Welcome to my crafty blog. I’ve got something a bit different today, but it’s alwasy good to ring the changes. I don’t usually do many cards with dark backgrounds, but one of this week’s challenges definitely called for it. Just Us Girls challenge has got Northern Lights/Aurora Borealis as it’s theme, and I teamed it with the sketch from Just Add Ink

I knew exactly the paper I wanted to use for this card – Claritystamp’s ‘Northern Lights’ collection. I started by trimming a piece of the paper to fit a 5×7 card blank, and then cut it into nine pieces.

Major error! I’d had an idea about which stamps I wanted to use for the card, but when I held them against the paper they were the wrong shape! (what’s that about planning before you start…?) I decided instead to use the largest stamp from Clarity’s ‘tree rows’ set, but had to piece the paper back together – have I told you I can’t bear to throw anything away?? Fortunately I have a new silicone craft mat, so lined then up on that as they didn’t slip. I then stamped the trees using embossing ink, and heat embossed them with WOW’s bright white super fine powder.

Next step was to add the moon. I again lined up the pieces of the paper I needed and put the outer part of a Clarity moon mask over them, I then blended white ink onto it – I needed to do a couple of coats of the ink, letting it dry in between

All I then needed to do was attached the paper pieces to the card front. I used glue for this, rather than take, so I’d got some wiggle room, and laid a ruler along the edge so they lined up.

I’m really happy with the moonlit effect of the white trees against the dark night sky. The grid of paper pieces makes it seem as though you are looking at them through a window.