State Fair Themed Bridal Shower - Blue ribbon invitations

So stinkin' cute! That's how everything turned out for my dear cousin Carley's bridal shower. And now that the festivities have come to an end, I can share some of the crafty creations I contributed to the fete!

My mother/Carley's aunt hosted the party, but I'd say I acted as something of a "creative consultant" after proposing the State Fair idea. You see, Carley LOVES the Minnesota State Fair. LOVES IT. She makes it more than an event, it's a verb. She DOES the State Fair, from Machinery Hill to the Haunted House, Cheese Curds to Deep Fried Hot Dish, I'm pretty sure she even has special pants. And after a few years out of the state, (and more to come after the wedding) a Great Minnesota Get-Together was the PERFECT idea!

Starting at the beginning: Invitations! This was not my first inclination, I originally was running with sort of a corn dog bouquet theme, but it just wasn't working out, and in the end these blue ribbons turned out ADORABLE, so I'm glad I experimented a bit.



This was the first creative project I'd undertaken since The Cupcake's nursery, and the first time I've tried to accomplish anything of the sort since she came along - and it all went surprisingly well! I credit her swing with all of the success :) One day she conked out while swaying, and I sat down to cut out all of the pieces assuming someone else would need to assemble them...and when I finished, she was still sawing logs, so I started to put a few together...then, before I knew it, I was done! 43 of these pretty little rosettes I believe, in all different colors and patterns:



I used paper punches for all of the circles (the "ruffles" around the medallion are just a bunch of overlapping circles), and once I found the sizes that looked right together I created the "ribbons" to fit. I cut all of the "blue" parts out of various patterned paper from a 12" x 12" stack.

For the invitation wording, I started by downloading a pretty font from 1001freefonts.com (Calamity Jane) and laying out the text - this was the first time I'd ever printed on vellum and it worked GREAT, I'm definitely using that technique again. I like to use powerpoint to lay out my pages, I just measured my available space and set text boxes, then crammed as many on a page as I could to conserve paper when I printed. I cut them apart, and affixed everything with glue dots. For the back I cut another blank large circle from cardstock (same as the center front) and used it to cover up all of the double sided tape and glue dots holding the smaller circles to the larger one, and I ended up pasting a label with registry details on that circle as well.

We mailed the invites in large 6" x 9" envelopes, which are nearly the largest that can still go with one stamp. A few times I had splayed the ribbons too widely and had to bend a corner, but for the most part they traveled pretty well, and I was assured that everyone could tell what they were right away and start looking forward to the State Fair themed party.

More State Fair party pics to come, I promise!