Northern Lights card tutorial

 Picture 1 shows the shades of sprays I used to make the piece in pictures 2 and 3.  I start with a 11x15 sheet of cold press 110 lb Strathmore watercolor paper. I wanted a cold, icy looking background.  I layer the colors and add enough moisture to get the products to swirl and blend.  I started with Lindy's Stamp Gang Whale Watch Blue, which is a gray blue with a lot of shimmer to it.  I added Distress Salty Ocean and Mermaid Lagoon towards the middle and next to each other to get a blend between the two, creating a new blue/teal shade.  I added Hickory Smoke for a little darkness and Dylusions White Linen for an icy swirl.  I add the Perfect Pearls spray in Pearl over the whole piece to get things moving and blending.  Sometimes I need to take a paper towel to sop up puddles that form along the edges and I like to do that to avoid "mud", which can run into the middle and ruin it.  Mud is more of a tendency when using colors that will turn brown when combined such as purple and yellow or red and green.  It's not a risk with the colors I used here. 

 I just love the swirls that dried in.  Sometimes what looks awesome wet doesn't look the same when it's dry.  It kept those swirl patterns this time, so I was happy with it.

 These are the colors I used in the piece below.  Distress Salty Ocean, Mermaid Lagoon, Twisted Citron, Picked Raspberry, Dusty Concord and Shaded Lilac.  I also used Dylusions Lemon Zest.  Not pictured is Perfect Pearls spray in Pearl.  The orange in the piece is the blend between the pink and yellow.  One of the best things about doing these is the blend between the different colors.  You also never get the same piece twice, and I've tried!

 A trick I learned in art school was to take a sheet of paper, fold it in half and half again.  Cut a square out of the middle and open it up, making a veiwfinder.  Use the square in the middle of the sheet to look through to find perspective.  So I take the die I want to use, in this case a stitched rectangle, and move it around to find what I want to make my background.  I mark it with a pencil and cut it down with my paper trimmer.  I then send it through my big shot to die cut it.

 I used Distress ink in Black Soot to blend around the edges to darken it, giving it that night time sky look.

 I typically make three to four layers of ink to get the darkness I want. 

 I used SU Lovely as a Tree stamp set.  Momento Tuxedo Black ink.

This one is another version made with the same techniques and a different piece of the same sheet.  Tim Holtz stamps and Ranger Embossing Powder in Platinum.

I posted this card on Facebook and received wonderful and encouraging comments.  This one was also done the same techniques.  The only difference is that I didn't use any perfect pearls on it.  The sparkle is from a Wink of Stella Clear pen.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed!