Forever Love - Masking Technique

Hi ya everyone - Melissa from MelissaMade here to share a special little tutorial with you today.  Thanks to the ever so sweet and talented Sheila for allowing me to gab with all of you again today!  This is really a simple little card but I love the technique of using Masking Fluid to protect certain elements of an image or page to allow some extra dimension.  This is just one way of using Masking Fluid but I'm sure your imagination will run wild with possibilities!
First, I started out with this ever so sweet Tiddly Ink digital image called Valentine Bugg.  I printed her and now I am using my Circle Nestable to cut her out.  Nestables are just wonderful for cutting out images because you can see the image right through the die cut.  I tape the circle around the image, carefully placing her in the middle.

Next, I place my A plate and C plate in the Cuddlebug layered as follows.

I flip the Nestable so the cutting piece is up and my image is face down.  You can no longer see the nestable but the tape is ensuring that the image remains in the middle.

I carefully place a B plate on top and run through the CuddleBug.

Next, I emboss the edges by placing the A plate down and my nestable with the cut out still inside.  I use my rubber embossing mat and three sheets of thick cardstock and TWO B plates.  I run this through my CuddleBug and get a very nice embossed edge.

Next, I take Masking Fluid and a paint brush and cover the entire image with the fluid.  A little goes a long way and you will be able to see what is covered.

After the image is entirely coated I rinse my brush in water.  Do this immediately to save your brush quality.  It rinses very easily if done right away.  Allow your image to dry.  This might take a bit of time - 10 minutes or so depending on the size of your image. 
I chose faded jeans Distress Ink by Tim Holtz and work in a circular pattern starting on my craft mat and working over the edges of my image.

Next, I chose a pink Tim Holtz ink called Worn Lipstick and a q-tip and color in the tiny heart as I did not mask this.

After the inking is dry I slowly peel off my masking fluid.  This can be done with an eraser or simply your finger.  Here you can see the fluid peeling away - be very careful - it can tear your paper.

I then colored my image with my Copic Markers.

I set this aside and used my Gypsy to cut out a heart shaped card.  I used Nifty Fifties for the Love font and you can choose any heart from a cartridge - I used George and Basic Shapes.

You can see that I welded the shadow of Love to the heart.  I also welded the letters in Love together to get one single cut.  I cut an additional heart too for a top layer and the regular letters of the word love.
UH OH - here I made a big mistake.  I wanted my card to fit in a 5x5 envelope.  As you can see my image is too big to fit on the heart.  

So a girl's got to do what a girl's got to do!!!

I cut her out removing all my inking!!  Well not all of it, the blue is still surrounding our sweet little Bugg and it looks as if she's floating in air.  Next, I adhere my heart to the card and I use pop dots to pop the love shadow off of my card.  Then I glue the letters to the popped love sentiment.

Then I run my Tiddly image through the Xyron and adhere her to my card.

I decide the card needs a little extra touch and I add a sentiment of forever using black ink.

Finally, I top my card off with a little doodle here and there and some of my favorite Stardust Stickles!

 And my card was finished!!!

I hope you enjoyed my tutorial on masking today.  Please feel free to ask questions and I always LOVE hearing your wonderful comments.  For more fun projects please visit my blog - MelissaMade!