Eagle Scout Ceremony Invite

The eagle's movable wing can be used as a gate-latch

My friend’s son, Keith, has been working on his Eagle Scout project for Boy Scouts -- collecting gently used musical instruments and donations for the local high school band/music department to assist students who would like to participate in the arts, but are unable to obtain an instrument due to lack of funds. What a wonderful project to benefit his community. [For more information, or to contact Keith directly about a donation, you can check out this local news article which includes his contact info.]

In the meantime, I’ve been trying to talk my friend, Marla, into making Keith’s invitations. Ha ha…yep, I am such an enabler! We did a bit of brainstorming and came up with the idea of using a gatefold card. So, to help get her creative juices flowing I made this “mock-up” invite. I used my Cuttlebug to emboss the stars on the two gate panels on the outside of the card on green cardstock (CS). I used CS with a white core so that when I lightly sanded the raised star images the green sanded away to expose the white. I used the Independence Day cartridge on my Cricut to cut out the eagle for the front gate “latch”. I actually cut the eagle out twice—I cut off the wing of the second eagle and added it behind the other eagle wing with a brad. This way the wing can be moved into any position. If you move the second wing down, you can actually slide it behind the left gate panel to lock the card in place. I added a “paper ribbon” to the brad with the Boy Scout law printed on vellum.


You could also use the pocket for an RSVP card

For the inside of the card, I embossed the Fleur de Lis design in the same CS and sanded again. But this time I printed the invite information onto vellum and adhered to the both inside panels with a brad. I love the quote I found from Neil Armstrong—apropos, don’t ya think? For the photo pocket, I printed out the Boy Scout emblem onto vellum (I love how easy vellum is to use), and arranged it by tearing and adding adhesive to three sides. Although I didn’t take a picture of the back, I added a group photo of his troop on the back of the invite.
This card actually didn’t take too long to make since I used the vellum for a lot of my wording—that can be pre-printed ahead of time, which is good considering it’s best to let vellum have a bit of drying time so the ink doesn’t smudge. If you don’t have an embossing machine, you could use printed scrapbook papers instead. And there are a lot of digital stamps you could find on the internet in place of the eagle if you don’t have a die cutting machine or a Cricut.  Marla’s daughter, Kelsey, is a talented artist and can draw an awesome eagle, but I personally wouldn’t like to show anything I’ve actually drawn. LOL.  Anyway, I hope this gives you some creative ideas towards your next card or invite!

Just to add: becoming an Eagle Scout is an awesome accomplishment – and I’m so proud of Keith! WTG!! Lisa