inspiration adventure

I had some free time on the weekend, so I was catching up with some of the challenge blogs I enjoy.  I stopped in at Dynamic Duos where DD#5 is the bold & sassy combo of Island Indigo and Riding Hood Red.  I checked a few other places and then read about Jubilee weekend at Less is More where they've challenged us to do a clean and simple design using red, white & blue - that's a nice coincidence.  After a bit more browsing, I landed at Clean & Simple Stamping and found this sketch:

It immediately spoke to me of hot air balloons, and I thought they would look great in red, white & blue.  I thought I should recheck Dynamic Duos so I could use those specific red and blue colors, and then I noticed Lesley's wonderful hot air balloon card - well, no wonder it seemed like a great idea!  Not that I couldn't CASE hers, but I didn't want it to look as if I was just stalking Lesley, so I used last week's Fall-to-Layout from Clean & Simple Stamping instead:

stamp sets - Petite Pairs, Up, Up, and Away; ink - Island Indigo, Riding Hood Red; card stock - Naturals White, Island Indigo, Riding Hood Red; Stampin' Dimensionals

I love it, and it was also Tom's favorite when I showed him several at once from my latest stamping binge.  (We are both a bit partial to balloon designs, having spent so many fun hours with my parents and their friends with their WindRider.)  I stamped the balloon on both colors of card stock and then cut the Island Indigo version apart and glued the bits on top of the Riding Hood Red version.  I know it's called paper piecing, but this was card stock piecing...