Archaic Dinosaur Easel Card Using The Masking Technique

Over at Crafty Cardmakers they have set a Challenge Challenge! Basically you have to challenge yourself to try out a new technique. Obviously being a relative newbie this left me loads of scope! I decided that I'd like to try out the stamped masking technique for this card, so armed with an explanation of how to do it and my trusty 2 way glue pen, I set about making my "masterpiece" - LOL!

I also ended up using another new technique, paper tearing! Although not sure if this actually counts as who hasn't torn paper at some point? Anyway, it's the first time I've used it on a card.

I'm quite pleased with my first attempt at masking and will definately use this technique in the future. However as you will notice my stamping was far from perfect on this card. The reasons for this are outlined below in my tips, and before anyone says anything - I know a bad tradesman always blames his tools not his technique ;0)

So, here are my tips for anyone thinking of trying this out:

1. Choose your stamps carefully - a design with solid lines would've proved a lot simpler. Also don't use stamps that haven't been used before. This set of stamps had their first outing and the ink "puddled" on them leading to an uneven print. However, I think I can just about get away with it on this card.

2. Make sure you don't have a house full of small boys playing manhunt in and around your desk - it leads to the desk being jogged when your completing the final stamp, see the stem on the right - grrrr!!!

3. When you've finished, put the mask on a piece of acetate and bag it up with your stamps for future use (hopefully it will store well).

Well here it is:

Materials:
Card Base - cut and scored using card from The Papermill. The edges have been inked and blended using Tim Holtz Brown Corduroy Distress Ink

Images - Basic Grey Archiac Set, stamped with Versafine - Vintage Sepia and Colorbox Fluid Chalk

Paper - from a selection at The Papermill

Sentiments - font Dinosaur Jnr from Dafont, printed directly onto the torn paper using a masking technique

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Crafty Cardmakers - challenge yourself

Moving Along With The Times - easel card

Pile It On - easel card

Pollycraft - anything goes