This birthday card was made for a sketch challenge that had an optional theme of "masculine".
I turned the sketch 90-degrees to make it portrait instead of landscape so I could use the aqua stripe as a metaphor for rising vertically amongst the clouds. That also let me use the three stripes to suggest cloud layers.
The balloon was stamped with Stampin' Up! (SU) "Lift Me Up" stamp set, as was the three white puffy clouds and the sentiment.
The background is SU Soft Sky cardstock that I had run through my Big Shot inside a Darice "Cloud" embossing folder. Before attaching the sketch elements to the cloud panel, I rubbed a white ink pad over the raised embossed clouds to give them edges to make the clouds just barely apparent in the background.
The three light blue horizontal stripes under the ballon were cut from an unbranded vellum that I cut 1/4" wide. I cut them longer that the width of the blue panel so that I could wrap them around the card to the back and tape down the ends. I had stamped and die cut three clouds that I attached to the vellum strips using glue dots.
The narrow vertical aqua panel was glued down over the vellum to help hold the strips in place.
Finally, the balloon was stamped in aqua balloon on dark yellow cardstock, then die cut with its matching die. I cut out the little square just under the balloon using an Xacto knife. To raise the balloon up from the card front, I die cut three smaller balloons from white cardstock, then stacked and glued them behind the larger stamped balloon. This stack was glued directly to the card front.
Finally, the birthday sentiment was stamped with the same aqua ink as the balloon, then the "tails" punched out using the SU Banner's Pick-A-Punch. This sentiment panel was then attached to the card front using foam tape. Note that when you make the banner, you need to add 3/8" to each end of the length you want to final banner to be (to account for the cut the banner punch will make.
I like how the card turned out. While appropriate for a guy, this card could be used for just about anyone. I am rating the difficulty of the card as a "2" out of a possible "5" since the dies and stamps all coordinate so well.
Date: Thursday, April 29, 2021 GMT Views: 356
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