Party Planning on a Budget - Invitations

With Buddy's birthday around the corner it's time a good time to talk about how we plan our parties.  Celebrating our children's birthdays has always been important to us.  We like to make sure we do it right.  For Princess' first birthday we easily spent a couple hundred.  Needless to say that does not help us reach our goal of getting out of debt.
As a trucking family we have also had to make some adjustments, even with me as a stay at home mom.  For some reason the Colonel could be home early any time except for when we have plans.  We have learned that having him home at the very last minute before an important event is just part of trucking, which can add a lot more stress.  The easy way would just be to buy everything, but this gets expensive. This week we will talk about how I handle the invitations.  This can be one of the more time consuming projects.  I usually start this one 8-9 weeks before the party.  We will use Buddy's Mater theme for the examples.
How I Make the Invitations:

• First, I pick a theme.  Something my kids are really into. 
• Then I Google search to get ideas.  In this case I searched  Mater invitations and Cars invitations.  Once I have a plan in my head or a rough sketch on paper I start to make the invitation.
• To start making the invitation I start with making an 8x10 version.  I find that by scanning the 8x10, I get a better finished product.
• Pick a border - Microsoft Word has some great ones.  I find I have much better luck with the border when it is set to "From Text" instead of "From Edge of Page."  For Princess' Cinderella/Belle invitation I skipped this step.  Set the layout to landscape, even if you skip the border. 
  
   
• Then I go in search of images of the character or something that represents the theme. I make any adjustments to the picture I need to using paint.  Then I insert the pictures into the word document.  If I can't get them just right I print and cut them out and add them once I print the document.
• Next I insert any text I can.  Make sure that the text is large enough so that it will be readable when you print the 3x5 size. Usually the unfinished document needs to be printed at this point along with any text I could not get just right. 
• Tape the pieces into place (the scan comes out better if you put the tape under the pieces).  I prefer tape to glue because anything that isn't right can be moved with tape.

• Scan and save as a .jpg.  Then print the 3x5.  Make any adjustments necessary and repeat, or if you are happy with it the first time print off what you need.  Cut apart and mail out in a letter size envelope.  

(Because the invitations are very personalized and contain personal information I did not include a picture of the finished project)