Simple Masking

 What is masking.  Good question - I didn't know either!    It is the technique where you cover up a portion of the card/paper and stamp or brayer or sponge in the area left open.  The incredibly talented Michelle Zindorf is a true artist that uses stamps to help create her amazing cards uses masking ALOT.   She will for example get a sheet of white card, and place a circle of paper stuck down on it with some light (removable) adhesive.  She will then brayer over the card with ink and then she removes the circle... viola... its a white moon in the sky. She also tears post it notes and places them, sponging around the edges to create hills.   Her blog is well worth a look - google it!

Anyway, I've used the same idea here but in reverse.   I have cut out a circle of some paper, placed it over the cardstock and stamped over the circle directly onto the cardstock, so that only the stamped image that appeared in the hole is left, giving a great effect.   It's an excellent way of getting a shape from a larger stamp... without cutting it up or buying a new one.   In this card I went on to stamp some flowers at the bottom that go over the circle of words.

In the card below I used the same masking technique but I used cardstock instead and found that the edges of the circle didn't stamp as cleanly because I guess it was raising the edges of the stamp up.     Lesson learned - use paper for masking, cardstock is too thick! 

I also dabbed the stamped circle with some glue from a 2 in 1 glue pen and sprinkled it with Dazzling Diamonds glitter.   Add some gold thread and it looks like a christmas ornament... well, kind of ... if you don't look too closely LOL.   In this card I also scored 5mm around each edge (upside down) to give a frame in all that white space.