I have a second card to share tonight featuring a digital image from Gerda Steiner.  This little bear is her Happy New Year bear for 2015, but I cut the balloons apart and used these numbers to create a birthday care for a young lady who just turned 21!  (21 isn't too old for teddy bears, right?)  Once again, lots of purple, but this one was inspired by the recipient's favorite color.
I created the background with a hexagon stencil and embossing paste colored with a few different shades of distress ink.  I used the same distress inks to water color the balloons  (from another Gerda Steiner image), then fussy cut the images and used a brush tip black marker to sharpen the black outlines. I tied silver embroidery floss around the little balloon ends (tiny little balloon ends!) and reinforced the knots with glossy accents so they wouldn't come undone, then used a needle to thread the floss ends through the bears hand.  The bear is also water colored with distress inks.  There are even strands of silver floss poking up from the bear's party hat.  I had to add accents of Wink of Stella glitter brush to the balloons, party hat and the black strip the bear is "standing" on, and some glossy accents on the number balloons, and I added white gel pen accents to the bear's nose and eyes, which really brought him to life.