How to make your own super cool zine-like children's birthday party invitations:
1. Decide on a theme. Maia said she wanted a "monsters and princesses" birthday party for her 5th birthday. This is partly because of this book and her current fascination with both monsters (we play "monsters" almost every day) and princesses.
2. Provide paper and drawing materials so the birthday child can draw a picture for the invitation. Maia drew a crown, a cake, and a paperclip chain (?!) along the top of her paper which she said were for her friends to color in and decorate. The monster is a color copy of a drawing she did a while back (for her purple monster costume, which, ahem, I am still working on.).
3. Hop on the computer and do a google image search for a theme-related picture or two. Maia wanted Snow White on her invitation but didn't want to draw her so she picked out a picture online to print out.
4. Cut out your computer-printed images and any drawn images you want to add. Maia cut out Snow White and asked me to cut out her monster.
5. Glue the images to the paper with the drawing using a glue stick for a nice even layer of glue (rather than the puddles that happen around here with glue bottles).
6. Help your child write part of the birthday invitation. Maia just asks how to spell things these days (or guesses), but used to want me to write the words so she could copy them. Of course, if your child is older, she can probably write it herself. And for younger kids, you can always just write it yourself.
7. Play around with the reduce/enlarge button on the copy machine to get the text (or anything else) the right size for the invitation. This may be the highlight of whole invitation-making process. Be warned that your child may find other things to reduce or enlarge over the next few days.
8. Cut out and glue the text on the invitation.
9. Add any other words that your child dictates ("You can dress up as anything since it's a monsters and princesses and knights party.") or that you feel belong on the invitation (date, time, location).
10. When the invitation is complete, make as many color copies as you need (another good job for the birthday child) and send them off.
Don't forget to add your child's name! We forgot, and I had to add it by hand to all the invites.
