You are going to love these 5 steps to adorable layered cards that won’t cost extra to mail!

You know how you add layers of paper and dies and ribbon and embellishments to make THE perfect card? Only to find out you then have to plaster another stamp on it to get it to go through the mail?

I have the ideal answer to keep the post office from digging into your change purse!

Layer with stamps and inks so it just LOOKS like you have lots of layers. It’s called masking!

This is a fabulous rubber stamping technique that’s been around for ages! That’s not very hard at all!

We just forget about it sometimes.

And we really shouldn’t since it gives so much personality to our designs! Plus when you can layer on colour and stamps without adding bulk, your bank balance will thank you!

5 Steps to Adorable Layered Cards That Won’t Cost Extra to Mail!

My masking today involves two kinds of masking. Regular and reverse (or negative shape) masking. These 5 small steps will get you creating super cute cards too!

Jo’s Tips for Layered Cards Without the Bulk

1.Use a larger label that you can create a background through. I say “through” because you want it to look like you’re looking out through a shaped window. So everything around the shape is not coloured or stamped but everything IN the shape is! This is reverse masking. Cut a piece of bond or computer paper about the same size (or just a smidge bigger) as your top layer (my Shimmery White). Then cut your shape out of the middle and place it securely over the piece of cardstock.

2. Stamp your next images that are “peeking” INTO the window. Our little gnomes are all standing on tippy toes peeking into the window to say Hi! They’re stamped in Memento Black and coloured with my Watercolour Pencils and Water painters.

3. Place “masks” that are cut to the exact shape of the stamped images and over top of the label mask. Here I carefully cut out from my Masking Paper these same three gnomes and stuck them right over top.

4. Create a colourful background or scene with stamps or blending brushes. I blended my green ink near the bottom to sort of look like grass, then made a stencil from the Basic Borders dies and used some different blues to blend for clouds.

5. Add one more full layer. I would max this out at one piece of matted cardstock like my Parakeet Party here. It still won’t add too much bulk, but will pull together some of your colours.

Upcoming Video to Show You How

In my next blog post, I have a new JO-Tips video for you showing how to mask a different card (a bit like the gnomes above) so you can see how to do it yourself.

In the meantime, if you love the look of this technique, you can pick up my detailed online class, The Magic of Masking to walk you step by step through 3 great designs, plus give lots of tips and tricks and info for becoming a “Masked Bandit”. Get more info by clicking the image below.

Give Masking a Try

Most stamped images work great for masking and to create a scene like these gnomes. What about making an autumn falling leaves design? And bet those Halloween witches would be super adorable! Or something with your cute snowmen and snow falling outside the window? Dig around until you find something YOU like.

I did use a variety of supplies for this card. Check them all out by clicking on this list you can print, pin or order from. If you have any questions, I’d be happy to help. Just drop me an email to jo@designwithjo.ca!

Final photo!

Keep your change in your purse and don’t hand it over to the post office when you use these 5 steps to adorable layered cards that won’t cost extra to mail!