365 Cards Day 163

Day 163 at 365 Cards is all about trying a new technique - masking. I'm sure many people have already done it but I am not the best stamper and have never done it before so it was nice to try something different.

We are going to our friend Scott's 50th birthday party on Saturday and I needed to make a card for him. I made him a super card last year so had to try and top it. I made a sidestep card as I think they look fabulous but are actually really easy to make once you know where to cut and fold.

The stamp I used is Forever Friends by Papermania and originally only had one balloon. I wanted to do a collection of them so I could put the numbers inside a couple of them. Following the tutorial link on the post at 365 I used a couple of post its to mask the first full image an then played about with where I wanted the extra balloons. I coloured the image with Promarkers. I don't have many colours at the moment but I am really pleased with how it turned out. I just love that you can't see the brushmarks like you do with Marvy Le Plumes. It even makes my colouring in look good but I've got a hell of a long way to go to be as good as my friend Lisa, her colouring is brilliant, just look at the beauties on her blog here.

The main card is covered with a freebie paper from Simply Cards & Papercrafts magazine. The balloon paper, stickers and candles are all from the FF kit from QVC. The birthday sentiments are from magazine freebies. All these elements have been put on card to strengthen them and mounted on 3d foam. I used a littlwe mulberry flower in the hair of the bear and changed the colour with a Sakura glitter pen. The lettering is Doodlebug stickers that you apply glitter to which is very apt as 365 are sponsored by Art Glitter this week. I love glitter and any excuse to use it is fine by me ! LOL