I am back guest designing on the Coffee Loving Papercrafters blog today with a one layer card.
If you are interested in the masking technique, I share lots of tips on this post. And I also have a reel on my Instagram feed if you want to see it all in action.
Products:
Coffee shop DP (The Rabbit Hole)
Coffee friends, Holiday office party and Cocoa party (Hello Bluebird stamps)
Coffee break (My Favorite Things)
To create this card, I cut two panels of 3.75 by 6.5" from white cardstock. I'll use one of them as a template to help me position stamps with precision. I always use that technique for complex or intricate layering. It is also a great tip for anyone starting their journey with the masking technique, as it is really helpful to see in what order you should stamp each image.
I started by stamping all the images from rear to front, but when I'll move to the actual stamping on the final panel, I'll do just the opposite, masking front images first, masking them and then masking images at the back.
The use of a stamping press for that technique is mandatory to make sure images are placed correctly. I'm using one from Nellie's choice, because it has a foam mat which serves to adjust stamping for both clears and mounted rubber stamps, but the foam mat also helps a lot with layered scenes, as it offers a soft surface, allowing the stamps to make a good impression, especially over masking paper.
I placed the template panel in my stamping press and I started by stamping the coffee shop background from the Rabbit Hole Coffee shop DP set with Tsukineko Black Memento ink. For the critters, I'm using 3 different sets from Hello Bluebird stamps: Coffee friends, Holiday office party and Cocoa party. I stamped the little squirrel on the right stool, the cute bear on the right, the deer behind the counter and shorter one on the other side. I then stamped the raccoon on the other stool and the owl.
Now, I'll start stamping on the final panel and I will stamp from front to back. The critter which is closer to us is the owl, so I'm placing the owl stamp over my template panel, as well as the squirrel, which is in front of the raccoon but has no critter in front of him, and finally, I'm also placing the bear which is alone in his area. I picked the stamps with the door of the stamp press and switched the panels. I inked the stamps and stamped the images on the final panel. I also stamped the images on masking paper.
For this project, as for most of my projects, I'm using the No-fuss masking sheets from Whimsy stamps.
Let's talk about masking paper or masking sheets a bit. This is a specialty paper, with a low tack adhesive at the back, allowing to be adhered on your projects and stay in place while you stamp layers and/or ink blend your background. Their low tackiness allows them to be removed without leaving any residue on your work nor scratching the paper. Masking paper is not the go to product for watercoloring; you would prefer a masking fluid which seals the surface and makes it water resistant. Masking sheets are too porous for water techniques. There are a lot of brands offering masking paper and masking sheets and I haven't tried all of them, but I have found the one that works great with the Bristol cardstock that I use. I'm also a great fan of Distress oxides which can get very juicy and damp your work, so my choice of masking paper also depended on that.
A few features you should expect from a good masking paper:
- How well does it stick on your cardstock?
You don't want the masking paper to be lifted when you ink blend - How easy is it to remove the masking paper?
You don't want the surface of your paper to be scratched or peeled off - Does it leave sticky residues?
Sticky residues are hard to fully remove and would totally compromise your coloring and blending - Does the tackiness properties stay constant, even after damping the paper with inks?
I've had some pretty nasty accidents with masking papers that worked very well as long as they stayed dry but would tear the paper after some heavy ink blending - Is the masking paper easy to cut without tearing?
Fussy cutting the masks is the most critical aspect of the masking technique and conditions the end result. This is one of the reasons I always choose masking sheets with a release paper. Some products come without a backing, such as sticky notes but having the paper stick on your fingers can make fussy cutting harder. - Is the masking paper a little too glossy, not allowing ink to set in?
The least thing you want is the stamping ink to smear over your background when you ink blend. Stamping with a lighter ink might help in this case, but it might make fussy cutting a little more difficult and less precise - Does your masking paper allow repositioning and for how long?
Adhering the mask must be very precise and in some cases, you may need to remove the mask and adhere it again. Some papers sometimes loose their low tackiness when repositioned because they leave a thin layer of glue that will adhere more glue against glue. Ultimately, you should be able to reposition a good masking paper, even days or weeks later, so you can re-use the same masks over and over again.
I'll be very honest, I don't usually reuse my masks, because of the various layers of stamping. This makes it rather complicated to see clearly what you stamped and how to keep building the layers - How thick is the masking paper? Does it leave a big halo around your masks which is never inked, despite the use of a foam mat?
Having an edge is kind of unavoidable, but you want to minimize it as much as possible. You can always fix these with a Copic liner, so that's not insurmountable, but sometimes, drawing the missing lines can be tricky
After stamping the masks comes the time to fussy cut the images. Let me stop here again to talk about the type of scissors you should be using and share some of my tips when fussy cutting masks. First of all, I would not recommend the use of a crafting knife, unless you're custom to it and it is very sharp, but by experience, crafting knives tend to tear off masking paper. The final choice of scissors is totally up to you, and how comfortable you are or how tiring it might get. I don't believe you can have only one pair of scissors in your craftroom that works for all techniques. I use different pairs of scissors to fussy cut cardstock and to fussy cut masks. My choice went for thin and short blades as they make fussy cutting way more precise and can help reach small areas or curves much easier. But more importantly, I chose them extra sharp and I always make sure I clean them regularly to remove any sticky residue. For that, I use a medical adhesive remover. You also don't want the scissors to offer any resistance. Resistance is great to fussy cut cardstock and have a nice regular white edge around the image, but to fussy cut masks, it could quickly become tedious and painful.
Now, when you fussy cut your masks, you want to take your time and do it correctly and precisely. This is what will ensure a neat result. You definitely want to cut on the black lines, not within and not outside. If you are ink blending your background, precision is everything. If you cut within the lines, you might blend ink inside the image and you won't be able to hide that. If you cut outside the lines, you might leave an edge around your images that will stay white and covering that with alcohol markers might not look great. So if you are new to masking, you should start with brands and stamps that offer fairly thick lines.
When your image has lines with no white space within, don't try to mask them. Blending might make them less crisp and black, but that is easily corrected with a Copic liner.
If you have a background area in the middle of your image, evaluate if it is better to leave it or remove it. Consider the type of background you will have. If you are using a stencil, you may want to remove it, but if it is a plain color, you might want to fill it in with alcohol markers. If you decide to remove it, two alternatives: either you have enough space to poke a hole and then insert your scissors or you don't. If you don't, don't cut anywhere, but instead, try to reach the area by cutting along black lines on the image. This way, you ensure you will not ink blend any tiny space left between the two edges of the masking paper. And when placing the mask, make sure you position it correctly, especially those additional lines you cut.
Finally, after fussy cutting your images, peel off the back paper. I don't really have any particular tip to remove the backing, I just slide in my thumb nail from behind, but this is sometimes a bit of a pain. When placing the mask over your image, you will need to be ultra precise. I usually choose one corner of the mask and hold the mask into place and then adjust placement to make sure it is along the lines on all sides. If placement is not good enough, remove the mask and adhere it again. There is no point making it up to this step and neglect this one step. It is as crucial as fussy cutting.
One note, though, when you remove the mask and adhere it again, know that sometimes you can have ink transfer onto the adhesive and then reapplied on your panel when you adhere the mask again. I usually allow the ink the dry before, and in most cases, it will be dry by the time I finish fussy cutting the image. Another tip I can share is I never use brand new ink pads. I always make sure I keep an old one and transfer ink, pad to pad. A juicy pad would take for ever to dry on your panel or smear when ink blending.
Also, when you adhere the mask, you want to gently put some pressure on it. You want it to adhere well along all edges, but don't press too hard. Some masking papers are harder to remove when they were pressed too hard and leave more adhesive residues. One tip to consider for large images, I usually keep the backing paper, trim it around the edges and put it back in place. This way, the mask is well adhered on the edges only and is easily removable.
So, after I masked the squirrel, owl and bear, I placed my template panel over the final panel again and positioned the racoon and the deer close to the owl and I stamped them. To stamp a one layer scene, there is one key aspect to consider, besides order. Vertical placement is also key. Rear subjects should always be higher on the panel than the front ones. It sounds pretty obvious put that way, but once you get caught in the layers, it is very easy to loose track of this. So, in that case, you want the deer to be slightly higher than the owl or on the same line but not lower. When stamping over a mask, you want to make sure you apply enough pressure on the lines crossing the mask, to minimize white edges. I also stamped the critters on masking paper, fussy cut the masks and adhered them.
The last critter is the deer behind the counter and for that one, you see that it has to be in front of the background, but behind the counter. So, in that case, you need to mask the counter which is in front of the deer. I am going to use the template panel as a mask. To do so, I fussy cut just the counter and detached it from the template panel. I placed the template panel over the final one again and adhered the counter in the negative space, using removable tape at the back of the mask. I then placed the deer stamp over the template and picked it with the stamping press door, and finally removed the template panel, leaving just the counter mask. I stamped the image on the final panel, and then, to create the mask for the deer, I placed the masking paper underneath the counter mask and stamped the image. This way, I know exactly where to fussy cut the deer and leave the space to stamp the counter.
Once the deer is masked, the remaining image to stamp is the background. I placed the template panel again and positioned the background stamp over it, picked it up and removed the template, before stamping the image.
I also stamped the sentiment from the My Favorite Things Coffee break set. I don't usually stamp my sentiment at this stage, but in this case, I will not do any ink blending in the background and will color with Copic markers instead. Also, I wanted the sentiment to be partially behind the critters, so the best option was to stamp now, before unmasking the images.
I finally unmasked all the critters. I verified that there were no missing lines around the images, due to the masks, and made corrections with a Copic liner. It is important that you use only a Copic liner or alcohol marker-friendly liner! When I ink blend the background, I usually do this step after coloring the images. This way, I'm also correcting the outside lines if they were inked, but in this case, since I am Copic coloring the background, I corrected the lines after unmasking. If you go in that order, you'll have to let it dry, though, for at least an hour before coloring, else, you might get some smearing when blending with your markers.
I colored the panel with my Copic markers.
To finish the card, I adhered the panel onto the cardbase.
Thank you for stopping by. I hope you learnt a few useful tips along the way. I hope to see you next week for my final project for the Coffee Loving Papercrafters
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