Memorial Day Weekend=Graduation Time!

When we lived in Illinois, graduation was something that happened in JUNE. When we moved south, we were very surprised to hear that the high schools held their ceremonies the Friday or Saturday of Memorial Day weekend. In Illinois, folks have been waiting SO LONG for it to get warm that doing something that would conflict with getting away to the lake or going to the pool would make some folks crabby. Here, it has been nice and warm for many weeks now, so it's just another weekend. At least that's my rationale for the decision to link graduation with the holiday weekend!

All this to say that I am in need of a graduation card for our next-door neighbor, Lauren. Her high school's colors are purple, black, and silver, so of course that's what dictated the color scheme. The design for this started out COMPLETELY differently, but when things happen, you have to make the best of them or start over. I NEVER want to start over, so I persevered and am pleased with the final outcome.

I started out with a solid Elegant Eggplant circle that was going to be mounted offset on the right side of the card. I stamped the word "congrats" in Basic Black on the Whisper White circle that was 1/4" smaller than the EE with my Outline Alphabet. Then I used my Versamark marker to color in each of the letters and heat emboss them with Sterling Silver EP. This went fairly well, but some of the black outlines disappeared, so I had to retrace the letters with my Black Stampin' Write Marker. That's where the trouble started. I decided to try to suggest some of the parts of the letters that had been covered over by the EP process and didn't think that the black would RUB OFF onto my fingers while I was handling it. Before I knew it, I had smudges on the crisp white portions of the circle.

No problem, I thought, I can just cover those with decorative stars! Three stampings with and colorings of the star from Fun & Fast Notes and I thought I was finished. NOPE. The smearing had continued when I'd turned the whole thing over to place the Stampin' Dimensionals. So, I got out my scissors and began to selectively snip. I also went back to the EE circle and trimmed it, creating a slender outline of a circle. Re-adhere, place said circle, tie some ribbon, and it's not looking half bad!

I scored the inside flap at 1 1/2" to create a place for a gift card or two. The girl has a new job, so I'm thinkin' that a gas card would be appreciated, but Bob doesn't think that's very fun, so a Starbucks card will probably be included too!

I was very tempted to let this whole thing go and start over, but I'm glad I didn't. I think it's a hip card for a graduate, and I'm going to go make another along the same lines and see what comes of that process!

My craft room's going to be disassembled over the next 2 days because it's going to be painted a lovely Mint Frost color by my dear husband and my dear father this weekend. Not sure when I'll be posting again, but I'm going to try to get another card made this afternoon or tomorrow morning before I begin moving it all out of there. Stay tuned!