Starry Night Sky ATCs

I really love the simplicity of these cards. I always enjoy looking up at the night sky and I'm one of those strange people who say hello to the moon when I see it. When I was little, I used to make wishes to it when it was full and, to be honest, all of those wishes have come true so now I just say thank you instead. No starry night is complete without a big, beautiful moon so I've made it a big feature of these cards. 

The fabrics I've chosen for the back are all combinations of blue with lighter spots or textures - the fabric that is second up from the bottom is a beautiful batik print which is actually stars and moons in different stages so I could have carefully selected moons from this fabric to use but I only had a strip (the batik was from a mixed pack), and I wanted more of a glowing moon. 

The fabric I've ended up using for my lovely mooney moon is a gold crackled sparkly piece. It reminded me of when you have supermoons and they are large and yellowish looking and there is more definition to the craters and cliffs you can sort of make out on the surface. I had to stitch each moon down first because the fabric has just been cut and not backed with anything to stop fraying so I had to act quickly to make sure it stayed beautiful and circular. 

I have added some single strand back stitches along some of the gold crackles, making sure not to cover them up, just to add texture and take the stitches over the edge of the fabric in places to help with that fraying. I've then secured the edge completely with ecru bullion knots which helps to make it really pop and adds a clean edge to the fabric. 

The wispy clouds have been made with a gorgeous hand dyed cotton scrim I found in my stash. One of those untouched, still wrapped purchases from a long time ago that you come across at the right moment and justifies your purchasing it. Whenever you did purchase it!

The scrim is a deep navy with grey and light blue dotted all over, so it looks really lovely with these fabric layers. The texture of them also fits beautifully with the idea of slightly fluffy clouds, lazily passing across the moon, and I've just stab stitched this down to keep it secure so that you can hardly see the stitches. 

The blue fabric edges I had remaining, after the scrim was put on, have been secured with french knots, using different shades for each layer. The bottom layer has been edged with a metallic yarn I had in my stash which is shot through with an oily metallic strand so glitters a little when you tilt it. 

You can't have a starry night without stars and I've added these over the top and all in the same thread to bring the piece together. I've used a single strand of a pale blue metallic thread, working simple crosses over some of the dots on the bottom layer, star stitches over the more obvious star shapes in the batik layer above, and little french knots in the two layers above that. Big stars (like the ones in Peter Pan - second star to the right and straight on until morning!) have been made by making a long cross and doubling up the thread, then crossing the big cross with an angled smaller one in a single strand. Each card has three of these larger crosses. Just enough to make it magical. 

I'm really pleased with these, and it means I'm ahead for November so I can crack on with the December theme! (And maybe the January 2023 theme whilst I'm at it - don't forget to sign up if you haven't already. Details of how to do that are here on my website, and there is no obligation, just lots of fun!!)