Mono Masking, A Tutorial

For the Pat 13 ATC swap I signed up under a technique, Mono Masking, thinking in my head it is something I would like to try. Of course, once the fog cleared I realized that I wouldn't be the one doing the Mono Masking... only the other people in my group. SO, I decided to go ahead and try it and post a mini tutorial for the people in my group... I did get the idea from Pat Huntoon's Technique Junkie newsletter, so I hope I'm not infringing on any rights... These are all my own pictures and my own wording, but for the original idea you should check out her newsletter or think of becoming a member... they're awesome resources!! OK, with all the appropriate disclaimers aside, here we go:

1. To begin using this technique on an ATC, you need to use a 2.5x3.5 piece of background cardstock. Or, a little smaller if you plan to mount on additional cardstock, as I did. Stamp your image in the center of the cardstock piece. Mine happens to have a rectangular outline around it, which is helpful, but not necessary. The technique is called "mono" masking, part of this meaning your going to be working in one color group, so make sure your ink and cardstock are from the same color family.



2. Next, cut the sticky end of a post-it note to the approximate size of your central image and cover it. Again, my image had the border around it, so it was really easy to cut to the right size, but don't worry if you don't have a border around your image - it will be added later. Fold the post-it in half lengthwise, unfold it, and then fold it cross-wise and unfold it again. Then stick it down over your stamped image.


3. The folded lines will be your guides for the next steps. Take two new post-it notes and line them up in the center boxes so that they cover two corners of the cardstock and leave two corners exposed. Stamp a background stamp or a small stamp repeatedly to cover the open areas of cardstock.


4. Pick up the two top post-its and move them to the opposite corners, so the corners you just stamped are covered and the unstamped corners are exposed. Stamp a different background on the exposed corners.




5. When you remove the two top post-its, you should see all the background now. Use a stipple brush loaded with ink to lightly colored the exposed background, coloring a little heavier around your center post-it note.


6. Now, using the lines on your center post-it as a guide, use a marker in your color family to draw lines around the center image and in between the backgrounds where they meet. When you remove the center post-it, you'll see the stippling makes your border a little darker and it looks like a layered piece, even though you're working only on a single sheet of cardstock.


7. Finish your piece as desired. I did add a little pop of color to mine, because it was very brown, but I've seen the technique in blues and other colors where you don't need it.

Hope this helps you guys - enjoy your mono masking!!

World Card Making Day Post 2!

OK, I got a few more quick challenges done today, and almost finished a third but HAD to get these up by the deadline of midnight, so I'll have to finish the fifth and upload tomorrow...

So, I participated in the challenge hosted by My Favorite Things stamps... they provided a free digital stamp to work with. I'd never tried that before because I assumed the ink would smear, but I colored with my copics and had NO problems.... very exciting! The challenge requirements were to use black, pink, and white and to add some bling.... here's my sample:

The base is Pink Passion SU cardstock, followed by a layer of black. The top and bottom fourish lines on the card are from a roll of ribbon I got at Micheals for $1 - woo hoo! The center panal is a retired background stamp from SU, Houndstooth. I mounted the stamped image on a Label nestabilities, and added three circles down the side of the image to showcase some Kaiser flower gems. The big flower is a sneak peak of some new product we got from Glitz - the stickers are a good weight and have bling already on them - super cute and can't wait to use some more!! You'll be able to find them in the store this week... The sentiment is from an old TAC set.

The next challenge I did was for Hannah stamps... perfect opportunity to use one of my new Riley stamps! The challenge was a sketch and I followed it pretty closely...

The base is Always Artichoke SU cardstock, followed by a layer of Pink Passion. All patterned papers are from Imaginisce, and the flowers are from Bazzil and Prima. The brad says 'Go Wild' and is also from Imaginisce. It's a pretty basic card - just colored the image with Copics and put everything together according to the sketch....

I had a lot of fun this weekend getting some cards done!! Hope everyone else got some done too - will share my final project when I get it done... thanks for stopping by!

World Card Making Day 1

Belated Happy World Card Making Day! Happily, I had time to make two cards yesterday and am trying to pull off a few more today, so maybe I'll have another post to share later this evening.

I participated in two challenges at Splitcoast Stampers - the first one I chose was the Splitcoast teams challenge to use Chocolate, to followe Beate's sketch, and to give the card a thankful theme. We just got in some stamps from a brand new company in the store, and I immediately thought of one of a new set that fits this challenge, so here's a little sneak peak of one of the new sets from Darcy's that will be revealed tomorrow:

Aren't the pumpkins scrumptious??? The stamps come "prekissed" with the patterns and I think they're just beautiful... Be sure to check the store tomorrow to see this set and the other new sets we got in from Darcy's!! The paper I used was from two stacks from Memory Box, Butterfield and Embrace. The cardstock is SU Dusty Durange and Vanilla, the ink is SU Dusty Durango, Tangerine Tango, Old Olive and Always Artichoke, with Chocolate Chip for the sentiment and leaf, and the button is actually from Basic Grey's Archaic collection. I faux stitched around the image because despite my best attempts I can not figure out how to use the mini sewing machine!! I followed Beate's sketch pretty closely, although I did have to move my sentiment up a little to balance the weight of the card with those pumpkins on the left.

The next challenge I participated in was from Crafty Secrets.... love, love, love their stuff!! I have their French Mail stamp set and thought it would work great with my favorite K & Co paper...

The challenge was to add dimension to your card. I tried to accomplish that by using lots of layers and pop dots, along with some 3-D embellishments. The card base is SU's Bravo Burgandy and then a layer of Vanilla; all the patterned papers are from K & Co's BW Madeline mat pack; I find that if you pick up the mat packs the patterns are generally reduced and perfect for card making. I stamped the sentiment and the eiffel tower from the set directly onto the patterned papers. The postage stamp at the top is actually a Madeline rub-on over some of the patterned paper accented with the tiniest amount of platinum stickles - you can't actually see that in the pic. Over the eiffel tower stamp I used some bird rub-ons, and the patterned paper had the flowers at the bottom of the image piece, so my little cupid mail delivery man looks like he's walking along a flowered path. I stamped the cupid several times to get the shades; his body is stamped on Blush Blossom, his hat, wings, and letters are stamped on scraps of patterned paper from the Madeline pack so they match the card. He's raised on pop dots, so he's dimensional. Then for the heart accent in the lower corner, I cut it out of the patterned paper, cut some of the flowers out and popped them up at three different levels so it is very dimensional, plus added some Kaiser pearl accents. All the pink gem accents are from Zva. I then accented the flower centers, the mail, and the heart the birds are carrying with stickles. I love, love, love this card!! I think because it just uses so many of my favorite things - hope you enjoy it too!

Ok, gotta run - off to try to get a few more challenges done - happy crafting!

Disney PAT 2 Swap...

I participated in a Disney ATC swap a few months ago and didn't have time to post about it, so thought I'd take a minute and do it now. I joined three groups, which means I made 12 cards based on the Disney character that each person in my group selected. Most of these are pretty simple because the Disney themes rely a lot on the images, but I tried to throw a few things in here and there.

I had a dimensional Alice in Wonderland Jolee's to use, and I was picturing the Card Army in the garden in the movie, so I decided to make my ATC into a playing card. Pretty self explanatory - I just cuttlebugged the background with hearts and added the appropriate stickers.

For the Donald Duck card, I really wanted to try to do something different, so I found some Disney patterned paper that had some "antique" images to pull from. I cuttlebugged the background, and added the mounted image. The letters were stamped and then punched out with a 1/4" square punch. I used a scalloped circle as a guide to place my star eyelets on the side.


This one was fun to do... I used the SU cloud template and some brown ink to make dust clouds, then just added the stickers.

For The Nightmare Before Christmas, I used some halloween patterned paper from Little Yellow Bicycle. I found the image on the internet and did a cut and paste. I added a little dimension with Crystal Effects, some bling, and some letter beads.

For Hercules, I used some Best Creations beach paper, which has it's own glitter and had a large expanse of clouds, which I used for the background here. The image was downloaded from the Internet and then I added some letter stickers for the name. The strips around the edge are just paper, for some interest.

For Daisy Duck, the background paper is Bo Bunny dotted cardstock. I cut out the scallop with my Nestabilities, added a Daisy sticker and a little Sweetheart embellishment I had in my stash.

I love Heffalumps! This image was downloaded from the Internet as well. All the patterned papers are from Paper Salon, with a prima flower and some Kaiser flower bling. The scallop behind his head is a nestabilities as well.

For Toy Story, I found this cool Buzz Lightyear sticker set. I used spacy paper from Prima and then just added the stickers.

This one was just patterned paper, some ribbon, a flower, and a picture downloaded from the Internet. It's cute, but it was getting close to mailing time :)

The actual subject on this was Ursula, which is difficult to come up with! I used the bottom of the beach paper from Best Creations for the background, printed the poem directly on it, then added a sticker "U" and an image downloaded from the Internet.

This was another super simple one, because I couldn't find ANYTHING for James and the Giant Peach and I've never seen the movie, so I had no idea what to go for! I found the image on the Internet and enhanced it with glitter paper from Best Creations and some flocked halloween spider paper from Little Yellow Bicycle.

This one ended up being one of my favorites. I used the dragged Madras technique to make the background, then added the sentiment, which I just typed up in word and printed out. I had this file folder Tigger sticker, so I just added some orange plastic flowers from my stash and stuck a little bling in the centers.

I really love Disney, so this was a great swap... have another one coming up soon that I'll be able to share. Have a great evening!

A Quick Share...

Just wanted to share this pic of my daughter.... we went to a dolphin research center in the Keys a few weeks ago and Alyssa got picked as a 'volunteer' to get a dolphin kiss... totally awesome! She was psyched and I was super excited for her:)

ATC's are Fun!

Over the past few months I've been involved in a few more ATC swaps... I think I'm addicted! I just really enjoy developing a whole theme and expressing it in miniature. Maybe it has to do with my background in miniatures; that was the first craft I ever got in to as a teenager. I used to build dollhouses and dollhouse furniture - loved that, but it requires a lot of space! Scrapbooking kind of took over, but I imagine I'll get back to it one day.

Anyway, I wanted to share a few of the ATC's I've swapped. One really fun swap I joined was an ATC Fairy swap... I love all things mystical, so I was excited to get a couple of spots, and they were worth it, because I received some really beautiful and fun cards back in return. Here are the cards I made:

My photos on these two cards really don't do them justice; there's a lot of glittery stuff going on that you really can't see in the pics. On the stamped image above I outlined all the light lines and the fairy dust in her hands with my stardust jelly roll pen, so it looks very magical IRL; I colored the image with my copics. For the green scalloped edge I just used a very large scallop punch to take off the one edge, then I inked it and added the gemstones. The flowers are prima, and the center is a glitter brad.

This card definitely didn't photograph well; the base and the black layer are both glitter cardstock. The top layer is actually amethyst and the fairy stamp is embossed with a shimmery purple embossing powder. I also outlined the image with the stardust jelly roll pen. The moon was colored with a metallic sharpie paint pen. I used an edge punch to punch the stars so you can see the glittery black underneath. I added a few gems to the wing, but they show up dark in the pic.

I joined an Asian ATC swap and came up with these cards:

For this one I used specialty metallic gold paper and washi paper from Hanko. Hanko makes all kinds of beautiful Asian inspired papers with metallic accents - they look awesome on just about everything I've used them on. I added some QuicKutz photo corners. The image was stamped in red ink and then I did the crackle technique with three layers of UTE; I don't know, I guess I was going for the ancient pottery look - anyway, it looks OK IRL but is another thing that isn't showing up real well in the photo.

More washi and metallic gold paper here; I stamped the image right on the washi paper and embossed with detail gold embossing powder. I used my spellbinders to cut it out and added a prima flower with a gem center - very simple one here (I was running a little close to deadline!). The red cardstock is also from Hanko - it has a great ridged texture.

My next one is sort of funny because it was for a Jewish Holiday ATC swap. No, I'm not Jewish... I was invited to join by the hostess and decided it might be fun to learn a little about some Jewish holidays because I actually have quite a few friends who are Jewish; anyway, I DID learn a lot about different Jewish holidays - I didn't have any idea there were so many, with minor and major holidays. It was pretty cool to research and I received some awesome cards back in return... here's mine:

The holiday my card is based on is called Tu B'Shevat. It appealed to me because it celebrates trees and harvesting; everyone can appreciate the significance of that. It is referred to as the New Year for trees, and typical customs celebrating the holiday these days include planting trees and eating new fruits. Tu B'Shevat starts at sundown, so I brayered a sunset on my glossy cardstock background using three ink colors. The tree stamp is from Daisy Bucket and I accented the branch ends with pearl paint to represent little fruits.

The final group of cards to share was for a techniques based ATC swap.

The technique for this card is called "glitter stripe". It is illustrated in the background. What you do is tear strips and curl down the top edge. You glue them down, then rub Versamark down the card so that it hits all the rolled edges. Then you sprinkle on some glitter embossing powder and emboss. The seahorse was created with a metal embossing plate and black embossing powder - as it was drying I coated it with blue Pearl-Ex and added a stickles eye.

The technique for this card is called "Newsprint Reveal". I was glad to practice it here because I can see a lot of cool uses for this technique. Basically what you do is use a solid stamp with Versamark and stamp the image directly onto newsprint, then emboss it with clear embossing powder. Then you brayer over the newsprint with black (or dark) ink. Rub the ink off of the stamped image and the newsprint is revealed. Pretty cool for vintage inspired work!

The final technique I demonstrated was "Dragged Madras". You create your own plaid background by dragging ink over a straight edge onto your background in both directions. My horizontal stripes are in a very light purple, so they're a little difficult to see in the pic. I enhanced my background by adding some stamped flowers. To keep the focus on the background, I used a quote stamp in the center and enhanced it with a little punched butterfly.

That's it for now - I have two more big swaps to share with you so I'll try to get those up soon - one Disney and one for PAT-12... have a great day!