Happy Sunday!

Hope everyone is having a beautiful Sunday! After talking to a friend of mine about her daughter graduating this year, she was telling me how she couldn't afford all the expenses and she didn't know what she was going to do. Her biggest upset was over the expense of the graduation announcements. She thought it was ridiculous how much these companies were asking for announcements especially when most people just throw them away. I too had come across this when my oldest graduated. For me the graduation announcements were going to cost me $250 just for 20 announcements so that was an expense I skipped. My family and close friends were very upset when they didn't receive announcements. So after talking with my friend yesterday I decided I was going to make some announcements to send out, even if they are a bit late. I didn't go all crazy with them because I was also using my design to show my friend how she could make 50 of them for less than $13 or cheaper depending on how many coupons/discounts/sales are applied or how many supplies you may already have. While mine are not super fancy you can still make them just as fancy and beautiful as the professional ones by simply buying some Versa Mark, embossing powder, and a heat gun/embossing tool if you don't have one. (Which by the way those supplies will only cost you under $20 if you use some coupons). If you want to use fancy paper like metallic/pearl/etc or have embossing folders/dies/etc than you really can go all out and still end up making them for way less than the professional companies plus you get to take all the credit for how awesome they are ;) Here is how mine turned out and the cost break down. 

Front of card

Inside of card

COST BREAKDOWN: I bought a package that contained 50 cards & envelopes for $5.99 (the original price was $9.99 but I used a 40% off coupon). I bought a package of card-stock in the colors of my child's school, the package had 5 colors at 10 sheets per color for a total of 50 sheets for $3.33 (the store was selling 3 packages for $10 but I only needed one which is how the cost of the card-stock was $3.33. Also while I could have used all of the 5 colors since they all matched the school colors, I only used one, so it gave me a lot of extra card-stock for other crafts and technically it made the cost of these announcements even less. I had leftover supplies from the other things too that I can use for other crafts :) I purchased some already made cap & gown embossed die cuts, each package had 50 so I bought 2 packages at .49 each = .98 cents, a 4' roll of "Class Of" ribbon at .49 cents, a package of 100 mini brads at .59 cents, package of 1000 foam squares for $1.00 and a double sided roller tape for $1.00. Now if you add this up it comes to $13.38 but I also had a 20% off coupon which gave me another $2.68 discount bringing it down to $10.70, add in my taxes which were 6.5% and my total at the craft store come to $11.40. I then went to the dollar store and purchased embroidery thread for $1.06 (the thread was $1 and .06 cents for the tax). MY GRAND TOTAL TO MAKE 50 GRADUATION ANNOUNCEMENTS WAS $12.46! WOO HOO!!!!
The picture I used was one I took at my child's graduation. I already had glossy photo paper, which I had previously bought at the dollar store for just $1, so I printed out my own pictures for the announcements. (I had chosen not to purchase the professional photographs that would have cost me $150 for only 11 photos. I instead took my own photographs. By taking my own photographs I saved that money plus I can print the pictures in any size and quantity I chose or print in glossy and matte finishes)

Thank you so much for visiting my blog! I wish you all a wonderful and blessed week!