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Perfect for your Cars birthday party, these super cute pit pass invitations will make each kid feel like an extra special VIP. Get the free printout and tutorial to easily make your own.
Despite not knowing where the party would even be held (we are doing some construction at home), I had already begun to make the invitations for our Cars birthday party weeks ago.
I had thought about making race ticket invitations, but when I looked up what a race ticket actually looked like, I also saw VIP passes of sorts, and thought a Cars pit pass invitation would be cuter.
Just as almost everything that one can think of, somebody has pretty much always already done it. While searching the internet for ideas, I found people who had already done similar pit passes for their kids’ parties.
I also found some templates that could be quickly and easily used for instant invitations, but, even though they were cute, I wanted to make things complicated and make my own. I searched for public domain Cars clipart, and these images are floating around on numerous sites that claim they are public domain images. Hopefully they are, but I don’t think you should have a problem using them for a personal project like a kids’ birthday party. (I would’t suggest selling products using them, though). 😉
To begin making the top part of the invitation with my son’s name written in the Cars logo, I started by downloading the blank logo here.
Then, in Photoshop, I wrote his name in Magneto Bold font (free download).
I used the second half of this tutorial, and a bit of experimentation, to get the chrome look that I wanted.
I played around with photoshop for awhile, and I came up with the above template. Feel free to download mine (Or here with writing that you can change) and use it yourself for your party!
(If you don’t have photoshop, here is a jpg template (but it won’t be as easy to customize.))
I then added my customized logo and the information about the party with options for both Spanish and English, of course.
Here is my customized logo with my son’s name in photoshop format, so you can easily change it to the name you want without having to adjust all of the settings.
I added a picture of my son, along with the logo of my friend’s preschool where we will be holding the party, on the Spanish pit pass invitation.
Once I had the pit pass invitation all planned out, I wanted to make them look authentic, so I printed them out on a thick photo paper and laminated each pit pass. I then punched a hole in the top for my homemade lanyards.
I would have bought the lanyards, but surprisingly lanyards, at least the ones available for shipping to Spain, are pretty expensive! Even when buying in bulk, I couldn’t find any for much less than a euro a piece. I wasn’t about to spend that much, especially since we had an idea to give one to everybody who comes to the party. That would add up pretty quickly!
So, instead, I bought red cord wherever I could find any. Even something as simple as that can prove to be difficult here.
One day, though, I found the perfect find: Cars shoelaces. They weren’t as cheap as the red cord, and there were only a few left, but I snatched up all of the remaining shoelaces.
Once I had my cord ready, I still wasn’t sure how I was going attach it to the pit passes. I decided I’d need some sort of lanyard clip, but couldn’t find any anywhere either, so I ordered some tiny ones over the internet.
I still wasn’t sure how to attach the the lanyard clips to the cord.
Just when I was about to give up, I found some crimp end findings at a local store. They’re great because they hold the two ends of the cord together and have a loop for hooking in the lanyard clips.
To help fit the cord ends in the crimp end findings more easily, and to ensure they wouldn’t unravel, I first burnt the ends of the cord, and pinched the two ends of the cord together. The melted cord united both ends, keeping them together even without the findings. I then crimped the findings over the burnt ends.
I finally was able to hook the lanyard clips though both the loop on the findings and through my hole in the pit pass invitations, and that was it!
Quick, easy, and cute!
At the party, everybody wore their passes. I had originally planned on only giving them out to the kids, but they ended up being so quick, easy and cheap to make, that I made some for everybody.
Cars Party Ideas – My Son’s 3rd Birthday
Irena
Hi Tracy,
I also cannot open the template, would you mind emailing it to me also? This is exactly what I was looking for!!!
Irena
Tracy Ariza
Sure, Irena!
Kristen
Hi Tracy! I love the cars logo with Eric. My twins turn 3 next weekend and I would love to use that for their birthday decorations. Is there any way you could email it to me? You’re work is amazing!
Thanks
~Kristen
Tracy Ariza
Hi Kristen,
Thank you!
I’m in birthday party planning mode myself as my son turns 4 next weekend too. 🙂
I’ll send you an email right now! Wish them a happy birthday from me.
Dhen
Hey! I came across your work. It’s wonderful. My baby will be having his 2nd birthday this coming September. I want to ask for your permission if I can use your pit pass template 🙂 I tried to l click the “dowmload mine” in the template. However, I am getting an error :(( #unsuccessful Thanks .
Dhen
Or perhaps, I should click the picture itself 🙂
Tracy Ariza
In any case, I have sent you templates in various formats. Happy birthday to your baby! I hope you have a great party.
Yu Okamura
hello,Tracy
I was impressed by your wonderful pitpass!I love it very much <3
Now I'm making some stuffs for my son's 4th BD party.In Japan, there's not much partygoods that I want.
but I'm not good at PC so if you dont mind, could you make me the cars logo with my son's name ?his name is Sora.
i hope you understand my messy English X(
andie325 (@andie325)
hello! I love what you did with the pit passes! I too, can’t download the photoshop template. I can adjust it myself as needed, but would love the file if you still have it available! I’m off to read more details of your party! 🙂
Alex Alexis
Hello Tracy,
What a great web page, your very talented. Thank you so much for sharing your ideas and templates.
I was looking for an idea similar to yours for my Son’s birthday party in a few weeks when I found your page online.
I think I will use your ideas if you don’t mind as its professional and so effective.
I don’t have Photoshop, can this project be done in any of the Office products?
Could you possibly email me the the Car Logo with my Son’s name?
His name is Aaron
Regards Alex
Tracy Ariza
Thanks, Alex.
I’m not sure about using Office products for adding text, etc., but there are online editors that I have used if you don’t have photoshop. (http://pixlr.com is one of them.)
I have sent you an email. I hope Aaron has a great birthday!!
Baby 3
This is so great. Thank you for sharing. I too was unable to download the template for the pass. If you could find the time to email it to me I would GREATLY appreciate it. I really want this party to be great. My son is turning two and he is my third child so I want to make sure that his parties are as great as the first kids were….. I have been driving myself crazy trying to create all of this in MS Paint because I do not have photoshop. Please let me know if you are able to email the pass template. Thanks a million either way.
Tracy Ariza
Of course, I’ll send it to you.
I’m looking into the best way to share files. I can’t upload photoshop files, and my other file sizes are altered automatically when I upload them, so I don’t want to use that method here.
As soon as I find the time for it, I will look into a better system, but meanwhile, I have no problem sending them to people. 🙂
Heather
I love your pit passes. My son’s birthday is happening in two weeks and your template will knock out another to do for me. Would you mind emailing it to me? I couldn’t download it. The name is editable yes?
Thanks so much! Heather
Tracy Ariza
I need to look into changing the way to download these. 🙂 I was using that service for sharing files when my blog was hosted at Blogger and I had no means of sharing them through my host, but now that I pay for hosting, I should be able to upload the files to my hosting service and more easily share them that way.
That said, while I am trying to figure out that process, I will happily email you the files. I hope they work out for you!
Lisset
Hi, I really like how you did the vip passes, i was wondering where did you get the laminated and what size did you print them?
Tracy Ariza
Thank you!
I used Photoshop to fit 6 invitations on each sheet of A4 (Standard European size paper- similar to letter, but a bit wider and shorter). There were 3 across width-wise. I did it that way to get the most I could out of each sheet of photo paper.
I actually have an inexpensive laminating machine, so I used that. Here most paper stores will laminate things for you pretty inexpensively, so you could try that. You could always use transparent contact paper in front and behind (facing each other), too, but it would probably be a bit flimsier.
Jenny
Thank you for making your photoshop template available. I was going to make a similar pit pass and came across yours, which is very cute and which would save me a lot of time. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to download your file. Is there a way you could send it to me by email?
Jenny
…and, if so, do you think you can send me the file with “Eric/3” if the text is editable? I only have Photoshop Elements and can’t get that chrome look. Thanks so much!
Tracy Ariza
Sure…
Let me look for it when I get to my computer, and I’ll send it to the email you used to comment!
Stephan
Hello! I would greatly appreciate if you could send me your template. Thank you so much!!
Tracy Ariza
Hi Stephan,
I didn’t used to have them for download within the post, but you can now download any of the templates through the links in the post.
If you are having problems with any of the specific links, let me know so that I can update them. (And I can send you that specific template.)