Severnista

A balloon stamp and die set is very versatile for the card maker.

I needed a ‘New Baby’ card and had some color combination ideas that I wanted to try out in the main balloon bouquet and the background stamping for this card. This is my inspiration card directly from Concord & 9th (C9):

This set from C9 is called Happy Balloons Bundle. It was one of the first stamp and die sets that I purchased from C9. With so many birthday cards needs, balloons are an easy design choice. This stamp set also offers a variety of embellishment overlay stamps to decorate your balloons and get creative.

I styled my cards nearly exactly like the demo card from Concord & 9th. Sometimes it’s just simpler to copycat a design and then find ways to make it your own with color, layout choices and available supplies. Let me tell you what worked for me with this stamp set.

Firstly, ‘stamping’ the balloon images as provided by the set, produced deeper and heavier saturations of color than I wanted for the ‘new baby’ theme. Instead I ink-blended my three color choices onto a piece of white card stock which gave softer, pastel versions of the shades I’d picked like Ballet Slipper, Nectar and Grapefruit.

Next I added anti-static powder over the paper in preparation for heat embossing. I used Versamark Ink and stamped the balloon embellishment stamps over two of the balloon color areas. One I left blank as this would be the plain third balloon used in the back of the bouquet to keep the card from being too busy. I added Altenew Antique Gold Embossing powder over the stamped areas and heat embossed. (Note: Let your embossing gun heat up for at least 30 seconds and also blow heat on the back side of your cardstock before heating your stamped side.)

The embellishment stamps in the set that you can add as a decorative layer over the balloons come in two sizes, as do the balloons. I used the layers that clearly fit the larger balloon but were still easy enough to cut to size with the smaller balloon die image that I used in these cards. Concord & 9th no longer carries this set but they do have a couple of other choices if you’re wanting to use a balloon image in your card making. These include Banner and Balloons bundle and Bunches of Balloons bundle. These include stencils as well as stamps and die images.

I used a die from the same set to cut balloon strings in gold cardstock to add to the balloons then layered them together on a piece of clear vellum that was cut using Pinkfresh Studios Diagonal Stitched Rectangles. This arrangement was affixed to the card background that was made using the three chosen ink colors repetitively stamped across the base, as you see done in the inspiration design. These are the same three colors used in the balloons. I used a stamp from the Whimsy Stamps set called Stitches to build the background.

Here are some of the color combinations that I successfully used:

C9 Nectar, Creamsicle, Lilac

C9 Ballet Slipper, Nectar, Grapefruit

Pinkfresh Studios Fresh Pear, C9 Ballet Slipper and Briar Rose

Pinkfresh Studios Mint, Fresh Pear, and Sky Blue

C9 Blueberry, Powder, and Catherine Pooler Sage

C9 Lilac, Nectar, Pinkfresh Studios Peach Fuzz

How well do you know your inks? Can you tell which photos these color schemes match? Hint: they should be in order of photos. Note: Color appearance subject to individual ink blending pressure and to photo lighting.

So many color combinations to be had!! What are your favorites?