Hello everyone!  I hope you are enjoying your long weekend.  Welcome to the May edition of “Stamps & Scraps“!  I’m your hostess Ally and today we are going to be venturing into the land of masks!  I’m going to share with you the evolution of a layout were I use all kinds of different masks.  Let’s begin…

I began my layout by trimming down a piece of white cardstock to 11 1/4″x 11 1/4.  I knew I wanted to mat it so I decided not to waste ink and just stamp on the size of cardstock I was going to use.

I grabbed my favourite black ink, Momento’s “Tuxedo Black” ink and the fabulous “Moments in Time” stamp set and I began by stamping the clock image all the way down the right side of my cardstock.  I stamped some images with full ink but then some images I “stamped off” first onto scrap paper and then stamped my clock, hence the lighter clock images.  I decided to overlap my images here and not mask them off.

I created a quick mask for the clock image by stamping the image at the sticky end of a Post-It Note (on the front side of course!) and then fussy cut it out.  This is one of the easiest ways to create a mask.  Sometimes I use copy paper, stamp my image on that and then run it through my sticker maker using reposisitionable adhesive ~ that works good too!

Then I grabbed one of the lacy rounded images from the “Lace Edges” stamp sets, masking off one of my many clock faces and stamped the lacy image around another clock face.

I decided to stamp only a few clocks with the lace…

I knew I wanted some kind of vertical lines or patterned area next to my clocks, so I grabbed the “Just My Type” stamp set and decided on the “Life is a Journey” stamp.

Once again I used my clock face mask and began stamping my image right up against all of my clocks.

Next I reached for my “Seaside Life“  stamp collection.  I chose 3 of the beautiful shells shapes and stamped a strip full of shell images to the right of my words.

I again, created masks for each of the shell shapes and began to fill in the empty gap between the shells and the wording.  I used a scrap piece of Post-It Note to ensure I didn’t stamp over top of any of the shells behind the ones along the edge.

Lastly, I stamped one more clock face and then filled in the last remaining white space with the script poem from the “Sweet Nature” stamp collection.  I love using this script stamp!!!  I made sure to mask my clock face but not the shells.  I wanted the script to go right over top of all those images.

I know it looks like just some random mess of images but just wait!  Let’s begin adding some colour!!

Next I grabbed my Ranger  “Wild Honey” Distress Ink and my clock mask and began to work in some orangey goodness into my page using a Tim Holtz Ink Blending Tool.  Working in circles, I began adding my ink…

Next, believe it or not, I added some Ranger “Worn Lipstick” Distress Ink.

I used the pink ink to intensify the Ranger “Fired Brick” Distress Ink that I added next.

Seeing that the inks weren’t quite blended to my satisfaction, I added some Ranger “Spiced Marmalade” Distress Ink too!  I used it to blend the oranges into the red better.

As one final piece to my cardstock, I added some “Walnut Stain” and “Vintage Photo” inks to the edges to deepen and age the colour a bit.

One last thing I added was some water.  Since Ranger Distress Inks are water based, water moves the ink around.  So I sprayed a toothbrush down with good ol’ water and splattered my layout.  I also loaded one of Copic markers into my airbrush with the brush tip showing and added some dark grey splatter.

Finally finished with my back ground, I printed out my journaling.

TIP:  To get white writing on a black strip (or any other colour for that matter…), print your white journaling out on top of a black box and then cut if desired.

After added a cute tag from the NEW “Simply Charming” stamp set, some fun washi tapes and cool patterned paper, the final layout revealed itself…

Find Your Calling

by Allison Cope

I hope you’ve enjoyed this step by step tutorial.  So the next time you play with paper and stamps, pull out some stamps and think about what fun you could have with masks.

Happy stampin’ everyone!

Ally.