Tips, Tricks and Techniques Tuesday Gingerbread and Peppermint suite

 Do you like to use masks? And no I don't mean face masks 😷 but the kind that you use in crafting 😅 The masks I'm using for today's project are a part off the Gingerbread and Peppermint suite.  They are called Adorning Designs Decorative masks.

I love all the designs but really like the stripes one. So that was an easy decision to made !! Now what to do with it? 

There are many way's to use masks blending ink through them, using embossing paste through them are two that spring  straight to mind . I decided to go with ink blending for my card today.

Now I have a tip for when you're using the strip folder and blending tool. Usually I always work is circles when blending but with this mask I found it easier and gave a far better finish to work in straight lines.  I would also recomend that you start off the mask and work lightly and build up the colour.

I started with a piece of white cardstock.  I used a little repositionable tape behind the cardstock and secured it to my scrap paper. Then I taped the mask over the cardstock so that nothing will move when I'm blending the ink through the mask.

I started blending with a lovely red called real red. Once I had  laid down a good layer of colour  I decided to add a deeper shade of red called cherry cobbler to give the stripes a bit of depth. 

Once I was happy I carefully removed the mask and washed it in warm soapy water. Now when your washing masks, especially intricate ones, be gentle and don't rush or you may tear or streach the mask.

So now I had a red and white background but I wanted something that was more tone on tone so I decided to use my blending brush and add some more real red all over. I then used some cherry cobbler to deepen the colour around the edges. 

Next I took my wink of stella and splattered it across the cardstock.  In real life it shimmers beautiful 😍 

I then used the Gingerbread dies that coordinate with the Frosted Gingerbread to create a focal point. 

I also stamped and then cut apart one of the cute sentiments from the Frosted Gingerbread stamps. I then stamped and die cut some of the fun peppermint sweets and sprinkled them around.

I was really please with how this project turned out. My other tip is when using real red ink and blending either wear disposable gloves or go wash your hair after. So that you don't look like have had a really bad accident 😜

I also created an insert for this card using the stamps and pretty ruffled ribbon from the Gingerbread and Peppermint suite. 

This card wasn't the quickest I've ever created, nore was it the cleanest 😉, but it certainly is one that gave me a great deal of pleasure making. 🙂