Tag Archives: Balloon Celebration

Balloon Celebration for CC&S

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Balloons? Again? Yes. Well Jane, one of my fellow Design Team members at CAS Colours & Sketches, really likes them you know. Balloon Celebration is one of my favourite sets at the moment and I love that it comes in a bundle with the punch. Actually this is the card that I made at the crop when I was contemplating the colour challenge (which just finished) but half thinking about the sketch challenge and made one that would fit both. Oops! It went through a few iterations – there was a slightly fuzzy stamping of the balloon strings which I declared not perfect. My friend Julia, sitting next to me said it was good enough for her and saved it from the scrap heap! I have a cut down version too which I’ll share soon. I just have to warn you, there’s a lot of melon mambo!

Stampin' Up!Balloon Celebrations

Here’s the banner which inspired my card:

Fun isn’t it? The circles are all slightly different sizes. I hope you’ll pop over to the challenge blog to check out the other DT’s inspiration and to have a go yourself. I used to avoid sketch challenges, now I’m really enjoying them. Try it out, you might like it.

I decided to stick with a square card because that seemed to balance the sketch nicely. I had the colours already in my head – melon mambo, pink pirouette and pumpkin pie and stamped the bubbles in the same colour as the card. I punched them out with the balloon bouquet punch and then looked back at the sketch. Three different sized circles. So out came my paper snips and I reduced the size of the pink pirouette balloon a bit. Julia was using soft suede on her card and I decided to be really different and use that for my strings and sentiment rather than using my usual black. I think the softer look really adds something – I’ll have to try that more often. Then it was a simple matter of attaching the balloons – the top one on both bunches is popped up with dimensionals for added fun. I can’t believe how rarely I used dimensionals when I started card making, the added, um, dimension really can make the card more exciting.

The card was square so out came the envelope punch board and the regular whisper white card stock. I love that we can make (almost) any sized envelope. Well, 66 different sized ones of them at least.

Balloon Celebration for GDP021

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Okay, I know I said that I was going to ban myself from using melon mambo for a while, but the challenge this week at Global Design Project includes it! It’s a really happy combination too. I may have said that same about Balloon Celebration but these colours cry out for balloons! If I were a bit more mobile, I’d probably have started by flipping through the Have a Cuppa DSP stack, but I’d already had my brother bring me countless things and I can’t carry paper whilst using my crutches. The good news is that the ankle sprain is improving and the swelling is reducing so I feel okay sitting at the table and crafting for a couple of hours. The other good thing is that Martin’s photography is better than mine – I’ve been taking the cards face on and his slanted method gives more light on the card without washing it out. I’ll be adopting that. But for now, he’s taking the photos because kneeling down in front of my light box is a bit beyond me currently.

Stampin' Up! Balloon Celebration and Mini Treat bag thinlits dies

Here’s the colour banner for the challenge:

I lined the two bubbles stamps up on a clear block, matching it with the punch – it required a little adjustment after the first go, but it was a quick way to punch out a dozen balloons. I then decided that I needed a few plain ones and punched out another 6. The idea was to have masses of balloons but I had to agree with Martin’s assessment as he passed. It was messy. So instead I made two bunches of balloons, with the  top most one popped up with dimensionals. It was only then that I really started looking for the sentiment. It’s clearly a birthday card but none of the stamps to hand worked for me. Then I noticed a cut out of “enjoy” that I’d cut for another project and that was perfect. Of course I had to cut it out in a couple of colours whilst deciding which I liked best. After bermuda bay won, I kept that colour for the lining of the envelope.

See you tomorrow,
Liz

Balloon Celebration for CC&S

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It’s Thursday which means it’s time for another challenge at CAS Colours & Sketches. It’s the beginning of a new month too so the hostess duties change over – this month it’s Stef’s turn to set the challenges. I went to the crop at the weekend armed with the upcoming challenges hoping to get ahead. And here I am typing this on Wednesday night! But at least I got my card done. Actually, I got next week’s too although I used this week’s colours. I was quite amused when I produced my card to realise it fit both challenges. I figured that people would notice if I reused it two weeks in a row, so I started over for the colour challenge.

Stampin' Up! Balloon Celebration and Sky is the limit and Softly Fallling TIEF

Here’s the banner which inspired this card:

This challenge set the stage for a lot of my weekend cardmaking – I’m thinking about banning myself from using pink on my next card! Balloon Celebration got quite a bit of use too. I first stamped the balloons with their bubbles in their matching inks and then punched them out with the matching punch (which this time, I’d remembered to pack, thank goodness). I then came up with an arrangement I liked and then stamped the strings in basic black more or less where I was planning. Then I stamped the sentiment from the Sky is the Limit stamp set because I’ve found (through making an error) that it doesn’t work brilliantly trying to stamp when there are things popped up on the card. The pink pirouette and pumpkin pie balloons are glued to the whisper white card base (which has the fold at the top for a change) and the melon mambo one is popped up with a few dimensionals.

I decided to dry emboss the envelope and used the Softly Falling TIEF which sort of reminds me of balloons with all the bubbles.

I hope that you’ll pop over to the CAS Colours & Sketches site and check out the rest of the inspiration from the Design Team. And then have a go yourself.

See you tomorrow,

Liz

Balloon Celebration for CC&S

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There’s a new challenge over at CAS Colour & Sketches today and it’s a colour one. Usually my favourite type but I really struggled with this combination for some reason. For the last couple of days I’ve been sharing cards that I started, intending them to be for this challenge but they kept insisting on extra colours. Do your cards have firm opinions on their evolution? I hope so! Today’s card is completely different from any of my initial plans and I’m not entirely sure where the idea came from! Admittedly the set Balloon Celebration was sitting out on my kitchen table, but so were a lot of other sets!

Stampin' Up! Balloon Celebration

Here’s the colour banner:

I stamped a number of balloons in rose red and so saffron and then experimented with the soft suede, stamping off a few times to see what looked best as the bubbles on the balloons. In the end the so saffron balloons preferred a double stamp off and the rose red a single. Yes, the stamps have opinions as well as the card. I then decided that it would be fun to have the balloons carrying off the sentiment. Martin thought it would be fun to have more balloons, even 99 (anyone else remember the song 99 Red Balloons?) but I pointed out that I’d have to use so many dimensionals to get that many balloons on the card, it would need to be sent in a box. And it would hardly be a CAS card!

So the sentiment (also from Balloon Celebration) is stamped in rose red with a soft suede string linking it to the balloons (only one of which is popped up with a dimensional, sorry Martin). I did punch out a partial balloon which I then trimmed with paper snips and glued under the so saffron balloon on the left to ensure it was at one height rather than having the right hand side raised due to being over the right hand so saffron balloon. Then my whisper white piece is glued to a rose red card base. My original card didn’t have the sentiment as angled, but the skylights again had an opinion and dripped on my DT card and I had to make it again. And I like this one better. Between Martin and the skylights, I have some tough critics.

By the way, if you decide to get this stamp set, get the bundle which includes the punch. You save 15% and a lot of time cutting out balloons. Win win.

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

I hope that you pop over to the CAS Colours & Sketches website to see what the rest of the Design Team have created and also to have a go at the challenge yourself.
See you tomorrow,
Liz

Party Pop-up thinlits dies for PPA

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When I got home from work on Thursday, there was a box full of new product at the front door. Although this was my first day in the office for the week due to being sick, I could not resist a little play. I made yesterday’s card for Komal (she loved it – it’s wonderful how giving a card makes people happy) and then instead of going to bed, I had to play with the Party pop-up thinlits dies. I loved Brian’s colour combination for the Pals Paper Arts challenge this week so much that I looked through the It’s My Party DSP stack again for a suitable paper for the back of my card. It’s really simple to do – I cut the mint macaron a quarter inch smaller than the card base and folded it in half. The party pop-up dies have arrows on them that you line up with the central crease and then a roll through the big shot and you have this great pop up card.

Stampin' Up! Party pop-up thinlits dies

Just glue the DSP in place onto the melon mambo cardbase and then attach the mint macaron as well. Make sure you push the crease of the mint macaron well into the crease on the card base. The amusing thing about making this card is that after you’ve done all this, you still have the front of the card to do! Fortunately I persuaded myself to go to bed at this point.

I decided that balloons were the perfect image for the front of this happy and fun birthday card and pulled out more new items – the Balloon Celebration stamp set and it’s matching punch, balloon bouquet. You can get these as a bundle together and save 15%.

Stampin' Up! Balloon Celebration and Balloon Bouquet Punch and Party Pop-up thinlits dies and It's My Party DSP stack

I first stamped the bundle of strings in basic black and then stamped various sized balloons in mint macaron and melon mambo on scrap paper, decorating some with the bubbles. After I’d arranged the balloons, popping some up with stampin’ dimensionals I decided that I needed a sentiment. Since the balloon strings are in the middle of the card, it just didn’t work putting anything either side so it needed to be a banner. The triple banner punch came in very handy – it’s not an essential tool since you can use other punches or scissors for the banner end, but it’s makes it so much easier. The sentiment is also from the balloon celebration set.

I decorated the envelope with another piece of the same DSP as is inside the card. I just cut a strip of the DSP, glued it to the outside of the envelope and trimmed off the excess.

Here’s the banner which inspired this card

PPA-283-Jan14

See you tomorrow,

Liz