• Cowboy hat invitations provide a hint of festivities to come.cowboy hats for sale image by itsallgood from Fotolia.com
  
  Parties actually begin with the invitations---when you entice your guests to come to the party with hints about the fun, friends and food they will soon enjoy. In addition to the basics of where, when and what time, invitations should include lively colors, intriguing elements and creativity to capture the imaginations of your guests. A cowboy barbecue provides plenty of ready-made ideas.
  
  

Classic Shapes

• Boots, cowboy hats or sombreros, lassos, sheriff and deputy badges, saloons with poker players and whiskey shots, and cattle heads with long curved horns are all classic cowboy shapes that you can easily draw freehand or find in books or online. Or choose barbecue shapes such as a large iron pot of chili. Fold heavy stock paper into invitations, trace the shapes you find onto the paper, cut out the shapes (leaving one side intact for the fold), and enliven the invitations with colorful markers or paints. For instance, boots don't have to be one color; add silver spurs and colored geometric designs. Add colored bands and feathers to Stetson cowboy hats and colorful saddles to bucking horses. Or use a fancy saloon lighting fixture with a deck of cards and a six-shooter lying on a table underneath it. Make the chili in an iron pot bright red.
  
  

Real Garnishes

• For some of the classic cowboy shapes, glue actual additions onto the invitations. Find colorful feathers to glue onto cowboy hats and colorful bits of fabric to glue onto sombreros. Glue rows of brightly colored sequins to boots, hats and saloon lights. Glue bits of straw over lassos and add some straw to each of the different invitation shapes. You could even glue red kidney beans to your pot of chili.
  
  

Borders

• Adding a colorful border to a plain sheet of heavy stock paper and printing party details in the center creates a festive invitation. Use materials such as red or blue bandanna fabric or a furry cattle-print fabric. Or use a coarse fabric with colorful designs to suggest a serape, and add a sombrero at the top of the invitation. Other ideas include a border of barbed wire interspersed with small cattle shapes, playing cards interspersed with glasses of whiskey, or corn cobs interspersed with steaks and mugs of beer.
  
  

Wanted Posters

• If your guest list is somewhat small and you have photos of your guests from other occasions, make personalized invitations using those photos. You can use a group shot or send out invitations to each person with his own picture in the center. Find a wanted poster to copy, with different-sized printing, and add your party details at the bottom of the poster and around the edges. Add edgy elements to larger photos, such as moustaches for the men and saloon-girl hairdos and red boas for the women.