Weeks of Wonder: Behind Every Great Mask...

Behind every great mask is a beautiful face—particularly when it’s a mask used to create the face of gorgeous artwork. Today’s Week of Wonder stamping technique is masking. “Masking” simply means that you “mask” off a portion of a stamp image, preventing it from inking the paper. It’s a great way to layer images and provide a natural sense that one item is sitting in front of another.

Take my beautiful card, for example, created in Buttercup, Desert Sand, Smoothie, and Olive. I’ve used the Dreams Come True set (D1370) for my focal images. Here’s how I created the flower and vines pattern using the masking technique:

Step 1: Stamp the image you want to appear in the foreground (here, it’s the flower)

Step 2: Stamp the image again, but on a repositionable sticky note (like a Post-It brand note). This will be your mask.

Step 3: Cover the original image with the mask—this is why using a repositionable note is preferred over scratch paper—it already has a no-residue adhesive that makes it easy to position your mask precisely where you want it and even use it again and again!

Step 4: Ink the stamp image that will become your background image (here, its the vine corner image). Stamp on your project where you want the image, knowing that your foreground flower is “protected” by the mask.

Step 5: Remove your mask and add embellishments as desired.

It’s always a surprise when you pull off a mask and see the face behind it. In this case, it’s a delightful surprise of great layered stamping you can use with virtually ANY stamp images!