Tutorial: mini grad cards

It’s that time of year again – graduation season. I don’t know about you, but every year we know of quite a few graduates. To save money, and to add a personal touch to what is usually a card full of money, I made these mini graduation cards.

Here is what you will need to make these cute little cards:

•  3×6 pieces of card stock
• black and white card stock
• embroidery thread
• glue dots
• brads
• a template for your grad hats – I made mine by drawing a diamond for one piece. For the other piece I drew 3 lines – connected the top three lines with a straight line and connected the bottom three lines with curves.
• scissors
• stamp and black ink (not pictured)

1. Start by tracing and cutting out your hat pieces.

2. Insert a brad in the middle of your diamond piece, but not too tight. You can see in the picture above that there is a bit of gap – you will need that gap to fit the thread for your tassel.

3-6. Make the tassel for your hat by looping the embroidery thread around the brad, pulling it tight, and then cutting the threads to an even length.

7. Connect your two hat pieces with a glue dot.

In my original card plan, there was no sentiment (which is why the stamping materials are not pictured in the supplies list). After I saw the cards I knew they needed something else.

8. Stamp your sentiment on a piece of white card stock.

9. Cut the sentiments into long strips.

10. Fold the strips into banners.

Use glue dots to attach the hats and banners to the front of the cards and you are done! Simple, right? And I bet you have most, if not all, of the supplies on hand.

You can customize the cards to match school colors or to match your graduates favorite colors. Easy, fun, and personal – my favorite kind of project.