Birthday Balloons

Hello craft addicts! I really wish all the stamp and craft companies would stop bringing out new dies and stamps every month - said no crafter EVER! That includes me! As I said last week I got some stamps and dies from the new Clearly Besotted release on 5th July. I've scraped out some time to use the fabulous birthday balloons that were designed by Stephanie's (CBs Head Honcho) daughter. They are fabulous and perfect for little ones, so I inked them up to make a couple of cards for my bestest buddy's little ones' birthday - the plural is correct, for there are indeed two!

She also asked me if I would do more of a step by step and as baby slept really really well when I was making them, I had some more time to take photos as I went. Hope it makes sense!

Step 1 - I wanted the cards to be bright and cheerful and as I don't have enough Copic Markers to colour the balloon animals as I would like, I chose to ink them onto some Lawn Fawn Let's Polka papers using Memento Tuxedo Black. It's a technique that Lucy Abrams uses with great effect.

Step 2 - I then took the matching dies and placed them round the stamped images and secured them with some Washi tape. 

Step 3 -  I die cut them out two at a time - I find I don't get enough pressure sometimes with smaller dies if I do too many at once, especially as the die cutting machine cuts best on the top left hand corner!

Step 4 - Once the pieces were die cut out, I trimmed some white card to a size slightly smaller than the pre-cut cards I use. I like 9x13cm, as the cards are 10.5x14.75cm in size.

Step 5 - I like the corners rounded sometimes, so as I don't have a corner rounder, I use the one on the WRMK Envelope Punch board! Works just fine for me at the moment :)

Step 6 - I wanted some nice paper as a background, so I chose some coordinating papers from the Lawn Fawn Let's Polka Mon Amie collection. I trimmed it to fit the front of my card blank, as it's a 6x6" pad.

Step 7 - I then used some double sided tape to stick it down on the card front. I would love an ATG tape dispenser, but that will be in November's Simon Says Stamp purchase!

Step 8 - There are some balloon strings in the stamp set, so I positioned the balloons and stamped the strings underneath, then with some more double sided tape stuck the balloons on top.

Step 9 - I wanted to add their names, so stamped them on the front underneath in some little letters I got in Hobbycraft.

Step 10 - I didn't want the sentiment on the outside as it would be too cluttered, so I stamped them on the inside.

Step 11 - I wanted a little bit of dimension, but it needed to be firm as it's going in the post to Europe, so I used some fun foam on the back of the panel. It's such a genius idea thanks Jennifer McGuire! Love how you can see my knees in this photo! It's so professional ;)

Step 12 - Done!

A better picture of the cards. Decided not to colour the words, as I liked the clean look.

Supplies: CB Best Birthday Stamps and Best Birthday Dies; Lawn Fawn Let's Polka and Let's Polka Mon Amie 6x6 paper pad; Memento Tuxedo Black Dye Ink Pad; Hobbycraft Outline Alphabet  

Well done on getting to the bottom of this post. Hope you found it helpful/interesting, and as always, have a great weekend!