I absolutely love this invitation! Designed and created by Christina Hutchison for her friend, Amy. This is such a fun, never-to-be-forgotten birthday invite! Christina describes the process to make the invite: "The invitations are fairly easy to make. I used plain old word document to design them. My friend had the cowboy picture taken of her son while he was visiting Dallas, but any picture would work, just edit it to a sepia color. I found a barn wood background on the Internet, and cut and pasted it into the word document. Then I found an old wanted poster on the Internet and opened it in the Paint program. Using the cut and paste method, I edited out all of the writing. Next I cut and pasted the poster onto the barn wood. Added the picture, and using the text box button at the bottom of the screen, added the wording in Playbill font. Amy printed them out on a creamy tan colored card stock paper and tore the edges, rather than cutting them out. Voila!"
Saw "horses" make for a fun welcome to a western party and also can be used as a game "lasso the horse" or a roping contest. Use ropes to lasso or hula-hoops to "rope" stick horses or posts. Thank you to Christina for her darling invite and saw horse pics. Check out her blog for more great western party ideas.
Favor bag from here.
I'm really liking this place setting for a western themed party. From here.
A sweet vintage theme western invite. From here.
HP offers these images as free downloads for t-shirt transfers and/or sticker badges.
Cool idea: give a "western image" t-shirt as a party favor. Here's Fruit of the Loom Boy's 5 Pack Crew Neck Tee #5P525B
for very cheap! Wouldn't it be awesome seeing all your little guests running around in these t-shirts, bandannas and cowboy hats?
Pass out Red Bandanna
to your guests to wear as neckerchiefs or use as napkins for a fun place setting!
More ideas:
- create a welcome sign out of cardboard, "Cole's OK Corral" make it look like wood.
- serve western-style grub - hot dogs, fried chicken, hamburgers, baked potatoes, root beer
- serve food chuck wagon style - use baskets, dutch ovens, butter urns, wood boxes
- red/white checkered table covers have a western feel
- tablescapes/decor can be draped in denim and/or burlap, mason jars, wagon wheels, lanterns, cowboy hats, bandannas, rope and field flowers
- make ahead of time - pictures of guests made into "Wanted" posters.
- place a saddle over a bale of hay so kids can ride it - great photo op!
- scatter hay bales around - great for seating
- pan for gold. use a small plastic kid pool - add play sand, a bag of aquarium rocks and water. ahead of time spray paint some of the aquarium rocks gold. guests can use disposable pie tins with holes in them to sift for the gold nuggets.
More western/cowboy party ideas here.
