It’s a Celebration for GDP015

I am just going to sneak in with a submission for Global Design Project Theme Challenge for this week. The theme is “Celebrate”.

There are so many reasons to celebrate right now, however I am celebrating with a birthday card … and a sneak peak from the Occasions Catalogue.

I used a new stamp set called Balloon Celebration, along with the co-ordinating punch Balloon Bouquet Punch. This is a polymer stamp set, so perfect for two-step stamping. You can create all sorts of balloons with the outline, shading and various texture elements, there are two cloud images, various celebratory accents and a bunch of great greeting options.

I stamped my balloons on watercolour card first with Watermelon Wonder ink (outline, shading and then the dotty texture) and then punched them out.  They actually look pretty good just like this, however I added another layer by stamping the dotty texture with Watermelon Wonder ink onto Vellum Cardstock. I know, I know, you will be saying “Dye based ink won’t dry on vellum!!”.  True, the ink does stay wet longer than normal, and you have to leave it sit and dry for a few hours, but it does eventually dry. So ensure the ink is well dry before you punch out the balloon.  I sponged my balloons lightly with Watermelon Wonder ink and a sponge dauber, and then let dry well again.

Attach the vellum balloons to the stamped balloons with a couple of glue dots under the texture bit so they don’t show. Stampin’ Up! vellum cardstock is wonderfully thick and sits beautifully with just those couple of glue dots. A little swish of the new and wonderful Wink of Stella Glitter Brush adds a subtle shimmer to my balloons! Beware though, wherever the shimmer is applied to the vellum the ink will blend, so I just kept it to the darker lower part of the balloons so as to avoid smudging the dotty texture.

Then comes the fiddly bit of tying the black strings to the balloons … I probably should have used Linen Thread for this, but I wanted the black accent … and the only black thread I had was Baker’s Twine (which is twisted black and white threads). I had seen someone unravel the new Black and Melon Mambo or Mint Macaroon Baker’s Twine (I think one of the GDP designers, but I can’t find it anywhere) … I don’t have that new Baker’s Twine just yet, so I just unraveled the regular Basic Black Baker’s Twine and ended up with one very delicate black thread and a pile of white threads (which I will use somewhere else). It works, my only comment is you have to be VERY, VERY GENTLE! It is very prone to just pulling apart … so I very gently tied my balloon threads and then loosely knotted the threads together.  The knot is covered by the greeting, so I was able to attach it to the card with a glue dot ensuring my balloons won’t float away.

The watercolour swish in the background is Pear Pizzazz ink on Watercolour card. The words are from Endless Birthday Wishes … this is my favourite greeting set for birthdays because the combinations of wording are endless .. and I love the casual font.  I white embossed “Celebrate” onto Pear Pizzazz cardstock and die cut with the Itty Bitty Banners Framelit die, but honestly you could just hand cut this banner!

Some of the balloons are adhered with glue dots and the others with Stampin’ Dimensionals to create a floaty effect.

This card is suprisingly quick to create (drying time aside) and this is all down to the clever designers who created the Balloon Celebration stamp set.

xx Cheryll