Easy DIY Graduation Cards using Brusho Crystals.
Hello and welcome to open house season. With June comes than annual flurry of graduation parties and with that the “oh no I forgot to get a card at the store today” syndrome. Personally, I haven’t bought a card in years but usually I am frantically trying to stamp my sentiment or glue an embellishment on right before we walk out the door. I will also admit to sitting in the passenger side of the car, blowing on my glue or ink while we drive to the party and closing the envelope as we pull in. So today I thought I would share a graduation card that I use frequently because it is easy to make ahead.
Some of my supplies are pictured above which include an A2 card base, watercolor paper of your choice, Brushos in assorted colors, and water. Not pictured are my Versafine ink, clear detail embossing powder and stamp of choice. One of the reasons I love this card is because it is easy to personalize it to the graduates school colors. Just don’t put the wrong card in the wrong envelope if you have more than one party on the same day.
I cut my watercolor paper larger than I am going to need it so I can cut it down in the end. The Express Yourself stamp set by Indakinkado has bold, large stamps that have a lot to say. I choose the Congratulations stamp. It works great as a focal image and for an A2 size card it means you do not need a lot of embellishments. I emboss using clear detail embossing powder over Black Versafine ink. This is a trick I learned a while ago, when I found that even after using an embossing buddy I was still getting speckles of black powder where I didn’t want it when using black embossing powder on Versamark. Clear detail powder on black ink takes care of that little problem. In fact clear detail embossing powder has become my go to for most of my embossing powder needs if I can find the right color ink to use. It also needs to be an ink that is slow to dry so the powder sticks.
Tape your watercolor paper down to keep the paper from warping when it gets wet. This is a very forgiving technique, you can sprinkle the powder and then spritz with water or vice versa. In my case I prefer to spritz the water prior to sprinkling the Brushos. I love watching the colors spread and move as it hits the water. You can add more water or more brushos depending on how intense you want the colors to be. Set it aside to dry. If you don’t have Brusho crystals then you could also do a wash with Watercolors and an old paint brush.
Once dry, I trim it down to the size I want it to be and then I spray a little Imagine Crafts Sparkle Shimmer Mist. Another favorite of mine as it doesn’t really add any color just a pretty shimmer to your project. Back the focal image on matching cardstock. If you wanted a longer card so your gift of money doesn’t need to be folded just cut the watercolor paper longer and make a homemade card base. In this case I am going for easy and standardized so it will fit in an envelope I already have on hand.
To finish the card I attach the panel onto my card base leaving the white showing. In my case this works well for the school colors. You could cut the colored cardstock so the entire cardbase is covered if white doesn’t work well for the graduates school colors. I love to make batches of this card. My tray that I work on will hold three to four watercolor panels at a time so I can make several backgrounds at a time. Thanks for joining me today and enjoy all the pulled pork, taco bars, and cupcakes that this season gifts us with.
