Graduation Cards

I made 3 graduation cards today, each for kids from different schools. Instead of the traditional cap and gown motif, I used the "Journey" stamp from Define Your Life, then worked around it. This stamp set is retiring at the end of the onth...and I can't decide if I am keeping it or not! Everything used on these cards is from Stampin' Up!

The first card is for my nephew. He is such a good kid! Excelled in academics and wrestling, and he is very respectful to his entire family. I believe he will do great in college and beyond! I wasn't sure what image to use, but since I used the journey stamp, my husband recommended this "Sail Away" stamp from the holiday mini. It is only available until the end of August, so make sure you get it! I stamped it with basic black on whisper white, then lightly sponged with retired bordering blue. I rounded the corners, and mounted it on basic gray. The striped ribbon is retired, but a perfect touch for the black and red school colors. Extra large silver brads and dimensionals add bulk, but I will be hand delivering this card tomorrow!

My next card is for the daughter of a staff member. Her school colors are back and gray, so I added lots of basic jewel rhinestones to perk it up. My large butterfly was cut from a retired pattern stack using the sizzix butterfly die, and I added lots of butterflies I had in my stash from the beautiful wings embosslit die. The white piece was a scrap, already embossed...save those scraps! Satin ribbon and retired elastic cord finish it off.

Finally, the youngest daughter of a long-time volunteer graduated. Her school colors are blue and white, so I decided to use some of my soon-to-retire Blueberry Crisp dsp, mounted on pacific point and very vanilla card stock. I stamped the grass from Inspired by Nature with crumb cake ink, and lightly sponged bashful blue in the sky. Another butterfly here, this one accented with a large antique brad and 2 basic pearls colored with my pacific point marker. I added some seam binding under the sentiment which is mounted on bashfu blue and pacific point.

Hope the kids like these cards...but odds are, they'll love the checks inside!

Inky {{{HUGS}}}