Night Sky Over Bethlehem - Stampin' Up! Night in Bethlehem

  I had my last class of the year before Thanksgiving and I hadn't used the Night in Bethlehem bundle in class yet so I knew for sure that I wanted to design a card to show off the town die cuts and stamp set.  After searching around the internet for ideas I thought that a fun background technique would be perfect.

  The Salted Background technique really gives a great night sky look and every time it comes out just a bit different.  Here's what you need if you want to try this technique yourself.  It's really easy!

- Shimmery White cardstock
- ink pads & sponges
- water in a spritzer
- salt (I used kosher)

1) sponge your ink colors in a random pattern/blotches all over the Shimmery White cardstock, overlapping the colors and covering all the white.  I use a rubbing motion as opposed to a dabbing motion to apply the ink to get it really saturated.  I used Fresh Fig, Island Indigo and Night of Navy but play around and see what combos you like.

2) Once you have your cardstock covered with color spritz it with water all over.  You don't need to soak it but get the water to the edges.  The ink may start to puddle and that's ok!

3) now sprinkle the salt over the wet cardstock.  More salt = more little splotches, Less salt = less little splotches

4) now spritz your cardstock again leaving the salt in place.  You want to see a bit of pooling and you should see come of the ink colors getting drawn to the salt crystals.

5) Depending on how impatient you are you can set the cardstock aside to air dry leaving the salt in place or you can dry it with your heat tool also leaving the salt in place.  In the interest of time during my class we used the heat tool but when I made the extras I left them to dry on their own for a few hours.  Either way is fine.

6) When the cardstock is dry, brush the salt off into the trash.  Now you have a beautiful background panel on which to build your Bethlehem!  Isn't it gorgeous?

  After cutting the town pieces in Whisper White and adhering them to the background panel I added some light dots with the clear Wink of Stella for some extra stars.

  A large Gold Glimmer paper star was also cut and popped up with a dimensional.

 We stamped the large sentiment and Mary & Joseph on the inside of the card.

  This might be my favorite card design of the season...so far!

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Night in Bethlehem

Ink: Fresh Fig, Island Indigo, Night of Navy

Paper: Shimmery White, Whisper White, Fresh Fig, Gold Glimmer paper

Accessories: Bethlehem Edgelit dies, Wink of Stella, dimensionals, salt