Mater Invitations

My sister-in-law asked me to make invitations for her boys' birthday party, and asked for me to put either Lightening McQueen or Mater on them. Since it was for both boys, I thought it would be cute to have Mater towing a 3 and a 1 and stamp the boys' names on their respective ages. She loved the idea, so I went with it! I did the same background as I did with Bug's invites, just on a larger scale. 

The invitations were 8.5 x 5.5", so the brown paper was cut to 8 x 3", and the blue was cut to 8 x 2". I cut the road to 8 x 2" as well, and trimmed a little off the top side to angle it. I then used my American Crafts White Galaxy Marker (with a ruler, of course!) to draw the center lines.

I used the Cricut Cars cartridge to cut Mater at 3.5". The white (well, it's not really white, it's more of a beige or ecru) of his eyes and side window were cut out of white and colored with Copics, mostly to save paper! I embossed the tires with Zing! embossing powder after I put all the pieces through the Xyron (that was definitely a lot easier than holding each individual piece with tweezers while using the heat gun!). I used Plantin SchoolBook to cut the one and three, and some mini clear stamps to stamp the boys' names on the numbers. To attach them to the twine, I just used my smallest hole punch and threaded the twine through them and knotted it behind the numbers. I used glue dots to adhere the numbers to the page and the twine behind the hook on Mater's tow cable.

The back of the invite is very simple, just a stamp and "Off road Mayhem" cut from the Cars cartridge at 2". 

I hope you enjoyed the invitations! I apologize for the quality of the pictures - I used my phone to take the pictures and didn't get a chance to use my good camera before I delivered the invites! 

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great evening!

Cars Party Decorations

For Bug's party, I made a couple of banners, a centerpiece, and several signs that I printed and laminated and hung around the house.

I had trouble finding black and white checkered paper, so I found some digital paper online and printed several sheets. I cut several flags from Party Picks and Pennants, and then seven large pennants by hand to put his name on. The "Happy Birthday" banner is cut from Cars and Alphalicious. I cut the route sign in black (I think) at 3.5" and the checkered pattern at 3.25"

For the centerpiece, I cut several of the Cars characters at about 2 inches and glued them on to wooden skewers. I do not recommend cutting the characters this small, because they have many tiny pieces that are easy to lose and difficult to piece together! I used Cricut Craft Room to weld together Bug's name (using Plantin SchoolBook), but ended up needing to reinforce the "a" and the "m" with a toothpick because the area where they were joined was very thin and didn't stay upright like the rest of the letters. If I had more time to re-do the welding and cut his name out again, I would push the letters much closer together! Lesson learned!

Cameron's cake was INCREDIBLE, but I can't take credit for it! One of my good friends made and decorated the cake for him, and I just placed several of the flags (that had been glued on toothpicks) and a banner on which I hand-wrote "Happy Birthday, Cameron!" and glued to wooden skewers.

I also purchased Cars characters to place on the road shaped like a "3." Bug was excited to have new cars!

Thanks for stopping by! Stay tuned for Mater birthday party invitations that were made for my nephews! Have a great day!

Bug's 3rd Birthday

My son just had his third birthday a few weeks ago, and we had a Cars birthday party, since that is his all-time favorite movie. I made Lightening McQueen invitations using the Cricut Cars and Alphalicious cartridges.

I started by cutting some 4.5 x 3.5" rectangles out of a light brown paper (for the dirt), 4.5 x 3" rectangles out of light blue (for the sky), and some 4 x 3.5" rectangles out of black (the road). To make the road more dimensional, I used a pencil and marked the edge of each sheet .5" in from either side of the top edge. I then used my paper trimmer to cut from the pencil mark on the top to the bottom corner. To make the center lines, I used a ruler and my American Crafts White Galaxy Marker.

I cut McQueen at 2", and since I used the image that was facing straight forward, it wasn't too terrible to put together. I embossed his wheels with black metallic embossing powder to give them a shine (plus it shows up better against the black background!). "It's a Party" was cut from the Alphalicious cartridge at about 2.5".

For the inside, I used my Hobby Lobby "You're Invited" stamp for the details of the party. This is where the Stamp-A-Ma-Jig comes in really handy, because with this particular stamp, I have trouble stamping it straight! To use the Stamp-A-Ma-Jig, you take the plastic sheet that came with it, line it up in the corner of the Stamp-A-Ma-Jig, ink your stamp, and slide the top corner of the stamp down the corner of the Stamp-A-Ma-Jig. The cool thing about this tool is that you can use it right OR left handed!

After you've stamped the plastic sheet (smooth side for water-based inks, textured side for pigment and dye inks), lay it over your paper where you want to stamp. Holding down the plastic sheet, put your Stamp-A-Ma-Jig back at the top left-hand corner (or right if you're a lefty). Once it's lined up, remove the plastic sheet while holding down the Stamp-A-Ma-Jig - you don't want it to move!

While holding your Stamp-A-Ma-Jig still, take your stamp (re-ink it if necessary) and slide it down the corner and side of the tool, and viola! you've stamped it straight (providing it was lined up straight! That's hard to do sometimes!)!

I hope you've enjoyed my little tutorial. I regret that I couldn't post earlier than this, but we have been busy with his birthday, family visiting, and other activities! I hope you have a great day!