Graduation Card Tutorial

Original Post May 2018

Hi Everyone!

I hope you are all having a good weekend :)

I am finally getting to this tutorial for a Graduation greeting card I meant to post last week but the time totally got away from me!  So here goes!

First, before I forget, here are the products I used:

Plain Box Card - from SVGCuts.com.  It was included as an extra in a kit but I can't find which one - my apologies!  I will contact her and get back to you.

Graduation paper - I purchased this really cute paper pack on Etsy from HuckleberryHearts.

Graduation Elements - I purchased from misskatecuttables.com

Extras:  Zots 3D Adhesive Dots, Scotch Tacky Glue, ColorBox Pigment Ink, Darice Graduation Embossing Folder

This tutorial also assumes you know the basics for constructing a box card so I won't go into details here.  You can find great instructions on SVGCuts.com.

The first thing I wanted to do was create the crowd so I cut out the basic crowd graphic on black cardstock.  (You can find this image all over the internet if you Google it.) I cut the original image out in it's entirety and then just decided which part I wanted to choose for each layer and cut it down to size.  More on that below.

But when I put the three layers in the card it really just looked like a black blob and you could not see the details.  So I wanted to try a white shadow layer.  I found several YouTube videos by Wendy Edwards which I found to be super helpful and simple to follow like this one on creating a shadow layer behind an image.  So, I followed the instructions and I'm super happy how it turned out.  I'll post my edited svg cutting files below if you want to try it.

I made three sizes so the crowd would be sort of like stadium seating levels.  The first layer is at 100%, the second layer at %110 and the third at %120.  So I did the same thing with the shadow layer and this is how it looks.

Next, I decided to use the center of the smallest image for the front of the card.

For the next two layers I repeated this process, making sure I didn't choose the same part of the crowd for two consecutive layers.  And I saved the scraps to use on another project or another card even.  I hope this makes sense!  Here is a pic of the scraps.

I embossed gold paper with Darice's graduation embossing folder for the inside panels.  It's hard to see in this pic but it's a really cool design.

And used the cute graduation digital paper for the exterior panels.

Then I added the "Hats Off", "You Did It", and individual hats I purchased from misskatecuttables.com.

For the back, I just stamped "Happy Graduation" from an old stamp.  I don't know what brand it is.

And that's pretty much it!  I hope you have enjoyed this as much as I have!  Please let me know if you have any questions:)

Laurie :)

You can download the files here:

Crowd                          Shadow layer

(contact me if you have any trouble with the files)

Vintage Halloween Banner

Original Post: October 2017

Disclaimer: In the name of full transparency, please be aware that this blog post contains affiliate links and any purchases made through such links will result in a small commission for me (at no extra cost for you).

TUTORIAL

This super cool banner has been so much fun to make and it's actually really easy too.  I purchased this pattern from svgcuts.com - it's called "Midnight Jamboree," and I purchased the digital paper for the one below from Etsy stores HoneydesignStore and EmilyPetersonStudio .

But loving vintage Halloween decoration so much, I just had to play around with some ideas I had for making this one with a Victorian touch.  So here goes......

For the Jack O'Lanterns, I printed them out on digital paper I purchased more than 10 years ago and I'm sorry to say I have no idea who to credit for this, but it was the perfect pumpkin color.  I inked all the edges of each piece with Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Rusty Hinge, to give them more definition and also to make each layer a different shade. Then I put all the Jack O'Lanterns together according to Mary's tutorial on svgcuts.com and used pop-dots between the layers for added depth.

For the banner pages, I found the perfect paper on  HoneydesignStore on Etsy, printed and cut them out.  Next, I really love vintage rosettes and so I used my Tim Holtz rosette die and cut out several black rosettes.  I played around with several layouts before I decided on orange tinsel.  I love the way the black rosette shows through the orange tinsel!

Next, I wasn't sure how the mini vintage postcards would look but I ended up really liking it.  I decided to ink the edges of the orange circle (which I cut out with my Taylored Expressions Stitched Circle Stacklets die set) with black ink just to add a little more contrast.  I'm not sure that it really accomplished that, but I liked the effect so I went with it.

Next, I wanted to do something different with the bands that go across the top of the banner shapes.  I found some ribbon I had from years past from Recollections that went really well with the tinsel so I glued that in between the layers of the bands and then glued the bands to the banner shapes.

Since I had added ribbon between the layers I used my Martha Stewart punch to add holes to the ribbon for stringing.

I was pretty happy with how it was starting to come together but I didn't like the holes showing up so much.  It seemed like something was missing but I don't have much in the way of gems or bling so I decided to try making gems out of hot glue, knowing that some have had good luck with this.  So I just made a bunch of 'gems' - trying to get them as much the same size as I could.....

And then I used my Adirondack Alcohol Ink to turn them orange...

Then, I just picked the two that were the closest to being the same size for each banner shape and voila!  I think it made a big difference!

Anyway, I strung them with twine - would really like to improve this on the next one and use ribbon or something a little nicer, but all in all, I am pleased with the results!

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial.  Please let me know if you have any questions :)