How Rawr You?

How Rawr You? Masking with The Greeting Farm

Hello! I wanted to share the tutorial for how I made this cute little dinosaur card featuring stamps from The Greeting Farm and a masking technique. 

Let's get started! 

You will need: 

-"How Rawr You?" Stamps from The Greeting Farm

-Tim Holtz distress inks in mowed lawn, twisted citron, gathered twigs, wilted violet, broken China, and peeled paint (any inks you want to use will do, just make sure they blend nicely first!) 

-Tim Holtz/Ranger Ink ink blending tools

-Masking paper (I used inkadinkado's stamping mask paper)

-masking tape

-spectrum noir markers or whatever you love to color with

-3M foam tape

-clear embossing powder

-white cardstock, 2- 5 1/4" x 4 1/4" pieces

-glitter cardstock

-card base

-sequins

-stamp positioner (I used Tim Holtz Tonic Studios stamp positioning tool) 

-heat embossing gun

So, first things first: stamp all the images you intend to use for your scene on the sheet 9f masking paper. I try to get them as close as possible so that I don't waste much of the paper, like this:

Next, I fussy cut all of the images out, first cutting them into smaller pieces so I didnt accidentally cut an image. 

   Ah, the Joy's of fussy cutting. Keep cutting.

                              And cutting.

Almost there!!! 

And, we're finally done cutting! 

Next, we want to lay out our scene with the images we just cut out. I had two identical 5 1/4" x 4 1/4" pieces of cardstock here, one to stamp on and one to hold my masks in their positions while I was layering. 

Pro tip: use a razor to separate the backing from the images- it makes this part SO. MUCH. EASIER! 

This is how my mine looked with the initial layout I had in mind: 

Next, we start stamping the actual image! I apologize for this part being upside down, I wanted to make sure I had space for the little leaves in the bottom to hang off the bottom of the image.  For this part, a stamp positioner is very important. You want to start with the images on top of the others first, as these will be the foreground images, and we don't want overlap on them. Place the "scene" with the masked images in the positioner, and place the matching stamps directly on top of the masks to make sure you get them matched precisely. When you're happy with the positioning, close the stamp positioner down. 

Remove the piece of cardstock with the mask pieces on it, and replace it with the identical blank piece of cardstock. 

Ink up your stamps, and stamp them onto the base. 

Next, when the ink is dry, remove the matching mask pieces from the "scene" and stick them over the stamped images, being g careful to line them up as best as possible, like this: 

Repeat the last part for the next images you want to stamp, always going from the topmost images down to the bottom layers to ensure you get the overlapping correct. 

You can see here how it looks while you're stamping- the masks look kind of messy because they're taking the full image of the stamp that will be "below" the first images and preventing it from covering our images. It makes more sense when it's done, I promise! 

This is my final, completely masked and stamped piece of cardstock:

Next, we're going to do the ink blending for the background. I just sort of eye-balled the "hills" and "dirt" lines for this part- I held a piece of masking paper over the image, and drew a swooshy-line to represent the foreground "dirt" layer first, then cut along the line. 

Place the UPPER portion of the mask you just cut to where you want the "dirt" foreground to end. 

Blend your inks, going light to dark shades, over the entire bottom. Be careful not to peel up the masks for the stamped images accidentally, or you will have unwanted ink in the images. 

Repeat this process as many times as you like, to get as many layers in the background as you like. I did this with 1 layer of browns, 2 layers of greens for the hills in the mid-ground, and 1 layer of blue and purple for the sky. 

When you're moving beyond the first layer, I find it helpful to use the mask you laid previously to line up its matching piece, so that your lines are perfectly straight and seamless between layers. When you have it on straight, remove the upper piece, then place the upper for the new background layer in the desired position on the background. 

Keep going until you have all the layers you want! 

Once you're done, we come to the fun part: removing the masks to reveal the scene below! I find it faster and easier to use a the tip of a cutting knife to remove the stick mask pieces. 

*check out my Instagram @zsurdnajacq for an unmasking video of this part!*

Next, I colored all my images in using my favorite Spectrum Noir markers. 

And the one-layer base image is complete! I did spray this with a little water, since I was using distress inks, to get that water-drop bleaching pattern in the ink for a little more texture and dimension. 

Here, I stamped my sentiment, "how rawr you?" And heat embossed it.

Next, cover the back of the image with the 3M foam tape, to add a little dimension to it when its placed on the card base.

I used a neon green glitter cardstock for a mat behind the image, with a 1/4" border, to add an extra pop of fun to the card. 

I also added a few little matching green sequins to two corners of the image to tie it all together. 

You're done! Try this technique with bigger images, smaller images, whatever you like, and share your results here in the comments! I'd love to see what you make for more masking inspiration! 

Thanks for visiting and I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. 🙂