DIY | a graduation gift

One of my best friends, Courtney, graduated from nursing school this week. It's been five years in the making: two years of prerequisites; a year "off" when she had kiddo number three, moved to California and applied to school; then two years of classes, clinical and exams.

During her first year, our husbands were deployed for eight months. I watched as she and her family made enormous sacrifices to get to graduation. And basically, she crushed it. Those of us who know her never had any doubt, but that doesn't take away what a big deal it was. So I wanted to do something special to celebrate. 

A couple months ago I took the Studio Calico "Life | Scripted" class with Kal Barteski and learned a little bit about brush script. I'm not a painter or anything and I'm certainly not an expert, but now I really enjoy breaking out my supplies and a stack of paper.

I'd seen this quote all over Pinterest, and I thought it was really fitting for the occasion. I think I wrote it a couple dozen times before I started to get happy with it. Anyone know it's origin?

I bought two 8x10 frames at Target and had a picture printed of all of us at the graduation. I love this shot. Courtney calls this her "village." I don't know about that, because I think she could have absolutely done this without us, but this group certainly feels like a family.

And here they are together. I love the wide mats and the simple, white frames. I hope that she'll hang them somewhere visible and that they'll remind her of what an amazing thing she achieved by deciding to just go for it and make it happen. 

You can read more about the Studio Calico class HERE and view all of the supplies I used HERE. And to the graduates out there: congratulations!