My youngest nephew graduated from high school this year. How time flies! Cards for guys have always been a struggle for me, so I turned to the May issue of Cardmaker magazine for some inspiration and found the perfect pattern. The only problem was that I didn’t have the die cuts for the diploma or the graduation hat, nor did I have the stamp for the wording.
What to do? Make my own templates, of course! I wanted the graduation hat and the diploma to be embossed, so using a coffee can lid, I created my own embossing stencils. It was really pretty easy as the plastic cuts very easily with an X-acto knife. Just draw the design and cut it out. Here’s my stencil.
The only marginally tricky part was the swirl on the end of the diploma.
I used my cuttlebug to emboss the cap (Plate A + plate B + stencil + paper + 2 Nestabilities embossing pads + plate B). It turned out really well. I finished it off by adding a black brad and a tassle, which I made from black, orange and gold embroidery floss.
The diploma didn’t emboss well in the cuttlebug. The paper kept tearing around the swirl, so I used an embossing tool instead. I finished it off with a gold outline (sorry, I didn’t get a good picture of that).
Next came the wording. I found a font that I liked and created it on my computer. Next, I printed it out and then put it on my light box so I could trace it onto some off-white paper. This is a tricky way to make people think I can actually write well. :)
All in all, I’m pretty pleased with the results.
