Hawaiian Luau Birthday invitation

My kids were at an age (5 and 7 years old) when they wanted a hand in everything.  And I have always thought (still do) that children’s art efforts can be very appealing.  So I thought to put them to work on the invitations.  At the same time, I wanted our guests to know just how far the “birthday boy” had come, so I needed to show “then” and “now” images.  The combination of needs resulted in a triptych card (cream-colored cardstock, (6 1/2 ” x 12 3/4″), with before and after photos and artwork by my kids to set the island theme:

The initial opening of the card revealed the “now” picture; both photos were “matted” on tropical flowered paper:

The next unfolding showed the artwork and the party details:

In signature primitive style, with their Crayola watercolor paint set, my kids painted the ocean, a wave on the sand, and a palm tree on the beach.  They did this 40 times (for 40 invitations)!  They added a few assorted stickers (a sun and a Hawaiian image) and I added a vellum sheet with all the pertinent details, affixed with tropical flower stickers.

The invitation said this (Microsoft Windows 2010 Ravie font, boldface in orange):

Aloha!

Chris, our big kahuna,

is celebrating

a special birthday:

Hukilau down to the

Sandalwood Beach Bungalow

for a luau!

Saturday, October 5th

4:00 pm

Rsvp to the natives –

Sandy, Vince, or Tina

123.456.7890

by September 22nd

No gifts, please –

Mahalo