PP400 Huge Celebration and Giveaway!

Hi friends! It's Sunday, that means time for a new challenge at The Paper Players, and this is a big one! For the next two weeks we will be celebrating our 400th Challenge. Not surprisingly, the theme is CELEBRATION!  You can create any kind of celebratory card, such as a birthday, anniversary, wedding or graduation. And with every good celebration, we are having a party with LOTS of prizes! The wonderful Jaydee is our hostess for this party, WHO I might add, has been on this team since Challenge #1! We also have a couple of surprise past Design Team members returning to add to the inspiration. So how do our simple rules differ for this party?

1. PP400 will run for two weeks, and you may submit up to two cards for this challenge. 
2. Prizes awarded to participants will be drawn from random.org.
3. Create a new paper project.
4. Upload your project to your blog with a link back to The Paper Players.
5. Provide a direct link to your blog post for your challenge entry.
6. Please link your card to no more than FOUR challenges (including ours).
7. TRULY ENJOY OUR CELEBRATION!  We have appreciated your participation over the last 399 challenges.

You must be wondering about the prizes! We've been floored by the generosity of the crafting community. We will be picking 40 lucky winners for one of the following (sponsors listed in alphabetical order)...

1. Altenew- $30 gift card
2. Atenew Academy - $20 gift card
3. Avery Elle- $20 store credit
4. Butterfly Reflections - Breathe Rainbows Stamp Set (US winner only)
5. CAS-ual Fridays - $25 store credit
6. Cheery Lynn - $20 gift card  
7. Cheery Lynn - $20 gift card
8. Concord & 9th - $25 gift card
9. Craftin Desert Divas - $10 store credit
10. Dies R Us - $15 gift card
11. Ellen Hutson -  $20 gift card 
12. Ellen Hutson - $20 gift card
13. Happy Little Stampers - $20 store credit
14. Heffy Doodle - Sticky Friends Stamp Set (exclusive - not available for purchase)
15. Heffy Doodle - Sticky Friends Stamp Set (exclusive - not available for purchase)
16. Heffy Doodle - Sticky Friends Stamp Set (exclusive - not available for purchase)
17. Heffy Doodle - Sticky Friends Stamp Set (exclusive - not available for purchase)
18. Lawn Fawn - $25 gift card
19. My Favorite Things - $25 store credit
20. Neat & Tangled - $15 store credit 
21. Newton's Nook - $20 store credit
22. Pink & Main - $20 store credit
23. Power Poppy - $10 store credit
24. Stampendous - $20 reward cards (US winner only)
25. Stampendous - $20 reward card (US winner only)
26. Stampendous - $20 reward card (US winner only)
27. STAMPlorations - $20 gift certificate
28. Stampin' Up! - $20 gift certificate
29. Stampin' Up! - $20 gift certificate
30. Stampin' Up! - $20 gift certificate
31. Stampin' Up! - $20 gift certificate
32. Stampin' Up! - $20 gift certificate
33. Technique Tuesday - $20 gift card
34. The Foiled Fox - $25 store credit
35. Trinity Stamps - Let it Grow and Lady Liberty Stamp Sets
36. Tutti Designs - $15 gift card
37. Uniko - any in-stock stamp set of the winner's choice
38. Verve Stamps - stamp & accessory bundle (US winner only)
39. Verve Stamps - stamp & accessory bundle (US winner only)
40. Waffle Flower -  $15 gift card

How awesome is that?! Well, this post is getting crazy long so I guess it's time to move on to my card...

Since it just a few days before US Independence Day, I thought I'd make a celebratory card in patriotic colors. I don't have a particular recipient in mind yet, but I think this card would be suitable for a graduation, birthday, or any summer party. I stamped the balloons and strings on my card front first. Then I stamped more balloons on another piece of card stock and colored them with Copic markers. Finally, I cut the balloons out by hand and adhered them to the base. A very simple card, and I gave the Big Shot a day off! 

Stamp Sets: Birthday Bits (Simon Says Stamp)

Card Stock: Solar White (Neenah)

Ink Pads: Tuxedo Black (Memento), Cornflower (Hero Arts), Lipstick Red (Simon Says Stamp)

Markers: Copic

Thanks so much for stopping by! Please leave a comment, then head over to visit the rest of the Design Team and our special guests at The Paper Players. We hope you'll play along with our special challenge, too! This is going to be fun, fun, fun! 

Inky hugs :)