Wasabi Hot Air Balloon

Hi Everyone.  Happy Thursday night.

Tonight's card uses a color I have never used before – Wild Wasabi. 
Well….I was a little unsure about this color, but have to say – I like it.  I saw a sketch on sweetstop this week and thought it was a really cool sketch.  It's so rare that I actually do anything off kilter (well… at least on cards, anyway!) that I couldn't wait to play with the sketch. 

Then…
I popped along to the OWHstarsandstamps blog to see what the midweek throwdown was and they had an inspiration challenge.  I saw the challenge and my mind went straight to ribbon flowers.  From ribbon flowers, it took on a slightly different tangent.  I suppose that's the great thing about inspiration, it can take you to many different places!   There was something about the shape of the flowers that really made me want to do a round ribbon flower.   I have seen so many of them recently – and in fact made a card using one this weekend, but I decided to really take it in a different direction once I started to make the flower.

So, putting the two things together, this is what I came up with

The sketch was the perfect one for putting the hot air balloon at an angle.   The green in the inspiration cushion led me to Wild Wasabi and I love it mixed with the Chocolate Chip.

Card recipe:

• Card stock: Wild Wasabi, Very Vanilla, Chocolate Chip (loving this color combo, btw!)
• Inks: Chocolate Chip
• Stamp set:  Sweet Centers (116521)
• DSP:  Woodland Walk (117389)
• Accessories:  Chocolate Chip 1-1/4" striped grosgrain ribbon (retired); Neutrals buttons (119743)… loving these new button configurations!; Linen Thread (for the button) (104199)
• Tools:  Needle, thread, dimensionals

Card instructions:

• Cut ribbon – length depending on the size of the flower (or in this case, hot air balloon) you want to create.  The balloon flower ended up being 3" across – and the ribbon had originally been cut to about 7".  I did a loose running stitch along the bottom end of the ribbon and then pulled it.  I joined the two ends together with a backstitch on the underside.
• I inked the balloon basket image with Chocolate Chip and stamped it onto a piece of Very Vanilla.  The Very Vanilla piece is cut to 2 3/4W x 3 1/4H.
• I cut the Chocolate Chip layer to 2 7/8W x 3 7/8H
• I cut a piece of the Woodland Walk DSP to 4 1/4W x 2 3/4H and adhered to the Wild Wasabi base.
• I then attached the ribbon balloon using a lot of snail and 3 dimensionals underneath the hole.
• Once the ribbon was attached, I put a stampin' dimensional under the button and adhered that – through the hole in the ribbon to the dimensionals underneath.
• The sentiment is from the Chit Chat rub-ons (retired) – it was the perfect sentiment for this card!
• The last thing I did was adhere two small buttons from the Neutrals collection. I specifically chose these buttons because they have the furly edge shape, that echoes the balloon and the color works perfectly with this card, although they are actually Early Espresso buttons

It's a really simple card to put together, but the ribbon balloon adds a lot of visual interest.  The buttons on the side of the layout really made a difference when I applied them.  So, I was really pleased that the design team at sweetstop had added them to the sketch.

You will have seen these ribbon flowers all over – as well as the ribbon treatment on the card last night. I picked up the idea of how to do the ribbon flowers from schlosser designs – where they had been made into napkin rings… pretty cool – so check it out.  For the pleated ribbon – SUDSOL (a stampin up group) had a tutorial on this way back over a year ago and I wanted to give it a try… then forgot all about it.  But getting my new ribbons this weekend reminded me of it again.  

In fact, there must have been something in the air – because the ever so talented Ann Shach and I both used Inspired by Nature this weekend – and the pleated ribbon technique.  However, Ann went a step further I noticed… she put a tutorial on her blog… so.. if you want a visual of how to do the pleated ribbon technique – pop along to Ann's link here . Whilst you are there.. check out her Inspired by Nature card for the PPA challenge, too! 

On a personal note… it is still hot and humid… grrrr :-)  I got to spend a little time in my stamping space today playing with my new goodies…which was cool.  Lou is off out of the country again for the next two weeks, so I will have plenty of time to sit in my cool basement stamping space playing with my goodies.

Cherie, Brenda and I will also be getting together soon, to finish up the cards for the card drive…. OH… and more cards arrived tonight… Thank you Teri!!!!  Teri is in Canada, but wanted to participate in the card drive and so she sent along some cards for us – WTG, Teri.  They are fabulous!

Well, I am off to have dinner on the deck.  It's a beautiful night – a little cooler than it was during the day and the humidity is starting to drop a little.  All we need is the mossie repellent and we should be good to go!

I hope you all have a fabulous Friday  One spent doing things you love – with those you love the most.

As always, thank you so much for spending time in my little area of the stamping blogosphere.  Your visits,  your support and your comments are much appreciated – not just by me – but by each other.  Please keep Trish, Germaine, Missy, Jim, Arthur, Rach, T and Pri in your prayers.

Hugs

Jaydee