Burlap "Gingerbread" Invitation

When the Holidays roll around every year, I always think of family gatherings.  My happiest holiday memories from childhood are not of the presents I got, but of the times that our family spent together.  And of the food we ate.  Oh, the wonderful, glorious, beautiful food!  Okay, not so much the food as the sweet , sugary goodness that was always a part of every celebration.   I'm pretty sure that this is where my sugar obsession was born and raised.  Right there in the middle of our dessert buffet.  But, my point is, I have great memories of family and food.  And , I want my kids to have their own memories of sweet family fun, as well.  So, I thought it would be fun to start a new tradition this year....a cookie decorating night.  Kids on a sugar high.  Frosting everywhere.  I can't wait!

If there is going to be a party, then we need to invite people.  And I want to invite them with something cute. 

So I made this Gingerbread Cookie Invitation.  It is also a magnet to put on the fridge to remind you of the event.  It may be hard to tell from the picture but it is wrapped in a nice little package (cellophane) and the top of the package is the invitation.

The inspiration for this came from Melinda's wood cookie invitation at Under My Umbrella.  She used wood for her cookie and Dry Dex for the frosting.  It was so adorable I wanted to try it right away but I needed to make a few changes for my version.

We are decorating gingerbread cookies so I thought it would be cute to make gingerbread cookie shaped invites.  I didnt have the wood that Melinda used but I did have some left over burlap from a Thanksgiving project so I decided to use that instead.

I used the cookie cutter that I am using for the cookies and traced and cut two layers of the burlap.

I hot glued the two gingerbread men together and added the magnet to the back.  I actually used a magnet that came on the front of our phone book as an ad for a plumber.    You can buy magnets at the craft store for this but I just happened to have this so I used it.  Hope my drains dont get clogged.    I will never remember that number.  You could also add a ribbon instead of the magnet, if you wanted to make this an ornament instead of a magnet.

I cut a festive outfit for him out of felt and used puffy paint for his hair and face.  I let it dry and then added the strip of card stock that had the date and time printed on it from my computer and cut it to fit.

I wrapped the whole thing in cellophane and stapled the invitation to the top.  The invitation was also just a simple one, printed at home on card stock.



And I thought it turned out so cute......

I made a special lady to keep him company.


And because they needed a place to live....

 I made them a cute little house.

Lots of fun to make and I love the way they look.  Now Im off to hand them out.