Designs by Didi: Spritz, Spatter and Sparkle

I need a masculine birthday card for the weekend--belated, too! I found an inspiration card on Pinterest and decided to take it up a level--or two--with spritz, spatter and sparkle.

by Liz Holloway of stampersplus.com

Start with a white card base (half of an 8.5 by 11 inch sheet of card stock folded in half). Add a color trim to match one of the balloons which will be added later. It can be a quarter cut of a full sheet, trimmed 1/8 inch smaller all around. Then cut the card top that we will spritz and spatter and sparkle. It can be trimmed down 1/4 inch all around so the color trim will show as the middle layer on the finished card.

This is the Martha Stewart small balloon punch used to make some yellow, green and blue balloons. I'll be making kits for my card making group so I kept on punching.

The next step is to spritz and spatter the card top. I used Stampin' Up Baja Breeze re-inker in a bit of water in the Stampin' Up spritzer. Play around with it until you get the effect you desire, using paper towel to soak up too much ink and a heat tool to dry it.

I used Smooch Spritzer in Pearl to add a little shimmer. I also added some spatter using the nozzle of the ink spritzer against my knuckle. You can also add some silver dots with a Sharpie in Metallic Silver.

Next, add some texture to the card top with a deckle trim on one side and an EK bubble punch on the other. I like the deckle look, but find the Fiskars deckle edge scissors a bit frustrating to use.

Tip:Take it slow with short snips and try to match the ins and outs.

Now it's time for sparkle! I used Martha Stewart's Glitter and Glue set as the highlight on the green and blue balloons. My card was masculine, but I'll be taking the Art Mind flower-shaped sequins for my group to use should they choose to make a more feminine card. I used the Studio G Glitter Glue on the yellow balloon. I added my own balloon ties with a .1 Staedler pen. A chance to doodle! Then add the balloons to the card with foam adhesives to add dimension.

Last item to add to the card is the sentiment, mainly so that you can determine exactly where to place it on the card top. I used the EK Success Large 2 Point Flag both as a pennant and a longer arrow (using only the edge of the punch). I had trouble finding some shorter birthday sentiments to fit on the 2 point flag. but finally settled on some from the Fiskars Happy Birthday set and the All Year Greetings set. The longer sentiment stamps are from Scrappy Cat. StazOn Jet Black stamp pad makes a good, dark impression.