It’s hard to believe, but we are already mid-way through April! Spring moves us into a season of celebrations. Just last weekend I attended a bridal shower and a birthday party and, before you know it, graduation season will be upon us!

This post is in partnership with Basic Invite. All opinions are 100% my own. For more information see my disclosure page. Thank you for supporting brands that help bring you more DIY, craft, and party ideas on Legally Crafty!

I am excited to have teamed up with Basic Invite to share with you some awesome graduation invite designs and a quick project that can double as a gift for a grad or a party favor!

We are a Minnesota Golden Gopher household. Between my hubby and I we’ve got a few degrees from the University of Minnesota and that’s meant plenty of our graduation celebrations and celebrating friends’ graduations, too. This means we bleed maroon and gold over here! One of the cool things about Basic Invite is that you can explore almost unlimited color options with instant previews as you pick out the perfect grad party invite. Once you select from the graduation party invitations templates you can change the color of each element on the card to make sure it looks exactly the way you want and showcases those school colors of maybe just your favorite colors. Obviously, I’d opt for maroon and gold!

So, whether you are graduating from college or just heading to college, Basic Invite has a design for your celebration. They’ve got a big selection of invitations for high school graduation and college graduation alike. You see a few more of my favorite designs below. There are a variety of fonts, layouts, and you can even add foil options as well!

I am also a big fan of photo graduation invitations that give you a chance to use senior photos or some fun snaps from your time in college or grad school on them. It shows some personality! One of my favorite designs for high school graduations even lets you showcase some of the activities of the grad! That would have been perfect for me! I was super involved in high school clubs!

If you are like me and you want to see what the final product will look like, have no fear, because Basic Invite sends you a custom printed sample so you can see how it will look and feel in its printed form before making your final order. Seeing a proof gives you that piece of mind that the paper, images, and colors all look how you want them to before mailing them out.

After you’ve finalized your invite, you can choose from more than 40 envelope color options and they are all peel and stick. Where were these envelopes when I was painfully licking envelopes for my wedding?! They also provide an awesome tool you can use to gather addresses you need via social media.

DIY Gift for a Grad or a Party Favor!

Whether you’re hosting a graduation party or attending, I’ve got an easy DIY idea that can work as a party favor or a simple gift. Gift cards make an excellent gift for grads of all ages. For those heading to college, coffee cards, pizza cards, Target or Walmart cards, or gift cards to local places in the city they are headed to for school are great ideas.

For those graduating college or grad school, think about things that might be helpful as they start a new job! Again, coffee cards are always a winner or think about places they might be grabbing lunch when they start a new job. Maybe they have a new apartment or home, think about home stores or home improvement stores as options as well.

I am a big fan of dressing up a gift cards with a few other things whether you are giving it as a gift or thanking guests with a small token of your appreciation for coming to your gathering.

Mugs are the perfect base! I grabbed these maroon marbled mugs from Target on clearance for less than $1 a piece. Target is frequently changing out their mug selection, so they are easy to round up. You can also find a nice selection of mugs at other retailers as well.

For these mugs, I wanted to add a little Minnesota flair. I used my Cricut to add on the Minnesota “M” to one mug and an outline of the beloved Goldy Gopher to another using vinyl. Next, I added some tissue paper, chocolates, and a Starbucks gift card.

Finally, since we Gophers like to “Row the Boat” (a reference to our football team if you aren’t from here), I used some of the vinyl scraps to create some embellished oar drink stirrers to include as well.

Tie them up with clear cellophane bags. You can pick a package up at Dollar Tree and tie them off with some ribbon! The best part about this project is that you can customize this gift for any school, color, or just do a fun saying!