January Christmas cards: Northern lights

We made it out of the deep freeze last week, and I certainly hope we don't get that cold again this winter. But I think the cold inspired me for this month's batch of Christmas cards. I decided to use alcohol inks to create the northern lights on paper. I watched a tutorial by Lunar Sun Creations to help me get started and then I just went for it.

I started by cutting sheets of white Yupo paper into 4-1/2" x 6" panels. I created the panels one at a time, first coating the panel with alcohol ink blending solution, adding the ink in various spots around the panel, tilting the panel until the colors were blended a way I liked, and then setting it aside to dry. I love how each one is unique. 

For my alcohol ink colors I used a few different shades of magenta, blue, and green. Some of the inks I used were alcohol ink pearls (Ranger - Tim Holtz), so they add a pearlescent effect. This isn't the greatest photo, but I think you get the idea.

Also, if you are concerned about mess with the alcohol inks, I would definitely recommend wearing disposable gloves. I didn't because I'm more comfortable working without them, but I had some serious blue and purple fingers. (A couple of my fingernails still have a slight blue tint.) But that didn't bother me, and I work in an elementary school, so it wasn't a big deal. Hand sanitizer does help, since it's alcohol-based, but it won't get off everything.

Once the ink was dry, I used a white Posca paint pen to add splatter for snow or stars. On some of the panels I added larger droplets, and on the others I went with very fine splatter. To create the splatter, hold the uncapped paint pen over your surface. Then firmly tap the barrel of the pen with something hard (another marker, bone folder, non-flexible ruler, etc.). For the larger splatter, first press the nib of the paint pen onto scratch paper to build up the ink at the tip. Then use the same tapping method.

Once the splatter was dry, I trimmed each panel down to a finished size of 4-1/8" x 5-3/8". You could trim them to this size to start with, but I like to have a slightly bigger panel to work with so I can trim off any funny edges later.

Using the Forest Shadow dies (Sizzix - Tim Holtz), I cut the two tree images from black card stock. I glued the longer piece (with shorter trees) along the bottom of the alcohol ink panel and then trimmed off the excess card stock. Using black foam squares (Gina K Designs) I added the larger die-cut trees over the others.

I stamped "peace on earth" from Tiny Words Christmas (Simon Says Stamp) on a strip of white card stock and used foam tape to attach it along the left edge of the panel near the top of the card. I glued three die-cut silver stars around the sentiment for a simple embellishment. (The star die is included in the Forest Shadow dies.)

I matted each panel with a 4-1/4" x 5-1/2" piece of black card stock and glued it to a heavyweight white card base. I didn't take a picture of the inside of the card, but I stamped the sentiment "This season and always." I had some silver stars leftover, so some of the cards also have a few tiny stars inside.

I so love how these cards turned out. I usually don't make 12 cards of one design because I get tired of the repetitive stuff (which I definitely did with all the die-cut trees), but I was having too much fun making the panels. And I'm glad they turned out so well, because I'm going to try hard this year to make sure I really like all my Christmas cards instead of making them just to get them done. That may change as the year goes on, but I'm off to a good start!

Thanks for stopping by!