Necessity is the Mother

of all creation?  Invention?  Either works here really.

Lyndsi is having a party to celebrate her birthday.  She's been so cute about the whole thing-planning everything.  More on that later.  To appease the miser...I mean the husband...I opted for the frugal route. And I am having so much fun with it.  We made her invitations using photoshop and then just printed 12 invites (4 x 6) at Walgreen's.  I think it cost just shy of $2.50.  And Walgreen's isn't the cheapest by far.  (I just happen to really like the quality of my photoshop stuff there.) 

The only downside to a 4 x 6 invitation is you need a special sized envelope that runs about $6 a box of 50.  In typical fashion, I forgot I needed them til this morning when Lyndsi needed to take a few to school.  She's going off track today, so it was really important that her school friends got their invites today.  I pulled on my thinking cap and came up with a pretty great idea if I do say so myself. 

I grabbed a few pieces of cardstock from my stash and cut it to about 6 x 10.  I adhered the photo somewhere near the bottom-center.  I folded the ends over and secured it with a cute party hat I cut from my Cricut.  I love it!  Aside from Christmas cards, I will never need to buy this size of envelope again!

If you're interested in this idea, but don't have a Photoshop program, there are free places online to do the same thing. One of them is picnik.com.  (I understand it's pretty easy to use, too.)