Saturday, May 15, 2010

Go Graduate!

Hello! Hello!

If you are on the inaugural VC Rocks Blog Hop and just arrived here from Tina Taves blog, WELCOME to my acre of blog-land.  If you are a regular reader, you already know you are welcome (and thank you and please, and all those other magic words your mama taught you)

As you read this, I am on my way to see my college girl GRADUATE!  Yes!!!!  She is walking the stage after four years of hard labor with a double major.  Anyone need to hire a smart, beautiful English/Communications Major?

With my mind on graduation, I decided to focus today's post on the Go Graduate stampset in the Stampin' Up! Summer Mini catalog.


The feet are actually on one long stamp - 10 feet long! 




 (Ten feet - as in 5 pair of shoes or 50 toes - NOT 120 inches, heh heh heh) 
  • I colored the shoes with black marker and water-colored the robes with an aqua painter and black ink.  Then I punched them using the 1.25 inch square punch. 
  • Stamped the hat on white and punched with the 1.25 inch square punch 
  • I used the Medallion background stamp for the "pattern" squares - stamped in black on whisper white then punched in various spots with the 1.25 inch square punch.
  • I ran black cardstock through the Big Shot with the new Square Lattice embossing folder (also from the summer mini) for the darkest squares.      helpful hint: EMBOSS then PUNCH with the 1.25 square punch - the embossing draws up the paper just a tiny bit so those squares will be just a tiny bit smaller if you punch then emboss.  You wouldn't notice the size difference except on a card like this with all the other squares.
  •  Added a bit of black grosgrain ribbon to one of the 2 basic gray squares
  • The sentiment from Go Graduate was stamped in a strip 4.25 x 5/8 inch.  Mounted on 4.25 x .75 inch strip of black.
  • Making the mortar board is simple - I used the 1.25 inch circle punch.  Punched in twice with the 3/4 inch circle.  The flat top is a 3/4 inch strip of cardstock - hold it on an angle (45 degree) and snip twice to make your rhombus shape.
  • The "button" on the top is a brad.  Don't have a black brad?  No problem.  This is actually a silver brad that I rubbed on my Stazon ink pad (LUV that stuff)  I punched a hole before I inserted the brad - keeps the cardstock from 'bending' when you poke the brad through.
  • The tassel is a piece of white grosgrain - raveled and tied in a knot.  To ravel your ribbon, make a straight cut (NOT a pretty diagonal one) then pull just a little bit at the cut and you should be able to get one long strand to come loose.  Just hold on to the rest with your fingers (don't drop it!) and you can tie it in a knot.  You will punch a tiny hole in your mortar board for your brad - so thread one end of the grosgrain through that hole and adhere on the back.  I trimmed off about half of the "above the knot" ravels off  - leaving an amount I could get through the hole.

I am personalizing the graduation cards I send out this year by using the school colors as the card base. This one is Real Red but I also will be making a green, a purple, 2 maroon and 2 blue. I was expecting more announcements - oh graduates.... where are you?

I hope you will take time to check out the rest of the stops on the VC Rocks Blog Hop.

VC Rocks is a fun fun fun high volume of email yahoo group (that I have mentioned several times before). 

VC stands for virtual celebration (or virtual convention) and the group was started for demos who were not attending the "real" Stampin' Up! Convention in the summer.  This summer marks the 10th anniversary of the group - and we have many ladies who go to convention AND celebrate virtually.  We also have many SU fans who are not demonstrators who join us as we swap, have classes, challenges, games and general merriment.  VC Rocks is accepting new members through May 30 then we lock the doors and PARTY through the summer. I started this blog last summer primarily because of the encouragement of the VC Rocks ladies and I'd have missed out on all THIS fun is it wasn't for them!  We'd love to have you join us.  There is still time!

The next stop on the blog hop is Barbara Furlong's blog   Please stop by and see what she has created.  If you get lost along the hop you can find all the blogs here.

21 comments:

Debby said...

Tell your daughter Congrats!! Mine just finished her first year of college and has no idea what she wants to major in yet.
Love the card. I have to get a graduation set someday of all the sets I have I don't have one of them.
angel hugs
Debby

Tammy Q Howell said...

Congrats to your daughter and you too! My son graduated this year with a Bacherlor's of Bible Studies 2nd man Christian education and completed the course work for Pastoral Studies. He only lacks an internship to receive his other major and hopefully will get that degree next year! On to the card....love all the details and your directions are great! Wish I would have had the tassel one when I made his card. I used crochet thread. Sorry so long. Proud mamma also!

Veronica said...

Congrats to College girl and her parents! Love the card!

Loni said...

Congratulations to CollegeGirl..can't wait to see what her new nickname will bee. Safe travels to you! The card is terrific and what a great way to personalize it by using school colors. I love your blog, so I'm glad that we Rockers convinced you to start it last year ~ else we would have missed out on soooooo many different ways to use punches. Luv ya!!!

Alexandria said...

Great card! I love the way you incorporated the Medallion stamp!

Kimm BT said...

Love this grad card of yours Ellen!

Brenda said...

Great card. Love it!

Congrats on the graduating daughter! Now you get a pay raise, lol.

Thanks for sharing.

Dee in N.H. said...

Great inspiration! Really wishing I already had this grad set. I'm making grad cards today.

Whimcees said...

Hello Ellen!

This must be so exciting for you to see your daughter graduate! Love your card - great colors and design! I will continue on this blog hop to see what all of your fellow VC Rocks bloggers are creating!

Wishing you a great weekend with your family!

Barbara Diane

Mary said...

Great card and love the colors! Tell your daughter congrats- my son just started college while also working on finishing up high school so at least I'll get off easy in 2 years when he graduates from h.s. and jr. college at the same time LOL

Unknown said...

Congrats to your daughter - for her hard work, and to you for giving her the drive and determination to go for it. Love the card - good job!

Carolyn Sharkas said...

Ellen, congrats to college girl, and to you for getting a year off before high school girl becomes college girl. I love what you did with this layout and using the medallion stamp was genius.

Hugs,

Patrice said...

Hi Ellen, Wow 10 Feet??????? Sounds like a great card for a Swap I know of hahahahh. I love the card and all the kind and encouraging word about VC_Rocks!

Carey said...

WOWZA. I love the card. College girl will be happy to get it (a$ long as you put $omething in$ide mom). OK now that she is graduationg what are you going to call her? College girl just isn't going to work anymore for her.

Carey Rogers
aka Roscoe's mommy

creations by jackie said...

wow, I love your card and congrats to the college girl.

Lori said...

What a great idea for a graduation card. Love the way the shoes show the different styles of each person. Great layout.

Kimber said...

Ellen - WHERE'S MY CANDY??!!!! LMAO Congrats on your daughter and of course your card is awesome!! Love it!!

Linda Callahan said...

Fabulous card - love how you cut upf the feet ;) Congrats to the College Grad - that is such a great accomplishment!

Anonymous said...

I just got the square punches and this card was a great use of them....love it!

Diane said...

Congrats to your daughter and great scrabpbook page.

Beantown Grasshopper - Deborah Robb said...

Dang girl! You have some serious skillz!! I spent a lot of time looking through your blog this afternoon while talking with Carolyn. Outstanding!