Ice Cream Bar Party Invitation
We live in a digital age, and while Mother Earth thanks us for every effort to conserve trees, modern life stills relies on paper. Yes, everything from newspapers to household bills to the paperwork that’s required for everyone who will be showing up to school in a few shorts weeks is online, but many processes from renting an apartment to buying a car still necessitate a pile of paperwork. I do believe in conservation, but as a homekeeper and a lifestyle writer, I also have to report that there are very good and legitimate uses for paper. I am not the only writer I know who, while not fearing gizmos, still carries a notebook and pen wherever he goes. And I believe in the practice of sending paper cards, invitations, even the occasional letter, through actual postal mail.
A stationery store was long an established presence in an old-fashioned downtown. You could assume that there would be one just as surely as that there would be a lunch counter and a dime store. As recently as my own elementary school days, not only were there classes in etiquette (imagine trying to get away with that today, though I wish someone would), but there were modules in letter writing. A box of stationery, the paper correctly trimmed in a vibrant “young” color as advised by a refined sales lady in a slim dress, was a de rigeur gift on birthdays and holidays from grandmothers and spinster aunts. The sales lady would tie the box with a grosgrain ribbon in a complimentary tone, and affix the back with the gold foil stamp of the stationer’s. Not only did this make the presentation special – a lovely touch that gift givers always do well to remember – but it was smart; it meant that you would always know where to go to replenish your stock of writing paper. It was also traditional to present a roll of stamps and a writing pen with the first box of stationery, and for the first the first letter sent forth from the stationery wardrobe to be a thank you note to the giver for such a considerate gift.
Of course, we don’t write many letters anymore. Along with many of my fellow lifestyle writers, I have been awaiting a backlash to e-vites, e-cards, online photo albums, et cetera. All of these e-tools are useful and we all use them. But it was inevitable that, especially in the lifestyle arena, the importance of paper, from stationery to crafts, would re-assert itself. I have confirmed this through numerous walks through numerous downtowns, from my two hometowns to the California wine country to the online community. In New York City, Paper Presentation offers a delightful stop and a comprehensive inventory for pretty and useful tools for paper crafters, while Jo-Ann fills the niche online. Last month, Target announced it would carry a line of greeting cards for same sex marriage.
Paper crafters comprise a passionate corps that cares about fun, creativity and propriety. We care about preserving memories as well as about making them. We care about making every aspect of an event memorable and special, from the invitation to the event to the favors for it to the scrapbook pages that commemorate it. We express this care through our hearts and with our hands. We make greeting cards. We stamp wrapping paper. We calligraph place cards. We print recipe cards and make memory boxes and matte photographs and are doing all of this while participating in the events themselves. Paper crafts are not just reflections of special events but gateways to them and commemorations of them. In a world of e-vites, a paper invitation arriving in a mailbox is itself an event. It gives your guests something extra as they anticipate the event through the media of the care you took in putting it together.
I propose that such a considerate, creative group as paper crafters deserves a party. Since it’s summer, let us host an ice cream social. To invite guests to it, Urban Home has created an original free downloadable party invitation themed after the great summertime treat: an ice cream bar. Removing the paper invitation, affixed with a genuine ice cream stick, from its nostalgic paper wrapper is almost as fun as unwrapping the real thing. This free, easy paper craft requires minimal materials, all of which are simple and inexpensive to obtain. If you need recipes for ice cream or other frozen treats to serve at your ice cream party, Urban Home has those here. And if, instead, you prefer to throw a cocktail party, Urban Home has a guide to those, including a free downloadable cocktail party invitation.
Click here for the project.
A stationery store was long an established presence in an old-fashioned downtown. You could assume that there would be one just as surely as that there would be a lunch counter and a dime store. As recently as my own elementary school days, not only were there classes in etiquette (imagine trying to get away with that today, though I wish someone would), but there were modules in letter writing. A box of stationery, the paper correctly trimmed in a vibrant “young” color as advised by a refined sales lady in a slim dress, was a de rigeur gift on birthdays and holidays from grandmothers and spinster aunts. The sales lady would tie the box with a grosgrain ribbon in a complimentary tone, and affix the back with the gold foil stamp of the stationer’s. Not only did this make the presentation special – a lovely touch that gift givers always do well to remember – but it was smart; it meant that you would always know where to go to replenish your stock of writing paper. It was also traditional to present a roll of stamps and a writing pen with the first box of stationery, and for the first the first letter sent forth from the stationery wardrobe to be a thank you note to the giver for such a considerate gift.
Of course, we don’t write many letters anymore. Along with many of my fellow lifestyle writers, I have been awaiting a backlash to e-vites, e-cards, online photo albums, et cetera. All of these e-tools are useful and we all use them. But it was inevitable that, especially in the lifestyle arena, the importance of paper, from stationery to crafts, would re-assert itself. I have confirmed this through numerous walks through numerous downtowns, from my two hometowns to the California wine country to the online community. In New York City, Paper Presentation offers a delightful stop and a comprehensive inventory for pretty and useful tools for paper crafters, while Jo-Ann fills the niche online. Last month, Target announced it would carry a line of greeting cards for same sex marriage.
Paper crafters comprise a passionate corps that cares about fun, creativity and propriety. We care about preserving memories as well as about making them. We care about making every aspect of an event memorable and special, from the invitation to the event to the favors for it to the scrapbook pages that commemorate it. We express this care through our hearts and with our hands. We make greeting cards. We stamp wrapping paper. We calligraph place cards. We print recipe cards and make memory boxes and matte photographs and are doing all of this while participating in the events themselves. Paper crafts are not just reflections of special events but gateways to them and commemorations of them. In a world of e-vites, a paper invitation arriving in a mailbox is itself an event. It gives your guests something extra as they anticipate the event through the media of the care you took in putting it together.
I propose that such a considerate, creative group as paper crafters deserves a party. Since it’s summer, let us host an ice cream social. To invite guests to it, Urban Home has created an original free downloadable party invitation themed after the great summertime treat: an ice cream bar. Removing the paper invitation, affixed with a genuine ice cream stick, from its nostalgic paper wrapper is almost as fun as unwrapping the real thing. This free, easy paper craft requires minimal materials, all of which are simple and inexpensive to obtain. If you need recipes for ice cream or other frozen treats to serve at your ice cream party, Urban Home has those here. And if, instead, you prefer to throw a cocktail party, Urban Home has a guide to those, including a free downloadable cocktail party invitation.
Click here for the project.
You would love my cousin's sense of decorum. He has greeting cards spread out across his kitchen table at all times, way ahead of schedule of birthdays, etc., he plans to send to people. Although, I guess he eats meals on the sofa.
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