Mask-erade Day 4

I'm pretty sure retired people aren't supposed to be this busy, but I feel like I haven't had nearly the time I expected to have to make the card samples. Tomorrow they are pressure cleaning our townhouse, so we spent much of the day clearing everything off the patio, the porch and the balcony.

I did sneak in a little time to finish two cards from day 4. I've never used freezer paper as a mask before and in fact, I supposed I would skip over this day -- until I saw the videos! It die cuts beautifully, irons on easily and securely, does a fantastic job of sealing out the paint, and is easy to remove. I had to buy a giant roll of the stuff, but I think I'll be using it regularly.

The balloons and sentiment are from the Simon Says Stamp Surprise Party set, and I also got to use a stamp from the new PaperTreyInk Southwestern Style set for the side strip.

Again, it was a snap to cut and iron on the "hello" for the second card. It resisted the watercolor beautifully and peeled right off with no problems:

I have two more projects started that I hope to finish and update this post with as the week goes on.

Update June 2. One of my other projects is a mess. I'll figure out something to do with it, like cut out words or shapes, but it's not card worthy. My 4th and last project with freezer paper had a little "oops" but I was able to salvage it. Originally there were two of these leafy shapes, but one didn't adhere to the paper well for some reason. In the end I just lifted it up and dabbed paint around the area where it should have been, Then I wanted to stamp a background, but I'd already lifted the freezer paper. So I used rubber cement to first mask the entire painted area.

Mask-erade Day 3

I'm always amazed at the quality of the OnlineCardClasses.com classes. What's really surprising is that the beautiful creations by the instructors are actually doable by the average crafter -- the instructions are that good.

Today we were working with liquid masking; and I used rubber cement for both of these.

This one couldn't have been easier -- blended distress inks on watercolor paper. I learned to be more careful with the rubber cement because I got a little bleed-through in spots where I must have applied it too thin,

The next one made me feel like an artist, layering different stamps and stencils. I got a little carried away and forgot to mask my butterflies before stamping the linen texture, but it worked out OK anyway. My Brother label maker (thank you, Jennifer McGuire for reviewing it!) came to the rescue for the sentiment in lieu of Tim Holtz words. I backed the phrases on black paper and adhered them.

I seem to be able to complete about 2 projects a day, so I'm glad we have next week to catch up before the Gallery closes.

Mask-erade Class, Day 2

I loved every project demonstrated on Day 2, and had a chance to start one and finish two other cards. While the first one is set aside to dry overnight, I used positive and negative masks to fill in or around the masked shapes with small stamps. As a bonus, I got to use my brand new PTI stamps from the Garden Gild set. I see some things I could have done better to define the edges of the butterflies, but it was a learning process.

All in all, I like how these turned out and will surely play with this idea again.

Update 05/28/15: My stenciled embossing paste dried overnight, and I finished that card. My mask had been previously used and I'm guessing that's why I didn't get a crisp outline -- in the end I doodled around the edges with black pen. I also could have done a better job of differentiating the colors I used -- not nearly as pretty as the sample. I do love the gloss finish, which is hard to see in the photo.

Mask-erade Class, Day 1

First day of the OnlineCardClasses.com masking class, called Mask-erade...

Now, I've done some masking before, but these ladies always have something new to teach me. I made two of the four cards demonstrated.

The first one uses a circle cut in masking paper, first to color the circle itself, then to mask the circle while leaves and flowers are stamped around it. My sentiment was perfect for the circle size and the tone of the card, and I'm real happy with this one.

The second one used a shape cut out of clear packaging material, which was fanned out bit by bit and colored in with a blending The colors are more vibrant than the photo shows. Of course, wouldn't you know I slopped some ink in the upper corner just as I was doing the last square. The only fix I could think of was to clip off the corners and back it with patterned paper. I'm not in love with the result, but it did salvage the card. Next time I try this design I will use Laura's "hidden" word technique, but it seemed like too much with the patterned paper.

Hope to get a chance to create the other two samples next week during our "catch up" week. Oh, and the Monday challenge this week at Simon Says Stamp is thanks, so you know I will link these.

PTI Monday Challenge

The PapertreyInk Make-It Monday Challenge posted May 18 is all about fussy cutting.  There is actually a die available for the little lifesaver stamp, but I didn't purchase it because it seemed like it would be pretty easy to fussy cut, and I was right. I used two of the Papertreyink stitched rectangle dies. I just love these and use them all the time. In looking at the photo, I wish that I had stitched around the smaller block -- those holes are just begging for thread! The little bow will have to suffice this time though.

A Challenge or Two

While I'm waiting for some new goodies to arrive (OK, so I'm trying not to spend so much money on crafting supplies, especially since I haven't figured out what I'm going to do with all the cards I make once Operation Write Home shuts down on August 1 BUT, sometimes a girl just has to have stuff!), I thought I'd take part in a couple of current challenges. How do you like that for a sentence?

I recently saw a fun technique placing a stencil over paper that had been heavily distress inked, and then spritzing the stencil to make a design. I'm not crazy about my final result -- don't really care for the jewels and it's kinda plain without them -- but I really liked the stencil idea. I used Hero Arts Rain Dance stencil.

I entered the card in the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge, and lo and behold, tonight's challenge on A Blog Named Hero also needed a stencil, so I'm entering it there too. And, the current Simon Says Stamp Flickr Challenge is to create your own background. A three-fer! A first for me!

I have a few days left to participate in PTI's Monday challenge. What shall I fussy cut?