Join in our Disney celebration! - How to make Minnie Mouse invites

It's gonna be Angel's birthday bash in 2 weeks!

While I kinda miss the feeling of carrying a less than 5kg bundle of joy in my arms (I can only carry her for ten minutes now before my biceps give way and I scream for help), it is yet another form of elation watching her grow from a tiny infant into a bubbly, vivacious toddler.

So, we are going to have a Disney party for her and I've proudly done up all my party invites. Yup, I never do like to buy those ready-made ones and I would rather spend some time and effort into designing, creating and personalising my own invites.

Ta-dah! These are the Minnie Mouse invites I did which are really quite simple to make. If you are interested to make your own next time, read on!

What you need:
1) Black paper (approximately 240g/m²)
2) Scissors
3) Glue tape/ Glue
4) Ribbons (2 types - 1" wide pink polka-dotted and 2mm wide pink plain)
5) Glossy photo paper
6) Colour printer
7) Some creativity

Start off by coming up with your Mickey/Minnie Mouse head template. I like to do mine from scratch and so I used Photoshop to help me create the shape. It's really easy, for mine, I drew a 4.5" diameter black circle for the face and 2.5" for the ears. You can decide how far apart you want your ears to be but make sure they end up looking symmetrical. Tip: You can easily grab a template from online if you don't have time to make your own.

I also layered three white circles on top of the black ones so that it now formed a nice black outline. This saves a lot of black ink when you print it out (ink is horrendously expensive here in Sweden!).

Print out the template on a thick piece of paper, I used a 170g/m² matt photo paper. Using the template, trace out as many mouse shapes as you can on the black paper and cut them out nicely.

For the invite content, I created a 4" circle so that it could fit nicely inside the mouse shape. You can use your imagination and design your own background, choose your own colours and write some quirky lines if you want to. Don't forget to include the date/time/venue of your party!

I used Photoshop for mine but you can easily use Powerpoint if you don't have that. I added a picture of Angel in the background since she's the star of the event, some Disney related wordings, details of the party and most importantly, I customised each invite to the names of the guests.

Once your design is finalised, print them out on glossy photo paper (it gives a much nicer finish) and cut out the circles.

Glue each one carefully onto the black mouse shapes. You've just created a Mickey Mouse invite! However, for mine, I wanted a Minnie Mouse one and the big difference between them is the bow.

In order to make the Minnie Mouse bows and also to add a 3-dimensional feel to the card, I used pink polka-dotted satin ribbons, which has a nice glossy surface. Firstly, cut out a 7" long ribbon, fold it into a loop so that the ends overlap at the back and grab the middle portions together to form the basic shape of the bow.

Make tiny folds in the middle part by folding in and out for approximately three times each. At the end, you want nice little creases in the center of the bow as shown above.

Use the thin ribbon to carefully tie the middle portion together and make a double knot at the back to secure it. Cut away the ends.

Make as many ribbons as you need. You now have cute little Minnie Mouse bows for your cards and they take less than a minute each to make!

To stick the bow onto the card, simply put three drops of white glue at the left, middle and right portions. Press it down firmly near the top of the head, in between the ears. Tip: Be careful not to cover your wordings!

There, you have just created your very own Minnie Mouse invites!

What I love most about doing my own invites is the sense of accomplishment I get and it is my way of letting my guests feel my sincerity and efforts. Hopefully they would all turn up at the party!

Most importantly, you should always have fun and enjoy the process of creating them. That's what art and craft is all about!

For more craft ideas and DIY tutorials, visit my gallery here.