Every now and then, inspiration strikes and when it does, you can get the cleverest digital photo cards.  In this case, I came across a photo I had taken about fifteen years ago at my nephew’s pre-school graduation ceremony.  I remember taking pictures of him then as he looked so adorable, dressed in an oversized graduation gown T-shirt, tasseled construction paper mortarboard, and solemn facial expression. I thought how amazing it is that he’s about to graduate from college and how quickly those years have flown by.  Suddenly, I rushed to the phone to call my sister.

In our family, no happy occasion passes by without a party.  My sister was planning a really large house-and-yard party to celebrate her “baby’s” special event (not to mention the end of parental tuition contributions!).  I told her my brilliant idea, which she loved, and we put our heads together to create a memory.

First, we had invitation photo cards made, with that adorable preschool graduation photo on the front of the cards and all the party info inside.  Using that digital photo as inspiration, we took full advantage of 21 years of taking pictures of our little man as he was growing up.  We had several “gems” blown up to poster size and used all these sweet, mischievous, funny, heroic, athletic, adorable photos as party decorations.  Not only were they festive, but they also proved to be guaranteed conversation pieces.  In fact, a whole lot of us were taking pictures that day to continue the trend.

The icing on the cake, so to speak, was taking pictures for the photo cards to be sent by the graduate as thank you cards.  The digital photo features the young man, dressed in his real cap and gown and a great big grin, standing next to a blow-up of the picture used for his photo card invitations.  I bet that would make a great photo card invitation for his retirement party some day!