MCT Show Me Your Technique: Masking

Using stamps together to make your own unique scenes is a great way to make your project stand out from the pack. It's also a great way to extend the 'shelf life' of your stamps - making them more versatile for you and therefore, helping you not to get bored with the stamps in your collection.

One way to make your stamps go farther is to use the 'Masking' Technique. With this technique, you create little covers for your images (masks) to allow other images to be stamped around them - giving them a look of belonging together in the scene.

Steps to Masking. Please forgive photo quality - I took pictures of each step with my phone while at a crop.

Steps to Masking

1. Stamp and cut out the masks of the images that need covers. I recommend using a Post-It Note for this step and stamping on the upper/adhesive section. This way, the mask can be lightly adhered to the stamped image and will remain in place as you stamp on top of it.
2. Stamp your first image. The trick here is to start from the front. The image that is in the foreground of the scene should be stamped first.
3. Place your mask directly over your image (this is where the adhesive on the back of the Post-It Note comes in handy.
4. Stamp the second image (this should be the image that is directly 'behind' the first image in the scene).
5. This isn't a step you must complete. I've just shown you in the image that after removing the mask from the small pumpkin, you can now see that the large pumpkin is 'behind' the small one.
6. Apply the mask to the second image (notice that I re-applied the mask to the first here, as well).
7. Stamp the third image.
8. Remove all masks and admire handiwork.

Of course, if you have more than three images, you might need to repeat steps 3-7 again (as many times as necessary).

Click image for larger view

After successfully stamping and masking my scene (created using MCT's Piles of Smiles), I colored it with my Copics. The oval it's stamped on was cut using the Elegant Edges Cricut Cartridge (I used the 'negative' of the scallop oval frame). The green scallop oval was cut using the same cartridge.

All of the layers on the card are popped up and I paper pierced the edges of the small dotted patterned paper layer. The flower was created after being inspired by the flowers I made in this project. I hand-set the green rhinestones into a little flourish shape and cut the flag-shaped sentiment layer after stamping "Autumn Wishes" from Piles of Smiles.

Thank you for stopping by today. Feel free to leave any questions you may have on Masking in the comments below. Be sure to stop by the other blogs in this mini hop to see what fabulous techniques they have up their sleeves!

Cathryn
Cassandra

I hope you were inspired!

- Veronica