Graduation card with a Volkswagen Bulli

Hello everyone, I'm here with a graduation card that I made for my younger nephew (Mátyás). This June he finished the elementary school. The school system in Hungary is different. Kids stay in elementary school until they are 14, and then they go straight to high school. 

I put my older nephew (Zsigmond) to a car on his graduation card. So I asked Mátyás what kind of car he wanted to drive. And he said Volkswagen Bulli. Luckily I have an old camper die from My Favorite Things which looks like a Bulli. So I used that to create the Bulli. The only challenge was making the Volkswagen logo. For this I used a special die set from Simon Says Stamp, I haven't found on their website, so probably it's discontinued. What a pity! Because it is not just a simple circle die set, you are able to cut out thin rings with it in many sizes. I used the smallest ring die and I put two V letters to the middle. For the letters, I used the Sizzix Thinlits die, Treat Bag by Tim Holtz (663096).

I cut out the road, the field behind the road and the clouds with another My Favorite Things dies: On The Road, Snow Drifts and Puffy Clouds. 

For the road signs I used Stampers Anonymous Noteworthy stamp set by Tim Holtz (CMS446) and the Sizzix embossing folder, Lumber 3D Texture Fades by Tim Holtz. I inked the embossing folder with brown Distress ink, I put a watercolour paper inside, then I ran it through my Sizzix Big Shot. Then I spritzed with water, which resulted that the embossed lines remained dark but the other parts turned light brown.

When it was totally dry I inked the texts on the woodgrain paper with black Archival ink (Black Soot). Then I cut out the shapes with the Tonic Studios Trimmer. 

The colour of the sky is Tumbled Glass, the field is Mowed Lawn. I spritzed the inked surface with water.

Graduation card for a girl

Here is another graduation card that I made for my daughter's friend, Moesha. 

Moesha's mum liked the card that I created for my daughter, so she asked me to make something similar for her daughter. She chose the pink colour for the background, so the card turned out like this.

What I used:

Stamping Bella, Uptown Girl Grace, The Graduation (EB672)

Sizzix Thinlits die, Swirling Stars (663095)

Sizzix Bigz die, Crescent Moon&Stars (658716)

Stampers Anonymous, The Professor (CMS373)

Stampers Anonymous, Schoolhouse Blueprint (CMS230)

Clearly Besotted Stamp, Happy Days II

Ranger Distress inks

Ranger embossing powder (Princess Gold)

Copic Sketch markers

etc.

Graduation card

My daughter is doing her final exams in May and hopefully she will graduate at the end of May. Eszter is a very accomplished girl whose favourite subject is the history, especially ancient history and Ancient Greece. 

Well, here is the card that I made for her.

The main character is from a Stamping Bella stamp set (Uptown Girl Grace - The Graduate). I stamped the image on a Neenah Solar White paper and coloured with Copic Sketch markers. 

I cut the columns using the La La Land die, Greek Column.

All the other elements from Tim Holtz.

To the background panel I blended Tumbled Glass ink, a little Chipped Sapphire around the edges and a little Vintage Photo to the very edges.

The book pile was coloured with Copic Sketch too.

And then I just glued the elements to the main panel.

What I used:

Stamping Bella, Uptown Girl Grace, The Graduation (EB672)

Sizzix Thinlits die, Swirling Stars (663095)

La La Land Crafts die, Greek Column (8789)

Sizzix Thinlits die, Alphanumeric, 3/4" tall (660056)

Sizzix Thinlits die, Handwritten Celebrate (660215)

Stampers Anonymous, The Professor (CMS373)

Stampers Anonymous, Mini Blueprints 8 (CMS231)

Graduation card with Road Trip die by Tim Holtz

This will be a special blog post for me. Not just because I'm hosting the May challenge of the Country View Challenges, but also because I'm saying goodbye to the CVC team. This and my second inspirational project will be the last ones I do for the CVC. It was a fabulous 8 years in my life and the CVC team was a fantastic team. Thank you for letting me be part of the team. 

So the May challenge theme is Vehicle and my first card was made for my handsome nephew who is graduating from primary school. In Hungary, kids usually leave primary school at the age of 14 and start secondary school.

And here is my tutorial. 

The background was created with Distress paints. The bottom part was made with Hickory Smoke paint. For the upper part I used Stormy Sky with a hint of Cracked Pistachio.

The pine tree was coloured with Distress inks, Rustic Wilderness and Mowed Lawn.

For the traffic sign, I took a 300 gsm watercolour paper and an old Sizzix embossing folder by Tim Holtz, the Woodgrain (656644). I inked the embossing folder inside with Walnut Stain, then embossed the paper. Here I got a paper with nice woodgrain pattern. I spritzed with water and spread the brown ink everywhere. Of course the deeper brown remained in the recesses. But I wanted to stamp on it, so I ran it through the Sizzix machine again with all the plates and make it flat. 

The sun and the clouds are from old and retired My Favorite Things die sets. These had the perfect size for this scene. But I cut out the eyes and mouth with the Sizzix Circle Play die set. The sun was coloured with Squeezed Lemonade and Mustard Seed. The edge of the clouds were inked with Iced Spruce. 

The two largest parts of the car were painted with paints but I mixed colours, so I don't give you an exact recipe. All the other parts were just cardstock papers.

What I used:

Sizzix Thinlits die, Road Trip Colorize (666288)

Sizzix Thinlits die,  Circle Play (663868)

Sizzix embossing folder, Bricked&Woodgrain Set (656644)

Stampers Anonymous, Noteworthy (CMS446)

My Favorite Things, Puffy Clouds Die-Namics

My Favorite Things, Sun, Moon&Stars Die-Namics

Ranger embossing powder (black super fine)

Ranger Distress paints 

Ranger Distress inks

etc.

So if you have a project with a vehicle or vehicles, please don't hesitate to join our May challenge where a randomly selected winner can have a £20 voucher in the Country View Craft Shop!

Graduation card with Oscar-statuette and filmstrip

There's a young lady who just finished her study at the National Film and Television School in London as a film editor.  Her mum who lives in Luxembourg asked me to make a special card for the big event.

So I created this:

When I asked the mum about the colours she sent me a picture from the The Grand Budapest Hotel, this is why I used  a strong red and some purple for the background:

The text VÉGRE! means AT LAST :-)

And I will share you my special, lately developed technique how to safe an ink printed image. I had to find out something to protect my Oscar-statuette, so I figured out a trick. 

When you printed your image cover it with embossing ink but don't wipe or smear over it, you can use only tapping movements with a sponge. When it's done, put clear embossing powder on the whole surface and heat it. If you want a shiny image then it's just this and it's ready. But if you want matte image put a layer of Ranger Distress matte collage medium but just after your image got totally cold.

What I used:

Sizzix Framelits Die, Rectangles

Sizzix Thinlits Die, Alphanumeric 3/4" by Tim Holtz (660056)

Sizzix Bigz Die, Crescent Moon&Stars by Tim Holtz (658716)

Sizzix Sizzlits Die, Sewing&Writing Set (657752)

MFT-Die Namics die, Mini Filmstrip

Clearly Besotted Stamp, Happy Days II

Ranger embossing powder, Gold

Ranger Distress crayons

Ranger Distress Collage Medium (matte) - for protecting the surface

With my card I would like to join the Monday Challenge of the Simon Says Stamp blog: USE YOUR FAVORITE TOOL, as I used many times my two favourite tools, the Big Shot Plus and the heating tool.