‘Hippity, hoppity, Easter’s on it’s way!’ Lent is well under-way and Easter is coming up on Sunday, April 4th. It’s time to get out the eggs and dies, Easter baskets and spring decorations.

Easter is a great time to get together with family and celebrate the holiday whether you are praising the Lord or waiting for the Easter Bunny to come with a basket of candy. You can even incorporate an Easter theme into a birthday party or corporate event or host an after-service Sunday brunch. Our Easter themed invitations feature pastel and spring colored designs with Easter eggs, bunny rabbits, Easter baskets, Easter chicks, spring florals, butterflies, egg wreaths and trees, Easter candy and more.

Looking for something to add to your child or love’s Easter basket? We have adorable plush Easter stuffed animals and purses that are as cute as can be. Choose from a pink or purple Easter bunny purse or Dweezle Jr. who holds a basket of colorful Easter eggs.

Check out these Easter designs and more at InvitationBox.com!

Grap ‘yer partner, do-si-do! Western and cowboy themed parties are becoming increasingly popular this spring season. Western is a great party theme because it can really get your guests involved and excited for your event. Whether you’re hosting a rehearsal dinner, kids birthday party, adult birthday party or a get-together with family and friends, a western theme is always easy to fit in. You can ask your guests to dress in their favorite western attire, cowboy boots/hats and all! Incorporate your western theme into your invitations, party decorations and food. Host a pig pick’n or a barbecue of traditional southern foods. Host a contest for the best cowboy boots and teach everyone a new line dance or square dance.

Our western themed party invitations feature a plethora of designs including cowboys and cowgirls, cowboy boots, country placesettings, cowboy couples, cow print, bandana borders and vintage signs. Below are some of our favorite western designs…

You can find the above designs and more at InvitationBox.com’s Western party invitation section.

Just what exactly IS a calling card? We get this question often, and have found that calling cards have become more and more popular with adults over the past few years. A calling card is actually just like a personal business card. It is typically a small card stock around 2-3 inches rectangular or square, which holds your personal information including your name, phone number, address and/or email address. It’s a great way to express yourself and show off your personality and interests to the people you meet.

We have seen customers use calling cards for many different things. Some of our parent customers will use calling cards to give to their children’s friends parents for playdate arrangements. Others will use calling cards to network and make small business contacts. You can even give your calling cards to friends and family so that they always have your information handy. Our unique and personal designs will also help your information be remembered.

Below are a few suggestions for some of our most popular adult calling cards…

The above designs are actually available with the colorful coordinating backs you see above! See these and more at InvitationBox.com.

At InvitationBox.com, we always appreciate feedback from our customers and your suggestions and comments help us create a more user-friendly website on a daily basis! InvitationBox has a new online proofing system that actually allows you to create an online preview prior to ordering! This preview system is great because it allows you to experiment with different fonts and ink colors, as well as change text alignment and size. The best new feature is that you can even click and drag your text on the preview card to the desired area. You can move text as a group or line by line. When you place your order with us your design is actually saved into your order so that our professional typesetters can view your preview to see what type of design you were trying to achieve. This helps us to reduce the number of proofs needed, thus enabling you to receive your order in a more timely manner!

Can’t get your online preview as perfect as you’d like it to be? No problem! Before saving your design you will have the option to choose “Typeset this card for me” or “Use my layout”. This will tell our typesetters how to design your card. Remember that our typesetters are here to help. They will size, space and layout your entered text on the card as appropriate. If there’s something special you’d like to request or tell our typesetters when typesetting your order, be sure to enter this information in the special instructions box which is in stage 3 of checkout.

Friendly Reminder: Remember after creating your preview and clicking on the ‘save and continue’ button that this only saves your design for that ordering session. If you were to close out of your online preview or our website, you would lose any text you had saved. We are working to create a feature in our account section to allow our customers to save their work or designs and share them with family and friends. Look for this unique feature sometime later this year.

If there is anything lacking at InvitationBox, it certainly is not unique, new contemporary designs! SanLori Designs has brought us some really exquisite designs this spring season which we are so excited about. They’ve collected a pallet of vibrant colors and combined them into accentuating patterns, designs and hues that will compliment your event as well as really excite your guests for the event up ahead.

Some of SanLori’s new designs include their long & tall invitations which feature a grosgrain ribbon tied into the card at the top. These invitations are great for bridal showers, wedding invitations or any other type of formal event. They are also great for someone with an abundance of information that they need to convey to their guests as they are so long and the designs of the card are only at the top or bottom to allow for optimum text placement. Below is a short sampling of some of the new designs you’ll see in their collection:

Ribbons not your thing? Most designs are also available in a non-ribbon version as well as other forms of the design in different sizes with different embellishments (like pockets). This is great for the customer working to create an entire ensemble for their wedding including a save the date card, wedding invitation, response card or rehearsal dinner invitation.

Browse these invitations & more at InvitationBox.com!

With Valentine’s Day well over, we’re already moving onto the next holiday…St. Patrick’s Day, which is March 17, 2010!

St. Patrick’s day is a national holiday of Ireland that is celebratesd in Canada, the US, Australia, the UK, Argentina and New Zealand. It is a celebration of spring for the Irish & non-Irish. St. Patrick’s Day was developed in the early 17th century and is meant as a holy day for Roman Catholics in Ireland. In 432 AD St. Patrick had a vision to improve Ireland and convert the people into Christianity. The actual St. Patrick’s Day is celebrated on the date that St. Patrick died. Current St. Patrick’s Day traditions celebrate the work of St. Patrick and include parades, parties, bar hops and everyone sporting green attire! Oh, and don’t forget the green beer, either!

When planning your next St. Patrick’s Day event be sure to check out some of InvitationBox’s new IB Designs products which include shamrocks and the ever-so-famous Irish cliche “Kiss Me, I’m Irish”. Take a look at some of the new designs below…

Ready to sport your green? St. Patrick’s Day is just a few weeks away!

Is the way to a man’s heart really through his stomach? If so, it’s time to mix up the perfect recipe for love! At InvitationBox.com we’ve noticed a popular trend in the bridal shower invitations lately with kitchen & recipe showers! Our vendor’s spring lines have introduced a few new products that compliment that very theme! We have designs featuring large mixers with mixing bowls all stirring up the recipe for love! One of our recipe shower invitations even has a ‘cut here’ section for your guests to fill-in a recipe for the bride to use in her new kitchen after she is wed!

So what does a kitchen & recipe shower really entail? A kitchen themed bridal shower is a great way for the non-cooking bride to collect items she’ll need for her new kitchen and some ideas, recipes and pointers on how to cook as a couple. Gifts will be items suitable for the kitchen, barbecuing, baking or cultural cooking. After choosing your invitations, begin planning your event. Decorate your shower with mini rolling pins, recipes, aprons or chef hats. You could even have everyone work together to make cookies or cupcakes and then decorate them at the shower as a group project. Have everyone share a cooking disaster or a time when they prepared something that touched someone they love. Collect recipes from all guests and give them to the bride at the end to help her start a recipe box. Send each guest home with a small kitchen themed item like bag clips, a wisk, magnets or hot sauce to spice things up.

Still think the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach? Well, we have to agree! Start planning your next bridal shower with one of our great Kitchen & Recipe shower invitations, today.

Every so often I try to post blogs about common issues/trends we see in customers inquiries and orders. We have recently received an extreme amount of requests for pre-printed thank you notes. This meaning a folded note with a child’s name on the front and a pre-printed message on the inside, for example, “Thank you for coming to my birthday and for your generous gift! Love Emily”, etc. We do our best to educate our customers on proper etiquette regarding stationery orders, especially with this particular request. Proper etiquette dictates that a thank you note should never be pre-printed. It suggests to the recipient that you did not take the time to really appreciate their gift or attendance to your event and is usually considered rather, well tacky, for lack of a better word.

If a child is under the age of four, of course the child is not expected to handwrite a thank you note. This then becomes the responsibility of the parent. Write a cute but short note about how much your son or daughter liked the gift/how they used it, etc. If the child is a bit older and has begun writing you can ask the child what message they would like to say to X guest and write it for them. Then have your child write their name at the bottom or draw a little picture into the inside of the card. Your guests will think this gesture is sweet, kind and absolutely adorable. They may even keep the card as a keepsake. When kids get a bit older you can have them write their own thank you notes or purchase fill-in thank you notes where they just need to write a few words to complete the thank you note. It doesn’t have to be long or elaborate, just a simple thank you & their name.

The idea is to create lasting manners that your child will carry with them throughout life. It always means a lot when someone receives a handwritten thank you note in this day and age of email and texting.

Not sure what items to choose? Below is just a small preview of our kids thank you notes and fill-ins available:

We know that every birthday your child has is important, however your baby’s first birthday is one that marks so many accomplishments in your child’s life, from their first steps to their first word! Celebrate your baby turning one in a big way! With all of our new updated 2010 collections InvitationBox.com has a plethora of new 1st birthday party invitations for boys, girls or both!

When planning your child’s first birthday party be sure to plan the party for a time that does not include nap-time! This will make for a happy baby and happy guests. Plan a short party with plenty of colorful decorations with a theme that matches your little one’s personality – be it Sesame Street, princess, pirate, primary colors, cupcakes, circus, balloons or presents. Your guests will love watching your baby open their gifts as they jump from present to present. You may even want to buy two cakes (one for everyone at the party and a little cake/cupcake for your baby to tear into, being it is his/her first cake)! Be sure to have a camera ready as these pictures are sure to leave priceless memories.

Send the 1st birthday party invitations approximately 2-3 weeks before the event, depending on if your guests are local or out-of-state. Below is a short preview of the new 1st birthday party invitations we have available from our 2010 collections:

Browse these invitations & more at InvitationBox.com!

Over the holidays I was walking downtown and saw a group of girls in similar outfits carrying feather boas, a huge clip board and pen. It was then that I realized they were having a bachelorette party scavenger hunt! What a great way to get the bridal party and girlfriends of the bride and groom together to get pumped up for the big wedding day ahead?

When planning your bachelorette scavenger hunt pre-order “bridal party” or “bachelorettes” t-shirts so that everyone in your group can match and find each other throughout the night. You may even want to create teams that compete against one another to finish the list. Make sure the bride has a veil, garter or special t-shirt to wear so that she stands out. Your scavenger hunt can have different themes, depending on how crazy you want the night to go or where you are celebrating. You can do a Lifetime Memories hunt with finding pictures of things the bride has done throughout her childhood. Do a honeymoon scavenger hunt and search for lingerie and things related with the honeymoon destination like sand, a palm tree, tiki candles, grass skirts, etc. ‘I Dare You…’ hunts are even more fun with acquiring men’s phone numbers, dancing with a man the age of your dad, finding someone with the groom’s name, etc. Or, create an ‘Amazing Race’ scavenger hunt with clues at all different locations with a final destination in mind. You don’t get the next clue until you complete the dare. You’ll be surprised by how many people you’ll meet and how many people will try to help you finish your scavenger hunt!

Remember to set the tone for your wild and crazy event with a bachelorette party invitation from our fun collection!