Our DIY Sock Monkey Party - The Invitation

I wanted to share with you the details of Jake's first birthday party. My best friend, whom I mention a lot of on here, Tana, and I created everything... and I do mean every single bit of the party decor. I had decided, back in August, when J was just 6 months old, that I wanted his first birthday to be sock monkey themed. And not just character themed, I wanted a more sophisticated (idk if that's the right word I'm really looking for) not just a bunch of store bought stuff. I wanted it to be really great. :) And I do think it was, if I say so myself! Anyway, I started googling, and searching Etsy for the cutest things I could find. I found several that I loved, but there was one that I loved the most. We used the idea from the one we loved and took it from there. You can, indeed, purchase the products from Etsy, but I knew we could do it, no problem. So, I decided that since I had the time, and the energy... and the best friend with skills, that we would tackle it ourselves and I could save some major money!

This is the invite from the theme I fell in love with on Etsy.

Today, I am going to start with the invitation to the party. I used the idea and the wording from an invitation I saw on Etsy back in August. I did a little session with Jake wearing his sock monkey hat one afternoon. Then I took my favorite picture from the sitting and created the invitation in Photoshop. I am sure that it might be a lot easier to use Picnik.com if you are unfamiliar with, or do not have access to Photoshop. I preferred Photoshop for this particular project due to its ability to pay attention to the finer details.

After I had the invitation just how I wanted it, with all the layers and everything just in the right places, I needed to have it printed. Now in the past, I have used Shutterfly for printing, and I still use them for all of my personal photo needs. And while Shutterfly does do an amazing job, they tend to run a tad on the pricey side for things like invites.

You remember when we were kids, our invitations came in a package of 12 or 24 from the store and you filled in the blanks with the details? Yeah, well... I wanted to avoid that! Anyway, 21st century birthday parties are SO much cuter than the fill in the blank parties, in my opinion.  Since my goal was for saving money, I needed a better option than Shutterfly for this particular project. Not that I am a photo snob, okay, maybe I am... but with good reason! It's part of what I do and who I am. So, that said, I do not... do not... use one-hour retail type places that also sell food, clothing and prescriptions all in the same store, for my printing needs (unless it is a last minute emergency, and even then I find myself upset that I did it) because they always turn out less than desirable. Their printing is not quality printing, it's cheap for a reason. Anyway, so I needed to get these invites printed without breaking the bank. Tana suggested that I check into Vistaprint. I have never done anything like this through Vistaprint, so I was a bit skeptical, but let me tell you... they turned out spectacular!! It did take quite a bit of time to get the invite to where it would print out just right without cutting something off. But after I figured that out, it was smooth sailing. I ended up putting the invitation I'd created on the front, and an adorable picture of Jakey on the back. It's a double-sided invitation, and the receivers of the invite have a cute little picture of J to keep on their fridge now that the party is over. :)

I leave you with the finished product!

The front of the invite

Note that the date is different from when the actual party was, due to the crazy blizzard, (which I should add, does NOT normally happen to us in Oklahoma) we had the week before causing us to postpone the partying.

The back of the invite

And here is a picture of the actual invite. It's clearly not a great picture, as it was taken with my phone, but you get the idea, at least. :)

So, let's talk pricing. I suppose I could have bought invites from the store, since they do still make those. They would have been about $15-$20 for as many as I needed. But, like I said earlier, my style is not so much on the store bought type stuff side. So, this really wasn't even an option. I also could have printed an invite through a retail store, but this was also not what I was looking for. If I had done that with the style I used above, for instance, I checked walmart... it would have run around $50-$55. I have not been impressed with their printing, in the past, so I skipped them. I checked Shutterfly... I don't even wanna go there. I already know that they would have looked amazing, but they also would have been expensive. And by expensive, I mean like $80-100 easily for the kind of invite I was going for. I had never used Vistaprint, so it really was a gamble, and I definitely sacrificed the user-friendly interface walmart and shutterfly have. Putting that invite together on Vistaprint was not easy, I will be completely honest about that! Anyway, I got 40 front-back, color, matte finish--which I LOVE, envelope included invites for for $44, shipping included. And they arrived to my house in less than a week after I ordered them. Which means they printed and shipped them in less than a week. I selected up to 2 week shipping, so I was pleasantly surprised to receive them as quickly as I did.

So, there you have it. The beginning of how we created a spectacular birthday bash, sock monkey style. :) Have a happy Monday! Ours will be filled with lots of resting after a wild, fun, birthday celebrating weekend! Well, after we run to the store for milk.