Celebrating with Balloon Cards

Today, Steve and I are celebrating our 19th anniversary! I used our wedding colors to make him a card. I'm really happy with how it turned out. It's a simple design and I'm especially pleased to have made the entire thing from scraps. 

After I finished the card, I remembered that one of the spaces on this year's BASH-O card is "Celebration." With the rules allowing two cards to count as one layout, I decided to use the same balloon design to make a second card. And this time I took some photos along the way to show you how I made it. Affiliate links below. 

Celebrate Balloon Cards

Materials:

• card blanks
• cardstock
• 2" circle punch
• tape runner
• craft glue
• sentiment die - "celebrate"
• microtip scissors
• white Posca paint marker

Steps:

Cut a blue background to fit your card blank. Punch six cardstock circles. I used scraps, which meant that some of the circles weren't complete. This is fine. There's only one complete circle on the finished card; the rest get trimmed down.

Use a die cut machine to cut your sentiment. I used white for one card and black for the other. 

Arrange the circles on the blue background. If you have any incomplete circles (like the blue one below), line up the straight edge with the edge of the card back. Use the tape runner to secure the circles in place. Use liquid adhesive to glue the sentiment to a contrasting background. 

Trim off any circles that are hanging over the edge of the card. The easiest way to do this is to turn the card upside down and use a trimmer (this is my favorite) to get nice, straight edges. Use the microtip scissors to fussy cut around the sentiment. 

Mark a dot in the lower center of your card, in an area that will be covered by the sentiment. Draw lines extending from the balloons to that dot. Draw lots of lines to imply that there are more than just the six balloons showing. 

Extend some of the lines below the dot. Don't include the outermost lines, as those strings would not naturally be sticking out at an angle. 

Cut tiny triangles in the same colors as the bottom three balloons. In my example below, that's blue, yellow, and green. 

Glue the sentiment in place, then glue the triangles below their corresponding balloons. Use the black pen to draw curly ribbons coming from each. Finally, use the Posca marker to draw the reflections on the balloons. 

Here's a look at both cards together.

Because today is a Tuesday, Steve and I did our traditional anniversary getaway over the weekend. I'll tell you where we went tomorrow.