PANDA WITH A BALLOON

I am devastated that this little panda and his two buddies are no longer available. They were part of Sale-A-Bration, and with Sale-A-Bration ending March 31, bye bye pandas. So sad. They are incredibly adorable.

So, even though this little guy is retired, I'm still going to share the tutorial for creating this card with you because it features several good design ideas and techniques.

A few stamp sets that are still current and contain images that would work as well as the little panda include: Pop of Paradise (page 42), the ladies and/or cat from You've Got Style (page 47), the pigs, dogs or kittens on pages 48-49, the cupcake from Sweet Cupcake on page 83, Foxy Friends (page 104), the dinos from the No Bones About It set on page 109, the butterflies from Watercolor Wings (page 134), the ladies from Beautiful You (page 141), Miss Mermaid from the Magical Mermaid set on page 172, hey, Fabulous Flamingo (page 177), or the can of paintbrushes from Crafting Forever on page 181. Moving on to the Occasions Catalog, the figures from Magical Day on page 36 would work great, as would any of the cute animals on pages 38-39, the birdie stuff in Flying Home (page 41), or Bird Banter on page 42. 

There are more, but I just wanted to give you some further examples that you could use in your card if you weren't lucky enough to have gotten the Party Pandas during Sale-A-Bration.

Hi Cutie!

Keep on reading for the Supplies List and Instructions to make a card similar to this one.

SUPPLIES: 

Daffodil Delight cardstock

Real Red cardstock

Whisper White cardstock

Party Pandas stamp set

Stylized Birthday stamp (page 80)

Playful Backgrounds stamp set (page 150)

Real Red ink

Tangerine Tango ink

Daffodil Delight ink

Wild Wasabi ink

Pacific Point ink

Archival Basic Black ink

1/2" Circle Punch

Washi Tape

Red/White Baker's Twine

Cut-out balloon and/or party hat

Panda mask

Glue Dots

INSTRUCTIONS:

Fold a 5 1/2" x 8 1/2" piece of Daffodil Delight cardstock in half, creasing it well with a bone folder.

Using a 2 3/4" x 5" piece of Whisper White, you will create your panda layer:

With Archival Basic Black ink, stamp the panda about 1" from the bottom. Stamp the panda again on a piece of Post It paper. Carefully cut out the panda from the Post It, staying just a wee bit inside the lines. Position the mask you just made over the panda you had stamped. 

Proceed with the circles from Playful Backgrounds. I alternated between the filled-in circles and the outlined circles as I went down the page, with each color change. As you stamp a new set of circles, overlap with the previous color a bit, so all the circles fit on this piece of cardstock. BE SURE TO CLEAN THE STAMPS EACH TIME SO YOU DON'T CONTAMINATE THE COLORS.

Peel away the panda mask. Your circles should now be surrounding the panda you'd originally stamped.

Choose a precut balloon (Earlier I had stamped a slew of the balloons as well as some of the party hats -- which my panda isn't wearing -- so my Stamp-In Club attendees didn't have to do this step, and could just choose the pieces they liked.) and adhere it over the stamped balloon. It doesn't matter that there are circles on the stamped balloon; you are covering it up. If you wish, choose a precut party hat to add to your panda.

With red/white baker's twine, tie a bow and add it to the bottom of the balloon with a Glue Dot.

Lay the finished panda piece on top of a 4" square of Real Red cardstock. Choose a Washi Tape that you would like to complement your card. Position strips of the tape on both sides, about 3/8" from the edges of the red. Use tape that is a little longer than you need so you can neatly wrap the torn ends to the back of the red paper. Adhere the panda piece to the taped red paper and then to the card front.

With the 1/2" Circle Punch, punch two circles from Real Red and add them to the bottom corners of the card.

In the black ink, stamp Happy Birthday inside the card. Surround the sentiment with confetti in all the colors you used on the front, cleaning the stamp in between each color.

Confetti

Smiles.