Making a personalized invitation on your computer can be a very simple process. This particular technique is one that I’ve used over and over and over. The idea here is that you use a photograph — a digital image — that already has visual space for text. Here is the process I usually follow in creating a simple (and quick) invitation or announcement.
1. Take pictures with intentional space. Frame your subject so they’re off to the side or up or down or in the corner or whatever. Just leave a lot of space in your frame and just keep snapping.
Tip: It’s ideal for your background to be solid or subtle. Keep in mind that text will go in that area (your background). And it’s really hard to read text on a busy or bold pattern.
In taking a few pictures of our friend Kylie for her upcoming birthday, I had her brother and my Porter hold this textured blanket behind her a few feet back. You don’t have to use a blanket or sheet. Depending on your angle, you may have a simple background that already exists in your environment — a wall, the sky, or something else.
—–
2. Choose the one. You’ll know which one. It’s the picture that has just the right expression.
—–
3. Edit the image. Whatever you normally do for photo-editing … do that. My favorite everyday/quick editing happens right in iPhoto, which is where we have our digital pictures stored and organized on our Mac. I brought up the exposure, and saturation, color-boosted a couple notches, and increased the sharpness. This is typical of what I do to most of my photos.
—–
4. Add text. I add text using Adobe Photoshop. Many of you have Elements or some other software you like. Just click on the Text tool and start typing. Adjust your fonts and sizes according to your needs.
Fonts: For Kylie’s birthday invite I used one of my favorite new fonts — SNF Goody. And the flower is from the DB Floral Infusion collection. Both of these and 3 others of my recent favorites can be found HERE. I hand-picked these 5 fonts and DoodleBats as some of my current favorites so ScrapNFonts is currently offering the bundle of all 5 for just $10. Go get it!
Sharing the invites: Depending on the occasion and how much time you have, you can either email the finished piece or print it (upload to your favorite printing spot or print at home). Either way, you need to make sure your file is saved as a .jpg.
Tip: I also save my work as a .psd so that if I need to go in and change anything, my layers are all still there and I don’t have to start from scratch.
—–
Okay — more inspiration.
I dug up a few other examples of this same concept of intentional space for text. They all happen to be baby-related (I guess that’s what I end up doing the most?) but you can apply the principle to any subject and any theme. A friend’s baby shower invite:
—–
Another friend’s baby announcement (photography credit: Photos by Natalie):
—–
I pulled this from my blog archives a couple years ago. It’s one of my personal favorites:
—–
And one more baby announcement:
These are so neat! Do you get these printed at Costco as well?
I love photo announcements like this. I’m definitely going to try taking more photos like this so I can do more personalized invites and announcements.
fantastic! I love the combinations of fonts you use. very clean but still fun!!!
I have an added tip, I love it when I can add the age of the BD in a fun way too, like on a cloud, or a balloon the child is holding….so fun. Also, if you ever wanted so fun handwriting fonts for FREE- I found a bunch (like TONS, hard to choose a few) on kevinandamanda.com and yes, free is fun. I’ll add a copy of how I used a balloon on an invite in same process on my blog, just incase that inspires someone…thanks Becky for inspiring me
Photoshop Balloon Invite: ourheartsarefullwith5tolove.blogspot.com
Thank you for posting this Becky, I have wanted to know how you do it & just didn’t realize it was that easy. You rock!!!
I’d love to know what the font is for Paige’s announcement. Thanks!
Alison, I think “Paige” is Becky’s own CK Becky font and I think the rest of it is Gill Sans MT! I think Becky had posted that she loves Gill Sans MT for things like this before! Good luck!
These are awesome! This is exactly what I did for my son’s 2nd birthday in Decemeber. Family loved it because they got another photo of him
Very cute!! I am just getting into photoshop. Glad to hear you like iPhoto for editing- so much easier than photoshop!
Here is a question I have. You posted about making photos smaller using photoshop canvases a loooong time ago. I saved the advice in my email and I finally just tried it the other day. Was so proud of myself for figuring it out, and then when I got the prints back from Costco they were very pixelated, low resolution. Do you know what I did wrong off the top of your head? I created a 4×6 inch canvas, then I modifed the photos to be 2×3 inches, then dragged them to the canvas, like you said to. I saved a copy of the photoshop file as a .jpg so I could upload it to costco.com but the resolution just fell apart. I am a 8.5×11 scrapper and there are several layouts I can’t complete because I have too many photos to use and the smallest 4×6 printing size just doesn’t work. What ever happened to 3.5×5 standard prints?! Would make my life a lot easier.
Mary – Costco still prints 3.5×5 prints – the only catch is that you can’t upload them to the website – you have to physically take a cd or a flash drive into the store and upload them on one of their kiosks…it’s a pain…but I am still a fan of the samller size and yes…I still print my photos and stick them in the clear slip sleeves. My kids flip through my binders full of pictures all fo the time and I never worry about them getting messed up…afterall…they’re just pics in slip sheets….no frills…just fun memories! Anyway…just thought I’d share…took me forever to find someone to still do 3.5×5 pics! You may have to ask the people behind the counter at Costco to help you because you have to usually choose 5×7 and then add special instructions..be sure to ASK for help so they know what you want.
Have you visited TwoPeasInABucket.com? They have 2Peas pictures and you can order 3.5×5 pictures through them and they will ship straight to your house plus you can add fun borders and things to your images Shipping is very reasonable usually only a couple of dollars and the sizes they order are amazng. Just a thought for you.
Thank you so much, Laurie and Tami! I will be looking into both of these options for printing smaller pictures
Do you print these on photo paper?
Love these I think I will some how use this idea for my daughters upcoming party as thank you’s since I did evite. Just Love it! The other day I did bag toppers for the celebration in school. Love being Crafty.
Thanks Becky
I would love to learn how to do those bag toppers on a PC! So cute!
Julie,
They were really easy email me at erikas4228@aol.com and I will send you the template I made up.
Erika
Thanks Erika! You rock! I’m e-mailing you right now! : – )
Becky, thank you so much for posting this! We must be on the same wavelength, because I was just thinking that it was about time I did my baby’s birth announcement (he is four months old now). You inspired me to get it done! It took all of 15 minutes (my husband had already picked and edited the photo he wanted to use) and it is gorgeous! Thank you for the inspiration!!
Would love a post on your “quick fixes” you said you do in iPhoto. Would love it even more if you posted them for photoshop
What size envelopes do you use to send them out? Do you have a good place to buy envelopes from?
Hi Amanda! I had the same question you did and my sister came to the rescue! She directed me to on online retailer called Paper Source (www.paper-source.com). They have all kinds of sizes and colors to choose from. My announcements happen to be in a 4×6 format, so I am going to order the A6 size, which their customer service desk just assured me will fit perfectly. They aren’t as inexpensive as Michaels or Hobby Lobby (the ones I am ordering are $3.50 for a pack of ten, though they offer discounts if you buy in bulk). but they are really good quality. Good luck (and if you hear of a better source, I’d love to know about it!)
Thank you SO much. This was just what I needed at the perfect time! I’ve been searching online for the past hour, trying to find EXACTLY what you posted. Then, of course, I dropped by your blog. Talk about inspiration, Becky! They are beautiful.
Thanks for sharing! This is what I was trying to do for my little girls 1st birthday. I might change and use a picture of her!
[...] You might recognize that I used one of the flowers from DB Floral Infusion as well as the SNF Goody font for Kylie’s birthday invite here. [...]
Love the last baby announcement….paige …can you advise what those fonts are please. Stunning!!! Baby is equally stunning.
I would love to know what the “paige” font is as well.
I was wondering if you use Adobe Photoshop on your Mac. All the Adobe Photoshops I see don’t say they are compatible with Macs. Is there a specific place to get the Adobe Photoshop for Macs?
One more question: what envelopes do you use to send out these gorgeous announcements? TIA!!
[...] Photograph inspired by Tracy’s picture in this post (3rd one down). Announcement inspired by this post. [...]
Thanks for sharing your ideas Becky. Much appreciated.
Cheers
Love the last baby announcement….paige …can you advise what those fonts are please. Stunning!!! Baby is equally stunning.
I can’t wait to try this for my daughter upcomming bday party.
Thanks for the resource. I’m looking for ways to make invitation on my 1st baby.
Thanks. Cheers,
My daughter’s birthday will be this Wednesday. I’ll surely try this kind of invitation.
I’m glad I found this one. Nice!