Tutorial: Marker to Rubber and Masking techniques

Welcome back to the BEST place to find your handmade Seattle greeting cards.

I'm happy to share with you one of my favorite handmade card projects of late. :) I ended up giving this greeting card to my boyfriend. Just this morning he said to me after noticing this blog post up on the computer, "hey, it's my card! That's my favorite card I've ever received." Which kind of made my heart melt, not gonna lie. 

I created this greeting card using the marker to rubber and masking techniques. I created this greeting card with four different stamps. I purchased the couple stamp from Dolce Impressions here in Seattle.

First, I started with planning out the greeting card sketch and layout. I find it easier to start a greeting card with a sketch because it offers inspiration and cohesive style to the project.  I knew that I wanted to create a stamped card featuring ink in layers, not necessarily layers of paper, and this marker to rubber technique, so taking that into consideration I chose my stamps.

Pen to Rubber Technique:

If you're looking for a fast, fun and easy technique to add detailed interest to your project, you should try this fast and fun technique. You can even use multiple marker colors at once.

You Will Need:

Stamp

plain old water based marker

paper, of course.

For this technique I chose a negative space rubber stamp like this:

 In theory, I suppose you could do this with a positive space rubber stamp just as easily, but I have only ever used a negative space stamp for this technique. (If you end up using this technique with a positive space rubber stamp, please link to this page - I'd love to see your project!!)

Use your water-based marker (I have a set of Pentel water-based markers that I found at Goodwill that are perfect for this!) and outline your image in your chosen colors, just the defining lines.  Huff on said stamp once you are finished (the moisture from your breath will activate any marker ink that has dried, ensuring a nice print) and stamp.

For example, if I wanted to stamp the above star using this technique, I would take my water based-marker and color the outline of the star and inside lines of the star, if desired.

                                             

Next to create this design, I repeated the same technique in stamping to impress the first cloud in the upper right hand corner.

Creating a Mask

I wanted to create the illusion of depth and layers with this card.  Using masks in a design helps you to do that, and you can create as many as you would like. This is also a quick and easy technique that doesn't have to be perfect. (Indeed, part of the wonderful things about handmade greeting cards is that they are all a little different.) 

On a blank sheet of scratch paper, stamp your image in the same manner that you would like to mask. I stamped my couple once again and my cloud outline once again, both in just basic black. It doesn't matter if it's a crap print or not, as long as you get the general outline. Cut your images out and now you have a mask.

Position the masks over your previously stamped images on your project, temporarily adhere if desired. Make sure to use as much temp adhesive as you need to get the edges of the mask down as flat as possible to the project. Stamp your image. I used this technique for the clouds for a total of three layers.

For the rest of the card, I used washi tape to tape off the area that I wanted to just have the heart background in. I have not removed my mask of the couple.  I stamped my little hearts, grounded the couple with a hint of grey, and stamped a sentiment on scratch paper and popped it up to complete the design.

I hope you enjoyed this post and get to try these techniques. They are fun, quick and easy - anyone can do them and they really add a lot to your projects.

Cheers!