2017 #2 Blooming {by Jo Firth-Young}

2017 Topic 2: Masks

As soon as I saw this idea, I was hooked! I love how Jo has used her sunflower mask to protect the fabulous, colorful background, and then obscure the exposed areas with white paint. Hard to bring yourself to paint over such beauty, but i'm sure you'll agree the effect is amazing! So pretty! She is partial to an offset bit of stamping, and this adds detail so perfectly, particularly when embossed! Check out the process as explained by Jo.

Hi everyone Jo Firth-Young with you tonight to share with you a way to use one of my new stamp-stencil-mask combos. The big flower (or sun, depending on your interpretation) is from JOFY51 stamp set.

  I like this stamp and stencil/mask VERY much, I hope you do too!

The technique I've chosen for tonight's blog post is a type of masterboard - a simple painted one that I cut up to become cards/panels but could be adapted to be a wall piece with the addition of extra words or images.  I really like this technique because it can be so easily adapted with different colours, stamps and masks.

Let me show you.

I had two masterboards on the go at once created with 'technique'  - so the colours in my photos may vary slightly but the process was the same - this turned out to also be a good way to illustrate how different two masterboards can be even when created with the same colours... and thats one of the reasons I like masterboards - no two are the same!

The masterboards are 'quite' bright - I painted the colour on in quite rough 'stripes' and patches - almost drybrushing in places - I wanted colour but not 'solid' colour... The colours also needed to be bold because I would be painting over the top using solid colour.

Even though I was quite relaxed about the backgrounds - not being too fussy about straight lines etc I did concentrate on getting the best placement for the mask/stencil. I cut each masterboard in half and spent time choosing my selection. This is easy if you use the stecnil to pick an area, then I would place the mask inside the stencil (held down with a piece of blue-tack), remove the stencil and paint over and around the mask in white.

The current theme on the blog is 'masks' but I couldn't resist using the stencil too to create the opposite version... Opaque paints would be the best option for stencilling on the bright background. I used Snowflake Fresco Finish to paint over/around the mask (top photo) therefore protecting the background which results in colourful flowers. 

The lower part of the photo above shows the stencilled version. If white is applied through the stencil, you get white flowers and the colour background.

I really love how striking they both are.

I cut them up and mat and layered them ready to be made into cards or framed wall art.

I had a couple of pieces left over....hhhhmm lets see what the masked version would look like painted with black gesso... I don't think I can choose which I prefer!   I think there are lots of possibilities with this.

I really enjoyed creating these quite simple backgrounds/masterboards using the stencil and mask combo - give it a go yourselves - I think it could be a little addictive.  This particular stencil/mask combo is quite large - why not try it with smaller designs where you'll get more pattern in the same area.

Have fun!

Jo

Blog: www.jofirthyoung.blogspot.co.uk
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/JoFY.JoFirthYoung
Twitter/Instgram:  @jofyjo
Pinterest:  https://uk.pinterest.com/jofyjo/

This is such an awesome idea, and it really is surprising how different the background looks when sections are selected and highlighting by masking them off. I love the white contrast so much, but black too!! Oh my!! ~ Leandra

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