Amelia Lee - congratulations!

Wahoo!  Amelia Lee graduated from Montana University and as part of my Graduation present for my uber smart, talented and beautiful niece, I am giving her (what else), announcements.  
OMG!  Shoot me now!  I am one of those who NEVER makes two cards the same.  Can't handle it! And for some odd reason, I committed myself to 25 of these.   It took me days to just come up with the design that was somewhat simple.  And WEEKS to get them all together.  Today I packed them all up with envelopes and sent them off.  "Lawdy have mercy!", as my Granny used to say.  I will never do that again. 

TECHNIQUE Started with a navy blue base CS, then a light blue panel that had been run thru a Cuttlebug with a "brick" Embossing Folder.  I added a strip of gold ribbon and taped the ends to the back then taped the panel down. I used another very short strip of the ribbon to tie (and glue) a knot at the bottom of the ribbon.  Next the image was printed out and colored with Copics.  I was not happy with the plain look, so I added gold foil to her horn and gold dots to her "aura" to help with the celebratory nature.  After measuring off the image panel with the three portions "out of the box", I only had to fussy cut those three areas.  A gold medallion was die cut from a heavy gold CS which was the fist major issue that I ran into... the punch pretty much ripped the edge of the CS leaving white core showing - I solved that by using a Copic to color all the exposed white areas.  Second, I ran out of enough gold CS so I cut all the medallions in half and carefully fit them under the image panel so the corners would not show.  The third and fourth issue I had were that I ran out of ribbon for all the knots and had to use a different gold ribbon and then finally, after all was said and done, the cut edges began to fray.  Like I said, shoot me now.  The last detail was the sentiment punched out with an SU punch and a mat.

This card should be eligible for the following

CHALLENGES:

ALBC - Die-ing for it
Crafty Ribbon #52 - Anything Goes with ribbon
2 Sisters #152 - Make it Sparkle
OSAAT #172 - Use a digi
 LEJ Designs #62 - Anything Goes
Sassy Cheryl #175 - Out Door Fun and Games (celebrating at an outdoor graduation - what could be more fun??)
Through the Craft Room Door - Anything Goes

SUPPLIES AND TECHNIQUES

IMAGES:  The focal image is by Sassy Cheryl; the sentiment is a "Mini - word" self inking stamp.

PAPER:  Neenah Classic Crest Solar White 80# Cover Wt. used for the images; base and gold CS are from stash

EMBELLISHMENTS: Sentiment and mat are from SU punches; ribbon is from stash; gold foil applied using Duo Glue; medallion is die-cut. 

INKS: the image was printed on a Canon PIXMA printer & colored with Copics:

 May you color with abandon, create wildly and always make what amuses you!

~ginny