Ben - Up, Up and Away

I've made another card using the Sketch Challenge 632 from Splitcoaststampers, this time with one of the stamp/die sets from CottageCutz, Ben Up, Up, and Away. 

Here is the layout from the challenge. . .

. . . and here is my card:

Supplies for my card are:

Red cardstock - 5 1/2" x 8 1/2", folded in half at 4 1/4", three small panels 1" x 1 1/4", scrap for label
White cardstock - three small panels 7/8" x 1 1/8", scraps for Ben and label
Red/white polka dot patterned paper - 5 1/4" x 4"
Scraps of blue, red, green cardstock for balloons
Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black and Lady Bug
Copic markers and White gel pen
Copic Colorless Blender
Word Window punch and Modern Label punch
Foam pop dots, tape runner
CottageCutz dies - Ben Up, Up and Away; Calendar Icons

To begin my card, I die-cut three balloons from the Calendar Icons die, coloring the strings with a black Copic marker.  I then stamped, colored and die-cut Ben.  A little hint for getting the "fuzzy" look to Ben's fur.  After coloring his fur (but before coloring anything else), squeeze a little bit of Colorless Blender onto a piece of terrycloth.  Gently dab it onto the fur.  This will remove some of the color in places, giving it an uneven look.  Should the ink bleed into the white areas, you can "repair" that by dabbing on the white gel pen after the ink is completely dry.  I had to do that around his feet.

After cutting the small red and white panels, I assembled them by gluing the white panels to the red panels and popping the balloons in the centers with the foam pop dots.

I stamped the sentiment onto the white scrap, punched it out with the Word Window punch (as well as punching out the Modern Label from red cardstock) then assembled my card, using the layout as my guide.  It went together quite quickly.  Here again is my completed card.

The CottageCutz dies used on my card are: