DIY Halloween Invitations

Crafting is what I like to do with my free time during the week. Since my favorite holiday is Halloween, I have been working on a couple crafty things for our bash that we are planning on having later on in the month.  One of the first things I decided to work my magic on was the invitations!  As I was leafing through the Oriental Trading catalog, which is one of my favs, I saw an invitation that caught my eye, but these invitations would have cost me about $25.00 or so.  I then decided to do some research online to look for some template or any idea that was out there for making this type of invitation.  I was in search of invitations that would be sort of creepy and fun because I wanted it to have the same feel as how we would decorate our house.  Boy was I lucky because I stumbled upon Martha Stewart's coffin template for an invitation and it worked out perfectly!

 You can find the link to these templates at:  http://www.marthastewart.com/265416/coffin-treat-box

After I printed off the coffin templates, I grabbed all of my supplies:

1. Fun Halloween scrapbook paper - bought them on sale at Hobby Lobby for $.025/sheet
2. Black card stock paper - bought them on sale at Hobby Lobby for $0.50/sheet
3. Glue stick - already had at home
4. Gold felt tip pen - bought at Hobby Lobby for $2.00
5. Garland of Skeletons - this was an excellent buy from the Dollar Tree
6. Paper clips - found at home:)
7. Purple shredded paper - another awesome buy at the Dollar Tree

I took one of the coffin templates and 3 sheets of Halloween paper and paper clipped them together.  Then I started cutting them out.  Next, I took another template and stacked 3 black card stock with the template, paper clipped them, and started cutting them out.  Before I pulled any of the papers apart from their stacks, I took my boning tool and used that to help me crease the paper where the dotted lines were on the coffin templates.   I grabbed one black card stock coffin and one fun Halloween paper and glued them together.  Make sure you use the paper clips to keep the papers from separating as your waiting for them to dry.  You do this for the top and bottom of the coffin and let dry for probably 20 minutes.  These last few steps are pretty easy after those!  Put the purple shredded paper in the coffin, cut the string off of the skeleton from the garland, place the skeleton in the coffin, roll up you invitation and put it next to the skeleton, write whatever you want on the lid or sides of the coffin, and last but not least rap the string that you had leftover from the garland around the coffin to put the finishing touches on it!  Voila, you have one neat looking, unique, and inexpensive invitation!  I made 15 invitations for only $9.00, now that's a bargin:)