A creative outlet, my son's birthday party

Outside

Inside

As a Mom, I should have known there would soon be a way to feel my need to "create". My #1 will be 7 on the 31st. We are gearing up for a big pirate party. I decided that I was going to give him a party on a $75 budget because that is what we can afford.

Above is the invitation I made. I bought a dozen cream colored blank invitations and envelopes at Wal-Mart. They were around 3.50 including tax. I bought pirate stickers for around 2.50. The pirate stickers were not necessary. I am a sucker for cute invitations. So I basically spent 50 cents per invitation. I printed the invitations on to the paper in Gothic font. I looked on partycat.com for an idea for the wording. (Why reinvent the wheel?) Can you read the words? They say: "Ahoy Mates! Let's go find treasure and gold, __________ is turning 7 years old! A treasure hunt we will do, Swim, eat pizza and cake too! Date, time, place RSVP or walk the plank!" (The red bandana is just for background for the picture. It is not part of the invitation.)

Anyway, the next step is tedious. I took a lighter a burnt the edges of the cards. It took around 4 minutes for each invitation. Then I took a black and red scrapbooking marker and drew the dots and "x marks the spot". Finally, I folded them and added the pirate sticker on the outside.

Including postage, I think I spent $11. Let's see what I can do with the remaining $64!