You Brighten My Day

I have been a participant in Online Card Classes' "Stretch Your Stamps 2," which has been going on for the past few weeks. This is my final card for that class.

The design was inspired by one that Kryssi Ng did for the Bonus Day of class. I started by stamping the fox's balloons, from this set, in Ranger Archival Jet Black ink on Strathmore Mixed Media Paper. I next stamped the fox, other balloons, and the bunny. Finally, I stamped the greeting using one from this Simon Says Stamp set in Jet Black.

I watercolored the balloons using paints by Master's Touch. I wet each balloon with clear water, and then dropped in the color. I used watercolor pencils for the critters, since I wanted a little more control over the shading. Finally, I did a blue watercolor wash over the background for the sky.

For the mat, I wanted something to play off the colorful balloons. So I took Distress inks in Squeezed Lemonade, Picked Raspberry, Mowed Lawn, and Salty Ocean. I blended them in spots around the sides of an A2-size cardstock panel, making sure to overlap and blend the colors together where they met.

I adhered the mat panel to a top-folding A2 card base, then adhered the focal panel to that. And that was it--a fairly quick and easy card to put together. This card will be going to a hospitalized child through the Send a Smile 4 Kids organization.

I'm entering this card in Simon Says Stamp's Monday "Anything Goes" challenge.