A salute to 2 Graduating Generals

Thank goodness I got a Silhouette Cameo.  Last year I made this card with various punches and dies and I really wanted to step it up this year.  

I first decided to make the white background card but knew I needed two and as one was for a girl and the other a boy, I decided on the second card having a gray base.

My vision was to make these pieced clean and simple cards.  Well, I wouldn't say I ended up creating my vision but rather elaborating on it.  The importing the image and cutting the pieces was straightforward enough for even a Silhouette novice like me.  What was complicated was trying to do the inlaid die cuts.  First I tried with wet glue. DISASTER, it was gluing itself where I didn't want it.

Then a change of plan, how about some peel and stick that I have been hoarding for at least 10 years, may as well try it, what do I have to lose!  Oh my goodness, that stuff is sticky.  It all started well but honestly when I was done there seemed to be gaps between the pieces and I just didn't know what to do with them.  So now what?

I cut my pieces again and whilst it was cutting I thought about all my adhesives and decided to try my YES! paste as that wouldn't grab the pieces and would allow some wiggle room.  Well that seemed to work for this card except I did manage to have a small amount of glue here and there.  I decided to stamp the graduation year on another panel and embossed glitter silver for the girl's card and clear for the boy's card.  Hmmm now what?  I really didn't want to give up on my idea.  So I grabbed the graduation caps I cut out the other day when I was doing test cuts and arranged them as if they had been thrown up in the air after the ceremony! Ta Da! oh and they just happen to cover any small spots of glue over reach.  

I took the inside of the card money holder up a notch and added some more of the caps!

The cards were finished off with a coordinating envelope with the year stamped in ombre school colors.  I really like how that looks!

What it took -
Card size - 8 1/2 in x 5 1/2 in
Cardstock - Recollections 110lb white; 65lb white, gray, blue;
Stamps - Kitchen Sink Stamps Playful Numbers, Kitchen Sink Stamps 3 Step Graduation; High Hopes Stamps Grad Cap;
Ink - Versamark; Memento Nautical Blue, Memento Gray Flannel;
Accessories - Zing! Glitter Embossing Powder Silver; Dimensional Adhesive; YES! paste.

Graduation Cap Explosion!

Have to admit that I love the effect of these boxes.  I made this one for the same graduate with the knight card so kept the same color scheme but when with a stronger graduation theme.

All the caps and diploma and numbers I cut with the Silhouette Cameo from stamps I have and scanned in.  Love how it turned out.  I decided not to over stamp the numbers as I could just cut them out in any color and I liked the pop of white.  If I had it to do over I maybe would have shadowed them with a black.

Ingredients
Card Size - 8 1/2 x 5 1/2 in;
Cardstock - Recollections 65lb black, white; Bazzill: Maroon; Paper Studio: Classics;
Stamps - High Hopes Stamps: Grad Cap, Diploma; Kitchen Sink Stamps: Playful Numbers; Hampton Arts: Graduation Set T;
Ink - Memento: Tuxedo Black;
Accessories - clear packaging, dimensional tape.

Oh What a Knight!

Our valiant knight graduated and he had to be rewarded with a special card!  Well, I hope he thought it was special.  Again I do what I do, I started off my design with school colors and mascot.  So Maroon and Silver and a Knight (they also use navy but I didn't know how much so just went with what I know). 

I stamped the background with my stamp positioner and Memento ink so I could get deep coverage.  Then I lined up tape and foiled the silver lines by burnishing the foil into the tape.  All that sounds easy but took long enough to do.

Then I decided to take a leap of faith and learn to use my Silhouette Cameo.  I stamped my graduation hat and knight and a diploma on cardstock and scanned them into my computer and then used the Silhouette software to combine the mortar board and the knight into one image to make a cut file.  I never seem to start with the easy things!  I managed it with the help of YouTube and a bit of patience and love how it turned out.  I used my stamp positioner to line up the diecut with the stamped images starting with the mortar board which I stamped and masked to stamp the knight in.

I colored the knight with Copics and then die cut the circle with Nestabilities and stamped the "you did it!" in Versamark and clear embossed.  I think if I had to do it over I would have gone with white embossing to make it pop a little more.  After that I layered the circles under the graduating knight.  The last bit is that I decided to decorate the envelope to match in an ombre effect of gray to maroon.

Ingredients
Card Size - 8 1/2 x 5 1/2 in;
Cardstock - Recollections 110lb: white; Bazzill Maroon; Foil Paper;
Stamps - High Hopes Stamps: Knight, Grad Cap; Stampendous: School Years; Kitchen Sink Stamps: Playful Numbers;
Ink - Memento: Tuxedo Black; Rhubarb Stalk; Gray Flannel;
Accessories - Silver foil; Dimensional tape.

ROAR! RIT Class of 2015

What do you do when 2 out of 3 of your son's roommates graduate? Two different cards? Two the same?  Subtlety or KAPOW!  Well, I tried to think of 2 different but equal designs and I couldn't so this is what I did.

I decided to go with the School colors of Orange and Brown and the School mascot, a tiger, as the focus.  And of course, the tiger HAD to be graduating!  Then I thought, what if it were a shaker card?  Everyone loves a skaker card right?  So I looked through my bead stash and even my sequin stash and nothing.  All my sequins seem to be Christmas themed and my beads are tiny.  

So I decided to experiment with Shrinky Dinks.  Yes!  All those little mortar boards and diplomas are Shrinky Dinks.  Did I mention how awesome his roommates are? In fact, the Shrinky Dinks mortar board is the same one on the tiger's head. Boom! I love it when a plan starts to come together.

I made the main background using a non-patented hinged stamp positioner so I could restamp as needed and keep it aligned.  The one I have isn't easy on this size card but I made it work.  I masked the tiger and stamped over him with the large tiger stripe background stamp.

Then it was time to decorate the envelope to match.  I went with the same background stamp and an ombre effect of the school colors but starting with black moving through brown to orange.  Who needs a specialist inkpad?!

Ingredients:

Card Size - 8 1/2 x 5 1/2 in;

Cardstock - Recollections 65lb: white, kraft, orange, black; scrap packaging transparency;

Stamps - High Hopes Stamps: Tiger, Grad Cap, Diploma; Stampendous: Simply Safari, School Years; Hero Arts: Graduation; See D's: Plain Jane Alphabet; Cornish Heritage Farms: Tiger Stripe;
Ink - Memento: Tuxedo Black, Rich Cocoa, Tangelo;

Color - Copics;

Accessories - black cord.