One of my favorite journaling techniques is called masking or blocking. The purpose of masking is to cover areas on the layout to prevent ink or any form of markings in those spots.
Masking is simple to do, I tend to use either paper or washi tape (see my washi tape blog on masking here) . When I block larger areas I’ll use paper and adhere it to the journal layout with removable double-stick tape. The key word is removable. The first time I did a layout I used regular double stick tape. The paper ripped my journal and I ruined the entire layout. I quickly learned my lesson. When I’m masking a small area, I’ll use washi tape. Just be sure to make the washi tape less sticky so it doesn’t rip the journal layout. I place the tape on my jeans, remove it, and repeat the process until the washi isn’t so sticky, about 3-4 times.
When using the masking technique consider all the possibilities. Circles, squares, triangles, and rectangles are easy to cut out for shapes and designs. Die-cuts and paper punches also make the masking technique easy to accomplish.
With my most recent layout, I covered the majority of the journal with leaves while masking the areas for my schedule and notes, check it out.
Supplies
Notebook
Circle Paper Punch
Removable Adhesive
Tombow Dual Brush Pens (679, 757, 837, 912)
Black Drawing Pen
Leaf Stamp
Push-Pin Stamp
Acrylic Block
Lettering Guidebook
Step One
I started this layout by masking my journal with circles cut from a paper punch and rectangles cut with a paper trimmer. It’s important to place adhesive on the circles so they don’t move during the stamp or design process. This is my favorite removable adhesive to use.
Step Two
Next, I placed my leaf stamp onto an acrylic block. Instead of using traditional stamp ink, I colored in my stamps with waterbased markers. For the month of November I’ve committed to making my layouts with unique Fall colors (see my other layouts here, and here). This time around I’m using purples (679), burgundies (757, 837) and peach (912).
With the masking circles and rectangles in place, I stamped the leaf all over the layout. I even stamped on top of the shapes and in all sorts of angles.
Step Three
Then I lettered the month with the same purple brush pen that I used to stamp the leaves. After, I wrote in the dates and days of the week with a black drawing pen (01). For more on my lettering style, click here for my guidebook.
Step Four
Last, I colored a push-pin stamp and stamped it into the large rectangle box.
