We are not the only ones bringing out new products.  Jean at Crafty Individuals has recently launched a collection of masks and dies.  The dies are low profile just like Memory Box or Die-Namics and the designs are elegant and fine.  The masks are petite and delicate – I’ve never seen masks like these before and they are an ideal size for cards and tags.

The photo above shows the results of my first evening’s play with one die (Lacewing Butterfly) and several of the little meadow masks and the Floral Grid.

As soon as I saw the ferns and grasses masks, I thought of our Wild Meadow stamp set, so I began by arranging the masks on white card and misting over lightly with my home made sprays (distress re-inkers and water in a spritzer bottle – simple and cheap) using green and yellow.  I moved the masks around and spritzed again with yellow and orange tones, then added a light mist of blue at the top and left it to dry.  I cut the Lacewing Butterfly from lime green mirri card and added a touch of Lime stickles to it and put that aside to dry.

I found a sheet of blue card that toned well with the colours I’d used, so folded it in half and used the masks (after cleaning them) on the front of the card.   I used Memento Pistachio and Teal Zeal inks to stipple over the masks with a large stencil brush.   I wanted to concentrate the colour in the middle of the flowerhead and fade it out, so the stippling action worked well.  I added a little of the same colours in the opposite corner to balance the design.

Once everything was dry, I trimmed my spritzed piece and mounted onto a canvas textured card, then added some pearls and gems to the butterfly before sticking everything down.  I finished off with the little sentiment from Best Relative Ever (fast becoming a ‘go to’ stamp set for a quick greeting).

I had a piece of the white canvas card left after trimming the layer for the first card, so placed the meadowsweet mask on it and without adding more ink to my stencil brush, I swirled the brush over it.  Not only did I get the masked image, but I loved the way the brush was picking up the texture of the card too.  So I repeated this several times, adding stronger colour as I went and using the same two inkpads – Pistachio and Teal Zeal.   (Hey, they were already out on the table so I didn’t have to get up and walk, ooh all of  two paces, to get a different colour!)

I decided this would look pretty on a cream square card and I knew I had a snippet of sage ribbon which would go with the colours.  It literally was a snippet – I had to eke it out by leaving a big gap under the actual stamped panel.  It looked a bit plain, so I used the Floral Grid mask to add the same colours in the corners.  As this is a repeat pattern, it didn’t matter that it was slightly smaller than my card – I could colour a bit and move it up to do the next bit.  It lines up perfectly so in theory you could cover a whole wall if you wanted to!

But I had set myself a challenge to see what I could do in a couple of hours, so I left the walls well alone and reached for the embossing powder.  I put the mask onto aqua card and pressed a Versamark pad over it.  To be on the safe side, I also swirled it around with a clean brush before lifting the stencil off.  Pressing an inkpad over a stencil or mask doesn’t always get the ink into all the detail and you can’t really see when using Versamark.

It worked and I embossed with a twinkly blue powder (it’s an old workshop one in a tub, so not entirely sure of the brand or colour).  The design reminded me of those mediaeval or tudor hair nets with seed pearls all over so added a pearl at each intersection.  I decided it would make a great topper for a gift box and dug out the Groovy-Duo to put a quick box together.  I wrapped teal ribbon around the side and almost put a bow on, but decided it looked fine without.

So there you go, three projects all done within two hours.  I love playing with new stash!

Now before I go, I have a quick question for you.  I’ve written how I’ve made these in what we call conversational style (I did this, then I did that), but I wonder if you’d prefer it presented projects like this in a step by step style (do this, then do that) with a list of materials used.

Let me know what you prefer because it’s easy enough to do either.

Have a great weekend,