SOUS Die Cut Challenge ~ BALLOONS!

The current Die Cut Challenge over at Stuck On U Sketches is Balloons.  I am very late getting my post up :(  

The Design Team has done another amazing job and you will want to see their beautiful projects, so head on over to SOUS for some fabulous inspiration!  They have used all sorts of balloons and the variety will definitley inspire you!  All you have to do to play along is use a balloon die cut.  It could be a metal die or a die cut from your cutting machine.  I used a metal die from My Creative Time and had way too much fun adding some cool texture to the hot air balloon.  The clouds are also from My Creative Time and since the Designer's Challenge over there is Embossing, I embossed the clouds with a Tim Holtz swirls folder.  

Here's a close-up of the balloon, where you can see the cool texture that I've added

After cutting the balloon, I stamped it with the coordinating My Creative Time stamp.  Then I colored it with Copics.  Using a colorless embossing marker, I colored all of the blue sections and then poured on the Tim Holtz Distress Embossing Powder in Broken China.  Then I set it with a heat gun.  Again, I used the colorless embossing marker on the red section and poured on the Tim Holtz Embossing Antiquities in Chinese Red and then the heat gun.  For the basket, I used Distress Embossing Powder in Weathered Wood.  These Distress Powders have such great texture!  

For the zig-zag stripe across the balloon and the small one at the bottom, I used Martha Stewart Micro Beads.  I used a MS glue pen and poured on the beads quickly, before it had a chance to dry.  Waited for it to dry, and dabbed on a little bit more glue and poured on some more micro beads.  I'm telling ya, this balloon is so heavy, it might not be able to take off!  LOL!

The sentiment and tag are also from My Creative Time.  I used 1/16" pop dots for the clouds and 1/8" pop dots for the balloon.  The pretty background paper is from the 12x12 My Mind's Eye Where the Heart Is.

Here are the Micro Beads and Embossing Powders

I am entering my card in the following challenges:

My Creative Time Designers Challenge ~ Embossing ~ I used both heat embossing and dry embossing :)