One of a Kind

Hi all! Happy Birthday to my FABULOUS Sister! And welcome to the Rose Blossom Blog Hop featuring Close To My Heart's February Stamp Of The Month: Balloon Animals.

If you just hopped over from the super talented Marg Van Patten's blog, I Didn't Have Potatoes, you are in the right place. If you just started here or get lost along the way, I've posted a list of blog hop participants at the end of this post. Now on with the project!

I have to be honest, I'm not a huge fan of balloon animals (or really balloons in general). The shapes are cute, but I HATE having them pop in my ears, and the squeaky sound of the rubber being twisted and turned is like nails on a chalkboard to me. However, when they were little, my kids LOVED all things balloon--animals, swords, crowns, flowers, if you could twist it, they would take it! So it was with mixed emotions that I first approached this stamp set. Then I started playing, and now I'm SOLD! Let's take a look:

This set gives me balloons at their best--fun shapes, no popping, squeaking or twisting required! So when I made this card, it was with my kids in mind. The card base is a standard A2 size that I layered with a piece of Thistle cardstock cut at 4 x 5 1/4inches. 

To create the card front I cut a piece of White Daisy cardstock to 3 3/4 x 5 inches and set it aside. I stamped my balloon monkey in Pear ink onto a scrap piece of cardstock and cut around it leaving very little white along the edges. I then covered it with Liquid Glass, added a Pixie twine bow  to the tail for the balloon string, and set it aside to dry. 

While the monkey dried, I used the small balloon stamp from the Kaleidoscope Card workshop to stamp the balloon cluster on my White Daisy front piece in second generation Thistle ink. I overlapped the balloons to make them look translucent. When the ink was dry, I used a grey pen to draw the string where it was behind other balloons and then a black pen to finish off the strings for the balloon cluster. I then cut a post-it note into a scallop shape that was reminiscent of clouds, used it as a mask, and sponged on Crystal Blue ink to create a sky. I stamped my sentiment from the Beautiful You stamp set in Crystal Blue ink on White Daisy cardstock and created a banner. I adhered that to a piece of pink glitter paper and added it to my card front. I added a little more twine behind the monkey to finish off the string and popped it up on the card front with foam tape.

Here are some close ups:

And voilà! All the cuteness of a balloon animal and none of the popping! WOO HOO! (Both of my kids thought it was a cute card, by the way--and I consider that high praise from teenagers!)

Thanks for hopping by! For more inspiration hop on over to TweetScraps and see what the always inspiring Morgan Vogt has in store for you. And if you get lost along the way, here's the promised list of participants:

Brenda 

Marg

Kim {that's me!}

Morgan

Cathy

Kristine

Kim 

Margot

Have a wonderfully creative week!