Graduation Card for Margie

Graduation season snuck up on me. Typically I'm working on High School Graduation cards (which I do need several of) but this year I have a few COLLEGE grads in my world as well. My sweet sister-in-law Margie walked across the stage this past weekend. It was a fun event and maybe I'll be inspired enough to get my high school cards done early! This card was made about 2 am the night before the graduation. Ugh.

Sketch Inspiration ~ Taylored Expressions Sketch Challenge #112
I always love the weekly sketches and FINALLY dug out my TE stamps when I played along.

Inspiration

Creative Inspirations Challenge #33 ~ Congratulations
365 Cards Day 40 ~ Friday Five There must be 5 of 5 things on your card:
BEar with me here, I was a 'bit' flexible, but here they are: 5 gems, 5 colors (green, yellow, red, blue, tan), 5 yellow stripes on the balloon, 5 stamps (the grad balloon was stamped 3 times with the layers), 5 'shiney things' (gems, spicas, red glimmer paper, basket & large balloon have diamond glaze)
Our Daily Bread Challenge ~ Graduation
ABC Challenge ~ U is for Unused Stash

I just HAD to get this stamp set when it was released several months ago. Stems from a life long love of Dr. Suess my mom passed on (she was a Kindergarten teacher). However, it’s sat NEGLECTED since it arrived at my door.

The real inspiration for the card is graduate Margie flanked by her a'dork'able kids JR and Mara. JR will be getting one of those high school cards in a few weeks.

My Creation

Yep, the card was made in the wee hours and the photos of it were taken while we were driving to the event. Hubby was driving, I was co-piloting trying to get a snatch of sunshine for the photos. As you can see, it was a pretty cloudy day.

Image Detail

I couldn't get a good shot that showed the sparkle and shine; one of the challenges in taking photos in a moving car on a cloudy day. There's diamond glaze on the balloon and basket. The red mat is shimmer cardstock and I used spicas to highlight the edges of the image.

At 2 am, I thought I was being pretty clever with my paper piecing. I stamped the image on the background and then 2 times on the DP. I planned the 'face' of the ballon to land so it looked like a few curls of hair were hanging out from under the cap. The hat is then cut and layered on top.

Inside

How are your graduation cards coming? I'd love to see them and get some inspiration!

Ins & Outs ~ Graduation Card for Margie
Stamps: The Places You’ll Go (Taylored Expressions), Well Scripted (Stampin Up)
Paper: DCWV (Shimmer and Spring), SU Whisper White
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Copics (R29, BG0000, Y11, YG03, E41, E50), Spicas (Lemon, Melon, Pitch Black)
Accessories: Nesties, Gems
Techniques: Paper piecing