Graduation Cards by Annie Zorzo

It's the usual end of year rush, with end of year events, Christmas parties and don't even mention the Christmas shopping.  But in this busy time it often gets forgotten that there are alot of young adults out there graduating from high school.  My cousin Lindsay is one of them.  On my little trip home to the Hunter this past week, I caught up with her.  All the stresses of high school and exams are now behind her as she looks forward to her formal and the world beyond the four walls of a classroom.  So this week I thought we'd recognise these young people in our lives taking the first steps beyond high school (or even university for next years graduates) and make a few graduation cards to celebrate their journey and success.

I've made three very different cards from fun to serious.  My first card is the fun one and I've made this card with
* Cosmo Cricket Boyfriend range - Homework front and back,
* Cosmo Cricket Boyfriend boarder strip
* Cosmo Cricket Snorkel range - elements tag
* Card - can made it up from a ready made card pack or from cardstock
* I've also used a boarder punch, versa colour ink and a Congratulations stamp (inside card)

1.  Start with the Homework paper and stick down to the card equal distances from the top and bottom
2. Cut the boarder strip and then cut it in half and ink the edges
3. Pleat the two boarder strips and fix to top and bottom edges of the Homework paper
4. Using your computer, select a handwritten font and type 'FOREVER!!!!'.  Print out.
5. Using the reverse side of the Homework paper, cut a small piece and using double sided tape, put it over the top of the previous print.  Run the paper back through the computer so the next print goes on your small piece of Homework paper.
6. Using a boarder punch, punch one edge so it looks like it's been torn from a notebook
7. Fix to the bottom right of the Homework range, tucking the edge under the pleated strip
8. Cut out the 'School's out' Elements tag from the Snorkel range
9. Fix with 3D squares to the top left of the Homework range, overlapping the pleated strip.
10.  Stamp 'Congratulations' on the inside or leave blank


My second Card I've made from:
* Fancy Pants About a Girl range - Kathi
* Black, white and dark pink cardstock
* Sequined ribbon
* I've also used a boarder punch, versa colour ink and a brad
* Card as previously mentioned

1. Cut a rectangle of the Kathi paper, 5mm shorter from top and bottom card edges (landscape)
2. Use a boarder punch to punch top and bottom edges
3. Fix to card, 5mm from top and bottom edges
4. From black cardstock cut a 6.5cm square
5. Cut three lengths of black sequined ribbon 10cm in length
6. Through a sequin at 5cm length, thread your brad and repeat for all sequined ribbon lengths.
7. Position black cardstock like a diamond and attach brad and ribbon to the left point of the diamond so it looks like a mortor board
8. Fix to card to the right of middle with 3D mounting tape
9. From pink cardstock cut a 5cm square
10. On your computer type 'Class of 2010' and print out on heavy white card
11. Cut a 4cm square around printed text and ink the edges with black ink
12. Fix to pink cardstock and using 3D mounting tape fix it on top of the mortor board.

For my last card, and the simplest, I used:
* My Minds Eye Meadow Lark range - Night Owl Paper
* Bella Petites Fundamentals Alpha Stickers
* Water Soluable Oil Pastels
* The usual card necessary for card making!

1. Cut around the owl on the Night Owl Paper to be a rectangle the same size of the card
2. Fix it to the card
3. With water soluable oil pastels add some colour to the details of the owl and branches
4. With Fundamental Petites, add your sentiment - in my case 'Graduate, use thy knowledge wisely' and on the inside I added 'and success is yours'.

So congratulations to my not-so-little-cousin and all the other high school graduates out there.  Good luck for what-ever you have planned for the future.

Using black and white pattern papers with June

Well I'm back from an amazing trip. Tim Holtz is such a great teacher and it goes without saying the 4 projects we created were awesome. I hope to share my versions of these and some techniques, with you here or in classes at Tanyah's, over the next couple of months. So watch this spot.

WISDOM - a layout that uses black and white paper to advantage.

I just loved this paper. I wanted the owl and black and white to be a feature of the design so I limited the colours to accents and used a black and white photo. The colours were only used to highlight the photo and direct the eye around the page. The message of the layout was conveyed through the photo placement in the line of vision of the owl to her chicks as well as the title.

Photo: 6" x 4" black and white landscape photo.

Uses:

• MME Meadowlark papers
• 7 Gypsies ribbons
• Ruby Rocket chipboard alpha
• Small stamps - small moon
• A2Z Scraplets tree

Instructions:

1. Cut out and distress the edges of a 7 1/4" circle on green c/s. Attach to owl paper 3" down from the top and 1/2" in from the right side.

2. Tear across the top edge of spot paper (about 2" down on the right edge to 1/2"at the left). Distress the straight edge and attach to owl paper 9 1/4" down from the top and 1 1/2" in from the left edge. Trim the end. Cut a 5" x 7" piece of spot paper and tear across the bottom as shown. Distress other edges. Attach 4 1/2" down from the top and 3/4" in on the right.

3. Attach red ribbon across page just above long strip of paper pinching and scrunching as you go.

4. Micromat photo in red c/s and ink edges. Attach 5 1/2" down from the top and 2" in from the right.

5. Cut 4 pieces of green ribbon with pinking shears 2 1/2" long. Attach in sun shape in bottom right corner. Trim chipboard branches for trees and branch owl sits on. Ink edges and attach. I cut around the owls claws with a blade so I could poke the branch under.

6. stamp stars at top of layout using Staz on. Colour in some stars and owls eyes. I used water colour pencils but you could use many other products.

7. Attach title and subtitle.

I hope you enjoy this layout.

June