Love & Pieces

Howdy and welcome! I’ve been sharing projects over the past several days featuring this month’s Catherine Pooler Designs Club Sursee stamps & dies, and I’m back today to share one last card with you. Let’s get started…

Step 1: Planning

I started with a pre-cut & scored mini slimline card base (3.125″x6.25″) and laid out my stamps where I thought they would look best.

Step 2: Creating Masks

Next, I stamped the “Planted” images onto a low tack tape and trimmed them out with a fine tipped pair of scissors.

Step 3: Perfect Placement

I placed my blank card into my stamping platform followed by a clear grid transparency. I was then able to stick my masks directly onto the transparency precisely where I wanted the images to be stamped.

Since I wanted the outer two potted plants to appear in front of the middle plant, I placed their corresponding stamps over the masks and closed the stamp platform door to secure them in place.

I removed the grid, inked the two stamp images with black ink, then closed the door to stamp them perfectly in place.

Step 4: Mask & Stamp Again

Once I had the outer two images stamped directly onto the card I covered them with the masks to protect them from being inked over by the next stamp.

Step 5: Repeat

I placed the stamp grid back in place, aligned the center stamp image, closed the stamp door to pick up the stamp, and removed the grid transparency before inking and stamping the middle image.

You can see in the above image where I’ve peeled back part of the mask to show you how the leaves on the plants now look like they’re actually designed to be behind one another.

Step 6: Creating the Background

At this point I went ahead and trimmed out the individual leaves for the center plant and placed the masks back into position to protect the stamped images from getting background stamping on them.

I stamped the abstract background images from “Love & Pieces” multiple times with some overlapping. When I got near the top folded edge of the card, I added a bit more low tack tape to protect the back of my card from getting inked.

Step 7: Color & Embellish

Next, I colored in the images with alcohol markers. I then added a thin black border around the edge with a fine tipped pen as well as a few highlights on the leaves and pots with a white gel pen. Finally, I stamped a sentiment.

You know, I can’t remember the last time I created a single layer card. Masking is certainly a technique I forget about, but it was quite fun and I really enjoyed how this card turned out. Have you ever tried a single layer or masked card?

Thank you for stopping by! If you’re looking for more, please check out my Gallery. You can also visit me on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and YouTube. Until next time… stay crafty!

– Laura Evangeline