Hi everyone!!! Today’s May I Suggest… is going to be a little different than it has been the past few weeks, but change is good — right? What I am going to suggest today is a technique — masking. Probably one of the first techniques you learned as a beginning stamper, and if you don’t know howtomask, well, we’ve got a video tutorial for you to watch, so you’ll be ready to go in no time at all. Here’s the card I made:

• Stamps: Coffee with Friends by Flourishes
• Paper: White, Black, Boxer and Scarlet’s Letter by Basic Grey***
• Ink: Palette Noir Black
• Accessories: Black Sheer Ribbon, SU Brads, Petite Oval Nestabilities, Eclipse Masking Tape, Dimensionals
• Size: 5.5″ square

***Please note: A few lines of our Basic Grey paper are either sold out or dangerously low. If the pad you are looking for does not appear in the store, please just check back in a day or two. The shipment is due to arrive any day!

This uses Coffee with Friends, one of Flourishes latest releases, and the first set in the Stamp Simply line. We all knew from day one that this set was a dream to paper piece. Well, it is also a super simple set to mask. It took hardly no time at all to create this main image with the 2 mugs on it. And they are not only masked, but paper pieced as well. How fun!!! And such impact for very little effort —

I first stamped my mug in the forefront on the white cardstock, then stamped again on a piece of Eclipse Masking Tapeto make my mask.Icut out my mask, layed it onto the mug, then I stamped the mug again where I wanted it. The mask totally protected the first mug. I then stamped my mug again twice on designer paper for the piecing, then I stamped on a flourish from the set (right over the printed paper), cut out andadhered onto the card. Fun!!!

And if you have never tried the Eclipse Masking Tape, you really MUST. This is a low tack tape made for masking. No more trying to find the sticky spot on the sticky note — the entire mask is a low tack self-stick tape when made with the Eclipse Tape. How wonderful!!! OK, now check out this little glimpse at a card:

As mysample was really quick and simple, I’d like to direct you over to the Blog of my good friend, Susan Roberts, who created such a gorgeous card using the beautiful, newly released Peony. She took her masking a few steps further than I did and, WOW!!! Wait until you see the result with that stunning Peony. You can see it here. Susan also includes some great instructions for you.

And speaking of instructions, here’s a few places you can check out to see tutorials on masking.

• Nancy Kirk has prepared a nice video on both masking and reverse masking and she is using Flourishes first stamp set, Cake Decorating 101. When you watch this video, you not only get a good overview on how to mask, but you can actually see the cake and pedestal come together — fun!!! See Nancy’s tutorial here.
• Beate Johns over at SCS has a basic masking tutorial in the Resources section there. You can check out Beate’s tutorial here.

I apologize for this abbreviated version of May I Suggest… , but time constraints prohibited me from doing much more this week. And I am sothankful to Susan for her beautifully done Peony masked card and instructions, and also to Nancy and Beatefor their great tutorials on masking. Hope you check them all out.But to recap, what I am suggesting today is:

• Masking — it’s so easy and fun and brings so much depth to your images– check out the tutorials linked above to get you going
• Coffee with Friends and Peony — Flourishes latest releases — 2 completely different sets, but both adapt so well to the masking technique
• Eclipse Masking Tape — a fabulous replacement for the sticky note — LOL!!! Truly, it is!!! Makes masking a breeze!!!

While enjoying my morning coffee, I made the rounds to see what all of our DT was up to last night and MY OH MY!!!! I MUST share these with you — take a look — you will NOT be disappointed:

Leslie Miller — Coffee Gift Card Holder with tutorial — and check out what she did with the saucer — brilliant!!!

Julie Koerber — Coffee Gift Card Holder with altered Take Out Cup and tutorial — what a wonderful, wonderfulgift!!!

Faith Hofrichter — Fabulous card featuring Fantasy Floral Garden, a la Markie’s Mom style!!! You must check this out — with a little birdie, too!!!

Linda Duke — A delicate and beautiful Siberian Iris card done in Linda’s signature Paper Tole style. She offers instruction and a close up view. Be sure to click on the smaller floral image to get a nice, large closeup showing all the Paper Tole detail.

Thank you all so much for stopping in — I truly do appreciate it!!! Hope you are all having a great week!!!