Ticket-Style Invitation

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.

Bertrand's big birthday #5 is coming up.  Preparations are underway.  The theme this year is "Polar Express".  It was totally my friend Niki's idea.  (Thanks, Nik!)  Bertrand loves snow and he loves trains.

I'm pretty "old school" when it comes to invitations--I like paper.  So 1990 of me, I know.  ;)  But I suffered some major sticker shock when it came to the invitation styles I liked.  It quickly became clear that it'd be far cheaper (and much more fun) to make the invitations myself.

Victoria pulled the paper from the printer before the ink had dried, and smudged my anonymized sample ticket.
I'm too lazy to make another sample, but FYI I recommend doing this project WITHOUT a 1 year-old helper.  

They turned out pretty cute.  These ticket-style invitations would work for a variety of party themes.  They came together pretty quickly. So to save you from reinventing the wheel, this is how I made them.

To start, it would help if you had the proper materials.  I didn't.

• Cardstock (~$15 for 50 sheets. Each sheet makes 4 tickets.)
• *Ink Jet* printer (I mistakenly tried our laser printer first)
• Ink for said printer (Our printer is older than Bertrand--so was the dry ink inside.)
• 3/4-Inch Hole Punch (I liked the look of this size, but any hole punch should work.)
• Rotary Perforator (~$6.50)
• Paper cutter
• Large metal ruler (I had a tiny plastic one)
• Self-healing mat (I used a clean cutting board)

Step 1: Customize your template.
It took me over 2 hours to make the initial computer template, and another hour of printing and tweaking to get the spacing right.  I'm a Mac user so it's in Pages format HERE.  This is the hardest part, so you're welcome.

Step 2: Print on your card stock.
Card stock is too thick for most laser jet printers!  Use an ink jet printer.  Each 8.5x11 sheet will produce 4 tickets.  I recommend printing a single page at a time.  My printer still had issues with pulling the paper, so one at a time gave a better result.


Step 3: Trim (if necessary) and hole punch.
If the resulting image isn't perfectly aligned on the paper, trim it.  Then, I just eyeballed the hole punches at each of the anticipated seams using the guides on the hole punch.

Step 4: Cut apart the tickets.
I recommend using a paper cutter.


Step 5: Perforate the tickets.
You pull the perforator toward yourself along the side of the ruler.  Using a cutting mat instead of a hard kitchen cutting board would make your life easier.  So would using a large metal ruler.  (With a large metal ruler you could easily do this step before cutting the tickets apart.)

I think the perforation makes the ticket. 

Step 6: Ticket is complete.

I did the first batch of tickets at night while the kids were asleep.
I think you can tell that Victoria was in my lap for this sample batch. Sorry!

Step 7: For the truly OCD.

Since the envelopes I picked were the same color as the tickets, if I'd had additional time, I would've also lined the envelopes with candy-striped wrapping paper to provide some contrast.  There's a good tutorial HERE.  Yes, I deeply regret skipping this step.