StampinACE: Watercolor Birthday Card

I cased this card from a Stampin' Up! event that I attended. It worked so well with the Watercolor Fluid Paper and since I had not worked with it before, I played with retired stamp sets (Textures & Frames and Watercolor Shapes Photopolymer Stamp Sets) and I loved how the card turned out. If you don't have those stamp sets hopefully you can find ways to create your different shapes.

Have fun :0)

WATERCOLOR BIRTHDAY GIFT CARD

HOW TO CREATE & ASSEMBLE:

Fold and Burnish your card base (4 ¼” x 11” scored @ 5 ½’). Set it aside.
Take your (@ 3 ½” x 8 ½”) piece of Cajun Craze cardstock and run it through the die cut machine 4 times with the weave looking die. Adhere these dies to front of your card base.
Stamp the Happy Birthday sentiment on what is left of the cajun craze cardstock and fussy cut out. **Pointer: if you trace with a pencil around the polymer stamp onto the cardstock then stamp the sentiment inside it, you will know exactly where to cut
Now comes the fun! :0) Creating your 4 water color panels.

First and foremost. . . if you don’t feel like messing with the watercoloring aspect of the card, you can just stamp the different shapes in different colors and be done with it.
If you want the watercolor look, when you stamp, use the water painter (or a small craft paintbrush) to blend /lighten the colors. Painting over and blurring the edges a bit. PLEASE BE SURE TO WIPE OFF TIP OF PAINTER BEFORE MOVING ON TO ANOTHER COLOR.
So if you stamp a shape that is hollow, use the water painter running it along the shape you stamped and brushing to the center of the shape.
The shapes that aren’t hollow just slightly run the painter over it to blur the edges and color a bit.
Set the 4 panels to the side to dry a bit while you move on.

Optional: if you would like your envelope to coordinate, stamp a couple of the shapes on the front of your envelope along the left side.
Die cut several balloons in different colors and sizes and stamp and destress the edges if you would like to. Also die cut the “strings”. 2 balloons fit per panel. Adhere them to your water colored panels.
Take your second piece (4 ¼” x 9” scored @ 3” & 6”) of Blackberry Bliss cardstock which has been scored twice and fold and burnish the edges.
Adhere your watercolored panels to the front and back of the two flaps. Not in the middle.
Now adhere this centered on the card front that you set aside earlier.
Using mini Stampin’ Dimensionals® adhere the Happy Birthday sentiment on the frontier the balloon strings.
Finally, stamp sentiment on the (4” x 5 ¼”) piece of beige cardstock for the inside of your card. Adhere it in.