Papertrey May release sneak peek!

Nichole has outdone herself again and created an adorable baby set, Bitty Baby Blessings. I love all the sweet little images, and sentiments. The set is so perfect for creating welcome baby cards, baby gifts, scrapbook pages, and whatever else you can dream up.

One of the techniques that came to me right away to try was the masking technique. Nichole had a great article on the masking technique in the recent special issue of Papercrafts 101 (If you haven’t checked this issue out, it is a great resource for lots of basic techniques.)

I decided to use both the regular masking and reverse masking technique. There are all sort of fancy masking tapes and papers on the market, but I like to use just a regular post-it notes.

For the traditional masking technique I stamped the image so that part of it overlaps where the sticky is on the back. This will help it stick to your project when you are masking it. Take care to cut right along the lines of your image.

For the reverse masking I used an exacto knife to cut out the image from the center of the post-it note. Make sure that you have a cutting mat under your project so that you don't cut into your stamping table.

Here’s how the masks look on the projects. The traditional mask is on the left and the reverse mask is on the right.

I stamped polka dots (using a single dot from the Polka Dot Basics set) with white pigment ink onto the reverse masked elephant.

Here’s what the elephant looks like when the reverse mask was pulled away.

I stamped more polka dots over the top of the traditional masked elephant.

Pulling the mask away…

I colored the elephants with Copic markers. I used a light blue for the base and a darker blue for shading, blending the colors with the lighter blue shade. I had a little bit of white ink overlap in a couple of spots and I use the colorless blender to pull the white ink off of the image.

I punched out the images with the giga circle punch and used some other circle punched for the sentiments and accent circles.

Here are the finished elephant cards. If you haven’t already, stop by Nichole’s blog to see her sneak peek project and stop by the Papertrey forums on Wednesday night (starting at 10PM EST) for the party!

Spotted Elephant Cards

stamps: Bitty Baby Blessings, Polka Dot Basics (Papertrey Ink)

ink: Unicorn Memories (Stewart Superior), Jet Black Archival (Ranger)

cardstock: Spring Moss, White (Papertrey Ink), kraft (Stampin' Up!)

accessories: post-it notes, paper snips, exacto knife, mega circle (Marvy), 1 1/4" & 1" circle punches (EK Success), Copic markers, dimensionals