Another Graduation Photo Frame and Tassel Holder

     On Saturday I graduated with a Master's of Arts in mathematics, which meant it was time for me to make another graduation photo frame and tassel holder (you can see my photo frame and tassel holder for my undergraduate graduation here).

Materials:
*Photos
*12" x 12" sheet of plywood
*12" x 12" piece of patterned scrapbooking paper
*Scissors
*Decorative edge scissors
*12" x 12" sheet white cardstock or two 8 1/2" x 11" sheets of white cardstock
*Scraps of brown, black, orange, and white paper (to make the owl)
*Scraps of paper in three corresponding colors (for the owl's feathers)
*Small heart shaped punch (optional)
*All purpose adhesive
*Mounting tape
*Rhinestone
*Hammer
*Small nail
*X-acto knife
*Ruler
*Pencil
*Black thread

Directions:
*Glue sheet of patterned cardstock to the plywood.
*Using an enlarged version of the graduation hat in the graduation owl template (given below), cut out a graduation cap from black paper.  Glue it to the patterned cardstock as in the above picture.

*Hammer a small nail through the center of the graduation cap, leaving a small gap between the head of the nail and the plywood so that the tassel can be hung up on it.  If the nail pokes through the back of the plywood, you can either trim the nail down using wire cutters or cover the pointy end of the nail with a dab of glue so that it won't poke into anything.
*Glue a small rhinestone over the head of the nail.
*Using a ruler, mark out the desired dimensions for the frames for each of the photos.
*Use decorative edge scissors to give the frames a fun shape.
*Carefully cut out the inside of each frame using an X-acto knife.
*Using mounting tape, adhere the pictures to their respective places on the patterned cardstock.
*Glue frames over the pictures.
*To make the graduation owl, print out a small graduation owl template.
*Cut out the body and two copies of the wings from brown paper, two large circles from white paper for the eyes, two small black circles for pupils, and a small orange triangle for the beak.  Cut out or punch out using a heart shaped punch nine hearts, one in each of the three corresponding colors, to make the feathers.
*Glue together the various parts of the owl like this:

*Cut out a short but long rectangle of white paper.  Roll it up and tie it closed with black thread to form the owl's diploma.
*Glue the diploma to the owl's wing and then glue the owl to the patterned cardstock.