Masked cards with Lydia Fiedler

I went on a bit of a masking spree last weekend. It's weird how certain techniques stay around for a week or two, and then flit off to be replaced by something else. 

This week it was masking.

I decided to do two different versions of masked ink blending for my final spot with Neat & Tangled this month.

First, I wanted to do a layered image that would remain uncolored, with an ink blended background.

Layered masking is a challenge for me - figuring out which image to stamp and mask first, etc. I usually pile the stamps on top of each other and then take a few notes about what goes first. I know it comes more naturally to some people. But I'm a problem child. :)

So for this first card, I put the mammoth down, then sat the boy on him, and positioned the talk bubble. So that showed me that the first image stamped and masked had to be the little boy, because he would be blocking out the wooly mammoth image. I actually picked up the whole stack on my MISTI once I got the boy positioned right, and then just removed the mammoth that was stuck underneath. Then I stamped the boy, and stamped him again on masking paper, cut that out and covered him. Then I did the same with the talk bubble and the mammoth. I used my brushes and Peach Bellini, Key Lime, Sea Glass and Lovely Lavender inks for a soft rainbow background. Then when that was done, I brushed on a little shadow with Kraft.

I removed all the masks and left the images white to let the background be the star, and stamped the sentiment. The images and sentiment are from this set, below.

For the second card, I wanted to have a colored image on blended background, so I stamped this image in Morning Mist, stamped a second one on masking paper, and masked it. Along the side, I stamped these florals in the same ink, and cut masks for them as well. Yes, even those teeny berries. I'm crazy like that. Then I brushed on Sea Glass ink in a swath across the larger image, and then closer to the image, I added Blue Raspberry.

The reason I did that first, is so that if I spent 30 minutes coloring the main image and then somehow messed up the ink blending, I wouldn't be mad. I'd rather do my coloring last, as I'm a very slow colorer.

I colored the image with Blick Studio pencils, which are sort of my go-to these days. The cardstock is Neenah Solar White. I think that this set - it's hard to choose - is my favorite Neat & Tangled set. The sentiments are funny and the images are so incredibly sweet. I don't consider it just a fall set - I use it all year. The sentiment is from the floral set I used.

My friends at Neat & Tangled are still offering you a discount for shopping from my blog - so don't forget there are only a few days left to shop with my code.

It's been so much fun guesting with them this month, and as I said - Danielle is a stellar human, a hardworking mother of young kids, and I love any opportunity to support her with a shopping spree.