for the party using digital scrapbooking materials. If you want to see how it turned out you can read my personal blog post here.
Don’t be afraid to think outside the box and have your parties go digital! I hope these ideas are helpful, have fun planning your next big event!
P.S. Today’s GIFTaway goes to Diana who was randomly selected form those that have purchased THE DIGI FILES so far this month. THANKS to Diana and all of our readers who are showing your support by purchasing the files (and getting some really GREAT scrapping supplies too 
). Diana won a $10 GC to Sweet Shoppe Designs who have over 3 dozen new products on sale today for 20% off.
Wonderful ideas!
I love searching shops for kits that go along with my kids’ party themes in order to do invites, thank you cards and other party “necessities”! thanks for the post!!!
My sister turns 40 this year and I’ll be using my digital supplies to decorate for her party! Thanks for the inspiration!
Loving all of the hybrid ideas. I’ve only used hybrid templates a handful of times but I’ve loved the results each time.
I’m a fan of Kelleigh at the hybrid digi chick.
Melissa -
Many craft stores have envelopes that are the perfect size for home printed cards. Look for envelopes that hold a 4.25 inch by 5.50 inch card. Or if you want to get really crafty, there are templates out there to use for making your own envelopes!
Melissa Says:
January 16th, 2010 at 11:05 am edit
Thanks for the post today. I especially like your ideas on printing cards at home. I do this often, but what do you do about envelopes?
I was first a stamper and have been wondering how to make cards with all my digi supplies. What a timely post! Thank you for all the terrific ideas. You gals rock!
Wow! All that cool stuff! Now, who is having a birthday soon….
That bingo game rocks!
Well I see I can’t put a picture into a comment. Never realized that before. lol. So if you want to see the invite, I just put it up on my blog: http://clevermonkeygraphics.blogspot.com/
Maybe some others of you can link us to your cool invites and such created with digi materials! I’d love to see them!
I’ve been using my kits to create birthday cards for my daughter and even for my friends kids for years now… This year, for her 10th year, she has challenged me with a green earth theme. Lucky for me I made a kit earlier this year of just such a theme… After the party I’ll post game ideas etc to help other moms with this tricky almost tween year for birthday parties… because I have a rock’n green craft for the girls that I’ll want to share pics of too come that time! To show my fellow daily digi readers what they can do with kits they love, here is my invited for this year… [IMG]http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b365/mybetrside/2010BirthdayInvite-WEBPRIVATE.jpg[/IMG]
Wow – so many great ideas. Thanks.
More super ideas
I have been known to use a postcard stamp on the back of a 4×6 photo and mail it out just like that! Thanks for the lovely ideas and for digging up the perfect kits to make them with!
Thanks for the post today. I especially like your ideas on printing cards at home. I do this often, but what do you do about envelopes?
looks like fun! Happy birthday!
Its amazing how many things we can create with digi products!
Thank you for this great post, I really need some great ideas, I loath planning parties (did I say that outloud!)
I always enjoy your posts – thanks for the shout out yesterday. I love these hybrid projects. What great ideas – I think I will use some for Valentine’s Day. Julie
It’s my son’s 4th B-day next week, there are some great ideas in your post – I’d better get busy! what am I still doing here!?! hihi
Thanks for all you do, keep up the GREAT work
Hugs
Kerri
What fun ideas; I luv them all!
Thanks for a great post! I will have to try the modge podge on the printed cards. Thanks again!
I love using my digital kits for making all kinds of hybrid items!
Thanks for these great ideas Katie!!!
Thanks for the great reminder! I really need to jump into hybrid!
You make me want to dive into hybrid right away!!!! Thanks for sharing this info!!!
Love the fun cupcake wrappers! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for the fun post!