February 25, 2017
5 Comments
Hey everyone! Elaineabella here with another Stamp It Saturday post. This week we’re going to take a look at MASKING!
Masking is a great way to combine stamps to make a scene, or to stretch your stamps by adding extra details (or removing them). Today we’re going to do a little of both!
Stamping Bella Tiny Townie Garden Girl Lily of the Valley (coordinating die also available)
Stamping Bella Grass and Grounds stamp set
White cardstock/paper
Ink Pad
Stamp positioner e.g. MISTI
Acetate sheet
Stamping Mask Paper
Stamping and masking is fairly simple, but does require a little planning. When you have worked out what you want to achieve, you just need to do things in the correct order! I’m a little lazy, so I don’t do this as often as I’d like, but I love the results when I do make the effort.
When creating a scene for example, with a character in the foreground, you would mask the character image in order to stamp the other elements so that they appear to be behind the character.
To demonstrate, I decided to keep it fairly simple.
Note: the sentiment used is from the Stamping Bella Unicorn Sentiment Stamp Set
As you can see on my card, I have taken Tiny Townie Garden Girl Lily of the Valley and used the masking technique both to add an extra stem of flowers to her and also to add some grass detail at her feet. Let’s take a look at how I achieved this.
First stamp Tiny Townie Garden Girl Lily of the Valley on Stamping Mask Paper.
TIP: If you don’t have any Stamping Mask Paper, or are unable to find any, try using Post-It Notes, just make sure that part of the image is stamped over the adhesive portion when you create the mask (or use repositionable adhesive).
Cut out the mask with detail scissors. How careful you need to be depends on what your plan is. In this case I knew I wouldn’t be stamping anything below the flower stem on the image, so I didn’t cut precisely around all the flowers. Cut on the stamped lines to avoid creating gaps in the stamped lines of the other elements.
Position and stamp the image on to your chosen cardstock/paper.
Remove the backing paper carefully and apply the mask over your stamped image (give the ink time to dry fully before doing this).
Using a piece of acetate, work out exactly where you need to position the stamp. Using acetate means that you can get a good idea of the positioning, and keep trying until you get it just right! I keep a piece of acetate sheet tucked inside my MISTI for this purpose.
Once you’re happy with the positioning of the stamp, ink it up and mask the portion of the stamp you don’t want to stamp using masking tape.
Stamp!
Leave the mask in place and take out the Stamping Bella Grass and Grounds stamp set. Using the acetate sheet again, work out the positioning before stamping on your cardstock. This set of stamps is really handy for adding just a little detail to the ground, giving your characters somewhere to stand.
Time for the fun part – the reveal!
If you’re careful, masks can be reused. I save mine by popping them inside the package with my stamp.
All ready for colouring!
TIP: if you find that some of your lines don’t stamp perfectly – if you have some little gaps near the edge of the masked area, take a fine-liner and carefully fill them in.
Practice with some simple modifications or scenes, until you get the hang of the process.
Here’s a cute card I created recently using this technique.
I created this adorable scene using the Stamping Bella Row of Bunny Wobbles stamp set along with the daffodil from the Stamping Bella Mister Postie Signs of Spring stamp set. On this card I first masked the bunny at the end, then stamped the lower daffodil, added a mask to the daffodil before stamping the tallest one behind it, added a mask to that daffodil and then stamped the final one!
Here’s a little masked scene I have sitting on my colouring pile:
I deliberately stamped the Fairy Tale Squidgies with bolder lines (this is easy with the MISTI – simply re-ink and re-stamp), helping to create the illusion that the Squidgy Castle and Dragon are further away.
If you try out the techniques shown in any of the posts with your Stamping Bella stamps, be sure to share! We would love to see the results and hear how you feel about them. Show off your creations in the comments below and even better, share your own favourite tips with us. Let’s talk stamping!
If you are posting your images online, we would love to see them on Instagram and all the platforms mentioned above. To make it easier for us to find you just use #markergeekmonday and/or #stampingbella as a hashtag. Even better tag me @markergeek and @stampingbella . We love it when you connect, so don’t be shy!
If you’re on Facebook join us in our private chat group Stamping Bella Sistahood to share your creations there and chat all things Stamping Bella related!
Until next time, HAPPY STAMPING!
MWAH
Elaineabella
Great tutorial!!! I’ll be having a go at this over the weekend. Thank you.
Love this technique! Thanks!!!
Another fabulous tutorial Elaine… thank you!
Christine x
Oh thanks so much for sharing! I’ve done a little masking, but not much. I need to practice! 🙂
I did some masking for the first time on a stamp that wasn’t one of yours. It’s a flower stamp and I wanted the leaves to be behind the flower like in the picture on the back of the stamp package. It worked most of the time and for a first time, it doesn’t look so bad. There are 2 places where it didn’t work just right but for a first time I liked it. I want to try more. I just happened to remember how to do it and I went looking for the post it notes. Thanks for showing us how to do it!