A Light Up Balloon Birthday

Today, December 21is the first official day of winter.  It is also known as Winter Solstice.
The word solstice comes from the Latin words for “sun” and “to stand still.” In the Northern Hemisphere, as summer advances to winter, the points on the horizon where the Sun rises and sets advance southward each day; the high point in the Sun’s daily path across the sky, which occurs at local noon, also moves southward each day.
At the winter solstice, the Sun’s path has reached its southernmost position. The next day, the path will advance northward. However, a few days before and after the winter solstice, the change is so slight that the Sun’s path seems to stay the same, or stand still. The Sun is directly overhead at “high-noon” on Winter Solstice at the latitude called the Tropic of Capricorn.

I looked up some folklore and sayings related to winter and found the following sayings:

Winter Folklore and Verse

Deep snow in winter; tall grain in summer—Estonian proverb
Visits should be short, like a winter’s day.
A fair day in winter is the mother of a storm—English proverb
Summer comes with a bound; winter comes yawning.
Onion skins very thin, mild winter coming in. 

I can't say that I've heard any of these sayings before, have you?

In honour of Winter Solstice I made a card with lights on it.

To make the best use of the Lift Me Up stamp and coordinating framelits I viewed the video made by Stampin' Up which I have imbedded below:



The basic card is Island Indigo, layered with Whisper White and then Scenic Scenes DSP.  The DSP provided the back drop for the scene created.

The large hot air  balloon was die cut using Night of Navy card stock and a balloon shaped layers of colour (Mint Macaron, Watermelon Wonder, Night of Navy, Delightful Dijon)was placed behind it.

On a separate piece of card stock two other balloons were stamped - one with Night of Navy and one with Watermelon Wonder.  After die cutting the edges were sponged with Basic Gray.  Some clouds were also stamped and die cut.

The lights for the card were built on a Whisper White layer below the card front.  The lights are battery  operated with an on/off switch on the left side.

The balloons and clouds were arranged as indicated in the picture above.  Some tiny holes were poked in various places on  the finished scene so that the lights can shine through them.

Here is a picture of the card with the lights dimmed so that the lights can be seen.

Supplies Used:

Stamps: Lift me Up

Inks: Night of Navy, Watermelon Wonder, Basic Gray, Basic Black marker

Papers: Whisper White, Island Indigo, Night of Navy, Scenic Scenes DSP, Mint Macaron, Watermelon Wonder, Peach Parfait

Accessories: Up & Away thinlets, paper piercing tool, string of lights & battery unit (non SU)