Finished handmade graduation ornaments, and yes a pattern is coming

A mere month after Christmas, here are the completed college graduation ornaments for my two girls. While they were a Christmas gifting fail (here’s the previous post when they were still WIPs), I do absolutely love how they came out and will be happy to ceremonially hang them on this year’s tree. Watch the Instagram reel here.

After some brainstorming with clever mmmaker Debbie, I was able to make an acceptable honor cord for my eldest even though she forgot to wear it during graduation. It’s 26 gauge floral wire colored with a permanent marker (seriously y’all I’ve had my Prismacolor markers since COLLEGE and they still work great) and wrapped with 3 strands of floss in a manner similar to the candy canes in my ‘Twas The Night series. As mentioned in the previous post, the base pattern was Mr Scrooge, with a few modifications. Her necklace is a double strand of gold thread. Her glasses were fashioned like Mr Marley’s from wire. The mortarboard is two layers of black stiffened craft felt with a wool felt cap. She’s also holding a coffee to go, as that is chiefly how she made it through her last semester. It was made by rolling up a curved piece of Pellon 70 Peltex, then I topped it with two concentric circles of black stiffened felt. I glued on a brown paper cozy as a finishing touch.
Her hair is made the same way as Ghost of Christmas Present, except it’s a combo of two colors of floss and I think the effect is very pretty and true to life. The real graduate’s hair also has a good bit of curl, but this will do.
Some fun details on my youngest graduate. She has a short curly bob, so this was accomplished with fabric marker and curled chenille stems. For her mortarboard I had to improvise, as I did not have stiffened craft felt in navy blue. I glued a layer of wool felt to a stiff piece of blue card stock. Upon reflection, I might brush some Mod Podge over the card stock for longevity. Her necklace is silver sewing thread with a glass bead pendant. And some may recognize the Peepy she is holding. That girl is crazy about Item Label plushies and one of her menagerie always attended college classes with her. I have to tell you it was quite a triumph to successfully make one at that scale.
Mr Peepy is made from mini poms, some glass beads, a sequin, floss, card stock, and determination. If I had to do it again, I’d glue on two donut holes that fall out of black sequins for the eyes because it was hard to make them round using the marker. There are usually a few of those sequin donut holes at the bottom of my sequin case, but I didn’t feel like dumping out 500 sequins to get to them. I still might.
The card stock diplomas: a fun detail #becausemagnets. Each grad is holding her diploma under her arm, but what actually keeps it there are two of Benzie Design’s powerful mini magnets.
They are crazy strong. I captured each tiny magnet under a disk of glued felt, as you can see above. The diploma snaps right in place and won’t fall off. One magnet is on the back of the diploma, and the other magnet is inside the robe.
THE UPCOMING PATTERN:
Thanks again to Debbie, who gave me the idea of a graduate ornament by showing me her own version last year, and with whom I’ve been working behind the scenes (emails zinging back and forth) to hammer out details of the upcoming pattern. She is ALL about the details and problem solving, just like me. #kindredspirits
YES, there will be a pattern, but I’m not sure when! (Debbie, you’ll be getting an advance copy for sure. LOL.) If you’ve been reading my posts for a while, you guys know how little time I’m working with while I help care for my mom, but I’ll do my best to fit this in amongst my other ornament plans this year. I realized that most folks have a graduate to honor at some point, and this pattern would make for some special keepsakes given at commencements or Christmases for sure!
The pattern will be suitable for male/female high school and college grads with stoles, cords, and medallions, and I’ll attempt to include items for graduate and doctorate degrees if I can without it getting completely ridiculous. A good pattern name is eluding me. Something unique, not too generic, not too weird. Pomp And Circumstance? Commencement? Congraduations? *Audible groans from readers*
OK, I’ll think about it more.
I love the finished products and I’m so happy to see that you’ll be releasing a pattern! I bought supplies from Benzie because I was going to try to do it on my own, but now I’ll wait for the pattern. I’m looking forward to buying it as soon as it’s available!
It’s going to be a while, but it’s coming! 🙂
I love all the details! The diploma, the jewelry, the glasses, the highlighted hair, and especially the coffee cup! I have to admit, I’ve never seen or heard of Item Label plushies, but no doubt you knocked it out of the park with tiny little Peepy too. I’m sure your girls love their special one of a kind ornaments and will treasure them for many years to come!
This was a stellar idea, Debbie! Thanks for all your help in brainstorming so far! I hope you get the chance to add a coffee cup to Abby’s.
Hi Larissa! I have made most of your patterns….Thought I would just chime in on making curls with embroidery floss hair….I made the girl elf in your “Night Before Christmas” series and I always gave the elves a feminine hairdo LOL….I took the color I needed, wound it around a wooden skewer, sprayed it with heavy ironing starch, then let it dry….You then have curls to use in a curly hairdo…..One elf had long curly hair….another one had the curls used in 2 pony tails……I don’t know how to insert a photo here so I can’t show you. However the results are fantastic! Blessings
This is genius!! I’d love to try it. Thanks so much!
Debbie, brilliant! I didn’t read about the hair until I tried mine. I just finished wrapping cotton perle floss and sprayed with Siffen Quik. Fingers crossed it’s a cork screw curl. I’m making a boy with red hair and a girl with cork screw curls. Thanks!
Hi Cheryl! So fun to share ideas…..You can use those curls and even floss braids to style in all sorts of hairdos…I made a batch of snow queen ballerinas with all sorts of different styled buns….some were like updos I do on my own hair LOL…..low ones…high curly ones…buns with a braid crown…..all using starched floss. Hope they turn out well…You can speed up drying time by placing them in a low heat oven for as long as it takes to dry.