Happy Birthday Pandas

Update to this post! The panda stamp is now available FREE with a qualifying order!  Click here for more information.

 I hope you had a great Thanksgiving weekend!  It was very busy for me but I did get some time in to work on cards.  Today's card is for the CAS Colours and Sketches color challenge for November 21.  The challenge this week was their 250th AND celebrates their fifth birthday!

The colors are:

I decided to make a birthday card using the panda from Party Pandas and some balloons from Balloon Celebration.  I stamped one the large balloon several times, masking them to create depth.

I wanted stripes on the side and I have a nice background stamp that I thought would work.  Unfortunately when I tried masking off the stripes it just didn't stamp well.

So I stamped the stripes on the side of an A2 card and cut my panel with the panda down to 5 1/2 x 4 inches so I would have a 1/4 inch strip down the side.  When I tried laying this panel on the striped panel I could see the stripes through the white card stock.  I ended up gluing a black panel to the back of the panda panel to prevent "show-through" - kind of like a camisole.

The balloons are colored with Copics and Stampin' Blends markers.  Since the colors specified are Stampin' Up colors I decided to use as many of the Blends as possible.  The Blends do not have really light value makers so I used a few Copics as my lightest values.  Also, the Blends are not available in every color so I had to color match my blue.

I always color more than one card - in this case between my first and last panda panel, I decided I needed one more balloon, so you see four balloons in the final card.  I used a multi-liner pen to hand draw most of the strings.

This card went fairly fast and was easy to color.  It would also look great with the balloons colored flat without shading.

Update to this post! The panda stamp is from a Sale-A-Bration is now available!

Stamps: Stampin' Up Party Pandas, Balloon Celebration, Brushstrokes
Markers: Stampin' Blends Cherry Cobbler and Copic R32; Daffodil Delight and Y11; B12, B14, B16; shadows N0, N1

Place a $30 order and receive a FREE PDF using the "Sure Do Love You" and "Heart Happiness" stamp sets.  Use hostess code CYB2H9TW when placing your order.  (Do not use if your order is $150 or more before tax and shipping. In that event, YOU will receive the hostess benefits!)

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