LATE FOR COLLEGE- HOW TIME FLIES

One of my greatest sources of inspiration and joy are my two children.  Although they are technically no longer children but young adults, and very amazing ones at that.  My son, whom defines himself as a creative, is always challenging me to see through his eyes.   He has a great eye for what's important, interesting and meaningful to a generation that I'm purely an observer of due to the age difference.

   This year marks an important milestone for him, as he graduates from COLLEGE.  He's a student at University of Oregon, in Eugene, Oregon.

Four years ago we put together a fun high school graduation party for him that I intended to post about.  Well, here we are four years later and it never quit appeared on the blog.    So to reminisce and enjoy it all again here's the details of that special day.

A graduation party filled with ideas reflecting accomplishment, love and celebration.

The goal of the  party was to acknowledge and celebrate his accomplishments in high school and build excitement for his college experience.   One of the very basic things I started with was working out some common ground between the two school's color palettes.  His high school colors were cardinal and gold and his college was green and yellow.  So I tweaked both into my preferred color palette of vintage look colors.  We were now working with burgundy reds, ochre yellows and olivey greens mixed with the neutrals of  parchment, kraft and burlap.

A keepsake box of memories, inspiration and encouragement. Blown up heads on a stick act as place holders during the graduation.

I can't take credit for the concept but I can take credit for the execution of the little suitcase pictured.  His school asked that we create a box keepsake and fill it with insightful and inspirational items, quotes and sentiment.  I covered his in stickers I created that represent many of the stages in his academic journey.  Many were logos I already had on hand from events and projects I had a design hand in through the years.

The box itself contained items that were adorned with small kraft tags.  On each tag we came up with short explanation as to why we chose the item.    Some of the items were toys he had as a boy.

The handsome heads you see are blow ups of my son's face.  We used them as markers to reserve the family and friends seats at graduation.   They we fun to wave in the air during the moments we could get noisy and revel.

Fringed, rough ribbons of fabric and pennants create a masculine and vintage feel for the graduation party.

At the house I used a lot of props, which as a prop hoarder it wasn't too difficult to do.  Globes, encyclopedias , typewriters, flash cards, things with letters and ones that reflect the 12 in 2012.  A hand painted burlap pennant streamer spans our front porch welcoming guests through the garden.

Manipulated and folded books, typewriters and other items act as props to create vignettes throughout the house.

Small vignettes of photos and props were placed throughout the house.  I used books to create fun shapes and opportunities to stage items.  While its something we don't showcase year round the digital photo frame was a great addition to the displays.  Having k-12 photographs scrolling through time was enjoyed by our guests.

A graduation garden party filled with school colors and decorative details.

Having a very large backyard gives us many opportunities for merry making.  The problem often becomes scale.  How to make a party look intimate and special on such a large scale is often the issue.  To remedy some of that I strung very long strands of lights to bring the "ceiling" down a little and offer light as the evening waned past sunset.  The combination of clear bulbs and paper lanterns were very handsome.

Using a Silhouette cutter made creating school logo stick flags easy

In the revised color palette, collections of school logo cutouts, paper goods and decorative details bring it all together.   I found some amazing natural leaf made plates that had great texture.  They were combined with the more graphic striped traditional party plates.

Vintage props and decor adds appeal and creates opportunities to display food, gifts and special treats.

A multi layered dimensional height display of suitcases, manipulated books and other props made for a perfect dessert table.  Letters and numbers were cut using my silhouette machine.

Now, we're in the planning stages of his college graduation.  I might revisit some of these props and ideas to create a new but familiar and welcomed look.  Hopefully, I will be good about posting those before another four years passes.

I hope you find a few things inspiring or just fun to look at.  Shoot me over any questions or sentiments for the graduate.  I look forward to your thoughts...
Best,
Aaron
 

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