CTMH Balloon Ride Card

Hello! Hello!  As I told you yesterday, I had a moment of inspiration for a card.  I have fallen in love with CTMH's Balloon Ride paper line and stamps.  After seeing Donna Digby's card she made for the Freshly Made Sketches 141 challenge, I knew I had to make my own. 

To make:
*Note: all products are Close To My Heart unless specified.
1) Cut a 4.25 inch strip from a 12x12 sheet of Colonial White cardstock. Then cut 1 inch from the bottom making a 4.25 x 11 inch strip.  Fold in half to create a 4.25 x 5.5 inch card.
2) Cut a 3 7/8 x 5 1/8 inch rectangle from Cashmere cardstock. Run this through your Cuttlbebug with the Dots embossing folder.  Distress edges with Saddle dye ink. Attach to card base with bonding glue stick.
3) Out of the Balloon print paper, cut a 4.75 x 3.5 rectangle.  Then, cut a 1 inch strip from each side.  (This makes so that the images continue to match on the background).  Turn your strips and cut 1 inch off of each side of each strip.  You should end up with 9 rectangles: 4   1 inch squares, 2  1 x 1.5 rectangles, 2  1 x 2.75 inch rectangles, and 1 1.5 x 2.75 inch rectangle.  Distress the edges with blush ink.  I used pigment, because that's what I had. Adhere with bonding glue stick leaving space around each as shown above.
4) Using scraps: Cut a 1/2 x 1.75 inch strip from blush print (one of the B & T's) and cashmere cardstock. Cut a 1 x 2.5  inch strip from juniper cardstock. Fold the blush and cashmere in half (thin width wise) and cut off a small triangle from the end starting 1/2 inch from the end and tapering until you meet the corner point on end.  This will make the pointed end.  Fold the juniper strip in half like the others. This time, start from the end at the folded middle point and ending 1/2 inch down but cutting toward the edge of the paper. I hope this makes sense!  If in doubt, make the strips look like those above :). Using the sanding block, distress all edges of these banner strips you just created. Stamp the image shown above on the juniper cardstock using saddle dye ink.  Adhere the strips with the bonding glue stick.  Note: I did not glue the entire strips.  I left about 1/2 inch on the ends so I could curl the points up.
5) Stamp the balloon image with desert sand dye ink.  Cut out and color.  I recommend CTMH's watercolor pencils, but I don't have them.  I used a light blue watercolor pencil I have for the balloon body, but ended up using Crayola colored pencils for the rest, because my watercolor set didn't have coordinating colors (lol). Adhere the image using two pieces of foam tape.  I always use my CTMH micro-tip scissors for this, because the sticky adhesive from the tape does NOT stick to the scissors. It's awesome!

You're done!  I would love to hear from you if you use my instructions.  Let me know if they are clear and easy to follow.  Or, if you create something from inspiration you found from my card, I'd love to hear so I can check it out! 
Thanks for stopping by.  Hope you have a beautiful day! -Dari