We matriculate a lot

Unless you've been living under a rock for the past two years, you've probably heard of Twilight. I was struck with Twilight fever a few months ago so I can say from experience that it completely takes over your whole brain! Everywhere I go I have an eye out for silver Volvos and boys in gray peacoats. Of course my obsession follows me to work, where I take every opportunity to squeeze a reference to the series into displays and samples.

Since summer is upon us, I wanted to make a sample card for the kids coming in looking for graduation invites and announcements. Even if they don't like Twilight, I thought it would be something funny and unexpected that would hopefully inspire them to inject a little of their own personality and interests into their project.

One of my favorite moments in the Twilight movie is when Bella visits the Cullen's home for the first time. On their wall is a large piece of art, which upon closer inspection are rows of graduation caps. When Bella asks Edward about them, he shrugs it off as an inside joke and says, "we matriculate a lot." Here's a screencap of the scene:I thought the art in the Cullen's home was cool enough that it would appeal to people not privy to the inside joke as well as die-hard Twi-hards like myself. I love the clean lines and color spectrum in the original art and I knew it would translate to paper easily. I used my two favorite tools, the Dahle 15" guillotine paper cutter and the Scotch Adhesive Transfer Gun, as well as a small hole punch. These heavy duty tools make quick work of the project, but it would be just as easy with a smaller paper cutter or Tombo adhesive runner.


Working with a nice palette of silver and blue metallic cardstock, I cut about half the sheet into 1" squares (I had plenty left over after making the card). I chose metallic colors since we carry such a great spectrum, and the shine reminded me of that awful polyester that graduation gowns are made from.

I used some of the left over cardstock to make a base to stick the squares to. My base is 4"x6", since I wanted the finished card to be 5"x7". I started on the left side, lining up a column of the four lightest-colored squares and attaching them to the base with double sided tape. I worked towards the right side, one column at a time, overlapping the columns so only about a half inch of the square was showing. To keep the feel of the original art piece, I incorporated darker colors as I worked, so a light-to-dark gradation was formed from left to right.

Before I stuck down the last row of squares, I turned them into "hats" by attaching a tassel to each with a small brad. I made the tassels with sewing thread, but it's much easier and faster to use embroidery floss (here's a nice tutorial on how to make a tassel, I did pretty much the same thing but I made them only 1" tall, and I didn't put a string through the very top.) Once the last squares were transformed into hats I stuck them down and attached the whole thing to an A7 card. Voila!

Eclipse, the next movie in the Twilight saga, is coming out at the end of the month and includes Bella's first matriculation (and Edward & Alice's umpteenth). The timing was so perfect, I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to direct the folks looking at the card to their on-screen graduation! Come to think of it, you could make this card as a graduation announcement, an invite to a grad party, a thank you card, or even for an Eclipse DVD release party. The font I used is the same one that represents Edward's handwriting in the books, it's called Be Safe and you can download it for free from ffonts.net.

So there you have it: a public confession that I am a total nerd. I won't spoil anything for you, but there are two more action-packed films to come after Eclipse, so you will be seeing all kinds of wacky hidden references to the Cullens around the Portland store in the coming months. Come check them out, I'm always looking for friends to talk Twilight with. Congrats to those of you who just finished high school or college, and happy summer to all!

-Mayzie, Portland Paper Zone