Christmas Party Invitation

First off, thanks to everyone for their thoughts and prayers during hurricane/superstorm Sandy. We are safe and sound and very grateful it wasn't worse in our area. Our prayers go out to all those who are and will be dealing with this for a long while yet. It's going to be quite a road to recovery from what I've seen on TV.

I had a half-day off from work yesterday due to the storm (and today, yippee!), so I spent much of it designing an invitation at my mom's request for my parents' upcoming Christmas party. It seems a little crazy to start talking about Christmas this early (it's not even Halloween yet!), but getting a jump on things like Christmas cards and invitations is important so they go out in a timely (and non-stressful) way.

A little backstory about the party: my mom and dad have had a neighborhood party for the past several years and it has become a tradition that many of their neighbors look forward to. Each year, the party looks a little different, but one thing they've done each year has been to have a rousing rendition of "The Twelve Days of Christmas". The way they do it is fun and creative too. They have each person draw one of the twelve days (i.e. "two turtle doves") so that party-goers are grouped together randomly. Then they surround the piano in the living room and sing it together. It's awesome and silly at the same time. Lots of laughs to go around.

Anyway, back to the invitation. I wanted it to have a fun, casual vibe, so I used varying fonts, sizes and colors to create a bold, graphic invitation. Here it is!

You'll have to imagine it without the grayed-out sections - had to protect my parents' privacy!

I kind of love it. 

You'll recognize the background as the same that's on my blog. I guess that means I'm a big fan? And in case you're curious, two of the three fonts I used are free to download. The fonts (in order of appearance) are Sketch Block, Avenir Next Condensed (this one came with my computer and isn't free), and Freebooter Script.

Playing amateur graphic designer is really fun for me. I get so much joy out of creating!