Happy Day!

A friend of ours recently had a birthday, so I created this card for her. My inspiration came from a project that Yana Smakula did for Online Card Classes' "Watercolor for Card Makers" class earlier this year.

I first embossed the bicycle into a piece of 140 lb. watercolor paper, using Spellbinders' InSpire "Bicycle" die and the embossing sandwich for my Grand Calibur machine. I next wet the bottom of the paper with clear water, and painted it with green watercolor. After that dried, I wet the sky area, and used blue to paint that. For the bicycle, I wet each area separately, and dropped pigment onto the wet paper, letting the water help blend the color.

I die cut 3 balloons from patterned papers in my scrap stash using the smallest die from Simon Says Stamp's "Balloons" die set. I adhered them in place, popping the yellow balloon up on foam tape, and the blue one with a double layer of foam tape. I tied a piece of black thread in a bow around the bottom of each (not an easy task!). I added a small drop of Ranger Multi Medium in the matte finish to each knot, just to make sure it stayed in place. Finally, I pierced a hole through the paper under the bicycle saddle, and threaded the long end of each thread through that, and secured them on the back with a piece of tape.

I stamped the cloud image from this set by Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps onto a scrap of white cardstock using Memento Tuxedo Black ink, and die cut it with the coordinating die. I stamped the greeting from the same set on that piece. I also stamped & die cut the sun from yellow patterned paper, adding the smiley face to the center. I adhered the sun directly to the background, and popped the cloud up with foam tape.

I double-matted the watercolor panel with yellow & green cardstocks, before adhering it to a 5.5x8.5" card base. I felt the sun and balloons needed something extra, so I added some shimmer to the sun with my clear Wink of Stella brush pen, and a coat of Glossy Accents to each balloon. And, I might add, our friend really liked the card!