The beauty of having a daughter who also loves papercrafts is that when I receive my new Stampin’ Up! catalogues I have someone right there with me to get excited and pour over all the new beautiful products.  When the Idea Book & Catalogue came out last September one of the stamp sets that my daughter chose as her favourite was the Up, Up & Away stamp set that features hot air balloons and she couldn’t wait for me to order it so she could get her hands on it.  So the other day when I was making her birthday card I knew exactly which set I’d use as a change from the usual flowers and butterflies.

Easy technique tip: You’re probably wondering already if I’ve used a punch to punch out those balloons – nope!  I cut them out super quickly with some small sharp scissors.  The trick to making your cutting look as neat as possible is to leave a thin border around your image.  So when when you adhere your image to the cardstock the edges fade into the background and your eye isn’t drawn to any dodgy cutting.  Also, if you’re new to all this – try keeping your scissors in the one place and move your cardstock around while you cut, this gives you a much smoother border

Happy 14th Birthday Jade!!!

Style tip:  I think this card would also work well for a masculine birthday card.  Simply change the ribbon to one that’s not ruffled and use some different brads or embellishments.  I’d probably also change the punched out shape behind the sentiment, maybe just stamp the sentiment straight onto an oval. I think you could even use the same papers/colours as the patterns are quite generic.

And here’s a list of Stampin’ Up! products that I used to create this card:

Rubber Stamps:
Up, Up & Away

Cardstock & Paper:
Whisper White
Pool Party
Everyday Enchantment Patterned Paper (free! out of the Sale-a-bration brochure)

Inkpads/Markers:
Lucky Limeade inkpad
Pool Party inkpad & matching marker (the fine point of the marker was used to make the dots around the sentiment)
Calypso Coral inkpad
Chocolate Chip inkpad

Tools:
1 1/4″ Square Punch
Decorative Label Punch

Accessories:
Pool Party Ruffled Ribbon
Everyday Enchantment Brads (free! out of the Sale-a-bration brochure)

Adhesives:
SNAIL
Stampin’ Dimensionals