Masked Invitations

         I decided I should set aside my scrapbooking and get some invitations made.  I decided to just use a balloon stamp.  I made postcard invites by cutting three  8 1/2 x 11" sheets of pumpkin pie card stock into quarters.  I then trimmed three sheets of whisper white card stock to measure 4 x 5 1/4".  Using my Pumpkin Pie stamp pad I stamped the Dot Invitation to the bottom/ side of the white card stock.  I used my double hole slot punch to make a hole in the top of the invitation and threaded some orange satin ribbon through it.  I decided I wanted a cluster of balloons and used a technique called masking.  To do this I stamped the red balloon; once on the card and once on a scrap of paper.  I cut out the paper scrap balloon and laid it over the red balloon on the card creating a mask.  I then stamped the orange balloon onto the white card stock and a second orange balloon on to the scrap paper.  Once I cut out that balloon I masked the orange balloon (and kept the mask on the red balloon) and stamped my final green balloon.  I ended up making 10 invitations and I used the same two scrap paper masking balloons for them all.  They stayed neatly in place allowing me to stamp over them and keep the images they were masking underneath intact and clean so it looks like the balloons are in front of one another in a cluster.  If your masking pieces move at all while you are trying to stamp try stamping your image onto the sticky side of a post it note and then cutting it out.  The post it note will stick to (and remove from)  your image allowing you to try masking too.