Graduation

It's that time of the year when schools are having  graduation ceremonies. We have a lovely great niece who will be participating in her graduation in the next week.  I remembered a cute Maxwell House Mouse stamp that I had in my collection. When I went looking for it, Mr. Maxwell was nowhere to be found. Happily a fellow Thursday stamper loaned me her stamp so I could get this card done, and I ordered - A-NOTHER one - from Simon Says. The order shipped very fast too.  I expect the missing one will turn up now.  This young niece worked very hard in school and we are so proud of her. Early on, she was having difficulties with a lot of her subjects, and I'm pretty sure her self-esteem took a terrible beating. My personal feeling was always that she didn't have the right teachers who had the patience & training to help her in the ways she needed. Thankfully as time passed, she continued to work hard - when it must have been so difficult for her to keep forging ahead. One day, she made it on the Honor Roll. This was a real big deal, and all the family were so proud. It seems that once that barrier was passed, things got better for her. I think it boosted her confidence so that she realized she was quite capable of doing her studies, so didn't get test-fright as much as earlier.  She's a beautiful young lady, a hard worker, very intelligent, certainly not a quitter, and we are all So VERY PROUD of her. I expect great things from her as she continues her journey in life. She has shown that she doesn't give up & that she's not afraid of hard work! It paid off! On to the card specs:

Card base was textured light blue Bazzill. Used a Hampton Art Spritz Screen and Perfect Pearls Mists Sunflower Sparkle to add a design to the plain blue Bazzill. The school colors are blue & gold. Then embossed gold foil paper with Sizzix Tim Holtz Texture Fade Springtime Background & Borders set, one of the flourish borders. Another snippet of the blue Bazzill was diecut & embossed with S/binders fancy tags. Stamped the sentiment with Versa Mark, heat embossed with Ranger Queen's Gold emb. powder. Outlined around the edge of this tag with Krylon gold pen. Maxwell had been stamped on Copic Xpress paper, colored wtih copics, highlighted with Spica pens for a bit of glitz. Diecut & embossed with S/binders Standard Circles Large, #5 die. While still in the die, I edged with D.Ink Scattered Straw to soften the stark white background. Used S/binders Petite Scallop Circles Small, #4 for a small mat. I deliberately used the smaller mat, as I liked the look better. Adhered all the elements to the card front, popping up Maxwell, and decided to add the 2 rhinestone stars, which were an aquamarine color. I used 2 or 3 darker copic Blue colors to get a color that I thought looked ok with the blues in Maxwell's graduation gown.