Actually I haven't gone anywhere! A trip to Hawaii or Europe might be nice, but not me...I've been crafting! I have had two recent classes that put me in my craft room for hours at a time, and I couldn't be happier with the results. I can almost say it was worth it! Fortunately I did make a little time for my grandsons, and for planning a first birthday party for one of them, so I didn't give up on life entirely...I just had a lot of fun experimenting with my paper!
So enough about me...let's look at the results. First up, a card for a special, private, class that I held yesterday. This customer, and her mom, requested a "Card in a Box" for a graduating granddaughter. And she is graduating from California State University, Sacramento (Sac State, to many of us) and that's where my daughter went. So pulling out her diploma gave me my color combination: green and gold.
And here's the results:
I was really quite pleased with myself--this card really shines in person. Starting with the typical "
card in a box" template, using
Basic Black Card Stock, I added paper from the wonderful
Modern Medley Designer Series Paper, layered on
Very Vanilla Card Stock. The box was put together with
Sticky Strip (a MUST have for 3-D items!). Then I inserted the z-folded "crossbars" so I could start adding my elements.
I searched my catalog of stamps, finding different phrases that I thought would work well for a graduate: Hip Hip Hooray (from
Hip Notes), Celebrate (from
Starburst Sayings), Woo Hoo (from
Just Sayin') and Way to Go (from the retired Starring You). These were stamped in
Garden Green, or embossed with
Gold Embossing Powder, and then trimmed, flagged or layered on green or Gold (from the fabulous
Gold Foil Sheets).
Now making a graduation cap was challenging--I researched ways to do it, and ended up drawing a line, 2" long on a piece of Basic Black cardstock. At the one inch mark (half way) I drew a perpendicular line that measured to 5/8" on the top and to 3/4" on the bottom. Then I connected the corners, making an elongated diamond shape, and snipped it using my
Paper Snips. Then I used my
1/2" circle punch to cut two side-by-side half-circles; this was then punched using my
1" square--to make the bottom of the cap.
I glued the two pieces together; then I needed to make a tassel. I took the new
Gold Bakers Twine and pulled the gold thread out. Wrapping the now-plain, off-white colored twine around two fingers three times, I then carefully tied a thread around the top loops. The bottom loops were snipped and voila--a tassel! This was added to the cap with a
gold brad...looks so cute!
Finding a retired piece of "Newsprint" Designer Series Paper allowed me to hand roll a diploma, which was tied using a little snippet of the Bakers Twine.
I cut a few letters using an alphabet die and my Big Shot to congratulate the graduate; her name was added to the other side on my customer's card.
We finished it all off with lots of stars--I still love my
Merry Minis punch pack from an old holiday mini (but still available). Some were punched from the Gold Foil Sheets, and others from some Garden Green cardstock run through the Big Shot with the
Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder. And they "float" by being added using skinny strips of
Window Sheets (clear plastic sheets).
The back of the card is easy to write on, and says it all--Congratulations from
Zoo Babies and You Did It is one of the stamps in a photopolymer stamp set called
Star Stamper.
Needless to say, my customer was delighted with her creation--and I bet her granddaughter will be too!
All supplies available
here.
Let's get creating!
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This fun new photopolymer (clear) stamp is now available and the best part is that you get to design it yourself. Want a return address stamp? You can "say it your way"!.jpg)
