Get Carded: A Card For A Commencement

Hello! Besides sharing our DNA and family history, our daughter now has something else in common with my husband and me: we are all alumni of Michigan State University.

As very proud parents, we trekked to MSU's Breslin Center yesterday to watch her receive her BS in chemistry. The ceremony, run by the College of Natural Science, ran as well as a well-oiled machine, so the roughly two-hour event went by very fast. My husband, who attends college commencements every year as part of his job, was most impressed. 

The occasion ended with a rousing version of the MSU fight song, which we all sang with great gusto. Then it was on to the final good-byes (for now) between her and her fellow chem graduates, and a celebratory meal out. 

When we returned home, a couple of gifts and a greeting card I'd made her were waiting:

Materials used:

• white card stock
• green and white scrapbook paper
• illustration from the cover of the June 1960 issue of Reader's Digest
• piece from vintage playing card with tulip design
• graduation cap image stamped in black ink on card stock, then cut out and affixed to card
• green glitter star shape
• "Congratulations" stamped in black ink onto card stock, cut out, edged in green ink, then affixed to card
• "MSU" cut from a page of one of their publications
• textured paper scrap altered with green acrylic paint and gold glitter, then affixed to card

 The use of green and white references MSU's school colors, and there was just enough green in that vintage Reader's Digest color to make it work as a key design element. By a happy coincidence, the vintage playing card design has green and white colors, and the tulip pattern references the town in which our daughter grew up. (The annual local tulip festival began yesterday.)

Here's a close-up of the card:

I loved that illustration when I spied it during a thrift store run awhile back, and immediately knew I'd use it to create our daughter's graduation card. She didn't bat an eye when I told her it was from a magazine that came out when I was a mere 6 months old. By now she's well used to any and all manner of design elements used on the cards I make for her. 

And as for her future plans, this summer she begins the next chapter of her life with the pursual of a PhD in chemistry at Purdue University. She was accepted into several top-rated chemistry grad school programs from all over the country and spent a busy February/March touring these institutions. Ultimately it came down to research opportunities as well as cost of living factors. We know that any chemistry PhD program would have been lucky to have her, and now Purdue will be the luckiest. 

Congratulations to our daughter, and to all other graduates this spring!