It's definitely a dream of mine to host a Thanksgiving dinner once we have a home large enough to accommodate both sides of our families.  Katie from Chellé Paperie and her husband have a wonderful tradition of celebrating a "little thanksgiving" with friends and neighbors before the actual Thanksgiving holiday with family at the end of the month.  So until I've got a bit more room here, I'm just going to file Katie's gorgeous die cut "little thanksgiving" dinner invitations away in my inspiration file:

Katie created the main invitation from an A2 sized die cut card made from 2 layers of pearlescent cardstock flush mounted to a doublethick bookboard (each one is about 1/4 of an inch think!).  Katie also included an extra card with a request for each guest to bring either a dish, a drink or a dessert:

One of my favorite details from this invitation is the canvas pocket holding the individual invitation components, and which was sewn from natural linen left over from Katie and Ben's wedding tablecloths last year!  Katie added a tiny printed tag and pinked the edge for a bit of bonus detail, then mailed the entire invitation in a simple cream A7 envelope:

Katie's primary goal was to keep the invitation design super simple and make the invitation be about the different materials and the experience of receiving something so tangible and with lots of little details.  Katie said that her dream would be to have had time to write each guest a handwritten note saying how thankful she and her husband are to know each of them — but I imagine that each guest must be thrilled to receive such a beautiful invitation and to be included in this wonderful neighborhood tradition.  So lovely!

{image credits: Chellé Paperie – thanks Katie!}