To the Moon and Back

The April challenge at a2z Scrapbooking is "Stencil." I chose this Hero Arts stamp set, and decided to pair it with Simon Says Stamp's "Falling Stars" stencil, to create a galaxy-themed love card.

To begin, I die cut a piece of 140 lb. watercolor paper with the largest of Lawn Fawn's "Large Stitched Rectangles" dies. I stamped the moon & planet, using Memento Dandelion dye ink & Hero Arts Fresh Peach mid-tone shadow ink, respectively. After taping off the edges of the panel outside the faux stitching lines, I taped the stencil over it and spread Liquitex Gloss Super Heavy Gel Medium over that. Once I had an even coating of the gel, I removed the stencil and set my background aside to dry.

For the greeting, I stamped one from the same Hero Arts set in Versafine Onyx Black ink onto another scrap of watercolor paper. I then heat embossed that with Recollections Clear Detail embossing powder. Once that cooled, I used one of the Pretty Pink Posh "Stitched Tags" dies to cut the panel. Again, as with the background I taped off around the edges, and then inked the tag with Mustard Seed & Wild Honey Distress inks. Before I removed the masking, I used a paintbrush and some clean water to create water droplets on the inked tag. The water "bleached" the ink, creating a nice, subtle texture. Once that had dried, I removed the masking tape.

By this time my stars had dried, so I used Scattered Straw Distress ink on a sponge dauber to add a glow around the moon. I masked off the moon & planet, and blended more Distress inks in Seedless Preserves, Salty Ocean, Chipped Sapphire, and a bit of Black Soot, to create my night sky. For the spaces just around the planet, I smooshed Seedless Preserves and Chipped Sapphire onto an acrylic block, then picked up the color with a damp brush and painted between the rings and directly around the planet. After removing the masks, I sprayed the panel with water, which both helped to blend the colors further and added a bit of visual texture. Finally, I removed the painter's tape from around the edges of the background panel.

I adhered the background panel to an A2 card base, and glued the tag in place. And that finished this card. I will be sending this on to Operation Write Home.