All Grown Up

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My beautiful youngest daughter Angel graduated from Cape Fear Community College this past weekend with an associates degree in science. Her goal is to become a marine biologist and to further that goal she is applying to the Coast Guard. She plans on serving in the Guard while getting on-the-job training in areas of her specialization and, when her term is up, returning to finish up her higher education with the tuition benefits offered by the military. Such an ambitious and intelligent individual deserves a card as special as she is so I created this Twisted Easel Graduation Card based on a tutorial by Lyn Bernatovich on Paper Craft Planet . The link for this great project came in my email just at the nick of time because I was stumped as to what I was going to make for my daughter. Lyn's tutorial made it easy and was a great inspiration for my own creativity.

As you can see, I matched the color of the card to the color of the graduation gown. The tassel color is different because my daughter is a member of Phi Theta Kappa honor society and is given the honor of wearing not only a gold tassel but a blue and gold  honor cord around her neck. Oh well, she doesn't mind that little detail being a bit off. At least I had gold stars on her card to capture her honor color.

Next month my son also graduates from community college. The challenge now is what card am I going to create for him.

Ballo ergo sum
- Gitana, the Creative Diva

Little Angel

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My daughter needed a card for a gift she was bringing to a baby shower. Naturally she casually mentions this on the evening before the event. Of course, I think to myself, I can whip up a quick little card. But as soon as I sat down to create I found myself taking out all manner of embellishments and brass stencils, cardstock and what have you. After fiddling for nearly an hour I realized I was overthinking the whole thing and decided to go for a very simple look. I used a stamp that I had never used before and, in fact, had been put in the pile of ophaned stamps I have in my workshop. It turned out to be the perfect choice for this quickie card.

The yellow base card was stamped all over with VersaMark watermark and Dazzle Inks (Frost and Champagne) then selectively dusted with green and gold PearlEx pigment powders. The image was stamped in black Stazon ink, colored with Prismacolor coloring pencils, matted on olive green cardstock. The stars and heart were gone over with a clear sparkly Gelly Roll pen for a bit of shimmer. It was attached to the base card with foam tape for a little dimension. Tiny green rhinestones were added to the corners of the image for a touch of glitz and a finishing touch. The inside of the card had a hand written greeting that said "Your Angel is on its Way".

Simple. Easy-peasy. Why didn't I think of that in the first place?


Ballo ergo sum
- Gitana, the Creative Diva