Do it Yourself: Thanksgiving Invitation Ideas

Homemade Thanksgiving dinner invitations make your guests feel welcome and excited about the upcoming holiday as well as help you determine how many guests will be attending. You can make your own great looking Thanksgiving dinner invitations. Here are 3 ideas to get you started on creating your own outstanding Thanksgiving dinner invitation cards.

Easy Pop-Up Thanksgiving Invitation Cards
Pop-up cards look great and are easy to make. If you have children, this is a great family project. My 4^th grade students were masters of the pop-up card and loved to design and make them for any occasion.

Materials: rectangular thick colored paper or construction paper, glue or tape
Tools: Scissors, pens, pencils

Procedures:
1. Fold two pieces of construction paper in half. One sheet is for the inside, the other for the outside of the card. They can be the same or different colors.
2. Take the still-folded inside sheet out and cut two lines against the fold.
3. Open the card and push through the paper between the two cuts. This should create a step-like platform. Tip: Experiment with this first on scratch paper. How tall the platform will be depends on the length of your cuts. You can have as many platforms as you wish.
4. Use extra construction paper to cut out the shapes of items wish to display. You might make a pop out of your house, a turkey, fall leaves whatever comes to mind. Color these items as necessary. If you will design a background, now is the time to draw and color it.
5. Glue the pop-up items you created to the platforms. Make sure none of the items will stick out when you close the card.
6. Glue the inside sheet to the outside sheet. Be careful not glue down the platforms. Tip: Try gluing the top half of the card first while folded. Keeping card folded, glue down the bottom half, taking care not to glue the platforms to the outside sheet.
7. Write out your Thanksgiving dinner invitation.

To see illustrations of the pop up card making process, you can visit the enchanted learning website by clicking here. Search for pop up cards. They have a large collection of pop up crafts and cards.

No Mess Thanksgiving Dinner Invitation
A less time-consuming hands-on Thanksgiving dinner invitation which is easy to make and shows off the fall season is an invitation card that uses autumn leaves you have collected. The contact paper instead of glue makes this a no-mess project. If you have ever tried gluing leaves on cards or collages, you know what I mean. This can easily be handled by one person or be made into a fun family project. Once you have collected the leaves, it is simple and quick.

Materials: fall leaves, thick colored or white paper, clear contact paper
Tools: scissors, pens

Procedures:
1. Cut a sheet of the clear contact paper slightly larger than the paper (~ ½")so you will be able to fold it over the edges. Do not remove backing yet!
2. Arrange the leaves as desired onto a sheet of paper. Put it to the side.
3. Remove the backing from the clear contact paper and lay face up on top of another blank sheet of paper.
4. Carefully transfer and arrange leaves or leaf onto the contact paper. Tip: Note where the edges of the paper are and where the card will be folded so you won't be breaking any leaves later on.
5. Now center a blank sheet of paper over the contact paper. Press down and fold the contact paper around it.
6. Firmly fold paper in half to make the card.
7. Write out your Thanksgiving dinner invitation on the inside.

Computer Generated Cards
If you don't have much time, you can quickly create a professional and personal Thanksgiving dinner invitation using your computer. Here are 3 sites to get you started:

mycardmaker.com
Mycardmaker.com gives you the opportunity to add your own photo as well as personalize your card by choosing colors, borders and of course, the text. Membership plans allow you to access to all templates and to save an unlimited number of cards to their server. Membership plans are $3.99/day, $19.99/yr or $29.99/2yrs

HP Thanksgiving Invitations
HP's Thanksgiving invitations site is completely free and very easy to use. There are 4 color designs and you can create your own personal message. HP provides paper product recommendations and sizes for all projects.

Invitationland.com
Basic templates are provided for free. Other templates require a membership plan of $4.99 per month or $9.99 for the year. You can personalize your invitations by selecting borders, colors and adding your own message.

Making your own Thanksgiving dinner invitations is a fantastic way to get you and your invitees into the spirit of Thanksgiving. These are just a few ideas to get you started. Whether you try one of these ideas or are inspired to try an idea of your own, I hope you will enjoy making your own Thanksgiving dinner invitations this year.