College graduation

My, how the time flies!  Another niece is graduating from college and has taken the next steps to get her masters degree.  She was offered two grad assistant positions (she needs to choose 1) in her field that will not only give her a stipend but also tuition waver help.  AND she was in the top 3% in her field of study so her name will be engraved on a bronze tablet at the UofI.  Yay!!!  All her hard work and efforts have paid off!  Here's the card I made to recognize all her accomplishments.

I turned to this card for inspiration.  I know many people go to Pinterest for ideas but once you've pinned an item, do you ever go back and work with it?  I do quite frequently, so 'thank you' to all those pins that have been shared!

Products used:  K & Company 'Life's Journey decorative paper; Studio 490 'Nature's Art' LCS 009; black/off-white card stock; Bazzill card stock (green); Jet Black Archival Ink; twine; silk ribbon; Idea-ology (long fastener/gear/game spinner), 'Travel Signs' Alterations Texture Fade; Hero Arts 'Congratulations' C2734

Travelogue birthday card

I don't normally make such involved birthday cards but it happens on occasion and this is one of those.  The college recipient is majoring in tourism...I don't think any further explanations are necessary.

***Before I go any further, I have a Nikon camera that downloads the photos to ViewNx 2.  I have no idea how to successfully crop and resize there so I've tried Irfanview withvery little success.  I still get this black outline around the photos.  I used to use MS Picture but it doesn't work with Windows 8 and have not had any success getting it on my new computer.  

One day to posting...I have now found a new program that works so easy but I can't find where these are stored so I can edit them properly.  I'll probably find it the day after the post goes live.  Sigh.*** 

I did create a monogrammed tag to dangle from the suitcase as well as tiny tags inside with the recipient's name.  I punched 3 holes using my Crop-a-dile so that I could loosely create joints using jute.  The back cover is similar to the front but different travel labels were used.  On the back page I used some OLD Stampers Anonymous narrow kraft/black paper stencils for locations.  Over this I stamped the sentiment on tracing paper so the first layer is muted and in the background.  I used A Dymo labeler for comments on some of the pages.

Ingredients:  Tweed cardstock, white cardstock, Ranger (clear embossing ink, clear embossing ink, distress stains, distress inks, archival inks, Multi-Medium, Glossy Accents); Detail Brass embossing powder (PSX); Life's Journey decorative paper (K & Company), Stampers Anonymous (Travel Labels CMS108, Air Travel CMS102, Warehouse District CMS124, Road Trip CMS128, Travelways CMS162, On The Railroad CMS127, Remants CMS130, Tiny Things CMS164, Simple Sayings CMS155, Rays layering stencil, clockwork layering stencil); Vintage Valise die (Sizzix); Avery sticker paper; Printers' Type & Printers Lowercase alphabets, Brushstrokes Upper & Lower Case alphabets (Hero Arts); Sakura Micron Pen; tiny tag