A couple weeks ago we celebrated Kembe and India’s 6th birthday. They were just a few weeks into kindergarten and haven’t really established their friend group yet, so instead of trying to narrow down a few kids for the party, I decided to invite everyone in the class. They are in separate classes so I needed about 50 invitations. I also wanted to make a photo invitation so that the parents could identify which child the party was for, since it’s a bit early in the year that every parent knows their names. Photo invitations can get pricey, so I decided it would be cheaper to create the invite on a photo that I could cheaply print at Target. Here’s how I did it. The first step was to get a clear photo of the kids, leaving a large background space where I could write the invitation text. I snapped this picture with my iphone with the kids standing in a shady spot near the side of the house. Next, I pulled up the photo on my computer and added some text. You can add text in any number of photo applications, but I used Microsoft Paint. The key to making it look good is choosing a nice font and complimentary colors. I love the font Sketch Rockwell, and matched the title to India’s dress. After saving the photo, I uploaded it to Shutterfly, and sent the photos to print at Target’s. They were ready in about an hour. Prints thru Shutterfly are 15 cents, so I got all 50 invitations for just $7.50. Not too shabby – and it was much less time-consuming that filling out store-bought invitations or trying to get invitations lined up on my printer. I bought some plain white envelopes to put the invites in, and sent them to school with the kids. Inexpensive and easy – just my style.