make invitations for a wedding shower - postcard party

Make invitations for your next bridal shower, baby shower, birthday party, or holiday party! It’s easy if you turn the invitation making into a party. Lay out cute supplies on a table, provide coffee and tea, and let your friends get crafting! I made these cute postcard invitations for my sister’s bridal shower, and because each one is different, I had a ton of fun working on them. Read on for the project supplies and instructions.

Make Invitations With Dollar Store Craft Supplies

I brought craft supplies to my mom’s house, and we got crafty making these invitations. We set everything out on the table and got to work, and over the course of the morning, four other friends came and joined in the fun.

Project Supplies:

  • Notecards, 8 for $1
  • Printed out photos of the bride and groom, on hand
  • Printed out postcard back with invitation details, on hand
  • Washi tape, $1 a roll and up (get a pack of 4 rolls for about $4 at Target)
  • Assorted stickers, $1 per sheet
  • (optional) Scrapbooking paper scraps, on hand
  • Glue sticks, on hand or $1
  • Scissors

Total: $5 and up for 16 postcards

Finding Supplies to Make Invitations:

make invitations: bridal shower postcard supplies

I got most of the supplies for this project from the dollar bins at Target and Jo-Ann Fabrics:

  • Notecards: I always stock up on cute notecards when I see them at Target’s dollar spot, so I already had several packs of notecards on hand. If you don’t have notecards, you can cut cardstock down to about 4×6″ to use as postcard bases.
  • Washi Tape: I also have a huge stash of washi tape (cute patterned masking tape, great for embellishing crafts), but if you don’t have any, Target carries 4-packs of washi tape in their stationery section for about $4-5.
  • Stickers: I got the stickers in the $1 bins at Jo-Ann Fabrics — they were closeouts from K&Company’s Studio 112 line.

I printed parts of this project on my computer printer:

  • Photos: Print out photos of the bride and groom on your computer printer – I just shrunk down a photo I found on my sister’s Facebook page and printed about 12 photos per sheet. I left white borders around the photos when I cut them out so they would look like vintage photos.
  • Postcard Back: Print out the postcard back with the invitation details (event name, time, date, location, registry info, etc.), and be sure to leave space for an address and a stamp (just like a pre-made postcard!). I made mine with a desktop publishing program (Serif PagePlus – it’s a free download); you can use Word, Publisher, etc.

Instructions to Make Invitations:

make invitations - diy wedding shower postcards - party crafting!

1. Cut notecards in half: you will then have two “postcards” — one from the front of the notecard, one from the back of the notecard. So, each pack of 8 notecards makes 16 postcards.

2. Glue the postcard back part on the plain side of the postcard.

3. Flip the postcard over and start to embellish the printed side of the notecard. There’s no wrong way to do it! For our postcards we:

  • Added a photo of the couple
  • Added washi tape to the edges of the photos, if desired
  • Wrapped washi tape around the edges of the postcard (I love the diagonal striped washi tape for this!)
  • Added a few stickers
  • Added any other embellishments we wanted to, depending on the person who was working on it!

make invitations for a bridal shower

4. Embellish the back of the postcard if desired – be sure to leave room for the recipient’s address as well as a stamp.

postage for handmade invitations

Tips for Making Invitations:

  • Postage: Be aware that these postcards might need additional postage if there are ANY dimensional embellishments (raised stickers, etc). You might want to take them to your post office window to have them checked before you send them (and they get returned to you!)
  • Address List: Be sure you have the address list ready so your crafternoon friends can help you address envelopes. OR, pre-print the addresses on labels to streamline the process

I bought cute stamps just to go with the cute invitations, but that’s optional!

How These Handmade Invitations Turned Out

make invitations: handmade wedding shower invitations

As you can see, each invitation was different – and each one was its own little work of art!

make invitations