As You Graduate

Today is the last day of school and now our baby will be an official senior. I am holding on because I already know how fast this ride goes! Summer will fly by in a flurry, admissions essays, SAT & ACT exams will be taken and Kylie will start her college applications and school tours. Next it will be her final season of volleyball, senior night, powder puff, senior project, prom and the final yearbook signing...all leading up to graduation night. It took me a few minutes to summarize in words and I believe this year will fly by equally as quickly when looking back. So seniors...savor every moment! Soak in every great lesson there is to learn and focus on having no regrets when you graduate. Congratulations to Joe, John, Meagan, Kaitlyn, Adrian, Nick and all the other graduates of the Class of 2012!

For this year's grad cards, I found inspiration from a card that I cased on Pinterest, created by Beth Apalooza.

Making it My Own

I modified the design slightly and created these cap & gown cards in assorted colors:

These are perfect to use as cards, announcements or thank you notes!

Here are some close up pictures of the individual cards...

The West Shore Colors (Navy & Silver)

Viera High Colors (Green & Gold)

Standard Black & White with Gold

(this one is for my niece's 8th grade graduation)

The easiest way that I found to mass produce these cards was to cut out templates of the paper piecings.

Here are some of the dimensions that I used:

Large triangle: 4-1/4" tall x 3-5/8" wide

Smaller triangle: 2" tall x 1-1/2" wide

Cap: 2-1/4" square

Striping: Cut 1/4" x 3-1/2" strips to glue and overlap under cap; trim excess from top of card.

Now for the tassel making tips:

1. Cut your template. I used a scrap of card stock 1-7/8"w x 2"h (*Note: the width doesn’t matter).

2. Wrap colored floss (embroidery thread) approx. 8 full loops around the cardstock and cut end.

3. Thread a small piece of thread under the top strands and knot. 

4. Next cut the bottom strands to remove from template. 

5. Cut a small piece of floss long enough to blend the ends in with the tassle.

6. Make another small knot to create the top of the tassle and blend threads in with the rest of the tassle. 7. Punch hole or make a slit with a cutting blade and mat to thread top tie of tassle through the hole. 

8. Insert colored mini brad in hole, knot the floss and trim before gluing onto card. 

**For added dimension, you can use double sided adhesive foam on back side of the cap.

Other ideas:

• Add a personalized mini diploma created on your computer.

• Dress up girl cards with rhinestones, mini pearls or bling, as on the card I cased.

• Use white or metallic alphabet stickers to personalize or add messages.

• Stamp a verse in versamark ink, then heat emboss in white or gold on the front or inside of cards.

(I did this on inside as well as to dress up the outside of the envelope. I used a collage of Good Luck, Congratulations and Graduation stamps and used the writing tip of the Versamarker pen to write in the lucky grad's name before embossing with gold embossing powder.)