So my monochromatic card from the other evening brought on some questions about my masking technique. I offered to do a quick overview of how I masked the flowers...but then I thought I should do it with a new card, right?
So I popped over to CAS(E) this Sketch for some design inspiration, and then to ColourQ for a color palette, because my brain is a big mush of moving details and over-caffeinated bad sleep. I added some 1/4" washi tape I found at Hobby lobby and a bitty strip of Charlotte paper, otherwise this is a one layer card.
My first step was the use washi tape to mask where the sentiment was supposed to go. If you can see the linty look to the washi, when I use it like this I often stick it to my pant leg before adhering it to the card so it won't be so sticky. I make it large enough to go off each edge of the card to help stabilize the card and keep it from scooting around while I'm working. I stamped the first central flower using Blush ink, then again onto a handy post-it note. You'll see that the image on the post-it isn't very well stamped - I don't need all the details, just the general outline, so I didn't bother to re-ink my stamp. I just stamped it with whatever ink remained from my stamped image on the card. I also make sure to catch at least a bit of the actual sticky part of the post-it note to help the mask stay in place on my project.
I cut out the post-it flower image and covered up the original stamped flower. Then I added two more flowers to the cluster., making a mask for each of those out of post-its as I went along. When making a masked cluster, you want to work from the "front" of your cluster to the back, stamping the things you want closest first and then adding more images behind as you go.
Each time I added a flower I made a post-it mask and covered that stamped image so I could keep adding flowers, leaves, and sprays for my floral cluster to my heart's content. When you are done, slide the masks into your stamp envelope to use again in the future. They won't last forever when made out of a post-it, but you can certainly get more than one use out of them.
Finally I removed the washi tape mask, stamped my sentiment bar and added the paper/washi strips. I popped on some pink enamel gems, then went back in with an alcohol marker to turn a few of the flower centers from pink to yellow. I used the same marker to add the dot border detail. I hope my little visual was helpful to those of you unfamiliar with masking!
