How to Design the Perfect Invitation

We finally threw our Fancy Nancy party! Despite needing to change the date (twice), we had 8 lovely little ladies come to help us celebrate. This week I'll be sharing with you all the little details that made our party a success, starting with the invitation.

In my past life I was (and still am, albeit very part-time) a graphic/web designer. I use Photoshop for most of my design work, but much of this you could do with any design program, including PowerPoint. Here's how I designed this invitation...


1. Google what is already out there.
Google Images is a great place to start. I typed in Fancy Nancy invitation and was greeted with hundreds of examples. I modeled mine off of another invitation I found at fancyink.blogspot.com. I really liked her polka dot border, so I googled pink polka dot pattern. I set the image I found as a pattern and filled in the rectangle, layering smaller yellow and white rectangles to finish the border.

2. Scan images from the book.
If possible, look for images that are already surrounded by white space, making it easier to crop. This picture of Fancy Nancy jumping was perfect. You always want people facing into your design, so flip the image if necessary.

3. Use free clip art or stock images when you can.
I didn't need to use them this time, but I wanted to share with you my favorite stock photography site: Stock.XCHNG. The site is a community of photographers who willingly give their work for free use. It's now owned by Getty Images, but the images are still free once you sign up.

4. Choose a fun font.
There are oodles of free font websites out there, my favorite two being urbanfonts.com and dafont.com. I looked for two different fonts, one that mirrored the "NANCY" on the cover of the book and one that mimicked the distinctive writing inside the books. Always put the essential part of the invitation (time, place, etc.) in a clear, basic font.

5. Be creative with your wording.
Again, this is where googling other similar-themed invitations came in handy. I found the "Ooh La La!" and the "soiree" reference on other invitations, as well as the "have your mommy call my mommy."

6. Save as an image and print out from MS Word.
Whatever program you create your invitation in, you should be able to export as a jpg or tiff. Just try file->save as. If not, try hitting "print screen" on a PC and "command-shift-4" on a mac. This will create an image file of your screen that you can then place in Word, crop, and resize.

If graphic design isn't your thing, don't worry. The rest of the week I'll be going over completely analog methods of decorating and throwing the perfect Fancy Nancy party! 

Edited to add: Here's a blank invitation if you'd like to save the file and use for yourself. Just click on this image to view the large file. Right click and hit save as!

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