Gio's Birthday Invites (Nightmare Before Christmas)

Giovanni is turning 4 next month :)

And this made me jump a little! Jeez, I need to get going on his party supplies!
This year, he decided on the theme "The Nightmare Before Christmas." Remembering how the film made a HUGE comeback during my high school years (Hot Topic was basically a Tim Burton tribute store), I figured, "No problem!" Well... it's been almost 10 years since high school, and apparently TNBC isn't as popular as it once was.

Not that I have a shortage of online stores to find merchandise.. everything from beanies to keychains to bobbleheads. And even the same shoelaces I wore during my freshman year of high school.

BUT NO PARTY SUPPLIES. The only ones I can find have been on eBay, going for ridiculous prices. Really? I don't think I want to pay more than $50 on cake plates that will be smeared with frosting and tossed in the trash. No thanks.

Instead, I have slowly but surely been accumulating pieces for his party. I decided to stick with a black and white (and somewhat purple) striped theme, using the characters as accents for the party. The showpiece will be the cake.

My first purchases were from The TomKat Studio. I went with the black and white striped theme, purchasing the cups, party favor bags, plates, straws, and baking cups for the kids invited. These will not serve as cupcake wrappers but as cups for little hands to store crackers, pretzels, and popcorn. I purchased plain black and white napkins, balloons, and streamers as well as extra plates and napkins. I decided on purple tablecloths and extra balloons for a little color, albeit a very Tim Burton "color."

I handmade Gio's invitations, because I couldn't really find anything I liked online. I wanted to do something kind of grandiose as this theme is somewhat gothic. I chose to do a tri-fold invitation. I first used a textured black paper found at Michael's, cutting them in half "hamburger" style. then I measured and folded them over twice so as to create flaps. I then used a black and white striped scrapbooking paper I found at Joann's. I measured out the middle space of the invites, and used double-sided tape (one of my FAVORITE inventions, along with hot glue) to secure the paper onto the invite. I then printed an image I found and modified in Photoshop of Jack Skellington. I liked how his pose is very inviting! I again measured it out, and secured it on top of the black and white paper. My last step was downloading The Nightmare Before Christmas font. I used this to type up the details of the party and printed it on vellum purchased at Joann's. After cutting those, I used the same double-sided tape to secure it to the picture of Jack. I folded over the flaps and used a black, glittery adhesive shape (I went with round but they have all kinds of shapes) purchased at Michael's to close the invite.

I am posting a picture of the finished invitations. Check back often as I will be posting other TNBC supplies I am handcrafting for the party!