I have a clean and graphic graduation card to share today which is a continuation of an exploration of design principles. You can see my surprising findings on this blog post. Based on those findings I’ve been playing around with inspiration from the mood boards and today’s card is the result of that, in particular, I concentrated on colour and repetition. I’ve linked all supplies at the end of this post. Compensated affiliate links used.
Mood board inspiration and watercolour play which led to this graduation card.
VIDEO
Watch below or in HD on YouTube.
One of the key discoveries for me was how many of the images I was drawn to had a teal, mustard, neutral palette and so I picked out three colours from my stash. The grey is Simon Says Stamp Fog and the yellow is Bazzill Banana Split, but I’m afraid the teal colour came from my scrap stash, and I’m not sure where it originated from.
I used the smallest hexagon die from Simon Says Stamp’s Perfect Shapes dies and cut multiple hexagons from the three colours. I added Scrapbook Adhesives foam squares to the back of each hexagon and then using a T square ruler to help me align the hexagons straight, I added them to a piece of white card. The card I used was cut to be bigger than a card front so that I could trim it down to size later and not worry about whether I was aligning the hexagons to be perfectly centred.
Originally I planned on using six rows of hexagons, but once I’d got those aligned, I realised I needed another row, so I die cut and attached another row of teal hexagons to finish the pattern. I trimmed the panel to fit an A2 sized card and attached it to a white card base cut and scored from Neenah Solar White card in the 110lb weight.
I placed the card in the Misti and stamped a greeting for the inside of the card from the Rad Grad set by CZ Design. I also used that set to stamp and die cut a School’s Out Forever sentiment and a graduation cap for the front of the card.
I’m testing out a new ink to me, the Ink on 3 Blackout Detail ink. I’ve heard great things about this ink and wanted to test how it coped with the sentiments. I stamped the images twice, but I usually do that for all my stamping, and I was happy with the coverage on the solid areas as well as the detail of the stamps. The exciting thing about this ink is it is waterproof and so can be used for watercolouring, but also you can use alcohol markers with it too. I’ll be trying out this ink moving forward, and I’ll let you know how I get on.
I added foam squares to the back of the School’s Out Forever sentiment and graduation cap and then attached them to the hexagon pattern.
To finish this card, I dug out my stash of enamel dots and found two toning colours to add in a trio around the sentiment. I think the great thing about this clean and simple design is it can be adapted to the school colours of the graduate, and I love the quirky sentiment for the inside of the card too.
SUPPLIES
You can find links to the supplies I’ve used below; click on the picture or shop icon to get taken directly to the product. Where available I use compensated affiliate links which means if you make a purchase I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. You can read my affiliate and product disclosure here. I genuinely appreciate your support.
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PIN ME
Summary of the project which gives all the views of the card in one photo :D I’d love if you pinned and called by on Pinterest :D
Love the graphic look with the hexagons and the sentiment is amazing.
That’s a nice card. Could also be used as a male birthday card.
Thank you for sharing your experiences from the design class. I am loving your insights.
Debby – great idea – love the colors and the clean design – the interior sentiment is a hoot!
Great card Debby and you can change the colours to the favorites of the receiver, although your colours are also great! Thanks for the video and showing this gorgeous card.
Great card Debby! So fun to see your exploration of self manifest in a wonderful card!