With so many mediums available to crafters there is no reason to stick with the same traditional products that have always been used. Here Jaimie used Luminarte polished pigments and applied over the mask with a palette knife creating a thick, textured, shimmery cover. The results are quite dramatic and definitely gives a wow factor to her page. When using this technique it is important to leave the mask in place until the medium is almost dry.
Masks are something Carole hasn't done a lot of, but when she used the Tim Holtz Timeworks Masks straight away she thought of a great photo. She layed the masks down onto pattern paper, and then inked around the mask and then cut it out. She stuck the mask down onto the background of her layout, and also layered some part with foam tape, she also used Crate Avenue Band, Tags and Frames to embellish her layout, and made cute little felt centres to her flowers.
Nicole wanted to create a layout full of grunge and an outdoor-feel for this photo of her son Alexander catching his first fish.
To achieve this delicious background texture, she layered masks by Tim Holtz and spattered LuminArte's Rain Dauber paints over the top. She started with the spider web mask in position first, dipped an old toothbrush into the Rain Dauber bottle and then ran her fingernail along the bristles to force the paint to spatter over the mask.
Leaving the mask in position, she attached the barbed wire mask border slightly overlapping the spider web and repeated the spattering process. Finally, she overlaid the clock mask and again repeated the spattering process with a third Rain Dauber colour - WARNING - this is a messy (fun) process. Make sure your work area is covered and if you want your hands to stay clean, wear gloves as the Rain Dauber paint will stain your hands and nails a little.
Chris used a few different techniques with the Heidi Swapp masks. Firstly she created the bird by inking around the edges of the bird mask onto white cardstock. After Chris removed the mask she then used Opera pink, Cyan and indigo inks with an aqua-flo brush to create the watercolours on the bird. Chris cut around the bird image and applied some Jo Sonya's Opal dust paint and kindy glitz to give the bird some sparkle.
To create the branch Chris traced around the mask onto Heidi Swapp paper. She then stamped the Hero Arts flourish border stamp over the traced branch and then cut the shape out.
To create the leaves Chris again traced the mask and after cutting the leaves out she placed them into the quickutz and applied the zig zag embossing die to the leaves to give them texture. Then to emphasise the embossing even more Chris wiped some Cyan ink over the raised areas and added a little kindy glitz.
Masks are a very versatile and creative product. They aren't exactly new to the scrapping world, yet they are often overlooked. Donna has built up a great collection of masks with her favourites being the new Tattered Angels Glimmer Screens. This particular product was created to compliment Tattered Angel's Glimmer mist, but as is the case with most scrapbooking products, can be used with whatever products you have available.
In this example Donna has traced around the outer edge of the Decorative Corners
Glimmer Screen with a black felt tip pen onto white cardstock and 'coloured-in' the inverse of the mask using a paintbrush and LuminArte Polished Pigments. After carefully cutting out the design she's finished it all off with a dash of glitter and simply glued and stapled onto her layout.
The result is kind of 'arty' and fun and definately gives her page a 'handcrafted' look and feel.
At the end of last year, Heidi Swapp came to Australia for Create'08 - a fabulous full day workshop. Suz was lucky enough to attend and here she shares one of the many techniques she learned. This gorgeous heart page actually layers four different Heidi Swapp masks, and shows how layering them and blending colours can customise your page - in this way you can practically make your own patterned paper.
First down is a new mask that will be premiering at CHA'09 in a few weeks - this beautiful oversized heart. She then layered the Tulip mask, and then the Dots on top of that. Using Tim Holtz's brilliant distress inks, which 'build' layers of colour this stunning effect is created. (And these inks are now up for pre-order on the Aussie Scrap Source store - yay!). The final touch - aside from the beautiful damask and clock stamps (still used within the confines of the heart mask) was the beautiful Whispies mask which was added later with a silver foil pen.
When she came home, Suz was so impressed with these techniques she decided to apply what she had learned on this funny little halloween page. The large circle is another mask that will be part of Heidi's CHA release in a few weeks time. Suz set a Tim Holtz spiderweb mask inside the circle, and blended several of the Tim Holtz Distress Inks to create her mottled 'moon'. She felt the page needed balance, so she added the 'fenceposts' from the Tim Holtz Borderline mask set in the bottom left hand corner. Once she removed the masks, she highlighted sections with a white gel pen just to give the images a little added dimension.
