Happy Birthday Balloons

My Favorite Things' Wednesday Sketch Challenge #474 inspired the design of this card. I need a birthday card for a friend, so I thought this was the perfect opportunity to use this sketch and some new (and old) products!

I thought the circles in the sketch translated well to balloons. I used 2 dies from Lawn Fawn's "Party Balloons" set for the largest balloons, and a few from My Favorite Things' "Bundle of Balloons" to fill out the design. I die cut the 10 balloons from rainbow colors of cardstock. I chose a cream cardstock for my background, as I wanted something neutral, but not stark white. I glued all the balloons on, basically following the sketch. I didn't add balloon strings, since I felt that would just clutter the design, and they were unnecessary anyway. I finished that panel by adding a narrow strip of lavender cardstock along the left edge.

I stamped the greeting, from MFT's "Big Birthday Sentiments," in Versamark ink onto a strip of Essentials by Ellen 40 lb. vellum. I heat embossed it with Ranger Liquid Platinum embossing powder. After trimming the left end into a fishtail banner, I used my Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher to staple the banner to the edge of my panel.

For the dark teal panel, I used a new-to-me Echo Park stencil, "Birthday Balloons." I taped my cardstock to the back of the stencil, & used a palette knife to smear Liquitex Gloss Super Heavy Gel medium over the stencil. Once I had a smooth layer of gel, I carefully removed the stencil; cleaned that, my work surface, & palette knife; and set the panel aside to dry.

After the gel dried, I adhered the teal panel flat to a white A2-size card base. I popped the main panel up with craft/fun foam, using double-sided tape to adhere everything. The hardest/longest part of this process was probably the design. I know that sounds ironic, since I was working from a pre-made sketch. But just trying to figure out what balloon sizes fit where, so I could die cut each from the "right" color took a while. But I love how this card came out.

I'm also entering this card in the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday Challenge: "Anything Goes"
Creative Knockouts Challenge #335: "Birthday Wishes"