Bowling for Birthday Party Invitations

Hey all! Just wanted to share these fun birthday party invitation I made for my nephew, Thomas. My stepsister contacted me last week to see if I could make his invitations for his bowling party. I LOVE to do these things for my family! It makes me happy that they WANT me to make custom invitations for the kids' parties:) I had never made anything with a bowling theme before. I mean, I know I did a few scrapbook pages sometime in the past, but I think they were pretty generic. My hope was to find some fun bowling paper, and I really didn't think it would be very hard to find, but just when you think you'll have NO problem finding something, that's when you run into trouble, right? So, I called Archivers and she said they had stickers but no paper. So, the hunt began.... First stop, Michaels, which is where I picked up this fun kraft cardstock with the black circles that I ended up using. Kinda reminds me of bowling balls;) But there was not a single bowling themed item in that store, believe me, I LOOKED! LOL! So then, onto Joann's. Nothing there either, except they had some stickers, but they were all different, more like for a scrapbook page. Nothing that I could duplicate a card 30 times from. So then, onto Hobby Lobby. FINALLY found some Sticko stickers that were affordable, and though I ended up with 6 different versions of the invite (5 packs of stickers, but since they were Sticko, they were only $1.50 a pack:)  I think these turned out REALLY cute, wouldn't you agree? I was trying to make them "mailman friendly" so I used this embossing button punch, so the buttons actually lay flat when mailing, which I think will be nice. Also, with the flat stickers, that keeps it flat, too. Additionally, still trying to make a dent in my MASSIVE spool of baker's twine, so this was a good fit for that, too:)

Well, I hope you like my cards! Additionally, and more importantly, I hope Thomas likes them! Have a "strike" of a day! :)

-Noelle

Supply list: black/kraft cardstock: Recollections; bowling stickers: Sticko; solid cardstock, ribbon:SU!; large curved embossing punch: EK Success; button embossing punch: Martha Stewart Crafts; bakers twine: Crate and Barrel; corner rounder: the Paper Studio; embossing folder: Cuttlebug

DUST IT OFF!: A corner rounder is one of the first tools I ever bought and I still love them! What a simple way to add pizzaz to your projects:) lso, remember that stickers are a perfectly fine alternative to stamps for the images on your cards! Particularly when making several cards, there's nothing faster and easier! :)