Valentine Detective Party | Invitations

Every year I throw a Valentine party for my high school friends and their kids. It is so much fun, and a tradition I love. With a few of the kiddos being new readers, I thought it would be fun to do a Valentine detective party where they can solve different clues to find out who their secret admirer is. (It’s their mom by the way.)

I had so much fun planning this party. There are so many possibilities of games and party favors, that it was hard narrowing it down. This week I’ll take you through the whole party so that you can host your own. Today we’ll start with the invitations.

It was all about the details and getting all the little guests excited to join the party. I wanted the fun to start the moment they received it in the mail. I stamped the mailing envelope and file folder enclosed with a “top secret” stamp I made using the Silhouette Stamping Material. So easy, and gives it more of an authentic touch than my printer would.

This is where it gets fun. All the little extra pieces and details inside the folder make it so much more exciting when you can move and interact with the invitation.

Paper clipped to the inside of the folder are suspect profiles of their secret admirer(s). I saved the file as a .jpg image and printed it from my phone using my handy Instax printer. I love that thing!

The information to the party had to be read with the special heart decoder enclosed. This was a bit tricky to make on the design end of things, but I figured it all out and made it so easy for you. Yay! You can still see the bolded blue areas without the decoder, but the regular text can’t be read without it.

How to make decoder invitations:

Supplies Needed:

• Detective Invitation
• Magnifying Glass die cut
• Color Printer
• White cardstock
• Red or magenta cellophane/plastic
• Adhesive

Directions:

Printed Invitation

1. Download the Top Secret Invitation.
2. Add your own party details and information to the blue layer using the same color of blue as the other text.
3. Print the blue layer of invitation.
4. Print the red squiggle layer directly on top of the blue invitation you have already printed.
5. Cut out the invitation.

Decoder Lens

1. Download the magnifying glass die cut
2. Cut out two magnifying glasses
3. Cut out a small piece of red cellophane to go in between to the magnifying glass pieces.
4. Glue the cellophane to cover the center opening of the magnifying glass.
5. Glue the second magnifying glass on top of the other, with the red cellophane in between the two layers. This creates the decoder lens to read the invitation.

Sometimes when I spend this much time on an invitation I wonder if it was really worth it. I enjoy making them, but do people really care what the invitation looks like? At the party, several of the kids told me how cool the invitation was and that they had been reading it all week. One even brought it with her in the car because she was so excited for the party and wanted to decode the invitation again. So, was it worth it? Absolutely! I sure love those cute kiddos and their amazing moms.

Check out more details of the Valentine Detective Party
Valentine Detective Party | Games + Free Downloads
Valentine Detective Party | Party Favors