“The man who will use his skill and constructive imagination to see how much he can give for a dollar, instead of how little he can give for a dollar, is bound to succeed.” -Henry Ford

I looked through some graduation quotes while I was getting ready for this post. At first, I was looking for a cheesy and cliché graduation quote for fun. Then I came across this one, and I liked it. What a great reminder to work at what we do and not cut corners. As we try to be thrifty, we also have to remember to think about the quality for every dollar we spend. Not just buying cheap for the sake of spending less, but getting the best for a good price. Is what I am buying worth the cost?

Anyway, the point of this post is about helping keep graduation cost down.
This is the last week of school for the kids in my youth group, and we have nine this year that are graduating. Friday night is the graduation, and the parties are all day Saturday. I want to be nice and give them unique and meaningful cards, but the really cool looking ones can cost $3-4 each. I could go out and buy a box of 12 for the same price, but then I run the risk of being one of a dozen of that same card because everyone had the same idea. Plus, those cards aren’t always awesome. They usually have those cliché quotes in them that I was talking about.

So here’s my solution. I made some cards out of some of the supplies I already had on hand. Since I already had the supplies, all it cost me was a little time.

I started out by drawing a graduation cap on a piece of paper, then cut it out for my pattern. You could just as easily print one off from online and use that as a pattern too. Then I cut out the hat from felt and freehand cut out a tassel.

I used hot glue because that was all I had handy and attached the piece onto some cardstock that I cut to be the size of a card.

Then using a black scrapbooking pen I wrote on the card…and then realized after all that, I added an “s” to graduation. “Congratulations on your graduations.” Unfortunately, I don’t know anyone who is having multiple graduations at this time.

I didn’t want my hard work to be for nothing, so I just cut out around the hat and glued it to another piece of paper!

This time I paid attention better to what I was writing. I wrote a Bible verse on the inside. It might be a cliché verse for graduation, but I don’t know if there is such a thing as an overused verse. It’s appropriate for the occasion so I went with it.

It can be fancy or simple like this one, but you can save a lot of money making your own cards instead of buying them from the store. Also, you can write whatever you want in them and don’t have to stand there and decide which one says exactly what you want to say. Plus, your card will stand out from the others because it has a special handmade touch that shows that you care.

You can use whatever materials you have on hand: felt, paper, fabric, buttons, ribbons, etc. Your favorite graduate will appreciate it! And if you were already planning to buy a card and aren’t concerned about saving money, make a card anyway and put the $3-4 you would have spent in the card instead. Your grad will thank you for it!

(Don’t forget! This can be great for birthdays, weddings, anniversaries etc. too!)

Update: Check out this post for more graduation card ideas.