CRAFT DIY / Hot air balloon card

This tutorial is for a card I made last week for one of my best friend's birthdays. She has mentioned to me many a time her love of hot air balloons so I wanted to make something whimsical but pretty to make her smile. I am really in love with Kraft card at the moment, I love the contrast it brings to pretty papercraft projects; it really allows your embellishments to stand out. I am also an avid fan of loose glitter - it is such an easy way to make papercraft projects feel SO special with really no effort at all!

Step 1: Grab some nice card for stamping, your hot air balloon stamps and some ink. Stamp your  images and set aside to dry.

I use Versafine for all my stamps! I honestly haven't found a better product for getting crisp images (but please let me know if you have any other suggestions!). I find my stamped images come out so sharp and perfect, especially if it is a really detailed stamp. Versafine also dries really quickly so that is a major plus in my opinion! No one wants to be waiting hours for their images to be smudge free! The stamps I got were from here when I was at a stamp and scrapbooking show. They are on really handy mounts which make it easy to see what you are doing and have better control when stamping.

Step 2: When your stamped images are COMPLETELY dry - use your old school colouring pencils and colour them in! Carefully cut around :)

Step 3: Time to make some clouds! Draw a cloud shape with your glue and cover with loose glitter. Shake off excess!

I use a 'Sakura Quickie glue pen' in this kind of project because it is just like drawing with a pen, but instead of ink coming out you get glue! It means you can be pretty precise without glue getting everywhere (especially important for me because I am such a messy crafter!). They are pretty cheap - around £2.50, and last a long time. Don't forget to have a sheet of paper under your card so you can save and re-use the excess glitter!

 How pretty is this cloud!

Step 3: Glue your hot air balloons around the clouds! I stuck the smaller two directly onto the card, and used 3D foam tape for the larger balloon. Because the other two are far away in the distance :)

 Yay for hot air balloons :) In other news I am still recovering from a weekend food coma... BBQ, cupcakes, cocktails and brunch! I am worn out from eating!

xoxo