Happy

This was the criteria for the latest challenge at the 123 Challenge blog:

From the recent Balloon Festival when Kyaa and I went down to the lake to watch the hot air balloons I had lots of photographs of balloons so the balloon part was easy! While we were watching the balloons drift over the lake, we witnessed a balloon land awkwardly on the embankment and went over to offer assistance. The pilot Craig was most grateful and had us help to manoeuvre the balloon to more stable ground then let his passengers out. He also got me to help deflate the balloon by pulling on the cord to release the air from the top. To help that process along he had me sit on the deflating balloon to stop the air from coming out the bottom. So Kyaa took a photo of me and Craig decided that he should "scold" me. He was quite the character and in the end had us all in stitches. It was an unexpected and fun early morning experience - happy part of the challenge - check.

As it turns out, that balloon was red and yellow, so red part of the challenge - check.

 

I picked a sketch by Kimberly Figures that I had come across on Pinterest . I then went through my stash and found a series of red papers that went with the red from the pictures. I picked a label tag from my stash and die cut a second label (Die-namics Layered Label) from a larger pre cut tag and layered it on top of the first label.

To finish the layout, I stamped the flourishes using the Stampin' Up! Baroque Motifs stamp set, and added a few flowers I picked up at a $2 shop. I also added a few hot air balloon stamps from the Kaisercraft Up, Up& Away stamp set. The title was die cut with the Die-Namics By the Letters dies.

I always save used postage stamps that I like and I found one in my collection of a hot air balloon that was just the right colours and stuck that in too. I have so many used stamps but rarely get to use them, so it was nice to come across this one that worked so well.

To finish off the layout, I felt that there was something missing, but I wasn't sure what. In the end I had this roll of washi tape lying on my desk and decided that I would use it as a border around the page. I think it finishes the whole thing off nicely, don't you?

Till next time, happy days!