It's challenge time folks .....

Happy Tuesday evening .......

Well the family trip to the dentist was fine ....... nothing too traumatic and we don't have to go back until next year ..... yeah!!!  Lauren and I celebrated with a nice lunch out with the little man and I booked us a holiday!  I'm not getting excited just yet though ..... it's not until NEXT September (yes I mean 2017). Stephen and I are off to Croatia ...... never been before but it looks beautiful.

pictures courtesy of Island Travel 

 Anyway I won't bore you with all that now.

August has well and truly started ....... and the start of a new month means that all those fun blog challenges have brand new themes for you to play along with.

The Happy Little Stampers CASE the Designer challenge is already underway, and now it's time to get the CAS challenge up and running.  This month the theme is  ..... Masking

As always the challenge is sponsored by the Happy Little Stampers store

and the challenge winner will receive a $15 discount voucher for the shop

You've probably seen that the Boss .... aka Kylie ...... is gallivanting around the UK at the moment having the trip of a lifetime, and it included the first Happy Little Stampers UK Retreat last weekend. By the looks of things lots of fun was had by all ....... with a guest appearance from Miss USA herself,  the fabulous Darnell of djkardkreations fame.  I'm so sorry I missed it ..... next time I'll be there!!  Keep the photos coming Kylie!!

OK ..... back to the challenge.
Masking is so much fun to do and enables you to create depth and layers to your projects without adding lots of extra cardstock.  One thing to remember is ...... whatever you want at the front of your finished card needs to be stamped FIRST.  You then cover this up and do the rest .... easy.

There's lots of ways to create masks, use simple low tack tape. or copier paper.  Make your masks out of Post-It notes, or specialised masking sheets ...... or use actual masking fluid which you paint onto your images to cover them up, let it dry then remove once your project is finished.
Check out the HLS blog ..... you'll find lots of links to some great tutorials.

Here's a really simple design for you .... using two different ways of masking .....

I started off by stamping the butterflies first onto my white cardstock  ..... HLS Butterfly Birthday stamped using Black Versafine ink.
I also created masks for them using Post-It notes ...... stamped making sure that part of the butterfly was on the sticky edge of the Post-It and then fussy cut.
The masks were then put in place over the stamped images.
Next I used low tack masking tape to create the panel across my card ..... making sure that I covered part of the butterflies with the tape

With my masks in place I then added in the colour either side of the panel.  I used Distress Ink and gently brushed along the edge of the masked panel building up the colour gradually

Before I removed the masks I added in a little bit of foliage around the butterflies for a little more interest

Once all the masks were removed I added a sentiment (HLS Fun Birthday Sentiments) and then coloured the butterflies using Distress Inks and a little water to blend the colours

As always there's a little something on the inside ......

Exactly the same technique ..... so easy, yet so effective

Happy masking!

Thanks for popping by .... enjoy the rest of your day.
I'm off to pack my craft bag ..... I'm having a crafty day tomorrow with the girls.  Not sure what we're doing but I need paints and stencils ....... it could get messy!!

Cheerio until next time