Shower Invite Tutorial (by Turkey Mom)

On Monday, I showed you the super fun mail that came last week, courtesy of Turkey Mom.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that the bridesmaids are hosting the shower

As impressed as I was with the work she put into our engagement party, I was blown away by the effort required to create these invites. I asked Turkey Mom if she wouldn't mind writing a guest post (she can join Mr. Turkey as a guest poster) about how she made these and she graciously agreed. 


So, Hive, please say hello to Turkey Mom!!



Hi ladies, I'm Miss Turkey's mom and I'm very excited to share with you all how I made these shower invites. These were truly a labor of love, but I really enjoyed making each and every one of them (there were 44!).


It started with an idea for a shower theme - "Fashionista". 


You see, Miss Turkey loves getting dressed up and is a big fan of coordination (with accessories, shoes and the like). This love of fashion started back when she was just a little thing, too.* The theme choice would be the last "easy" thing in this process!

Miss Turkey and her coordinating American Girl doll (with friends N, left, and E, right)

This past summer I checked out stores and a number of websites for an invitation that would fit the chosen theme. Unfortunately (in some ways), I ended up with something in my head that didn't seem to exist. Instead of settling for an invitation that wasn't "perfect", I decided to make them myself!


First, I visited Michael's and picked up card stock in the color scheme for the shower (bright pinks and greens) along with a scoreboard (similar to this) and a few other crafty "accessories" that would come in handy along the way.

The card stock and scoreboard made for an easy fold and clean lines

For the front cover, I chose a few fun shapes and made them in 2 sizes. The outer piece was cut out of  scrapbooking paper (in coordinating colors to the card stock, of course). Then, on the computer, I used Lucida Calligraphy for the wording, shrunk the shape and cut the inner piece from white printer paper, gluing them together. 

Shapes in different sizes and patterns

Glued together!

Now, it was the next part which took me more Yankee games and TV shows with Turkey Dad than I can count. Miss Turkey's brother thought I was making "paper dolls" and, well, that's pretty close to what I did. 


I used this Klutz book that had stencils of dresses and accessories. For 44 cards, that meant hand tracing and cutting 44 dress forms, 44 dresses, 44 shoes, 44 hats, 44 pocketbooks and numerous sunglasses and other accessories. 


Although not every invitation had its own unique "outfit" (not that many dresses in the book), by using different scrapbook paper for the designs, no 2 cards were alike!

I spent a lot of quality time with these "paper dolls"

After tracing and cutting each outfit, I put the pieces in individual plastic baggies to keep them separated and together until it was time to glue. With craft glue, each "fashionista" outfit was put on the front of the card along with a little "flourish" in the corner (in the same paper). 

Then it was onto the inside. I chose coordinating scrapbook paper to the front and used a Martha Stewart paper punch (Deco Shells set) to create the pretty edge.

The "set" made corner punching easy

This paper was then glued inside. In Microsoft Word I typed out the invitation using the Curlz MT font (thought it was fun and fancy) and formatted accordingly to have it fit inside the scrapbook paper. I used a higher quality printer paper for the invitation so that it would lie flat (not quite card stock - more like resume quality).

With a hole punch, I then attached a ribbon to hold the top paper in place (there were 5 types of ribbon...all coordinating, of course). 

One of the green invites

The final touch was on the back cover, with the addition of a stamp indicating these were hand made.

Excuse the poor editing (for privacy's sake)

Each invite was put in a velum envelope with addresses printed on clear stickers (similar to this) and a wedding themed stamp. 

I chose velum so that the guests could see the invite before opening it

And so, there you have it, my how-to for Miss Turkey's shower invitations. Yes, they took a long time (and required cutting very tiny things), but I had a lot of fun and these were made with love. Hearing from guests (and especially Miss Turkey!) how much they enjoyed them made it completely worth the effort (and hand cramps). 

Was there a wedding project that a family member took on that both touched and impressed you? Let's hear it for Turkey Mom and her skills ;)

*Miss Turkey side note: this love unfortunately did NOT help me avoid some really terrible wardrobe choices in the 80s and 90s.