Do it Yourself High School Graduation Invitations

Making your own graduation invatations are easy and cost effective

High school graduations have become a big business. It seems that every time you turn around, there is something else to buy for your child's graduation. One of these items are the graduation invitations. These small announcements can cost you a bundle and most people don't hang on to them after the graduation is over. However, if you have a little knowledge of a computer word processing program, making your own invitations is easy to do.

Purchasing Invitations

To start, go to any office supply store and pick up a box of blank generic invitations. These usually come in a pack of 20 to 25 complete with envelopes. At most stores there will be a selection with different sizes, colors, and paper weights. Go for an invitation with a heavier paper weight as this will give a more elegant feel to what you are sending out. Also, make sure that you purchase enough so that you have a few extra in case of error or accidental omission of a person you wanted to invite.

Setting up the Computer

Once home, open up a word processing program on your computer (Microsoft Word is perfect for this). Many times, there will be instructions on the pack of invitations which will tell you how to set up the program so it has the correct size paper. If not, measure the invitations you have and set your margins accordingly. You are now ready to design your invitation.

Designing Invitations

At this point, the sky is the limit in terms of what you want your invitations to look like. Decide on a font you like and use it throughout the invitation. Since you are making these yourself, this can be an expression of your (or your child's) creativity. Make sure the front has something about the event itself, pointing out the achievement of graduating high school. Feel free to add a border or picture to the front. Inside the invitation should have all the information pertaining to the graduation, including time, date and dress code. You can also write a small paragraph on the inside with thoughts on graduation and moving on to college.

Envelopes

The easiest way to make the envelopes is to have all of the addresses in a spreadsheet (using Microsoft Excel works well) with names and addresses in different columns. You can then do a mail merge from Excel into Word which will allow you to print all of the envelopes at once with the names and addresses. Otherwise, you will have to print each envelope individually. Remember to use the same font as you use on the invitation in order to maintain a common element in your invitations.

References

• Making Your Own Graduation Announcements
• Design Your Own Graduation Announcements