DIY Graduation Tassel

     A lot of colleges and universities, including my school, the University of Maine, are moving courses online for the remainder of the semester due to COVID-19.  It is uncertain at this time whether many schools will be able to hold commencement, but there is a good chance that a formal commencement will not be in the cards for some if not most 2020 graduates.  I know this is frustrating for many of us - I've been looking forward to earning and celebrating my PhD for years now, especially since Brian and I were hoping to walk together at graduation.  However, there still is room for celebration, just on a much smaller scale.  Today I'm going to show you how I made some tassels for UMaine's mini graduation ceremony, aka Coronamencement.

Me with my tassel.

     While I dug out my old Master's cap for the Coronamencement, I saw a lot of clever caps from people who didn't have access to an official school cap.  Some people bought graduation caps from Party City, while others made caps by attaching cardboard to baseball caps.  A friend of mine donned a blue bathrobe as a substitute graduation robe.

Brian had to work, so he couldn't make it to Coronamencement, but I made him a tassel anyway.

At Coronamencement.

     I know many 2020 graduates won't get any graduation celebration, official or unofficial, and certainly not on the scale of Coronamencement.  That sucks.  But even though you may not have a tremendous audience, your accomplishments are still worth celebrating.  When graduation day comes, have a virtual ceremony with your friends and family.  DIY tassels, caps, and robes with objects you have around the house, or wear a nice outfit.  I'm sorry for all of us that this is how our academic careers are coming to an end, but we have accomplished something big nonetheless, and you have every right to be proud of that.

Materials:

*Yarn
*Scissors
*Glittery cardstock
*Die cutting machine or X-acto knife

Directions:

*To make the "2020" for your tassel, use the template below or one of your own design to cut a "2020" from gold cardstock.  You could either use a die cutting machine or scissors and an X-acto knife to make it.

*Take yarn in a color of your choice and wind it around your hand about 16 times, like this:

*Carefully slide the yarn off your hand.

*Cut off a length of yarn long enough to serve as the string that fastens your tassel to your cap.  Mine were about 17" long.

*Slide the piece of yarn through your wound yarn and knot the ends together.

*Cut off a shorter length of yarn, about 6", and slip it through the end of your "2020" tag.

*Tie the piece of yarn around your wound yarn, up toward the top.

*Cut open the bottom of the wound yarn to create the tassel shapes.  Trim as needed.

A Third Graduation Photo Frame and Tassel Holder

Materials:
*Photo frame
*Commencement program
*Photos
*Ticket
*Brad
*Scissors
*X-acto knife
*Black cardstock
*Mounting tape

Directions:
*Cut out a page of the program, such as the one with your graduate's name.
*Using the X-acto knife, create a small incision in the top of the program on the right side.
*Slide a brad through the incision.  This will be where you'll hang the tassel.
*Crop the photos to size and arrange on the program, along with the commencement ticket.  add some black cardstock to frame the photos if you so choose.
*To highlight your graduate's name, cut out a rectangle from the cardstock about 1/2" longer and 1/2" wider than what would be required to cover the name.
*Cut out a rectangle from the black rectangle using the X-acto knife that is the same length and width as the name.  Use the resulting rectangular frame to highlight the name.

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.

Graduation Photo Frame and Tassel Holder

Materials:
*8 1/2" x 11" photo frame with a thin cardboard backing
*2 sheets of 8 1/2" x 11" paper in different colors (perhaps in school colors)
*Gold metallic marker
*1 brad
*Graduation themed stickers/cutouts (optional)
*Scissors
*Pencil
*Ruler
*X-acto knife
*Mounting squares or other adhesive

Directions:
*Attach darker colored sheet of paper to the photo frame backing
*Using a ruler and pencil, mark out a 4 1/2" x 6 1/2" section of the lighter colored sheet of paper and cut it out.  Mark out a second section of the paper that measures 3 1/2" x 4 1/2" and cut it out
*Trace a gold border around each light colored rectangle
*Arrange and adhere the light colored rectangles on the lefthand side of the darker colored paper
*Using the X-acto knife, create a small incision in the top of the photo backing on the left side
*Slide a brad through the incision
*Add graduation related embellishments
*You can hang a tassel from the brad and the light colored rectangles provide spaces for a 4" x 6" and a 3" x 4" rectangle

Update: Here's what mine looks like with pictures: