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Friday, July 3, 2020

Masked Distress Blending - Creativity in the Time of Coronavirus

I have been having so much difficulty lately summoning my creativity and making cards. I am well aware how fortunate I am to be able to stay home and stay safe during this time. I have noticed though that the isolation has affected me in subtle ways. To help me get over this creative slump, I pulled out a pile of stencils, some of which I have never used, and started just brushing and blending Distress Ink onto panels taped to the stencils.  This card is one result.


This stencil is Rose Trio ssst121480 from Simon Says Stamp. It's the first time I have used it, and I was really happy with how easy it was to achieve beautiful results.


I have been seeing a technique on several blogs that I remember from the past: this is where you mask off a section of your panel to have room for your sentiment. This is a great way to make a beautiful one layer card. I masked off a 1" space using post-it tape.

I used 3 colors on this card, and I blended them using some new-to-me tiny brushes from iCraft. I have only found them available on Simon Says Stamp. They are like finger daubers, but instead of sponges, they are fine, dense brushes, like the larger ones I have been using.  They work super well, and so easy! I like that they don't get torn up by the sharp edges of stencils like regular finger daubers.


Here's my panel with the mask removed. I used Prismacolor pencils to darken a few places, but honestly, it needed very little touch-up. 

I added this sentiment from Magenta that I really like to send to someone who is ill or recovering from a health problem. I like it much better than a sentiment that orders them to "get well soon" as I'm very sure they are doing their best to do so already ;-) I stamped the sentiment in Gina K Amalgam Jet Black ink and matted the panel with black cardstock.

Here are some of the backgrounds I have been making with stencils and brushed Distress ink (regular Distress, not Oxides). You will be seeing these made into cards in future posts. Making these masked blends really helped boost me up. I enjoyed doing them so much. 


Made using Magenta stencils TM277 and TM278


Made using Magenta stencil TM187


Made using Carta Bella Plaid #1 Stencil CBCD58035


Products Used for Rose Card:
Simon Says Stamp Rose Trio Stencil ssst12121480
iCraft blending brushes
Magenta 07.973.G Sending you warm thoughts
Distress Inks: Abandoned Coral, 
Carved Pumpkin, Mowed Lawn
Prismacolor Pencils: Apple Green, White
Gina K Amalgam Jet Black ink
PTI True Black cardstock
Neenah Solar White 110# cardstock

8 comments:

  1. Beautiful Dianne, the blending is so pretty and love the masked area for the sentiment :)

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  2. Dianne, this is what worked for me some months ago. I decided I wanted to send cards to folks to cheer them up - this was at the beginning of the pandemic. When you couldn't find TP and all that. I looked through my stamps and used many with humor; I even referenced a Sherlock Holmes looking fellow as searching for TP and sent it to a friend that was desperately looking for it. I found the humor helped for both me and those getting the cards. I ended up sending over 100 cards (some got more than one card) over many months. Sending those cards gave me a really good reason and inspiration to craft. From Laura Pervier

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  3. You could use those round ones as some sort of outer space planet and have little tiny aliens or other odd looking things jumping around on the planet. And a saying of "You're out of this world" sort of comment. :-) From Laura Pervier (again!)

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    1. That's a cute idea! I'm always looking for cute things to do for cards for my grandsons.

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  4. Loved them all....you do such nice work.

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Thanks so much for taking the time to comment! Please visit me again soon.
Dianne