Hello friends. It’s been another warm and sunny day here today – and the forecast is on for another potential heatwave starting over the weekend, but I wanted to share with you a serene evening sky for today’s card. This is the last of my demos from last week’s Clarity TV using the Riverside Landscape Reflection masks. I just used one of the mask sets for this card, sitting it on one of the toppers from the Autumn/Winter Skies set – I know that doesn’t sound very seasonal at the moment, but I love the colours in these and we are getting some fantastic sunsets thanks to this heat!

So, having chosen one of the toppers with a moon on it, I ran low tack tape down each side to protect the border, then lined up the Riverside Landscape mask so that the trees just caught the edge of the moon. There’s 3 pieces to this mask, as the inner bits need adding to mark out the tree trunks – more of that later…!

I could then blend ‘faded jeans’ Archival ink into the mask, dragging it downwards to create a soft edge to the ground and keeping the centre of the trees light – the new ink blending brushes are perfect for this, but spot-on sponges also work well. I then darkened around the edges and below the trees with ‘watering can’ Archival ink.

I took the little birds from the ‘extras’ mask sheet, popped them into place and sponged the ‘watering can’ through them (you get really sharp images), then added one of the Tall Art Deco sentiments which fitted perfectly around the moon. I attached it to a 6×6 card blank to which I’d already added a couple of strips of blue Waimea Falls companion paper to frame it.

Now this is a tale of two halves, as here you can see what happened with the demo I was prepping ahead of last Friday’s show – can you spot my rookie error? I forgot to add the centre parts of the trees when blending the ink to start with (I was using ‘tea rose’ Archival on this one) – I did then put it into place before adding the brown shadow colour, but was left with a weird looking darker area between the trees! Not wanting to waste my lovely topper, I ran low tack tape down the side borders again and then brushed more of the ‘tea rose’ on either side of the tree. Although that meant sacrificing the lovely light area on the horizon, it did save my topper! And can you believe, despite putting myself a large reminder note on my masks, I managed to do exactly the same again live on last Friday’s show – what a numpty!

Anyway, leaving aside my inability to use this mask set properly more than once (!), I’m going to share my good samples with a few challenges, starting with the ‘anything goes’ option at Seize the Birthday. Additionally, Cardz 4 Guys have got a ‘garden’ theme and Make My Monday want blending of 2 or 3 colours.