Welcome to my crafty blog. I’ve been playing with more of my Claritystamp designer papers today, this time pairing them with the ‘Hot Air Balloon’ stamp set. My starting point for this card was the current theme of ‘float’ over at Just Us Girls , and I then went to the sketches at Global Design Project and Inspired By (a new one for me) for the layout.

I started with a piece of paper from Clarity’s ‘Amazonia’ pack, and stamped the frame from the hot air balloon set onto it in Archival black ink. I looked for the area on the paper that would give me the best sky effect.

I then trimmed it down, layered it onto a piece of black card and attached it to a 6×6 card blank.

Next was to stamp out the hot air balloon, again in Archival black. I initially did this onto a spare piece of the paper, as I wanted to keep the same colours in the sky around the balloon’s ropes when I cut it out. I didn’t think there was enough contrast in the colurs for the balloon to stand out on the card, though, so I restamped it onto another piece from the ‘Amazonia’ pack that co-ordinated with the colours in the sky, and then just cut the balloon out.

I highlighted the design using a Spectrum Noir pencil, and then glued it onto the first balloon before attaching it to the card with foam pads.

I finished by stamping the sentiment from the set onto a spare piece of paper the same colour as the sky, edged it with a black Sharpie and attached it to the card.

I’ve never been in a hot air balloon and don’t think I’d enjoy it as I really struggle with heights and not being on firm ground! Interestingly, the Inspired By challenge has got an alternative inspiration photo with the them of ‘happy retirement’ and I think lots of people would dream of floating away for new adventures when they retire. My retirement plans got put on hold a bit last year thanks to Covid, but I’m looking forward to some exciting travel adventures next year.