'Masking' for a Happy Hallowe'en! - Thistle Designs

Are you ready for the ghouls, goblins, fairies and creatures to come knocking at your door tonight? Are you like me, and had to replenish your candy supply?! ha ha ha! Oh well – we don’t get that many trick-or-treaters any more; not many young families left in our neighbourhood. Their kids all grew up, along with my own.

We did have fun at last night’s Technique class; although we didn’t make Hallowe’en cards, because I thought that they wouldn’t be very useful, made the night before the actual day! Instead, we practiced our masking techniques! (see what I did there? ‘masking’ – Hallowe’en?! don’t worry; not everyone appreciates my sense of humour!)

First we did basic masking technique, and kept it nice and easy, using the Festival of Trees stamp set and the matching Tree Punch. Here is the card we made:

Nothing says Christmas like traditional red & green, with trees 🙂 Plus, this card is made easier to duplicate quickly, as you can quickly mask off the trees by punching the tree shape. The masking creates depth on the card, without adding a lot of layers, which means it can easily be mailed.

The next technique is reverse masking, where instead of masking the stamped area, you mask the area around where you’re going to stamp. Again, it creates depth without adding layers, and you can create visual interest by using different shapes for the masking.

I decided to use the shaped of the largest butterfly in the Bold Butterfly Thinlits Dies to create the opening, and sponged the inside using Calypso Coral. I then stamped the flower image from the Best Thoughts hostess set in Tangerine Tango. I liked the variation of the darker colouring at the edge of the wings, graduating light towards the middle. (the ladies said that the Calypso Coral & Tangerine Tango, combined with the black, looked close enough to Hallowe’en for them!)

After stamping, we of course enjoyed our usual beverage and snack, along with a bowl of Hallowe’en candy (see – there was a reason I needed more!). I also gave each of the ladies the decorated Baker’s Box, filled with candies as well, as a treat for them to take home & enjoy.