Lights, Action, Shine...A Son-in-Law's Birthday Celebration!

I'M GLEEFUL!  THIS CARD IS NAMED A

SPLITCOASTSTAMPERS FAVORITE OF THE

WEEK ENDING - JULY 9, 2017!!

My oldest daughter's husband is have a milestone birthday this month...the pressure is on!  I wanted to make something really different, and I had just the thing.  I recently bought a darling Lantern die from SugarPeas, and I have been dying to use it.  Since Don and Michele like to camp a lot, I thought the lantern would be perfect for Don.

In addition, I wanted to try and meet some of the challenge requirements on Splitcoaststampers.  As it turns out, I will be able to meet three different challenges with the card I designed for Don.  It will meet the July 6th - Ways To Use It: utilizing stars in your card, the Alphabet Round 7 Challenge: Letter L...some type of light, and the Gallery Monthly Theme for April 2017: #1 - Background Check requiring focusing on the card's background by using a background technique, special paper, etc.

For my background, I decided to make a watercolor background with a night sky and lantern light.  This will be only the third time that I've actually watercolored a background, but this time it will have a totally different style as it is not at all random.  I wanted a light burst of yellows and oranges to represent the lantern light and a night sky with stars.  

I watercolored all over with Crushed Curry ink and then darkened the yellow in the area where the lantern light would be shining using upward brush strokes.  My next color for the lantern light was an streaked application of Strawberry Slush in upward brush strokes as well.  My next step was to make my galaxy-type night sky around the lantern light.  Once again, I used flicked brush strokes, but smaller, toward my lantern light.  The colors and the order I applied them over the yellow base was: Old Olive, Island Indigo, and lots of Night of Navy to finish.  I added stars to the night sky by using a paint brush and flicking it with finger snaps to sprinkle my stars in random sizes, but all very small, using White Pearl Metallic Folk Art acrylic paint watered down.  

I must say it was a challenge.  I had to do a trial run and then re-make my final piece to get my lantern light in exactly the right area without the night sky bleeding to far into it.  All in all, I'm happy I challenged myself, and I'm pretty pleased with my result.  I think Don will be pleased as well.  Take a peek below at my finished card inside and out!

Ingredients:  Stampin' Up supplies:  Papers--Basic Black cs, Gold Foil, Watercolor paper;  Stamps--Balloon Adventures (verse); High Tide ("Shine" masked); Inks--Crushed Curry, Strawberry Slush, Old Olive, Island Indigo, Night of Navy; AquaPainter.  Other supplies:  Stamps-MFT/ At the Movies; Die-Sugar Pea/ Lantern; Wink of Stella-Clear (lantern light + sentiment words). Folk Art-White Pearl Metallic Acrylic paint.  Techniques:  Watercolor background; Paint Flicking (stars); Stamped Verse.  Size:  4-3/4" x 6".