Balloon Festoon Gallery

No, Balloon Festoon doesn’t have stamps this big. I just tried to do hot foil with the large balloon die. As you can see I got a bit of over-foiling, which is fairly common with large, open dies.

• Luckily this is easy to remedy by using an eraser. I used a sand eraser.
• Then, I colored them in with Berry Burst, Melon Mambo and Red (Poppy Parade?) Blends.
• I brushed the uncolored parts with a blending brush with lighter pink on it.
• When all of the inks were dry I embossed some confetti and a greeting, also from the Balloon Festoon stamp set.
• Some Full of Life designer series paper (retired) really pulled these colors together so I added a bit on either side of the balloon panel, along with just a sliver of gold foil.
• The ribbon is from a batch I did when I was paying with dying my own colors with reinkers (and a bit of vinegar, I think. It was at least a decade ago.)

My first play with stencils made from balloon die cuts. It was so fun to play with different colors of inks!

These first three cards feature the Hello You thinlet dies which were bundled with the Crazy About You stamps in Stampin’ Up!’s 2015 Occasions Catalog. It was one of the earlier word die sets and I don’t think I was ever too crazy about the font BUT I love it with these balloons! I only found out after I made the cards that I still had the word stamps so these used different “BIRTHDAY” stamps that are a little more recent.

I love the effect in the first card of cutting the word out of the stamped design. Just know that it’s a bit more time consuming and make sure you save all the necessary pieces so you can replace them after you put the word back in place.

The die cut “happy” has three layers to make it more sturdy which also makes it easier to apply to the card in the intended shape – otherwise a single layer might stretch out the letters.

The background paper and die cut “happy” use Beach Boardwalk DSP. The white trim is from the Cutest Crew Dies.

Splash of Sparkles DSP. I think the balloon was from leftover Melon Mambo ink on my blending brush.

This used one of the biggest stencils I could die cut and it would make a great, easy graduation card. This one uses my high school colors: Red & Gray (Actually I think I just cleaned off my black blending brush.)for the Duluth East Greyhounds. It’s only been 50 years!!! The waves are for the waterfront, near where our graduation ceremony was held. Of course any embossing folder or even none at all would work.

Cutest Crew birds with Words of Beauty Bundle.

Cutest Crew birds with Words & Wishes greeting

I wasn’t sure I would make use of the really big balloon dies but they are turning out to be some of my favorites. This simple Highland Heather balloon was lightly shaded with ink and embossed with a celebration message – I was thinking graduation or something. I chose silver to accentuate the iridescence in the background paper but I also think gold embossing would have worked well with the Crushed Curry in the design.