It's that time of year; we have four graduation open houses to go to in the next week! That means that I need to get busy with graduation cards. I just finished my first one, totally inspired by my buddy Sharon Johnson's elegant card that she posted a couple of weeks ago. Mine is for a high school graduation, so I kept the style modern and used the school's colors--maize and royal blue. These colors are far from my comfort zone, but it won't kill me to use them once a year. . .
I decided to make a gift card folder since our graduation gift is invariably a check. I know--not very original, but you can't go wrong on the size or color, can you? I started with an 5-1/2" x 11" sheet of cardstock, then used my cool little Martha Stewart Zig-Zag punch to punch one end for the front flap fold-over. I them trimmed the length to 10", and scored it at 2" and 6-1/4". I cut the maize (Prism Intense Yellow) to 3", then punched the zig-zag and trimmed it to fit the top panel, and the royal blue (Prism Intense Cobalt) to 1-7/8" x 5-3/8". (Don't attach the cobalt layer quite yet; you'll want to put the photo turn through that layer after you get your monogram sentiment made and figure out exactly where to put the photo turn.) I folded the 2" bottom piece on the white cardstock in and attached it with super sticky tape to form a pocket. (See the bottom picture for the folded pocket.)
Now, for the focal image, I used the Small Letter set and the medium and large numbers set to spell out "Congratulations," "Class of 2008 KHS," and "Chelsey" on the back of my wooden handle. (Yes, it took a bit of time, but now that it's set up, all I have to change is the name and the school initials for my next three cards!) I cheated on my embossing a bit; I didn't have a pigment pad in royal blue, so I inked my JustRite Stamper in Versamark first, then inked it in my SU Brilliant Blue ink, before stamping and heat-embossing with clear embossing powder.
Next I used my Spellbinders Plain circle die to cut and dry-emboss the focal point. I used my Petite Scalloped Circle die to cut and emboss the cobalt layer to mat the white layer. After placing my matted focal image on the card front and deciding where I needed to place the photo turn, I attached the photo turn through the cobalt layer and adhered the cobalt layer to the card front. I stamped a "Congratulations" sentiment inside the card and left room to sign our names above the check pocket. Easy!
If you read this far in the post, here's one more tidbit of news for you: JustRite Stampers has a new blog and is giving away five large monogram stampers to random people who sign up for their newsletter by Monday. Have you been thinking that a monogram stamper might come in handy? Better go check it out!
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Credits
Stamps: Small Letter set, and Medium and Large number Set (JustRite Stampers); inside sentiment from Stampin' Up
Cardstock: Neenah Solar White, Prism Intense Cobalt and Intense Yellow
Accessories: Pewter photo turn (SU Hardly Hardware)
Tools: Plain and Petite Scalloped Circle Dies (Spellbinders Paper Arts); Scor-Pal scoring Board; Zig-Zag Border Punch (MarthaStewartCrafts.com)
