How to Make a Hobbit Door Party Invitation

Invitations set the tone for any party, and I love to make something special.  When I have enough time.  I have been known to send out email invites and hand-deliver the pretty invitations very late--sometimes the day of the party.  ;-)  But for the Hobbit Party, I actually impressed myself and had them delivered almost two weeks in advance of the date!  Woo hoo, go me!

I started by writing the text, which read:

Our Precious Niamh is turning 4!

Please travel there and back again with us

Saturday, May 11th, 5pm

(address, RSVP info)

Dinner (and second dinner, and snack, and tea, and dessert) will be served.

That amount of text worked perfectly to print out two invitations per sheet of paper.  I made a simple word document with two columns, and printed the text only in the right column.  After printing out on cardstock, it was easy to cut the paper in half, then fold to create basic cards.

The embellished door for the front of the card came next.  I cut a 7" circle out of green cardstock (used a small paper plate as a template), and drew parallel lines with a brown marker to create the panels of wood.  A green colored pencil was used to draw teh wood grain.  It was a subtle effect, but really added to the overall look of the invitation.  A few wavy lines and a few swirls--it's really easy to do.  A brass brad in the center made a perfect doorknob at the center of the hobbit door.

Speaking of, do you know how damn hard it was to find brass brads?  Just completely classic, brass brads?  I could find them in a rainbow of colors.  I could find them in itty bitty sizes.  But just regular old brass brads?  Nowhere to be found!  I had to buy multiple packs of brads in steampunky color combo packs to get enough brass.  Now I have a lot of extra, non-brass brads.  Anyone have any clever ideas for how to use them?

The door looked a little unfinished at this point, so I decided to add cobblestones around the perimeter.  I just hand-cut lots of rectangles (I didn't want them to look regular, I wanted a natural stone look) and gave them a little dimension and dirt with distress ink.  It was a little fussy, but mindless, and easily done while sitting on the couch, watching a movie.  (The Hobbit.  Duh.)  The cobblestones were glued to the door, and the door was glued to the basic card.

And there you have it!  A hobbit hole party invitation.  Nothing like a little real mail to make a kid get excited for an event.