Happy Birthday Nanny!

Well, that was a hectic but lovely Bank Holiday weekend!

We went to visit my Mum and Dad for the weekend, as it was Mum’s birthday and we had something of a family “party” – but we were mis-sold as it was less a party, more just a gathering of family members! The twins were expecting dancing and games, but they were happy enough in the end just playing and jumping on everyone.

So today I have an 8″ square card to share with you, which was for Nanny’s birthday:

Apologies if it looks slightly blurred, I’m not quite sure why that is.

I love these balloon stamps and framelits, and am overjoyed that they will be carrying forwards to the new Annual Catalogue. They are just so versatile, whether you stamp them and cut them, or just stamp or just cut they are very strong focal points for a card for any kind of celebration. I just recently saw a card on Pinterest with three balloons stamped and overlapping to get a sort of Venn Diagram effect, which looks great. I think I might try that out for my swaps of which I need to make loads for Telford! I need simple yet effective, so straightforward stamping is a much better way to go than multiple layers and die-cutting. (I aim to make somewhere between 20 and 50, so that might help to explain why I want quick(ish) and simple! – But I still want people to want them and like them.)

So, back to Nanny’s birthday card. Obviously, I used the Balloon framelits, and I also used the Perfect Print Alphabet Bigz die for the letters. I am really sad that these dies are retiring as they are a lovely font face. I have only really just got into using them, and now they are almost gone. Such a shame! The Hello You Thinlits Dies also figure prominently in both this card and the card I made for Mum from us, which I will show you tomorrow. I do like these scripted words, but they can be tough to stick down. I have stuck these down using the two-way glue pen, which seemed to work pretty well. I also stuck all the letters down in the same way.

Each of the “Nanny” balloons got a highlight from a Basic Rhinestone and the “happy” was die-cut from Brushed Silver Cardstock. The card base is the only non-Stampin’ Up! item used, and it’s a pearlised 8″ square blank, which Stampin’ Up! don’t do. I could have made one using the Brushed Silver Cardstock, but that would have necessitated a join in the card base to achieve the size, so I thought it best to use a pre-made blank. They only cost me pennies each when I bought a pack of 10 at a craft show a while back. Finally, I am using up what I have bought! 😉

The Happy Birthday sentiment is stamped in silver ink and is from Sassy Salutations, which is included in the new catalogue, but it is cut out with the Apothecary Accents Framelits which are not. I think it’s a shame, as I really like the shapes in this set, but there are some lovely replacements so it could be worse!

The letters and the white balloon have been cut from Shimmer Cardstock to maintain the luxury feel of this card with the silver and pearlised effects. Every balloon across the top of the card has been mounted using Stampin Dimensionals and the three balloons at the back were stuck down first, then “topped” with the foreground balloons. The happy balloons are all stuck flat to the card with Snail to allow for easy adherance of the word cutout.

I think this is a good feature card, and it gave the twins plenty of writing space inside, which actually they didn’t need this time as they both kept their squiggles quite contained. As I say, I am really glad that these balloon framelits and the coordinating Celebrate Today stamp set are staying with us for the new annual catalogue, as I am really getting into using them and there are so many possibilities for them. Expect to see more from me using this set!

Tomorrow I will share with you the card I made for Mum, as I said. I have also placed a small pre-order for items from the new Annual catalogue, so I will endeavour to get some items made with those when they arrive, and share them with you on here. There are some amazing items, and some lovely co-ordinating bundles and sets coming up, so stay tuned for those!

In the meantime, don’t forget that you only have this month plus 2 days to get hold of any items you want and need from the current catalogues – make sure you don’t miss out! I will be selling off a lot of my retired stamp sets, and will be pricing those when I get a chance, so stay tuned for details of when and where you can get hold of those.

Later on, I will be sharing a sneak peek with you of an upcoming item in the new catalogue which I am quite excited about, so keep your eyes peeled for that, too.

Have a great day!