happy graduation

My younger son graduates from high school tonight.  From a mom’s perspective, it’s bittersweet.  It’s so easy to remember him as a playful, smiling little boy, but now he has grown up to be a witty, handsome young man.

So today’s card is the one I made for my husband and I to give to our son.  I’ve used the ending-soon Freshly Made Sketches challenge for layout inspiration and used the school’s colors of blue, white, and black for the color palette.  (I purposefully stocked up on this blue cardstock when it retired because it’s perfect for the school color!)  My son has been active in both band and choir, so using a musical score background seemed like a no-brainer.   Coloring the digital image of the graduate was a little daunting.  Trying to get the shadows/shading to look realistic isn’t my forte, especially when working with colors that are dark to begin with.  This is actually my second attempt because I didn’t like the way the first one turned out.  If you look closely, you can see that I’ve included a golden yellow to represent my son’s honor graduate stole, and a bit of pink around the collar to take the place of the pink music honors cords he’ll wear.  After the time I spent coloring the image, I didn’t dare attempt to fussy cut to the exact edges of the image.  The white border blended in with the background, so I decided to back the image with a black rectangle.

Doggone it.  I have Pandora on and right now they’re playing a song that my son played with the marching band as part of the pre-game shows before football games last season.  Cue sentimental feelings.

Thanks for stopping by today!  I’d best get off the computer and go iron the fold creases from my son’s gown…

Supplies:
Digital Image: The Boy and The Dog 007 (Heather Ellis)
Stamps: Happy Everything (Lawn Fawn); musical score (JudiKins)
Cardstock: Brilliant Blue, Basic Black (Stampin’ Up); Solar White (Neenah)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento); printer ink
Other: stitched rectangle die (Lawn Fawn); markers (Copic)