AECP Level II-Masking

Hello Friends!
Sharing a project with you I did for a Masking class. Boy was this one a doozy!! I’ve done masking plenty with masking paper and post-it notes, however I had never tried masking fluid for stamping or painting. I learned in the class videos that the fluid is good for intricate images that otherwise are tedious to cut out as a mask. I opted to try the technique on the beautiful Altenew Just Because floral image. I’ve had this gorgeous round piece of watercolor paper since last year, it came in a kit. I decided this paper would be perfect to use with the arched bouquet.
Now, while the paper is heavy and very textured (I love paper like this) it was difficult to work with. I almost threw it in the trash several times, but I just couldn’t bring myself to get rid of it. I even opted to do a second project. Walk with me through the process.

Above is the initial stamping done with archival ink. I did have to stamp several times as the paper is extremely textured (I think this was error number 1: very textured paper is probably not the best to use with masking fluid.) I also stamped the same image onto a piece of Canson XL watercolor paper which is much smoother.

After stamping, I covered the images with this masking fluid. It dried with a green finish and I liked that because I could see it clearly. I let the pieces dry overnight. Here is what they looked like the next morning:

Here’s where it got ugly. I watercolored the backgrounds and let them dry and then proceeded to remove the masking fluid. I tried my finger as well as an adhesive eraser. Look at the difference in the two pieces.

 The masking fluid just ripped up the top layer of paper on the right one no matter how gently I rubbed. I think the paper may have been too textured and the top layer just would not separate from the fluid. The same happened on the left one but not nearly as bad! At this point I thought “I will just re-stamp the image and save it.” Yeah, wellllll...

Not so hot.  I still couldn’t bring myself to toss it. I finished watercoloring the images with my Kuretaki Gansai Tambi watercolors. Added gold paint splatter and a sentiment from Neat & Tangled. I still had to go back and re-draw some of the lines with a fine liner pen.

This is the completed project, you can see it isn’t very crisp or neat but after much work I think the watercolors covered a lot of the imperfections and it is good enough to keep for myself.  And also the second image, but I did not turn it into a card. This one is much cleaner.

After all of that I decided to do another, much easier project using post-it notes for masking (another technique done in the class videos). Take a look:

 I used the multi-layer Winter Rose set and the new Altenew inks (swoon!).

 This is the first rose stamped and masked. I then stamped and masked the second in order to add the leaves.

 Finally I added a sentiment and more stamping on the inside.

While the last card was easy for me, I am glad I tried a new technique! I will have to experiment more with the masking fluid. Thank you for reading to here and for stopping by!
Michelle