Masking tutorial

Summer is winding down, but you can still create summery cards to brighten someone's day.  In this tutorial, you'll learn how to use masking to lay one image on top of another without letting colors bleed or blend.  Then, you'll follow the assembly of the rest of the card.

Cricut CTMH Art Philosophy Cartridge flower

I loved making this card... lots of distressing and muted colors... my favorite!  The dimensional flower was cut from my new Close To My Heart Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge, as were the layers.  I've been having so much fun playing with all the shapes and dimensional elements that you can make with that cartridge!  It is well worth the $99 when you consider the stamp sets and dimensional elements, which coordinate with cartridge shapes, included with the purchase.  I added a little ink to the edge of my rolled flower, and then for fun, I added some fuzzy yarn fibers as the flower center.  The yarn flower center coordinates nicely with the color of the butterfly.  As you can see, I sponged the edges of the layers on the card with ink that coordinated with my Kraft cardstock.  This card was really quite simple and quick to make, but has a lot of detail when you look closely!  The dimensional flower adds a very special punch.

Are you ready?

The holidays are just around the corner, so I'm making sure that I incorporate a few holiday cards among my other types of cards that I make.  This one was a BIG experiment.  If you've watched my card making for a while, you'll know that I just can't resist using Stickles.  They are a type of glitter glue that come in a vast array of colors.  I've been addicted to them for years.  So, I took the opportunity to break in a new stamp set by experimenting with my Stickles.  Close to My Heart has this awesome stamp set, which you can get for FREE with a $75 purchase during September 2011, called Pair-a-phrase.  It is a double set that has an image and a phrase that generally goes with each one.  This adorable snowman and cute phrase that goes with him is just one example of a an image/phrase pairing from this set.  I stamped my Snowman first, and then colored the entire image with Stickles!  It was such fun!  It may be a little too much bling, but is there ever really too much bling?  It also gives a ton of texture to the snowman.  I had never colored an entire image, in multiple colors like this, with only Stickles!

This card really is a ton of texture everywhere you look and touch.  It has an Cuttlebug embossed background patterned paper, which I then added some small snowflake images to.  Snowy cutouts adorn the front as well, which also have some Stickles added to them.  All in all, it was a fun card to make!

Are you ready for the holidays yet?  Have you started prepping for holiday gifts in any way?