Birthday Balloon card using 2 different stamp sets

     For this card I had fun making a background "designer paper" using the Simon Says Stamp Favorite Puperoni stamp set which was a free birthday stamp last year with purchase.  I used Papertrey Ink paper and matching ink in Aqua Mist.
     Then I used the Balloons Stamp set and matching Dies from Avery Elle, gluing about 4 sets of die cut balloons together for dimension.  I typically have difficulty getting these stamps to stamp evenly even in my Misti, but I lucked out this time.  I used Memento inks, then added glitter dots from the Dollar Tree for embellishments. 
     I really like the background paper I made.

A Simple Card

   

Basic Borders set by Mama Elephant, Birthday Card Set, and Defective Die

Defective Die

      I received a defective die set from Simon Says Stamp (the Stitched Rectangles set). and in the aqua layers of the cards below you may notice there is a spot near a corner where 2 of the stitch details did not show up.  After inspecting my die I noticed the stitch details were never put on the die to start with.  I have emailed Simon Says Stamp and I suspect they will take care of the error.    

     

Mama Elephant Basic Borders
Avery Elle Balloons

     I had already die cut the blue card pieces though so I used them.  I just tried to cover the defective area with edges of the large balloon.  I tried the following sketch from Papertrey Ink because I wanted to play with the stamp set.  That was really fun but I needed to use my MISTI for lining up the borders.  I wouldn't have been able to do it otherwise.  Here is the sketch I used.

     I decided not to add the "dots" over the lowercase i's in some of my Birthday die cuts.  I thought the balloon strings could substitute.  I don't think it worked out too well though so if I do these again I will definitely glue the dots over the I's.  I might even glue them in before giving these cards away.

     I am trying to increase my skills.  Right now there are still three things terribly wrong with these cards that prevent them from looking professional.  The problem with the defective die (which wasn't my fault and should be easily fixed),  the fact that two of the greetings had a little too much glue on them and it is sticky on the front of the card  (I know there is a special eraser you can get for glue boo boos though so I will look for that), and one of the backgrounds that I put stripes on came out wonky.  The stripes line up with each other but they aren't straight with the rectangular piece I stamped on.  I also am not sure I am entirely happy with how well the ink stamped on the balloons.  I stamped each balloon twice because I didn't get a good image but I have excellent ink, excellent card stock, and excellent quality stamps. I did notice that initially I had to stamp the Mama Elephant border stamps twice in each spot to get a good image but by the last card I made I noticed that I was putting my ink on in a very quickly repeating pressing fashion.  Once I slowed down and gently and slowly pressed the ink into the stamp repeatedly it seemed to only require 1 stamping.  

    Here are some additional supplies I used: Perfect Match Aqua Mist card stock from Papertrey Ink,  Perfect Match Black card stock from Papertrey Ink, Neenah Solar White card stock, Perfect Match Aqua Mist dye ink from Papertrey Ink, Buttercup Creative Color pigment ink from Mama Elephant, Plumberry Creative Color pigment ink from Mama Elephant, Versafine Onyx Black ink, Stitched Rectangles wafer dies by Simon Says Stamp, Birthday Trio Die Collection from Papertrey Ink, MISTI by My Sweet Petunia.