Congrats to the grad

My son participates in a soccer program for children with special needs. Each athlete is paired up with a “buddy,” an older kid who helps coach them through drills and scrimmages, and provides them with one on one attention. For the past two years, my son has had the most amazing buddies. These two young men have consistently demonstrated compassion, patience and friendship for their little athlete. These boys are graduating and heading off to college - while this is very exciting for them, the occasion is marked with sadness for us.

To thank them for their commitment, I wanted to make them a graduation card that features our town’s colors. I’ve been on an ink blending kick lately but what do you do when the colors are green and orange and don’t blend well?

You use alcohol inks!

To ensure my card did not have a brown, muddy mess in the middle, I applied one color at a time. I started with the green and some ink blending solution. I used the blower tool to move the color around until I was happy with how it looked and then let it dry. Then I moved on to the orange and did the same. When the colors overlapped, they were layered vs. blended - so no brown, muddy mess.

I trimmed the panel to size and moved on to the rest of the card.

I stamped the sentiments first in die ink, then with Versamark so I could apply clear embossing powder then heat emboss. I used my MISTI to make sure I had perfect alignment for repeat stamping. I die cut the word “grad,” and trimmed down the “congrats to the.” I die cut and glued the cap, and then topped off with Glossy Accents.

I trimmed and scored the card base, and trimmed the orange mat. I used foam tape to adhere the panels to the card base and sentiments and cap to the card. Finally, I glued on some sequins because even though this is a card for a young man, it needed some bling.

Welcome!

My name is Annie. I’m a cancer surviving autism mom and wife, trapped in the Massachusetts suburbs while dreaming of a house on the ocean in Maine. While my son is in school, I pass the time with craft projects. And laundry. Lots and lots of laundry.

I’m willing to give almost anything a try, but I make more cards than I have loved ones to send them to, more wreaths than I have places to hang them, and enough wooden signs to fill a gallery wall. I am also a yarn junkie, obsessed organizer, book lover, iPhone addict, reluctant yogi, and wannabe graphic designer (or at least someone who can do better than trying to Mickey Mouse something together in PowerPoint).

You can often find me with inky fingers that are sporting hot glue burns.  

Oh, and I'm ridiculously wordy.