Stampin' with Friends Technique Blog Hop

Stampin' with Friends Technique Blog Hop - Masking

Hi there, Stamping Friends! It's time for another Stamping with Friends Blog Hop. As you know, Stamping with Friends is a group of Stampin' Up! Independent Demonstrators who enjoy paper crafting, creating cards, and other projects to share with each other and with you. If you've arrived from Karen's blog, welcome!

This time, the theme is to create a card or project based on a favorite technique.
There are sooooo many techniques that I love but with this project, I'm going to focus mainly on two. Can you guess what one of them is? Yup, you guessed it...masking!

There're so many things you can do with this technique from: simple masking to creating seamless backgrounds and adding depth...hmmm, I think I've decided to do a blog series focusing on the different things you can do with masking.

For this post, I chose to start with a simple spotlight masking technique. Let me show you how I created this card. Now I incorporated several other techniques (dry embossing and double heat embossing), but the focus today is masking.

Using the masking tape (Tip: make sure to de-"stickify") the tape so it doesn't rip your cardstock when you remove it), I added one strip to the "bottom" approximately 1/2" from the bottom and then another strip on the top to create a space between the 2 strips about 2" wide. (Note: you can make this as narrow or as wide as you like)

Once I was done with that, I chose my ink colors: Stampin' Up!'s Blushing Bride, Rococo Rose and Merry Merlot (I wanted the hues to stay kinda sorta in the same color family. I think I'll do another that says more Autumn/Fall) and applied color using the blending brushes starting with the lightest shade and ending with the darkest. I added the Blushing Bride from top to bottom, the Rococo Rose from the bottom to midway and then the Merry Merlot mostly to the bottom of the space. Once I did that, I carefully removed the masking tape and this was the result...AaaahMAZaaaING!!!!!

Whew, not that that's done, I stamped the main image from the Beauty of Tomorrow set in Versafine Nocturne and then the sentiment from the Best Year set in Merry Merlot. Here's where the second technique comes in double heat embossing. I got this from Jennifer McGuire and I haven't looked back. Double heat embossing adds extra depth and texture to whatever you are applying the technique to. I mainly add it to my sentiments so that they stand out more and I heat emboss at least three times...that's me...a little extra. 😉

I really wanted to keep the leaves motif going so After ensuring that the piece was totally dry, I dry embossed it with a non-Stampin' Up! embossing folder (third technique), adhered it to a piece of Merry Merlot cardstock then mounted it on a Basic White card base. So there you have it.

Cutting and scoring for this card is very basic:

A2 card base: 4 1/4" x 5 1/2"

Mat layer: 4 1/8" x 5 3/8"

Art panel: 4" x 5 1/4"

You can see the Stampin' Up! products I used to make it.

Product List

156459	152568	159276	146979	147112
150080	147100	153611	109130	129053
152392	102300

I hope y'all enjoyed this simple card and the masking technique. I'd love to see what you created. Join my Facebook page and share them with me.

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I'm sure you are just a curious as I am to see what the other stampers have created. Thank you to all the other hoppers...I can't wait to see what you've created. Click on this image (or click on the name) and it will take you to the next person (Sandra Roberts) in the hop.