Quick help needed: Stinky Birthday invites...litterally!

[MamaMolly]

Help Mamas! I need some opinions. I made some really cute bunny themed birthday invites for DD's 1st. They have a little wooden bunny on the front. The problem is that the wood stinks, and I mean STINKS like fish. It isn't the paint I used, the wood was stinky when I bought it and I stupidly wishfully hoped that the smell would go away over time. It has been nearly 2 weeks and they still REEK. Like walk across the room and you can still smell them stink. Eeeeww.

I know it is stupid, but I'm torn. The invites are super cute, it was the only bunny themed thing I could find (important cause that is/was the design for the cake), so a part of me still wants to use them. But they stink. I can't send out stinky invites!!!! I just can't!!!

DH wants me to send them, mostly because he is sick of the overall hand wringing I've been doing over this party. Plus he's being super cheap. The d@mn bunnies only cost $0.25 each so we aren't even out $5.00 when I replace them.

So I guess I want you guys to tell me I'm right and that I can't send them :-) but I'm open to being talked into it.

So let's hear what you have to say! Thanks!

[Oregonmother]

Could you spray some sort of fruity body spray or something on them?

[punkrockmama]

Girlie, unless the party is some sort of "seafood gone bad" theme, you should toss them and buy new ones. If it's really that bad, imagine what it will be like brewing in those enevelopes. People would be dropping all over town when they opened their mail.

Maybe someone will have an idea on how to de-funk them......

[MamaMolly]

Thanks, ladies! I have tried to de-funkify them today and sadly there is just no saving them. Now I have to go find something else to use :-( I don't think I can even use the cards I'd glued the bunnies to. Rats!

I tried to use my scrapbooking paper to cut out bunnies, but they don't look very nice. Oh well, I guess I'm off to Michaels and JoAnnes.

I'll let everyone know how it works out!

[punkrockmama]

What did you try? I was thinking, doesn't baking soda absorb smells? Could you put them in a box with some of that and wait a few days, see if the funk goes away?

I am not crafty or even that smart, so that's the only thing I really thought of.....

So sorry your bunnies smell. x(

[Jo..]

I'd send them. It's more the time you spent than the money. Stick 'em outdoors on the clothesline for a day, then send them on their merry way.

People will blame their postal carriers and think that he/she has an unfortunate body odor situation that permeated the envelopes. No one will think to blame you for the fish stank. }(

[MamaMolly]

Well, I tried spraying them with Oust and Febreese, and even did the baking soda. I think it is hopeless. Now they are floral-fishy. Yum! So then I removed the bunnies and tried spraying just the paper with the hopes of reusing it, but it still stinks, too. There goes $10 in card stock. :-(

And I would just go on and send them but DH's family is the kind to call each other and compare notes, and I'd never hear the end of it. I *still* hear about the wedding pictures, and here we are 9 years later!

I've kept one that I will seal in a plastic envelope for her scrapbook, just cause they really were totally cute and I know that in a few years this will be really funny. I don't mind being the butt of the joke as long as I'm the one telling it! ;-)

Last night I went online and ordered some sweet bunny themed blank invites. I'll print them out and send them. They won't have that homemade crafty feel I was going for, but they will be cute and non-stinky! And to be fair, DH chose the new ones and they were a little spendy ($27 for 20). I guess it was more that he was sick of hearing me fuss than he was being cheap.

Thanks for advice, opinions and support Mamas. Molly

[Jen841]

White vinegar! Put them in a garbage bag with a big open bowl of white vinegar for 24 hrs. I swear, the vinegar will absorb the odor and the cards won't smell like vinegar after getting some fresh air.

This was my trick to get smoke smell out of clothing after parties in highschool.