Penguin under Northern Lights

For a person who originates from a country that other people travel to to see the Northern Lights, it's rather ironic that I've never seen them. But I love the magical photos showing those dancing lights. And I love the techniques used in crafting to re-create the magical feeling of the Northern Lights. Just google Norther Lights crafting video, there are plenty of great tutorials out there.

I started by creating the northern lights backgrounds. For the first card I used Distress Inks in Squeezed Lemonade, Peacock Feathers, Mermaid Lagoon and Cracked Pistachio, and for the other I used Seedless Preserves, Abandoned Coral, Fossilized Amber and Peacock Feathers. I used foam pads to ink the coloured inks in a diagonal pattern across the card. Then I added Chipped sapphire, covering some of the coloured bits to create more of an illusion of the magical dancing lights. Last, I added Black Soot ink around the edges, smudging it gently over parts of the coloured bits. When I was happy with the way the sky looked, I added some stars using a white gel pen. Then I die cut the treeline from black card, and die cut the Northern Lights panel and black treeline panel using a Stitched Rectangle die.

Next, I stamped the super cute little Winter Penguin onto white card and coloured with Copics, doing the same with the sheet of ice from Critters in the Arctic. Then I die cut both images using the matching dies. Next I stamped the sentiment from Lawn Fawn's Happy Everything in Versamark and heat embossed in white embossing powder. After attaching everything onto the front panel, all that was needed was to die cut a mat in matching colour using the next size of Stitched Rectangle die, and attached onto white card. I absolutely adore these little happy penguins, skating under the Northern Lights. 

I would like to contribute to the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes

Time Out Challenges - Be inspired by "Snowflakes are Winter's Butterflies" where I was inspired by the winter theme
Craft Your Passion - Anything Goes
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge - Die cuts or punches 
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra - Anything Goes
52 Christmas Card Throwdown - Sponging or Brayering
Crafting for All Seasons - Brrrr It's Cold Outside

Card: 300 gsm white card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card, 240 gsm black, purple and turquoise card
Stamps: Lawn Fawn Winter Penguin, Happy Everything, Critters in the Arctic and matching dies
Ink and colouring: Tsukineko Versamark and Memento Tuxedo Black, Tim Holtz Distress Inks Abandoned Coral, Cracked Pistachio, Fossilized Amber, Mermaid Lagoon, Peacock Feathers, Seedless Preserves and Squeezed Lemonade, Copics 
Other: Lawn Fawn Forest Border and Stitched Rectangle dies, Papermania Seafoam White embossing Powder, Signo White Gel Pen