Father's Day (and my birthday!)

Hey!

Yup, I'm still here!

What a glorious Monday it's been here today! I'm not normally so happy on a Monday but I have a few reasons today *wink*:

• Firstly, the sun is shining, summer is really here!

• Wimbledon's started so time to crack open the Pimms and scoff the strawberries! And last but not least.....

• It's my birthday!! I'm not getting to the age yet where I worry about being a year older, I don't think I ever will seeing as I act closer to my shoe size than my age LOL!

So far today, I've had a lovely day at work with some super sweet students and colleagues treating me to their own handmade cards and I've had the real pleasure of getting some birthday love from some of my fabulous crafty buddies - y'all know how to make a gal smile! Thank you SO much for your sweet messages and goodies!!! I feel spoilt rotten!

So as you know it's been super busy around here. Yesterday Chris and I hosted a little family party to celebrate my birthday (slightly premature I know!) as well as father's day. Today, I thought I'd share the card I made for dad; it was a last minute dash to my crafty corner for this one as is the case with most guy cards but I'm kinda happy with it!

Card Recipe
Stamps: Practicing Creativity - Look Up!/PTI Daily Designs Sentiments
Ink: Memento Black/PTI Fresh Snow/Versarmark (pen)
Card: PTI Enchanted Evening/Spring Rain/Stamper's Select White/New Leaf/Lemon Tart/Pure Poppy
Accessories: PTI Cloud Dies/White Gel Pen/Cuttlebug/PTI New Leaf Twill Ribbon

Dad loves to watch hot air balloons and we treated him to a trip in one for his birthday a few years ago. I tried to personalise the card by turning my polka dot one into a ladybird one as one nearly identical to this can often be found floating across the sky at night!

A few tips/ideas behind the card:

• I had fun playing with my new PTI Cloud dies too on this; I used the smaller one as a negative to sponge ink through to make the background clouds more subtle. This helps you focus on the larger cloud cut from white card. I could create whole sheets of this cloud DP!

• The larger cloud was cut and flipped over so my sentiment followed the shape of the cloud
  

• The main balloon and the cloud have been mounted on 3D foam pads to add dimension. I dunno about you, but I'm seeing these being used a lot around Blogland lately!
  

• To add even more detail to the main balloon, I shaded it with a versamark pen. I love to paper piece but sometimes it can make my image seem a little lifeless/flat.

• I drew a white border around my main panel to balance the white used as my clouds as well as to frame the image
  

• I couldn't resist a strip of New Leaf Twill Ribbon coming of the cloud. I like to think it balances the bold, green balloon a little.
  

So there's some lil' tips for ya if you want 'em! Just though I'd explain some stuff in case you were wondering why I did X, Y and Z!

Right then, I'm now going to get ready to be treated to a night out on the town with my guy! Not too much partying though, it's a school night after all!

Catch ya later!

Aimes
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