Boot Camp Birthday: Invite & Thank-yous

Hard to believe my middle baby is 9!  He requested a military-themed birthday party, and I was happy to oblige. 

First on my list was to create RECRUITMENT ORDERS (aka an invitation).  I found a free camo border at www.PageBorders.net, then resized it and pasted it into a Word document, and added my text in a typewriter looking font (courier new).  The orders read as follows:

*****************

Recruitment Notice
Recruit: Smith, Joe

Effective 14 April 2012
Please Report to

Bluefield Boot Camp

(123 Main St; Anytown)

For

Basic Birthday Training

in honor of b-daykid's 9th

beginning promptly at 1100 hours

Recruits will be dismissed at 1300 hours

Wear your best uniform

and come prepared to get dirty

Rations will be distributed

in the Mess Hall

Training Officers: Sawblock & Scarlet
Please contact us through proper
channels ASAP if you are unable to
attend: 123-456-7890 or
youremailaddress@domainname.com

*****************

I've created a free printable that you can download, edit and print.  Click here to access (to download, choose "Download" from the "File" dropdown menu on the upper left.  Please note, the document was too large for google docs to upload as it was, so I removed one of the borders.  Just copy and paste it back in).

Next up were the envelopes.  I made them using Word, because I wanted the same typewritten look as the orders.  For the return address, in army green ink and SmallCaps, I put

Bluefield Birthday Boot Camp
123 Main St
Anytown, AS 00000

For the address:

Recruit: Lastname, Firstname
321 Main St
Anytown, AS 00000

I wasn't sure if the recruits would realize that the party I mean training camp was scheduled for April 14, so I added a text box to the front of the envelope under the return address in red ink that read:

Official Orders
Please report for duty on 14 April 2012

I was amused that for these uber-masculine invitations, the only stamps I had in the house were flowery love stamps.  I'm not sure if anyone else noticed or enjoyed the juxtaposition. If you're a better planner, flag stamps would be a good choice :)

Next, I wanted to create some fun camo thank you notes for MC to use.  He has a hard time writing, and tires easily, so I made a fill-in-the-blank thank you note for him to use (Click here to download and print--choose "Download" from the "File" dropdown menu on the upper left.  Please note, the lines are not visible on google docs, but they'll be there when you download the file) and printed it out on card stock.

Next came the fun part--we marble painted them!  Just fill a baking sheet (large enough to hold a letter-sized piece of paper) with shaving cream. 

Drizzle on acrylic paints in green, black, and brown.  Use a popsicle stick to gently swirl the colors.

Lay printed thank-yous, blank side down, on top of the shaving cream and press gently.
 

Carefully remove and set aside.
 

After a few minutes, use a squeegee to remove the shaving cream--the paint will stay on the paper.

Set aside and allow to dry, then cut apart into 2 thank you notes.

I'm pleased with how these turned out, but if I were to do it again, I would probably use less black or leave the black out and just use green and brown.

This is the first of four Boot Camp Birthday posts.  Click here to see them all.
Stay tuned--next up: boot camp rations...