Wplus9 Guest Design - A Closer Look At Masking

Hey folks!

I’m so excited to be back for another Wplus9 Guest Design Post. The last time I was there to visit, I shared a card that had loads of masking to make a scene. Well, today’s card is much the same, however I wanted to take a closer look at how it works with a more streamlined layout. For my card today, I used the Wplus9 Modern Floral Series. 

If you've been here before when I did the Scene Building Series, and don't want to see me repeat myself, feel free to head on over to the video (linked below). I do share some more tips and tricks that may be worth checking out!

If you're interested in any of the products I've used, I have links (some affiliate links) throughout and at the end of the post. Click here to read my full disclosure policy.

Also. If you're interested in watching the video on how I made my card you can go HERE. You can also click on the thumbnail link below. If you don't see an image on the video link below, click it anyway, the video is there! I promise!

Scenes like these can seem overwhelming. They are surprisingly easy though! In the video, I show you how I approach each step along the way and I talk about how and why I color it all in.

The first thing I always recommend to do first is stamp out all of your images for your masks. I love 3M Full Stick Post-It Notes, because you can stamp the image once, pull off several sheets at time, cut that out all at once. It's a huge time saver! I took out all of the image that I thought I wanted to use from the Modern Anemones, Modern Peonies and Modern Petunias Stamp Set and made mask from them, even if I wasn't sure I was going to use them.

The next important this I recommend is making a plan. Copy paper is inexpensive, so if you don't like what you've stamped so far, throw it away and start over. Whatever paper or cardstock you using to stamp out your plan, make sure that you have it cut to the exact dimensions that your finished card will be. This way you know exactly how much space you'll be working with when you really get down to business.

The picture above is a cleaned up version of what my plan looked like. I colored it in to show you guys in what order each image would be stamped, but this is where I would have started before I did any actual stamping on my card panel.

If you follow the plan above, your stamping would go in rainbow order. When masking, your foreground images always get stamped first. In this case, I stamped the large peony (as shown in pink) from the Modern Peonies Stamp Set first, then moved on to the 2 anemones (shown in red) from the Modern Anemones Stamp Set. Next was a petunia (as shown in orange) and other images and I continued to do this until I had everything stamped.

I used a Neenah Solar White Cardstock and Simon Says Stamp Intense Black Ink since I knew I would be Copic Coloring this card, and since I knew that there would A LOT of coloring, I kept my techniques simple. Which is something else, I highly recommend. The trick is in the scene itself, not necessarily the how fancy the coloring is.

Just in case you’re interested in the colors I used: The blue peonies, I used B12/B14 and B18. The Anemones were colored in with C00/N1/C3 and N5. I also used those same markers for all of the drop shadows and to color in the faux frame. The Petunias, I colored with Y02/YR12/YR14/YR18 and Y38.

My other tip is don't feel like you have to go for the gold and make a really large card. You don't. An A2 (4.25" x 5.5") card would work just fine folks and it will still look fab!

You could absolutely stick strictly to just stamping you scene, coloring it in and you would be good to go. I however, do not know how to leave well enough alone, so I used the Wplus9 Scalloped Borders Die and made a stencil out of Grafix Acetate. Then, I placed it where I wanted it on my panel, traced it with a Copic friendly pen and colored it in.

I really enjoy using those tiny lil images in stamp set, so on this card, I used the little dots that are from the Wplus9 Biggest Fan Set and Wplus9 Black Ink.

No card is complete without some shimmer so I used the Spectrum Noir Clear Overlay Pen on all of the highlights on each flower.

Whew! It seems like a lot, and I could talk about it all day. Masking is my favorite technique in card making because the possibilities are endless. Using images like these make it that much more fun! I do cover tons more information in the VIDEO so be sure to check it out!

I hope you enjoyed my card today and as always thanks so much for stopping by!

Until next time!