Galaxy Birthday Wishes

Yesterday was my nephew’s birthday. He’s a senior at UC Berkeley studying Astrophysics. I had a birthday card all set aside for him, and then I saw all the beautiful “galaxy” cards that the designers at TGIF Challenges created last week, and I was so inspired that I just had to make one. It was just too perfect!

There are many ways to make galaxy cards. Go to the post at TGIF Challenges and you’ll find that almost every designer used a different method, which is super cool. I decided to use the ink and watercolor paper method.

Galaxy Technique:

Start with a sheet of Watercolor Paper slightly bigger that you want for the finished card, so you can trim it down or die cut it later. I used a sheet measuring 4″ x 5-1/4″.
Select ink colors. I used Bermuda Bay, Berry Burst, Blackberry Bliss, and Night of Navy. Starting with the lightest color, use a Sponge Daubers to randomly sponge the background. Continue to add colors until the entire layer is covered in ink, finishing with the darkest color ink. Leave sections of the lighter colors visible, and go back and apply more of the lighter ink when you’re finished to ensure complete coverage.
Hold an Aqua Painter with clear water over the inked Watercolor Paper and tap with a Bone Folder to splatter drops. Wait 30 seconds and mop up with a paper towel. The diameter of the droplets will change depending on the height of the Aqua Painter. Repeat until you get the desired effect. (I added A LOT of water droplets.)
In the lid of your Craft White Ink Pad, mix some re-inker and a little water. Dip the brush of your Aqua Painter in the mixture, hold over the watercolor paper and add white droplets, similar to step 3.
Craft White ink dries slower than water-based ink. Use a heat tool to set, or you can paint “galaxies,” like I did. While the white ink was still wet, I used my Aqua Painter brush to draw ovals.
Let dry and cut to desired size.

For the rest of the card, I kept things fairly simple. I stamped the letters with the Lined Alphabet stamp set using Stazon ink on Watercolor Paper. After cutting out the letters using the Layering Alphabet Edgelits Dies, I watercolored them with the same four colors of ink that I used for the background. Next, I used the Well Written Framelits Dies to cut out the word birthday from Watercolor Paper. I love how this card turned out!!! I’ts perfect for my budding Astrophysicist-nephew!