Photoshop: Fading Type & Hand- Painted Borders

I created a new image layer with a blue gradient. I went to Google images to get the air balloons image. I opend the air balloon image and selected only the air balloon and saved it.
 I then placed the air balloon on the blue gradient. I used a gradient with the mask on the air balloons. I used Ctrl-J and moved the air balloons to a different area.

For the balloon text i used a gradiet fill and Warp Text -> Flag.

For the border i copyed the image and paste it as a new layer and enlaged the canvas and choose a white as a cavas extension color. I then used different filter on each color.