Hot Air Balloons Birthday Card

Do you find that you go through phases of using different colours in your art or crafts?  I notice that I do - I could pretend that this is planned to look good on Instagram, but it actually happens quite subconsciously.  At the moment I'm going through a rainbow phase and want everything to look as colourful as possible!  So I used a rainbow colour palette to make this birthday card.

I made this card with the following materials:

• white card blank (A5 size when folded)
• printables; hot air balloon digital stamp, cloud and rainbow chevron background paper, rainbows border strip
• white card
• blue coloured paper
• watercolour paints
• coloured pencils
• black fine tip pen
• sequins and gemstones
• double sided sticky foam pads, double sided sticky tape and glue stick
• craft knife and Silhouette Cameo 2 cutting machine

First, I created a splattered rainbow background on the card blank using watercolours.
I printed the hot air balloon digital stamp onto white card, cut out with a craft knife and coloured it using coloured pencils.
Then I cut a ring of white card with my Cameo cutting machine, I also used this to cut a scalloped border from white card.
I mounted the white card ring onto cloud patterned paper, as a background for the hot air balloon.

A strip of blue coloured paper was mounted behind the scalloped border strip and attached to the card blank, followed by the rainbows border strip.

I attached the white circle with the clouds paper to the card with double sided sticky foam pads, then added the balloon - again with the foam pads to add dimension to the card.

A small piece of the chevron pattern paper was glued above the borders on the right side of the card, then I wrote 'birthday wishes' by hand with a black, fine tipped pen.

Finally, I added some sequins and gems for some sparkle!

You can find the Hot Air Balloon printables used in the project, and more, in my Etsy shop hfcSupplies.

PS. Have you seen the craft challenge I am hosting on my blog?  I have extended the deadline for entries to Thursday 21st July so you still have time to enter!  All you need to do is make something using my hot air balloon designs (some free printables are available through the challenge post!) for a chance to win a £10 coupon to my Etsy shop. Find all the details here > Craft Challenge Hot Air Balloons

First Exciting Announcement for 2014 – Steampunk Stamps

I mentioned before that I had some exciting things planned for this year, and if you are one of my followers on facebook you will already have heard a little about my latest project… Over the last few months I have been working with Sarah, who runs Inky Doodles, designing some Hexley themed stamp sets and the first 2 sets have just been released!

Each set is A5 and contains lots of stamps which can be used in so many different ways.  This is one of the things I really like about the Inky Doodles stamps, they are designed to be versatile so that you can make the most of any set you buy.
The stamps are made with high quality photopolymer which is transparent - making it easy to place the image where you want it and give the best possible impression.

Hexley Transport stamp set

This set features 2 modes of Hexley transport – a Steam Carriage and Balloon Carriage along with lots of other extras.  In this sample card I made you can see how the smaller stamps can be used together to create a repeat background pattern…

Hexley Clockwork Bird stamp set

This set features 3 of my clockwork bird illustrations – a robin, chaffinch and kingfisher, along with cogs, clock hands and other little designs.  I used the Robin stamp twice on this card – on watercolour paper and on shrink plastic to make a little charm (you could make jewellery or keyrings like this too)…

I've really enjoyed coming up with more designs around my Hexley concept – I’m working on some other sets which will be out very soon!  These two sets of stamps are now available to buy from Inky Doodles – www.inkydoodles.co.uk and I will be stocking them in my shop soon too.

If you would like some more inspiration on how to use these stamps I will be posting some other ideas I have been working on, or you can look at cards Sarah has made on the Inky Doodles site.  I’m looking forward to seeing how other people use them too – it’s amazing how different people can come up with completely different ways to use the same stamps!