Around the World on Wednesday: Let’s Celebrate

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Can you believe it? I’m back hopping with the wonderfully talented Around the World on Wednesday Blog Hop group.

You’ve probably come here from our fearless leader, Angie MacKenzie’s blog. I’m Chris Smith and if you are relatively new to following this hop I haven’t been around much recently. I’ve had to rebuild my blog at the same time that I am re-envisioning my stamping as that of more of a hobby/”sort of but not exactly retired” demonstrator. From my view it’s kind of the best of both worlds. I still get to preview all the yummy new stuff but the old favorites are out of storage and back on my craft room shelves too!

Anyway, I really wanted to get in on this hop because the theme is Let’s Celebrate and one of my favorite things in the new catalog the Balloon Festoon Bundle. In particular, the dies! I actually shopped around before ordering to make sure I couldn’t find balloon dies I liked better. I wanted classic balloons, not gimmicks, and in many sizes and boy do these deliver!

I’ve been having so much fun playing and I want to share my favorite way – so far – of using the Balloon Festoon Dies, and bundle: creating masks or stencils and using them with the blending brushes.

My initial masks were just card from sized pieces of vellum each with one balloon cut out of each of them. I had a couple of problems. First, I quickly bent the area where the balloon tie is so I started adding a piece of regular or wash tape right under the tie part of the die cut so that this held up to my brush a little better. Second, I made each mask a full 6″x6″. My brush had strayed beyond the edge of the mask a few times and I needed to sure fire way to prevent that. Now they look like this:

As you can see they do get inky! Between colors I usually wipe off any excess ink with a tissue, just until the tissue doesn’t pick much up any more. Here is the card that I made with blue/green mask:

These balloons get along with SO many other sets! I used the little Birds from and Cutest Crew Bundle along with the new Words & Wishes. I used Azure Afternoon and Lemon Lime Twist on these balloons and the “Happy” die cut.

I love using a bit of the Blends Alcohol Markers to give a quick wash of color and then do my shading with the watercolor pencils. Did you notice how sharp the pencils are – I’m taking a colored pencil class and I’m learning how much more you can do with really sharp pencils! Here are a few more birds on the inside of the card:

One more note about using these balloon masks or stencils – because I really want you to have fun using these. I know I mentioned wiping off excess ink between colors. While this IS important when you are trying to keep your colors crisp and distinct there are always times to break the rules when you are doing art, right? So if you don’t clean them off every time you still might get something you love.

This card is made from balloons I did with the smallest balloon stencil. I was cleaning off a bunch of brushes and I didn’t wipe the stencil between colors. Once I realized I forgot to wipe off the stencil I thought I was going to end up with a bunch of muddy balloons but it was quite the opposite. The colors seemed to take on each other and they became so harmonious.

I found a piece of Beach Boardwalk Designer Series Paper that set the balloons off perfectly, drew some strings and stamped a tiny birthday greeting from Lovely Arrangements. Ribbon is the new In Color, Barely Blush.

Enough from me. Next up is the uber talented, Jan Clothier.