An Art Birthday Party Invitation

Ava's birthday party this year has an art theme inspired by her love of Pantone color sheets.  She HAS to pick up a handful every time we go to the hardware store.  A limit of five sheets per visit has be to be enforced.  The idea for the invitation came directly from her love of these color sheets.  

I first tried to use the sheets that are available at the hardware store, but they had way too much wording on them, so I decided to create my own.  I drew up the design and my amazing friend Carolyn made my idea come to life.  You may remember some of mine and Carolyn's collaborations- "vintage circus " invitation, "Alice in Wonderland" birthday invitation, "camping" invitation.  She always blows my mind : )  

 

I wanted the final invitation to look like a Pantone color deck, so I decided on three colors and used the three shades of each color to list the party information.  The information is placed on each color where the color name would normally be.  We also used the font used on a traditional Pantone color chip to reinforce the look.  

Once I printed the invitations out, I tried to cut them myself, but thought better of it after I realized that I needed them to match up perfectly, if I wanted them to look like an actual Pantone color deck.  I ended up taking them to Kinko's and they cut them with their industrial shear and it only cost $5.49.  Much easier and much quicker than doing it myself.  

To do the next part, I needed a pencil, exacto knife, a small hole punch, a punch guide (which I made myself), an eyelet, an eyelet punch and a hammer.

First, I used my guide to mark where I wanted the eyelet to be placed.

Then I used the punch which was a wee bit smaller than the size of the eyelet.

To make the eyelet go in easier and not tear the paper, I used the exacto blade by spinning it in the hole which softened the edges and made the eyelet go in easier.  

 
I put an eyelet through the three pages (yellow first, pink next, green last) and then...

 I used the eyelet punch and a hammer to tamp down the back of the eyelet. 

Afterwards, it looks like this-

The pages  slide easily back and forth and really do look like a paint deck.

And that's it!  Super simple and super cute!  Ava was ecstatic when she saw her finished invitations.  The excitement is definitely building at our house and the countdown has begun. 

These invitations are available through my friend Carolyn's Etsy site.  Check them out here.