How to Design & Print Your Own Birthday Invitations

Enhance a child's birthday party by designing and printing your own invitations.

For many children, planning and anticipating their birthday parties, including the excitement of handing out birthday party invitations to their friends, provides almost as much pleasure as the actual party. Unless you want to spend a few hours writing out the invitations or even filling in the blanks on pre-printed invitations to note the party's day, time and venue, you may wish to design and print your own birthday invitation. Available software programs allow you to design attractive invitations that you can print on your own computer or have printed at a print shop.

Instructions

Designing the Invitation

1. Open a new document in Microsoft Word.

2. Click on "File" and then "Page Set-Up" from the dropdown menu. In the "Page Set-Up" window, click on the "Margins" tab to set your margins and create an invitation in your preferred size. Set your top, gutter, right and left margins.

3. Click on the "File" menu and then "Print" from the dropdown menu. Click on the "Properties" button on the window's upper right, and then choose the "Basic" tab. Select "Landscape" or "Portrait", depending on how you want to design your invitation.

4. Place your cursor on the place on the document where you would like to insert a picture. Select "Insert" on the standard toolbar. Choose "Picture" and then "From File" to insert a picture of the child or a photo of an object or event that identifies the child as the host of the birthday party. Browse your hard drive to select a photo or graphic that you wish to insert into the invitation. Double-click on the selected picture to insert it into the invitation.

5. Place your cursor on the document in the place where you would like to insert a text. Select "Insert" on the Word document's toolbar. Choose "Text Box." A text box will open which will allow you to insert the desired text.

6. Highlight the text and click "Format" on the Standard toolbar. Select your text's size and color shading. Choose a background color if you want a background color. If you wish to design the invitation with different texts, highlight and format each section of text separately.

7. Click on the outline of the text box and click on "Borders and Shading" in the Format dropdown menu. Select the text box's border design and color. If you want to place a border around the entire invitation, highlight the entire document by selecting "Control+5." Select your border from "Borders and Shading" in the "Format" function of the toolbar.

8. Click "File" and "Save As" to save your document. Save the document on your Desktop for easy access.

Printing

1. Click "File" on your Standard Toolbar and then "Print."

2. When the print window opens, select the number of copies that you wish to print and then click "OK" at the bottom right of the Print window.

3. Send the file to a commercial printer through email if you want the invitations printed commercially.

References

• Media College: Microsoft Word Design Tools