A Rock ‘n Roll Birthday!
  • Both of my parents turned 60 recently, and my mother decided it was time to throw a giant party to celebrate!  She rented out The Hop in Lakewood, hired the Taco Man to set up an awesome taco bar, and got everyone out on the dance floor for a rockin’ good time.

    My birthday gift to Mom and Dad was this invitation:

    The front of the mock vinyl record invitation.  I based it on an old Capitol Records design.

    The front of the mock vinyl record invitation. I based it on an old Capitol Records design.

    The back of the mock vinyl record invitation, with more information and some cutesy clip-art graphics.

    The back of the mock vinyl record invitation, with more information and some cutesy clip-art graphics.

    I initially made up both sides of this invitation as two separate design ideas because Mom liked the colorful 50’s-themed graphics and I liked the more realistic record.  In the end, I used them both so we could include all of the necessary information.

    Mom asked if I could do something with The Hop’s logo, which had a cool-guy bunny rabbit leaning casually up against it.  She wanted me to add a girl bunny next to him.  After a few unsuccessful attempts to Photoshop the low-resolution photo she had of the logo, I finally just drew it by hand, scanned it, and re-worked the file from there.

    The invitations were printed on glossy circular labels and affixed to die-cut black linen paper circles for a realistic vinyl record effect.  I used bright orange square envelopes (not pictured; we had to mail out every single one!) and printed address labels for the mailing and the return address.

    Want invitations like these?  Purchase a sample from my Etsy store and contact me to customize the text for your order!

    After the party, I made up some business cards for my parents to send out in their thank-you notes so people could see the professional photos taken at the party and share their own images.  The best part of that was that I got to reuse that bunny logo!  Here they are:

    This was a business-card sized insert that Mom sent out in the thank-you notes.

    This was a business-card sized insert that Mom sent out in the thank-you notes.

    It was a fun project all around, and the guests seemed to really enjoy the invitations.


    May 29th, 2009 | thecheshirekat | 3 Comments | Tags: , , , , ,

About The Author

Katrina Hetrick

I started The Cheshire Kat Design Studio after designing stationery and paper products for my own wedding in 2008. Since then, I've branched out into event coordination as well, and the paper side of the studio continues to grow with our newest addition: letterpress! Everything I do is completely custom for each client, so contact me with your ideas and we'll work out something fabulous!

3 Responses and Counting...

  • mrs.csunsweetie 05.29.2009

    How big were the invites in the end? We wanted to do something like that for my mother-in-law’s party (also 60th, also sock hop themed) but we didn’t want to hassle with cutting out all the circles :o )

  • The circles were 5 3/4″ in diameter and fit in a 6″ square envelope. I think if they’re bigger than 6″ square the USPS treats them as a package and you don’t get the regular 1oz+non-machinable postage rate. Don’t quote me on that, though :) .

  • I am wanting to design a front cover for my daughter’s surprise “Elvis” 13th birthday party. I wanted to use actual 45 albums, or there is a CD that looks just like a 45 album that her favorite music could be burned onto.

    Do you think you could design a CD label cover that could be placed on the discs?

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