Graduation Dreams

The card I have to share with you today is a Graduation card that I made for a daughter of some friends of ours. It's not your typical graduation card but I really like how it turned out. I started out with some Artsylicious, Peacock designer paper from ChatterBOX (I love this aqua color!) and a piece from the Flower Impressabilites 12-1004 from Spellbinders. I love working with the Impressabilites! There are so many things you can do with them and let your creativity run wild, use them as a whole piece or cut them apart to create your own design. Here is a picture showing the piece that I cut to achieve the look I wanted for this card. I placed a piece of green cardstock under the Impressability to better show you the area that I cut out.Basically I just wanted to use the flourish without the flowers and after cutting off the flowers here is the beautiful flourish I had. When you cut your Impressabilities be sure to save all of the little pieces. I saved the plastic packaging from some of the die templates and I keep all of my extra little Impressability pieces in them. I wanted to use the flourish as a stencil and airbrush around the outside edges of the Artsylicious paper and since the Impressabilities are very light weight I used my paper piercer to hold the flourish in place while I airbrushed. Below is a picture of the Copic markers I used to do the airbrushing, except for the Pale Olive--that one was used on the Grungeboard Flourish.After I had the airbrushing done then I distressed the edges and inked them with Memento Tuxedo Black Ink from Tsukineko. Then using all of the Copic markers I airbrushed the flourish Grungeboard. After I had the airbrushing done I also inked the edges with Tuxedo Black Ink and added some Silver Fox, Smooch from ClearSnap. I thought this would compliment the silver in the key.The base of the card is Core'dinations Black Magic cardstock and I lightly sanded the edges to bring out the aqua color. The mat paper is designer paper from 7 Gypsies, SAIGE and I distressed and inked the edges with Tuxedo Black Ink. Once I had all of the piece ready then I started to assemble the card. I used a piece of 7 Gypsies, Gypsy Market Ruban Gaffer Tape across the front and then added the leaf trim from Creative Impressions. Then I added the Grungeboard Flourish, I wanted to add some dimension and visual interest to the card so I left part of the flourish off the sides of the card. To adhere the trim and flourish I used Beacon ZipDry adhesive. I also added a pretty epoxy butterfly sticker from ChatterBOX in the bottom corner. I thought the colors of the butterfly matched so perfectly!To finish off the card I added a Word Key and a Trinket Pin both from Tim Holtz, idea-ology and tied them on with some aqua ribbon. Since the card has kind of a grunge look I didn't want a nice smooth cut on the ends of the ribbon so I just kind of chopped it up a little. I also went around the edges of the card and the centers of the flowers adding a little more Silver Fox, Smooch.

Supplies~
Paper~Core'dinations-Black Magic, ChatterBOX-Artsylicious Peacock, 7 Gypsies-SAIGE
Ink~Tsukineko-Memento Tuxedo Black
Other~Spellbinders-Impressabilities Flower 12-1004, Copic-Markers as pictured above, Advantus-Tim Holtz idea-ology-Word Keys, Trinket Pins, Grungeboard Elements Swirls, 7 Gypsies-Gypsy Market Ruban Gaffer Tape, Creative Impressions-Ribbon and Leaf Trim, ChatterBOX-Treasures (butterfly sticker), ClearSnap-Silver Fox Smooch, Beacon-ZipDry Adhesive, Foam Tape, Cotton Balls

Thanks so much for stopping by today and I hope you have a Terrific Tuesday!! Also I wanted to let you know Sandy Redburn, owner of Crafty Secrets is giving away a NEW Mouse Party Stamp Set for some fun blog candy and she is also hosting a Party Crown/Hat Contest on her blog. She has FREE templates to download and you can make a crown, party hat or a tiara and then send Sandy a picture of your beautiful creation and you could have a chance to win a $50.00 Gift Certificate or 2 runner up prize packs!! So join in the fun and get to creating! You can find out all of the details and see the stamp set by clicking HERE.

Smiles!
Heidi