The early bird gets the Ph.D!

March is the beginning of the nice weather, the world becomes new again, and for me, it's a time for some fresh ideas. This month's theme is thinking outside the box.

My brother's girlfriend of 10 years finally received her Ph.D (after 10 years of schooling!).  We had a party in her honor, and my mom and I picked out some nice gifts for her.  The problem was this: it's a little too early in the year to be looking for graduation wrapping paper.  I was already going to make a card for Adria (aforementioned girlfriend), so when I told my mom about the cute little bird in a cap and gown I had on one of my Cricut cartridges, she said "Well, can you make mini ones so I can put them on the plain wrapping paper I bought?"

Why, yes, yes I can.

I started by laying out the project on my Gypsy.  If you don't have one, buy one.  It gives you so much flexibility and can really open up your imagination once you get the hang of the menus.

This bird is from the 3 Birds On Parade Cricut cartridge.  I wanted a 2 1/2 inch bird for the card, and then a flock of 1 1/2 inch birds to decorate the wrapped packages.

Then, I laid out my paper on the Cricut mat to match where I had set the layers.  Her alma ater is George Washington University in Washington DC, and their colors are buff and blue.  I wanted the cap and gown to be buff and the bird face to be blue.  Tassel was red, beak and claws yellow.

Next, we load the paper into the Cricut and cut!  Isn't she pretty! :)

Once they were all cut, I set out to assemble them.  Here are the two different sizes:

All that was left to do was attached the smaller ones to the packages.  My mom wrapped them and put the birds on.

You could also use stickers to decorate plain wrapping paper or tissue paper, if you don't want to bother with all the cutting and gluing.

Adria liked the little birds so much, she kept them to use on another project.  Here is the card I made with the bigger bird.