Drifting

I was delighted when I checked the Frosted Design blog and saw that the current challenge was "Up, Up and Away - things that you see in the sky" because the annual balloon festival had just finished and I had some lovely pictures of hot air balloons that I wanted to scrap! So, this is my entry.

Originally I had broken the picture up into five vertical sections and printed it in A4 size, having been inspired by this pin of a layout by Miki Krueger I'd found on Pinterest. However, it just didn't seem to work.  Then I came across this sketch #238 by Juliana Michaels for Creative Scrappers and it was perfect with a slightly smaller, and solid version of the photograph. I'm pleased with the final result, despite it's simplicity.

To make the background I cut a rectangle of the orange patterned paper (from my TLC stash) and turned it over. I put a dot where I wanted the central point of the rays, then started drawing lines diagonally across the page that intersected this point. I marked every second ray with an X and once I'd drawn the lines I started cutting out the marked rays. I put a small piece of tape on the central dot and made sure that I didn’t cut past this point, so that at the end I still had one piece of paper. I backed it with another piece of patterned paper and then put the layout all together.

The stamps I used were Kaisercraft Check In for the compasses, and Kaisercraft Up, Up and Away for the hot air balloons, 'spectacular moments' words and flourish. The calendar is a Kaszazz stamp. I added some Kaisercraft rhinestones, distressed the edges of the cardstock with Marigold Distress Ink, cut the letters for the title with my Sizzlets Cherish alphabet dies and then wrote the journalling. All done!

I still have many more balloon pictures to scrap, including some of me sitting on a balloon to help deflate it when we offered to help one crew after they landed nearby. That was fun! While I'm happy to help on the ground, and I love seeing the balloons in the sky, don’t expect me to ever get into one though!

I wonder whether any of you know the answer to a question that's been bothering me? Here in Australia, hot air balloons fly in the early morning. In order to see them you have to get up before dawn and we often wake to the whooshing sound of the burners as they drift over our neighbourhood. In the northern hemisphere though, they fly in the evening. While I'm sure it has to do with the weather and air currents somehow, can anyone explain it? I'm really curious. I asked a science teacher once and he had no idea - hopefully one of you does!

Till next time, happy days!

Francine