Congrats AJ! You are one smart cookie!

A friend of mine just graduated from Police Foundations and his wife threw a surprise party for him. I thought it would be nice to make a card for him that would be different and special. Unfortunately when Darren and I got the invite I didn't read it all (we were still camping and I only glanced at it).

So I sat down this morning and made a great birthday card for him. I'm not sure why I thought it was his birthday, it's in November! But it wasn't until I was done did my best friend, Cait, mention something about him graduating... So after accepting my brief lack of brains, I sat down again to make a Graduation card.

I didn't want to waste the birthday card, so I gave him both... The nice thing about them is that they show two completely different techniques and styles. The first one uses pastels and glitter. I used the set "Crazy for Cupcakes" and some retired DSP. I coloured the cupcake with pastels and added the glitter as sprinkles. It's not easy making a boy card!!

The second card was more fun! I was trying to design a graduation card with no stamps related to graduation. I kept thinking about cookies and being a "smart cookie"... I think because I was still recovering from my dumb moment, or maybe because I baked cookies last night around 1am... Somehow that led to Cookie Monster! It was acutally very simple and turned out really well. So cute!

The base of the card is Brilliant Blue, cut with the Big Shot Scallop Circle Die. Then I cut a white circle (3 ¾") for the inside and a black circle (3 ¼") for his mouth with the Circle Scissors Plus. His eyes are 1 ⅜" circle punches and ¾" circle punches. To make the cookie, I punched out several ½" circles in Chocolate Chip and attached them randomly to a strip of Kraft. Then I punch out a 1⅜" circle from the strip. Last I used the scallop circle punch to create the "bite" out of the cookie. I'm really happy how well it turned out, and how EASY it was! I think I'll try some of the other Sesame Street characters tomorrow!