Mask and Merry Card

This is the first Christmas card I have made for the 2018 holiday season.... It is the first time I have used liquid mask on a card.... It is first time I used Stampin Up inks for sponging a background on a card....  A big thanks to Bibi Cameron and her video on Youtube for inspiration and how-to's:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oNWNHFpsZA&t=1043s

I choose one of her cards as inspiration for my card and here it is:

To begin with I used the masking fluid by Winsor & Newton that I bought at Hobby Lobby with a coupon. For the toothbrush I used to splatter the liquid mask I used a cheap one from the dollar store. The trees stamp set I used is Lovely As A Tree from Stampin Up. The card stock base is cut and scored at the top and it is Night Of Navy card stock from Stampin Up. The watercolour card paper I used is Canson.

To begin with I cut the watercolour paper 4" x 5 1/4". I wanted a 1/4" border around my piece so I used a ruler and made a light pencil line on the sides, top, and bottom of this piece. As suggested in the video I also used washi tape to keep my border free of masking fluid and inks. I used a craft mat to make this card on. With the washi tape on all sides of my card front I put this inside a card board box and then splattered the masking fluid all over it:

I put this in the box since splattering the fluid over it it will  get all over the place and the card board box contains that mess -- just like I do when using anything I spray or spritz. Dipped the toothbrush into the bottle of masking fluid and with my finger I splattered this over the card front piece. After the masking liquid was on this I removed this card front piece carefully from the box and laid it on the craft mat flat and let it dry. This is the key to using a masking fluid -- is letting it totally dry before continuing the project. While that was drying I cleaned the toothbrush under running water to get all the masking fluid off of it and set it aside to dry so I can use it again.

Once the fluid dried on the card stock I added two inks to my card front both from Stampin Up - Night of Navy and Pool Party. My card is much lighter than hers in the video but I only used the two inks. I also used a torn Post It Note for my hills and the circle piece for the moon as she suggests. This is not my first attempt and here is what I learned - be sure your circle for your moon is pressed down firmly so you will have a solid circle moon. Also when stamping the trees be sure to ink them well and press hard when you stamp them and do not lift them off right away as it helps to keep them pressed down for the watercolour paper to absorb the ink. When sponging over the torn Post It Note mask be sure to move it around so you do not have a "stripe" look for your hills.

Once again -- LET DRY. With my stamped trees and hills sponged I let this piece sit on the craft mat without moving it. I cut and scored the card base and set that aside. With the card front inks all dried I used my fingers -- after I washed all the inks off of them -- to gently remove the dried on masking fluid. Removing that reveals the snow effect on the card front. I also peeled off the circle for the moon. Made sure all fluid was off the card front.

Gently peeled off the washi tape from the card front.  As Bibi had I also wanted to use a word die from the Stampin Up Christmas Greeting Thinlits set and I decided to use "merry". Here is the card front and the SU die set - as with all my word dies I always die cut them out of scrap card stocks and put them on a piece of dark card stock using a glue pen. I keep this sample with the die set so I can easily read what words that die set has since trying to read them backwards is not always easy - haha:

I cut the word "merry" out of silver foil card stock backed with Stick It sheet for adhesive:

As Bibi had used I also used the Christmas stamp from the Stampin Up Holly Jolly Greetings for my stamped greeting on the card front. But I did not want this to be crooked and since it is a cling stamp I did not want to trust this job to the Stamp A Ma Jig... so using clear plastic sheet from stamp packaging I cut a piece larger than what I would need for the one word stamp.

For the card front I put it in the MISTI and held it in place with magnets. I put the packaging clear sheet over the bottom half of the card front and held that in place with a magnet. Using the Stampin Up Night of Navy ink I inked this word stamp and stamped it onto the clear sheet to be sure it would be straight for my card front and where it would stamp on the card front - The clear sheet allowed me to move the stamp for placement and the ink wipes off the clear sheet with a baby wipe. This is hard to see but this is the clear sheet once I had the stamp where I wanted it and I stamped it:

Happy with placement I removed the stamped clear sheet and inked the stamp again and stamped it onto the bottom of the card front. With that stamped I removed the card front from the MISTI. Peeled the backing off the die cut word "merry" and put this over the stamped word on the card front:

Always hard to photograph foil card stocks.... With the die cut word on the card front I used the ATG and put this piece onto the card base. Added small sequins to the card front for some sparkle as you can see in the above photo. Bibi also made a small banner/flag for the top of her card, adding gold twine to that. I used the Stampin Up Gorgeous Grunge stamp set and stamped a stamp onto scrap Canson watercolour card stock using the Night of Navy ink. Used the trimmer to cut that to the width I wanted and used the Stampin Up banner punch on one end. I put the banner piece on the card front using the ATG and added silver twine I had looped and tied into a bow and I put that on the banner using clear TomBow glue. Here is another photo to show the snowy effect the liquid mask gave this card front:

This was much easier than I thought it would be and IRL this card has dimension with the hills and the moon. Thanks to Bibi for making the unknown technique easy and fun. One holiday card down... so many more to go! :0)