Introducing Balloon Bash

Yay!!! It's the start of Papertrey Ink's July Release Countdown. Ya'll are going to be blown away this month. So many goodies and little surprises. And there seems to be a general theme, one which everybody can appreciate. Looks like it might be all about the birthdays. Who can't use more birthday stuff?

Case in point, I'm here to feature Lizzie Jones' new "Balloon Bash" set. I find that nothing brings such simple joy to the celebrants on a birthday than balloons. I buy dozens of helium balloons a year for my kids' birthdays. Makes them so incredibly happy.

So with that in mind (balloons equal happiness), let me show you some projects using this new set.

A fun card that features just one balloon. I'm liking the heart detail to it. It is placed on two "washi inspired" strips die cut with the Pinking Shears Border and stamped with "Sew Simple Borders".

The sentiment is from the new "Inside & Out: Birthday and decorated with "Mat Stack 6 Collection".  I stamped and scanned the sentiment first into my Silhouette Cameo software and then drew rectangles around the larger words. Upon cutting the rectangles out, I had perfectly shaped mats for those words without having to mask. Handy trick to have.

Next up, I teamed up the balloons with May's "Pedal Pusher" set. The "Balloon Bash" dies are incredibly useful and can be used without the stamps. In fact, I have two other uses for it as well below. The Hawaiian Shores balloon is decorated with a few silver glitter paper stars cut with "Star Gazer Collection Dies" . The sentiment is from "Balloon Bash" as well. 

How about some shaker style balloons with the "Balloon Bash Die"? Two of the three here are backed with clear packaging I had lying around and filled with circles and stars. To save time, I just used two Fiskar hole punches I had to make all that confetti. The word "happy" is from "Get to the Point Sentiments" (awesome little $5 set with several useful words) is stamped three times on the shaker backing. 

"Get to the Point Sentiments" was also used to complete my sentiment. I teamed it up with the new "Birthday Trio Dies" and a number cut out with "Block Alphabet Number" dies. 

Other view of the balloon shakers. Love the color combo of Pure Poppy, Simply Chartreuse, Summer Sunrise, Hawaiian Shores, and Soft Blush together. The Soft Blush really adds a lot of depth and sophistication to it. 

And lastly, a crazy idea that I've had for awhile about using uninflated balloons on a card. I die cut the "Balloon Trio" die three times on Stamper's Select White cardstock. On a matching backer piece, I placed my actual balloons so they "pop" out of the openings created by the balloon die.

I thought the sentiment "Sending you a whole lot of happy" from "Inside & Out: Birthday" was tailored made for this type of card. And the small and large stars are little supportive stamps from "Balloon Bash" as well.

Along the bottom edge, I used the "Zipper Border Die". Just rip it open and....

....release the balloons to be blown up and create some birthday frivolity. I thought this was really FUN! Like I said, my kids love balloons. Blow one up and there's a hour's worth of fun to be had.

I have a few little construction tips if you decide to make a card like this for somebody you love. My balloons had some dimension and really seemed to "pop" off the surface of the card. My trick? They were backed with cotton balls. It was the cotton balls that were adhered to the backer piece and the ballons were just sort of molded around them, unadhered. Because the balloons were bigger than the opening created by the "Balloon Bash" dies, they were held in place when the topper and backer pieces were glued together. 

Also, I really struggled with the pink and blue balloons overlapping. Hard to make it look right . The red balloon which was not bordered by another? That baby didn't go anywhere. So make a grouping of single balloons if you want to do this type of card, just to save yourself a headache. Or twenty. Live and learn. 

All the new products today will be available to add to your stash on July 15th at www.papertreyink.com. 

That's it for me here on Day 1. Be back on Day 4 and 5 with some group posts. In the meantime, let's see what the other girls have created.

Betsy Veldman
Cristina Kowalczyk
Dawn McVey
Melissa Bickford
Lizzie Jones
Heather Nichols
Nichole Heady

Supplies

Birthday Wishes Blue Card
Stamps: Balloon Bash, Inside & Out: Birthday II, Mat Stack 6 Collection, Sew Simple Borders
Dies: Balloon Bash Dies, Pinking Sheers Border
Patterned Paper: Hibiscus Burst Bitty Dot, Hawaiian Shores Simple Stripe, Summer Sunrise Bitty Dot
Cardstock: Raspberry Fizz, Aqua Mist, Stamper's Select White

Bike and Balloons
Stamps: Balloon Bash, Pedal Pusher
Cardstock: Limeade Ice, Hawaiian Shores, Summer Sunrise, Simply Chartreuse
Patterned Paper: Orange Zest Polka Dot, Summer Sunrise Simple Stripe
Ink: Orange Zest, True Black, Memento London Fog
Dies: Balloon Bash, Pedal Pusher, Pinking Sheer Border, Star Gazer Collection
Ink: True Black, Raspberry Fizz, Hawaiian Shores, True Black

Balloon Shakers
Stamps: Get to the Point Sentiments, Balloon Bash
Cardstock: Smokey Shadow, Summer Sunrise, Limeade Ice, Hawaiian Shores, Pure Poppy, Soft Blush, Simply Chartreuse
Dies: Ballon Bash, Birthday Trio, Seeing Stars, Christmas Countdown, Block Alphabet, Star Gazer
Ink: Hawaiian Shores, True Black, Simply Chartreuse
Soft Blush Bitty Dot Paper
Silver Glitter Paper, Baker's Twine

Balloon Gift Card
Stamps: Inside & Out: Birthday, Balloon Bash, Movers & Shakers Sentiments
Dies: Balloon Bash, Zipper Border
Ink: Hibiscus Burst, Blueberry Sky, True Black, and Pure Poppy
Cardstock: Pure Poppy, Stamper's Select White