Very Hungry Caterpillar 1st Birthday Invitations

Our son's 1st  birthday party is set for the first weekend of June and Joel and I have been working tirelessly on his invitations. We are doing a "Very Hungry Caterpillar" theme, and the theme starts with the invitations so here is a little tutorial on how I made my invitations. I think they turned out very, very cute, especially since I do not consider myself a "crafty" person at all. 


Materials needed (I got most of mine at Michaels) for 30 invitations:

• 1 large package of primary colors card stock
• 5-6 sheets of white or cream card stock
• 1 sheet black cardstock
• 1 roll of wrapping paper with polka dots
• 1 large Craft glustick (Scotch brand works great)
• 4 Martha Stewart Acrylic craft paint in Tartan Red, Scottish Highlands, Mint and Chamomile
• 1 pair of scissors
• 30 4x6 pictures of your child (closeup works best)
• I red marker
• 1 black marker
• 2- 50 count packages of medium sized brads
• 1 Martha Stewart Circle cutter (trust me when I say you NEED this)

1. cut out 30 circles of each color card stock (red, yellow, green, blue, orange) using the Martha Stewart circle cutter (I used the 4.5 inch measurement for the invites)
2. cut out 60 circles of the cream or white card stock at the 4 inch setting on the circle cutter.
3. Cut out 30 circles of the wrapping paper at the 4 inch setting.
4. Cut out 30 number "1's" or whatever age your child is turning out of cardstock color of your choice...I used red.
5. cut out 30 circles from your 4x6 pictures using the circle cutter set at 4 inches.
6. For the red circles, paint on eyes and nose of caterpillar using the craft paint.
7. For one set of the white/cream circles, write the invitation. I used "We can hardly believe a year has passed, our little caterpillar has grown so fast! Please join us for some food & fun, August James is turning....." I used a red marker for this so it would really stand out.
8. For the second set of white card stock, put the party date/address and then make a caterpillar. I dipped my forefinger and thumb in some of the paint (I mixed the 2 greens and yellows to create a nice green that matched the book better) and made a "thumbprint" caterpillar. Then I added eyes, nose and drew the feet and antennas with a marker. This is so much easier than drawing a caterpillar and it looks super cute, too.
9. Glue the first set of white card stock onto the yellow circle. I also added a very small picture of my son crawling across the sand on the edge because he looked like a caterpillar but you don't have to do this.
10. Glue the 2nd set of white card stock onto the blue circles.
11. Glue the wrapping paper circles onto the green circle and then glue the number on top of that. Trace the number with black permanent marker so it really "pops".
12. Glue the picture circles onto the orange circles.
13. Cut out antennas (free forming it is totally fine, I did each one a little differently) and glue to the back of the red circles so the caterpillar has antennas. 
14. Set up an assembly line of all your circles in order; red, yellow, green, blue and orange.
15. Poke the brads through each circle until they form a caterpillar (not make sure each circle is on top of each other successively to put the brads in or the caterpillar will not close!)
16. You are done!

Here is the finished product and some close-ups of the individual circles:

Yellow Circle

Blue Circle

Finished Invitation

Folded-up invitation for the envelopes

Another finished Invitation