Midweek Blog #87 - Blending backgrounds with silhouette stamping

  Hello & welcome to my blog,

My name is Alison & I am an independent Stampin' Up® demonstrator in Melbourne, Australia. I love creating cards & gifts for my loved ones & this blog will show you how to create something special for those you love. I blog twice a week, once on a Sunday where I mainly showcase a stamp set or dies & sometimes special DSP. My second blog is mid week on a Wednesday where I look at techniques, colour challenges, card sketches, fun folds, tools & equipment & ways to make or improve your projects. That's what this blog is about. 

Today's blog features blending, masks & silhouette stamping. It's very useful to create background mattes for cards & is very versatile as the combination of colours, stamps & masks is endless - just use whatever you have on hand!

I started with some Basic White mattes, blending brushes and the retired Butterflies & Flowers decorative masks. Remember, you can use whatever materials you have on hand.

I chose the mandala style mask, lightly attaching it to some paper with washi tape that had some of the adhesive removed by lightly dabbing on my skin. I selected some pink hues for the first matte.

In the bottom left corner I started with Bubble Bath....

..then added Magenta Madness across the middle section...

..before finishing with Berry Burst across the top right.

Here is the finished blending, but I decided to add some background colour....

..so blended in some of the new Moody Mauve.

The second matte uses greens - Garden Green & Lemon Lime Twist.

With the vine mask in place I used Lemon Lime Twist first, careful to brush down with this mask as sideways or swirls would pull at the mask too much.

I then went over that with some dabs of Garden Green to give some variegation to the leaves..

..which gives this result.

The background was blended with some Pear Pizzazz. 

Here are the two completed mattes.

The pinks matte was then stamped with the solid silhouette bouquet from Fresh Cut Flowers & will be used at a later date. The vine matte will be used for a future card along with the Little Monkey stamp set & punch. I will be using the blending brushes & silhouette stamping again but without the masks. Keep an eye out for those posts!

So that's it for this week. I hope you enjoyed this technique. If you decide to create using this technique I would love to see what you make so please feel free to post a pic on my Facebook page at craftedbyalison.

My next post is on Sunday & features the Oceanfront stamp set. The next mid week blog will feature a card sketch which is always fun to create with. I hope you can join me for both of them.

Til next time, take care & keep creating! XX Alison