DIY Design | Sweet 16 Edition

Being known in the family as gifted in the crafts department, I am often recruited for party projects. This time around I was selected to assist in planning a sweet sixteen party! I currently have a list of pending projects for this party, but recently I decided to tackle what I am calling the "Court Cards". The idea was to design a laminated lanyard (cute enough for 16 year old girls) to be given when popped the question "will you be in my court?"

Though this could probably be done much easier in a more high tech program like InDesign, I worked with what I had, and what I had was good old Microsoft Word!

After opening the program to a new document, I inserted a rectangular shape. Simply click Insert > Shape and select from the menu of shape options. I formatted the rectangle to have no fill color and a thick black boarder.

I quickly inserted a text box and went to town with different fonts, weights, bolds, italics, you name it and I tried probably tried it. This is the part where you can get creative! The theme of this party was black and purple, which I knew all along. That's is why my text is solid black. 

I took a field trip to Michaels (but any craft store will do) and picked up some super sparkly purple paper from the scrapbook section. I only needed to make a handful of tags so two sheets was plenty for me. I was also able to pick up some clear laminate lanyard holders. I trimmed the purple paper to fit the inside of the holder, inserted my Microsoft design and voila! 

There you have it! An adorable way to ask your girls to be in your sweet sixteen! You can even use this tutorial for many other events (ie. vip passes, bridesmaids, save the dates, invitations?)

Don't be afraid to play around, and remember... practice makes perfect!

Check back for more DIY Design things for this awesome sweet sixteen!