Ever had a cool new stamp that has you inspired to create an awesome background? I have a new set of Stampendous stamps by Laurel Burch and I am in LOVE. I love Laurel’s art work anyway and now I can get it in stamps, AND they lend themselves to the amazing vibrant colors of Copic so I just couldn’t wait to pull one right our of the mailing envelope and get coloring!

I knew before I began that I wanted to complete the image with a fabulous background as well. I could cut out the image and stick them to a separate back ground. I could try to work around the image carefully OR I could mask it. Have you ever used a post it or scratch paper to create a mask for your image? It is pretty easy, but I want to show you an even easier, more effective way to mask your image. You can use Mask It made by X-Press It. It is a clear film with light adhesive that you can lay over your image, trim away and then create your background over. Hard to describe so let me show you!

I colored my images first, I could just stamp and wait till the end to color, but like I said I was a little color happy when I got these stamps :-).

mask 1

Again the stamp is by Stampendous and from the new Laurel Burch line, this one is called Indigo Cats.

Then I cut out a piece of Mask It that was large enough to cover the area I wanted to mask. I could have cut it to only cover the cats and save on usage but I was not sure yet what I was going to do so made my sheet as big as the paper.

I peeled off the paper backing and carefully laid the clear adhesive sheet over my image.

mask 2

I decided I was going to air brush the entire background so really only needed the cats covered so I used a craft knife to go right over the black outline of the cats. You might need to experiment a little with pressure. You do not want to go through the paper, just the plastic mask.

mask 3

Then I peeled off the plastic where I will be airbrushing and left the cats covered so they will be protected from spray.

mask 4

I used 3 different colors in my air brush to create a modeled background. Notice that some of the spray has gone over the cats.

mask 5

Then I discovered that the stamp set came with a stencil! BONUS I added the fun graphic shapes with the air brush as well.

mask 6

I peeled off the mask and the cats popped out all nice and clean from over spray. One of the HUGE advantages to a mask film is all the edges stay tight to the paper!

mask 7