Sometimes you need a quick card for some event and you want it to be cute but not take a lot of prep of supplies. Well, check out this card that I have for you today that is PERFECT for using up some scraps and can easily be turned into a congrats, thank you, OR birthday card! 
This uses one of my favorite stamp sets right now, the Balloon Celebrations set. And the better bonus is that between the speckled fill stamp from the set and the technique of stamping off, you can get a variety of shading looks with ONE ink pad!
- Stamp the small balloon in Crushed Curry onto the card front
- Stamp the speckled shading image in Crushed Curry on top of the stamped balloon
- Ink up the solid balloon stamp again in Crushed Curry and then stamp first onto a piece of scrap paper, then before inking again, stamp onto the card front. PS – it looks really cool if you slightly overlap the balloons, but I apparently forgot that in this version of the card.
- Stamp the speckled shading image in Crushed Curry over the lighter stamped balloon.
You could have stamped off the shaded image first before stamping to get a more subtle shading but I liked it being a little darker to match the other balloon.
I did the same thing with the outline of the balloons. I stamped the outline on the darker balloon in full strength Tip Top Taupe, but on the lighter balloon, I stamped off on to scrap paper first before stamping on my card.
Playing with Gold Wink of Stella
I also used this card as a fun way to try out a few different options for the Gold Wink of Stella. We all love our Wink of Stella, but sometimes the gold is a bit harder to figure out where to use.
So, first I used it to color my sentiment – the Expressions natural elements. I wanted a subtle shimmer and it made it a bit more yellow to go with my Crushed Curry balloons. You can see from the product picture how light the wood is normally:
Plus aren’t these words great? You can use them to turn this card into one for just about any occasion by changing out the word you add to the front!
Pro tip – when adhering your words, lightly dot the back with the adhesive from the Fine-Tip glue pen! It holds great and by dotting it, the glue won’t squish out the sides!
The other way I used my Gold Wink of Stella was to add some fun shading to the balloons from the It’s My Party designer paper stack. It is subtle but really makes a fun difference in the final effect of the card.
So, hopefully that gives you some fun ideas for using some of the supplies in your stash! And if you don’t have the Wooden words, I would grab some now before they sell out! They and a few other items on this card are on the retiring list and so grab them while you can… including:
- Balloon Celebrations DISCOUNTED BUNDLE – yes, the stamps and punch will be carrying over into the new catalog, but the bundle discount will be going away in June!
- Expressions Natural Elements
- It’s My Party designer paper
See the full list of everything that is being discountinued and what is sold out in a PDF list
or see what is left in the Online Store
![NWstamper signature_thumb[9]](https://i0.wp.com/www.nwstamper.com/wp-content/uploads/ad87b4046c1e_C9F6/NWstamper-signature_thumb9_thumb.png?resize=322%2C118 "NWstamper signature_thumb[9]")
![order online button for sig 3_thumb[4]](https://i0.wp.com/www.nwstamper.com/wp-content/uploads/ad87b4046c1e_C9F6/order-online-button-for-sig-3_thumb4_thumb.png?resize=307%2C45 "order online button for sig 3_thumb[4]"){kind=small}
Product List
)
