Drew's 1st Birthday

Celebrated Father's Day last night, having the kids over for dinner (along with grand-doggie Penny).  Had a wonderful time and Gord really enjoyed himself.  Today he's out playing in the mud with a friend ---dirt bike riding --- his hobby and favorite pastime since the age of 12!! (it's been a FEW years!).  I'm home alone as Jer is off at work, so since I rarely have the house to myself, decided to put up my feet and relax - that lasted about an hour - boring!  Into the art studio I went ... so much more fun!!  My great nephew is celebrating his first birthday next weekend and I wanted to make him a special card.  I had an idea for doing hot air balloons, so I got to work on that this morning.  I did take a break for lunch and watched a couple of taped shows, but it basically took me about three hours to make this card.  I just wanted it to be very special and I made a few attempts before coming up with the colors and patterns I wanted.  Hope you like.  I've included a picture of the inside too.
 

                                                  "Drew's 1st Birthday"

 

 

Stamps:  Sprinkles, Patterned Pines

Paper:  Kiwi Kiss (I LOVE this color and hope that SU! considers bringing it back!!), Tempting Turquoise, Whisper White, Pumpkin Pie, Soft Suede

Ink:  Tempting Turquoise, Kiwi Kiss, Pumpkin Pie, Soft Suede, Whisper White, Stampin' Write marker Pacific Point and Soft Suede

Accessories & Tools:  Printed the pattern for the hot air balloon from "Papers & Crafts" Magazine - free download for March/April 2011, white gel pen, sponges, Word Window punch, corner rounder, bone folder, scrap paper for creating cloud mask

 

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I downloaded the pattern for the hot air balloon.  It originally has the pieces of the large balloon cut from different patterns, but I decided to make it all one color (Tempting Turquoise).  I used the star stamp from the Patterned Pine set to stamp Whisper White onto the balloon.  I then used the Pacific Point Stampin' Write marker to make the zig-zag stitching on the large balloon.  I sponged Tempting Turquoise ink around the edges of the balloon and then used my bone folder to round the edges backwards and give the balloon depth.

I cut a small balloon shape from Kiwi Kiss cardstock (I downloaded the small and medium balloon from on-line - can't remember where but I think it was "The Cutting Cafe").  I used my white gel pen to add cross-hatching to the balloon, sponged the edges with Kiwi Kiss and rounded back the edges - just used my fingers this time as I found the bone folder was too large to use.

For the medium balloon, cut the shape from Pumpkin Pie cardstock and then stamped with Whisper White using the Sprinkles stamp.  Sponged the edges with Pumpkin Pie ink and rounded them backwards.

Created the baskets from Soft Suede cardstock and used the Stampin' Write marker to add in the basket-weave.  Sponged all the edges with Soft Suede.

Now on to the background.  I saw a video on-line that showed how to do the clouds like this, but I can't remember who's video it is.  If I find it again, I will add a link on the Techniques page of this website.  Someone else came up with this way of doing the clouds ... I think it is so adorable!!  This is how it's done ... using a scrap piece of paper, I randomly drew a line of "uneven scallops" ... different heights, different widths.  I cut it out and used this as my mask, starting at the top of the page, lightly sponging Tempting Turquoise along the mask.  I moved it down a little and over so that the "clouds" didn't line up and had a random look.  I found it even better to do a straight line of clouds and then the next row down would be in an upside down "V" shape.  I covered the whole page with clouds and then mounted all the balloons, popping up the top parts of the balloons with dimensionals (not the baskets).  I used the Soft Suede Stampin' Write marker to add the ropes to connect the balloon with the baskets.

I printed off the sentiments on my computer and then sponged clouds in the background of the inside panel.  I punched out the front of the card sentiment with the Word Window punch and then framed it in Kiwi Kiss cardstock, using the corner rounder to mimic the shape of the Word Window punch - it is mounted to the front of the card, popped up with dimensionals