Balloon Birthday Cards with Ilda

Hello Studio Katia Friends, Ilda here!

Today’s post is all about balloons and birthdays. Not sure about you all but I find my birthday card stash is always on the low side so I thought I would share 3 easy-ish cards that you could make fairly quickly.

For this first card, I started by die-cutting the SHAKER BALLOON DIE out of cardstock scraps in rainbow colors. I also die cut an extra balloon out to use to add the white highlight to each balloon by using the edge of the balloon to blend a highlight using a small blender brush.

The next thing I did was arrange the balloons onto the card base and temporarily adhered them. I then picked out some birthday stamps from stamp sets I had that would fit nicely onto each balloon and then used a stamping positioner to ensure I would get a great impression. See the supply list below for links to the stamp sets I used.You can also refer to the next image.

Once my stamping was complete, I popped up some of the balloons using foam tape and trimmed anything that hung off the edge of the card. To the bottom balloons, I added the cute little die cut bows and then topped them off with APRIL CRYSTALS.

This next card was super simple to make. I actually die cut the balloon this time out of white cardstock and then just used red Copic Markers to color it in. In hindsight, this was more time consuming and it would have been quicker to die cut it from a red piece of cardstock. I then used the HEART- FETTI stencil to add the little hearts to the balloon using white pigment ink.

For the clouds, I used the SKY SET DOTTED BORDERS and then used the die cut cloud piece as a stencil to lightly blend out the clouds in the background. To finish the card, I added some white thread behind the balloon before popping it in place and then glued a bow to the base of the balloon. I then stamped out the Make a Wish from the KOBI MAKES A WISH set.

For my last card, I wanted to play with watercolors. So I used the BIRTHDAY BALLOONS DUO STENCIL to guide areas that I was painting. I began by painting the purple balloons first, then the blue and lastly the green. I used the paintbrush loaded with a lot of pigment initially to add trace out the border of the balloons and then I would lift off the stencil and color them in adding a very little pigment in the center of the balloons to leave a highlight. I waited for each color to dry before moving on to the next color. I then used the same watercolors to add some splatters over the entire panel. Once it was dry I trimmed it to add to the card base.

The next thing I did was stamp out the Happy Birthday to You! from the IT’S YOUR BIRTHDAY on the center of the balloon panel and embossed it white. Well, that really didn’t show up much… So to save this card I restamped it. I placed the panel back into the positioner, restamped it with watermark ink and used a black embossing powder this time. I repeated this step again as the first layer of black mixed with the white and left an uneven color. Sometimes mistakes happen and that is why the edges of the center stamp are kinda blurry. I didn’t mind it too much as it kinda worked with the messy watercolor effect on the balloons.