You're a true friend

I've had these graduation gifts for my best friends completed for over two weeks, and I've been waiting to blog about them until I actually gave them their presents, but with our constant busy schedules, I hadn't found the opportunity to do so until last night, and even with that I still haven't given one away yet. I decided to make a collage for each of my best friends to take to school with them. I bought the mattes and used some lavender scrapbook paper at the background. The photos are ones that I have taken from our times together, and I then added in a vintage postcard, fortunes and some magazine clippings.

 This one, made for my friend Natalie, has a vintage postcard of the New York Public Library, because Natalie loves New York City, and she is going to school in New York. The magazine clipping says "put on your happy feet" which will hopefully brighten her days during the tough school year. The upper photo is of a church from Madrid, and the lower photo is of the Royal Palace in Madrid as well. To finish this one off, the fortune says "Don't be afraid to take that big step", an encouraging fortune for the new times ahead.

 This next one was made for my friend Meredith. The postcard is of the Martha Cook dorm at the University of Michigan, which is the school that she will be attending in the fall. The upper photo was taken on the beach from our trip to the Dominican Republic, and the lower photo is of Toledo, Spain, which we visited together. I chose a magazine clipping for this one that says "Let love shine". The fortune says "You do not have to know where you are going to be headed in the right direction", a very true statement, especially during the years in college where everything is new.

 For my friend Ally, I chose a postcard that says "Greetings from Michigan" because she is going to school out of state, so it will remind her of her wonderful home state. The upper photo is the same photo from Meredith's, of the view of Toledo, Spain. The lower photo is of a a red Vespa, also taken on our trip to Spain last summer. The fortune says "Do not give up, the beginning is always the hardest"; hopefully it will be an encouraging little note, even though I know Ally would never give up.

The last one is for my friend Olivia. The postcard on this one makes me laugh every time I see it. It says "Guess I'll be a darned old maid", because we always joke that we will one day become old maids. The upper photo was taken on our trip to Spain, of cute potted plants. The lower photo is from our trip to the Dominican Republic, looking up to beaded t-shirts. The upper fortune says "Luck helps those who help themselves" and the bottom one says "An hour with one friend is worth more than ten with strangers".

I'm so thrilled with how these turned out, and I'm excited for my best friends to be able to put them up in their dorm rooms, all at different colleges might I add, to add a little artsy touch and to make their room feel more like home.