Well, I went the easy route today and used a song for inspiration. I needed a grad card for my nephew and while making it, I kept hearing "Pomp & Circumstance" the whole time, lol. Since I was in the band all the way thru school, I bet I've played this song a million times.
Anyway, I gold embossed the greeting and diploma and die cut w/ a Spellbinders circle. The ruffled gold is two cupcake liners that I split, removed the middles and put them together to form a lg circle. I used a MS diamonds edge punch on the black glitter dp and formed a circle w/ it. The final part of the medallion is just strips of metallic gold ribbon attached to the back.
The black glossy layer is backed w/ a gold glitter dp layer. On the white layer, I used the CB swiss dots on top and the QK stripe label on the bottom. The stripes are not very visible because I used them to line up and attach narrow strips of black and gold glitter dp. I saw some glitter striped dp in the store but it was the wrong color so I made my own to match. Finished card measures 5 x 6.5 (A6).