The Paper Players 356 - DT card

There were so many stunning cards in last week's Tic Tac Toe challenge that choosing a Cut Above was difficult. I'm sure there will be many more fabulous entries in this week's theme challenge at The Paper Players.

I'm not a camping or hunting kind of person but I do like to watch the stars. When we were in Tahiti recently, my husband and I spent a bit of time lounging at night, just watching the stars. There was so little ambient light that they were magnificent.

In New Zealand, a major constellation is the Southern Cross. It, and the two 'pointers' Alpha and Beta Centauri, are on our flag. So in this card, I wanted to show the Southern Cross across the Milky Way because it's such an icon of home.

I also love to play with sponging, masking, spritzing, smooshing and all those kind of things so this is where all those ideas ended up...

I wanted to give a sense of the grandeur of the night sky which is why the trees are small and lead into the distance. That grand sweep of night sky, dwarfing the world below it, created a sense of isolation which is why the sentiment is what it is.

As you change the angle you view this card, the night sky changes. Sometimes the Cross and Pointers merge into the background of the Milky Way more than from other views, which I like.

In this photo, you can see a little better how this sky was created. I've masked out the constellation using peel-off stars before sponging on a mix of colours. Then there's some water spritzing and some stamping with silver ink using a texture stamp before removing the peel-off stars. I only wish I had a better variety of sizes to get the constellation looking more accurate but I think anyone from New Zealand or Australia would recognise it anyway.

We'd love to see what you do with this Great Outdoors theme challenge over the next week.

There's just a few simple rules to remember:

1. Create a NEW paper-craft project specifically for this challenge.
2. Upload your creation to your blog with a link back to us.
3. Please provide a direct link to the post featuring your challenge entry.
4. Please link your card to no more than four challenges, TOTAL.Entries linked to more than 4 challenges, including ours, will be deleted without notification.
5. Have fun!

If you live in New Zealand and don't have a demonstrator, you can contact me to shop with me or ask questions, by clicking on the link to my Facebook page in the sidebar. I'd love to hear from you.

Ingredients

Card: Night of Navy, Perfect Plum, Whisper White, Basic Black

Stamps: Timeless Textures, Thoughtful Banners, Thoughtful Branches (retired)

Inks: Perfect Plum, Island Indigo, Elegant Eggplant, Night of Navy, Silver versafine (non SU), Tuxedo Black

Other: Peel-off stars (non SU), metallic shapes, dimensionals, sponges

All products Stampin' Up unless indicated