Treasure Hunting and Graduation Cards

Hi!  I am so glad you stopped by to visit today!  I am attempting to catch up on blogging some things I have been creating the past few months, so if the timing of my cards seems a little off, this explains why!  Today I have two graduation cards to share with you.  There was a time when I didn't own the first graduation stamp and bought (gasp!) any cards I needed for that occasion.  It's amazing how that changes as your children get older (personally, I'm not aging, but WOW are they changing!).  I still don't own a lot of graduation stamps, but I do tend to make quite a few cards now.

The first card is incredibly basic and was super quick to whip up, which was fortunate since time snuck up on me and I was madly creating a few of these the day of the parties... The nice part of this simple design is it is so easy to personalize a card with school colors.  I ended up making this design in three different color combinations!

not sure why the black base color looks so wonky... trust me, it's basic black! 

The inside is a white mat with the phrase "the tassel was worth the hassle" in the same font as the front sentiment.  How cute is that?!

The second card design was a little more decorative and was used for a few female graduates.  I used a star embossing folder on the red base, stamped the image, mounted that on the star pattern paper, added a bit of ribbon, and mounted that to the base.  Not too difficult, but I think the embossing really dressed up the card. 

I have a little back story about the images I used on both of these cards.  I am big fan of thrift stores, flea markets, and antique/collectible stores.  I could waste an entire day just wandering through the aisles, digging through bins of goodies, and pretending I'm a modern day treasure hunter!  There have been several times that I have left empty handed (and a little sad) when I didn't find any diamonds in the rough, but there have also been just as many times that I've had to control myself to keep from buying a car full of treasures!  There may have been a few times that I had to go back and get DH's truck to bring home some furniture pieces...but we don't talk about that much! I think DH is trying to block those times from memory!  But I digress...

A few months ago, I went to one of our local collectible shops looking for a few dining room chairs (got 6 of those btw, and found out they belonged to my great uncle and aunt!) and while we were there, I had to take a spin around the store to see what hidden gems were awaiting discovery.  Imagine my surprise when I found a container full of Stampin' UP stamps! OOOOHHHH!! JACKPOT!!!  They were all in great condition and I eagerly dove in and looked them over. DD#1 swears I muttered "My precious!", but I don't recall that at all...  In what was most likely the greatest show of human restraint, I managed to only buy four stamps from the box- three of which were graduation themed.  I could totally defend the need to add those to my collection!  I also bought a super sweet little sheriff stamp that I couldn't leave there! I'll be sharing him before too long on a little guy's birthday card! 

 I'm wondering if anyone else gets this excited over finding things that others chose to eliminate from their lives.  I hope so, because I hate to think that I'm alone in this; not to mention I donated a ton of perfectly good items to charity thrift stores when we moved and I'd like to think someone else is really enjoying those things now!  Kind of a small version of karma for household and craft things!

If you are still reading, thanks so much for putting up with my musings and thanks so much for stopping by to visit! I hope you have a marvelous day, and happy crafting!