My final class in the Altenew Educator Program, Level 2 is Masking Unleashed. And Unleashed it was! The instructor had some different ways of masking and I was inspired to try positive and negative masking. Positive masking is using a mask of a specific image to cover that image so you can stamp or color around it. Negative masking is using the negative space so you can color inside a stamp or die cut. I wanted to try both of these to see how they worked out. I have two cards for you today using both of these masking techniques. Both cards use Altenew Blooming Bouquet stamp set which is a great floral image perfect for coloring with any medium. I recently purchased the Altenew Watercolor Brush markers and I have been looking forward to trying them out. Please read on for how I put together these two cards.

Sometimes in your life, the right person comes around just at the right time to help you continue on your journey. I recently had this happen to me and it inspired me to do a series on Thank You cards. It is important to let those people in your life know what you mean to them and how they have helped you along on your path; either to get you back onto the path or to help you continue your path. 

A great background can sometimes be all you need to make your card. I started with a piece of Neenah Solar White 80lb paper cut to 5 3/4 x 4 1/2. I applied Distress Inks with my Mini Blending Tool by starting off the paper and moving in a circular motion onto the paper. This process takes patience as you build up the color layers. Wanting to create an ombre effect, I chose three pink colors: Spun Sugar, Worn Lipstick and Picked Raspberry and three orange colors: Dried Marigold, Wild Honey and Carved Pumpkin. Visually dividing the paper into halves, I applied Spun Sugar to the top half, Worn Lipstick to the top third and Picked Raspberry to the top quarter of the paper. After drying the ink, I turned my paper 180 degrees and in the same manner created an ombre of Dried Marigold to the half, Wild Honey to the third and Carved Pumpkin to the quarter of the page making sure to blend between colors. I then used my lightest shade: Spun Sugar and Dried Marigold to go over their respective halves of the paper and blend them into the middle. 

Papercrafting and making cards is so much fun. I really love how an idea pops into my head out of nowhere and then all of a sudden it's realized onto a card. Ultimately paper crafting is a two dimensional medium so even though I may have the grandiose of ideas, it's still got to fit in a 2-D medium. Enter: Masking. Masking allows for a bit of depth to your scene and especially if you have coordinating dies is simple to do.

The new Concord & 9th stamp sets are absolutely fantastic and I was so excited for them when they came out. The designs of the Globe Greetings stamp set made me think would be great for masculine cards and for all occasions. For this card today, I wanted to try out flocking which I haven't done before but I thought would give great texture to the land forms on the earth image.