I've been following The Twofer Challenge for a long time, but have never played along. Earlier this month when I saw February's challenge: Balloons, I had an idea!
I've had a "never-before-used" die by My Favorite Things lying on my table for weeks. Originally, I planned to use if for an upcoming project, but ended up doing something very different and just didn't get it put away. My only problem with this challenge was forgetting to check the rules before creating:
They are very clear--one die, two different designs, two different occasions. My first two cards were both birthday cards, so actually I have a Three-fer. But I'm not unhappy to have a third card in the stash. Here's a look at the two cards for the challenge:
As you can see the die cuts the balloons and the greeting from a piece of cardstock. I then die cut that with a "Stitched Rectangle" and put metallic papers behind the balloons and the greeting and bumped it up on a white top-folded card. Have to say it looks great in real life, but is terrible to try and photograph.
Here you can see the shine, and the reflection from the windows!
To create the second card, I ran the die through the Gemini, Jr. two times and used five of the balloons. After coloring them with Copic markers, I added balloon strings from a Papertrey Ink stamp set and layered them into a bouquet of balloons.
The sentiment (just perfect!) from Sugar Peas was embossed on black cardstock die cut from Papertrey Ink's "Skinny Mini Banners," and bumped up with some dimensional tape. The balloons are covered with a heavy coat from a Spectrum Noir glitter pen---also difficult to photograph. Here's a close-up taken with my iPhone.
Finally the third card, just because I have it--and I do like it, too. I used the same technique and the same glittery finish for the balloons here.
I love the "Birthday Strings" mini-stamp from Papertrey Ink and it works perfectly here. I add a few raindrops to this card, as well as the die cut card as a final embellishment. I'm pretty sure I'll be back to play along with The Twofer Challenge again, but I'm also sure I'll remember the rules next time!
And because, I used a NBUS die, I'll put this up at the February post there as well.