Masking Techniques

by Debbie Standard

Masking always seems so intimidating. Something about committing yourself to putting paint or ink or another medium actually on the page where you can’t take it back! But after being in a contest that involved a challenge to do masking and I couldn’t find a mask anywhere in town – I have actually bought several. Somehow I still manage to find an excuse not to use them. Actually, as the girls have shown, you can use anything for a mask – just need a little imagination. I love the results. For this article we all seemed to come up with a different idea on masking.

Kristi used a KI Memories lace cardstock on her background as a mask with gesso, and also a Heidi Swapp mask with gesso and then went back with colored pencils and colored the damasks and outlined with black. Awesome results!	To see Kristi's layout with product listing click here
Summer actually made a mini book and used stickers as her mask – look how awesome it looks!	To see Summer's layout with product listing click here
Shawna used a butterfly sticker and inked over it and then pulled it off. She used the same method on the second butterfly and then put them together to give it a dimensional effect.	To see Shawna's layout with product listing click here
Alissa used chipboard as her mask putting it down with removable stickers and then sprayed her entire background with luminart glitter mist and removed the chipboard.	To see Alissa's layout with product listing click here
For mine I used the traditional Heidi Swapp mask and chalk I extended the chalking all the way to the top of the page and then also chalked around the outside of the entire page. I lightly painted some the the stickler glitter over the masked area to highlight it a little more.	To see Debbie's layout with product listing click here