This is a pretty easy graduation card to make.  I admit to using some retired paper and stamps, but the color, Cranberry Crisp, seemed to match the school colors pretty well.  The retired stamp set is "In the Stars" but I thought that words on the star were perfect for graduation.  I stamped the star on the ivory cardstock twice, cutting out one image and popping it up with dimensionals.  I had embossed the little stars on the card with gold embossing powder, but then added a couple of star punches out of Brushed Gold cardstock.  The gold-embossed "Congrats" is from the current Ronald McDonald stamp set, "Say It with Scallops", found on the inside of the back cover of the catalog.  Stampin' Up! donates $2 for every one of this set sold to RMDH…..it's a great stamp set and while you're stamping you know you're also helping out a worthy cause.

A year ago we were looking forward to our son's college graduation and now that first year post-college has really flown by.  If I can offer a few words of advice to those of you going to graduation at a large university…..Don't park in the garage!  Not that we knew that, but we happened to see a spot on the street as we were dropping him off for the ceremony and managed to parallel park there.  That saved us at least an hour of time trying to get out of the parking garage after the ceremony!  We know because we were waiting for his friends to join us at lunch and they had parked in the garage!

Another tip would be to make sure your graduate is awake and AT the ceremony before you sit there with the whole family waiting for that glorious moment of seeing your child walk across the stage, only to find out that he overslept and isn't even there!  Thankfully that isn't a personal story, but I heard other parents recounting that story while I waited to be seated at a restaurant!  Just a college thing, I'm sure!

So here's a sample graduation card made with the "Great Grads" set and a rub on from "A Perfect Day".  Gotta love those rub ons!  Of course you would want to use your school colors or favorite combination, but I used Brilliant Blue, Whisper White, Basic Black, and Brushed Gold.  The cap is stamped twice, cut out, and popped up with a Dimensional.  I colored around the white area a little just to help it stand out.

If you need supplies to make a graduation card, hurry and contact me so we can get them ordered and in your hands.  You might not think that high school or college kids would care that their card was handmade by you, but they do!