DIY World Cup Party Invitations

The 2010 FiFA World Cup South Africa will kick off on Jun 11th and continue through July 11th. You can catch all 64 matches live on either ESPN, ESPN2, or ABC. This is a great time to throw a World Cup Party to celebrate the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa. World Cup party invitations are the first step for your World Cup party and are very important because this is the first impression your guests will receive regarding your World Cup party and we all want to impress our family and friends. You can easily make "one of a kind" World Cup party invitations at home with a computer, a photo color printer, and the free Picasa 3.6 photo editing software from Google.

Items Needed:
Computer (windows XP/Vista/7
Photo Color Printer
Picasa 3.6 free photo editing software from Google for windows XP/Vista/7
Photo Paper
Envelope 4-3/" x 5-3/4"
Stock Paper (your choice of color)
Word Processing Program
Decorated Scissors
Double-sided tape

1. Download the Picasa 3.6 program at www.picasa.com. This is a free photo editing software program from google.

2. Search for a photo that reflects the World Cup. You may have a photo at home or your can find free photos through Wikimedia Commons. The Wikimedia Commons website makes available public domain and freely-licensed educations content, including images that you can use as well as add your own photos to share. Type in "World Cup soccer" and you will see many images. One of the photos you can use is a photo of the cooling tower outside of soccer city in South Africa-Johannesburg. After you find your photo, save it to your computer. Open up the photo in Picasa 3.6. If using a photo you must credit the owner of the work by adding his or her name to your card on the back of the invitation.

3. Adjust your photo to your liking. After your photo is opened in Picasa 3.6, you can crop your photo by using the "crop" button under the "Basic Fixes" bar on the left. You can also straighten your photo, retouch, fix the contrast, or whatever you would like to do to your photo. This is a great way to play around with Picasa 3.6 and have a little fun.

4. Add your text. Under the "Basic Fixes" tool bar on the left, you will see the "text" button. Select the "text" button and here you can choose your font, size, bold, italic, underline, alignment, and change your text color as well as transparency. Left click on the photo with your mouse and type in anything you would like for the photo of your World Cup Party Invitations. You can type, "Please Join Us To Celebrate the 2010 World Cup Soccer", or whatever your heart desires. After you are done typing the on the photo of your World Cup party invitation, select the "Apply" button.

5. Adding a colored border. You can add a colored border when you select the "Print" button. Select the "printer icon". Next, on the same page select the "Border and Text Options" button. Here you can choose your border color, the size of your border, and where you want to have your text. You can choose to have your text below the image, on the image, or directly on the border.

6. Print your Photo. Choose the 5"x7" layout and shrink to fit. Select the best quality printing and select photo paper. After you print out your photo, trim the photo with scissors or a paper cutter.

7. Using a word processing program, type out the information of your party, including the date, time, and location of your World Cup party. Print out on white paper or any type of colored paper you would like to have to match your invitation and cut out your World Cup party information with decorated scissors.

8. Fold your 8-1/2" x 11" card stock paper in half.

9. Tape your photo on the front of your card stock paper using double-sided tape.

10. Tape your World Cup party information on the inside of the card using double-sided tape.

11. Address your envelope and add your homemade World Cup party invitaiton, and mail.

http://www.envelopes.com/
http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/index.
http://www.espnmediazone3.com/us/2010/01/espn-inc-2010-fifa-world-cup-schedule/
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:South_Africa-Johannesburg-Soccer_City003.jpg