Graduation Celebration

5/15/2020

Even though everything looks a little different this year, it's still the time to celebrate graduations! I love the use of rainbows lately to show love and support to people while we're social distancing, so I thought some rainbow graduation cards would be really fun. I made three different cards using the same basic layout, stamps, and colors, but each card uses a different technique. For these cards I used the retiring Check You Out stamp set. This stamp set has only been around for a year and it was one of my absolute favorites from this catalog. I'm so sad to see it go! Because I just couldn't put the set down, check out a 4th, very different graduation card using the same set at the bottom of this post.

While I chose a rainbow for my cards, they could be done in any color combination you like or even in just one color.

Stamping in Color
This first card has the graduation hats simply stamped in Poppy Parade, Mango Melody, Daffodil Delight, Granny Apple Green, Pacific Point, and Gorgeous Grape in a line across a piece of Whisper White cardstock. I added the simple congratulations greeting under the stamped hats.

The piece of 5 1/4" x 4" Whisper White cardstock is then adhered with Stampin' Dimensionals to a Whisper White card base. Super quick and super easy.

Faux Watercolor
For the second card, I used a faux watercolor technique using a clear block. I used clear block H, a long skinny clear block, and applied the same 6 colors to it in the same rainbow order. The ink covered the whole block. Then I spritzed it with a little water, tilted the block in both directions to let the colors run a little, and stamped it down on my Whisper White cardstock. For this card, I chose to not let the colors go all the way across the card front.

After I added the faux watercolor background and let it dry, I stamped the graduation hats with Jet Black stazon ink. Again, I added the simple congratulations under the rainbow and adhered the whole card front using Stampin' Dimensionals to a Whisper White card base.

Sponge Daubers
For the last card, I started by stamping a line of graduation caps with Jet Black Stazon ink. Then I used sponge daubers to color spots of each of the same 6 colors. I finished the card in the same way as the other two.

Owl Graduate
Finally, the surprise card! This card uses much of the same color scheme, but is completely different and much less simple, although not hard to make.

Once again, I started with a piece of 5 1/4" x 4" Whisper White cardstock. With a light Daffodil Delight Stampin' Blend I colored a circle in the lower right corner. I added some dark Daffodil Delight to the center. Colored over this with the light Daffodil Delight again but didn't go all the way to the edge of the original Daffodil Delight circle. Then, I went over the whole thing with a color lifter a few times, especially towards the outer edges, to soften the color and help blend it out more into the white.

On scraps of Whisper White cardstock, I stamped the owl with Crumb Cake ink and added a graduation hat and glasses. I also stamped the books. I fussy cut all of these images. For the greeting, I heat embossed it with white embossing powder on Basic Black cardstock. Before I attached all of these pieces with Stampin' Dimensionals, I laid down a little nest of Silver Metallic Thread over the Daffodil Delight circle. Then, I added the stamped images and a few basic rhinestones.

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