Art Studio: A Masked Lettering Title

Happy Sunday everyone! Gia here…I was thinking about calling this post, "As seen on Pinterest (Nailed It or Failed It?)" or alternatively  , "Go Big or Go Home!" But I decided to go with the more descriptive title :)  

What is masked lettering you ask? Well, masked anything means that you use a cut out image to protect the surface underneath, and with whatever medium, color all of the space around the image. When the mask is lifted, the image is defined by the colored negative space. It is easier to show you visually than to describe it, so here goes...

Dollar Store Vinyl Letters

Spelling out my quote over my patterned paper background. Make sure you leave space for your photo

Gesso as a primer will help prevent bleeding of my pigment creating a crisp edge.

Heat tools were invented for impatient people like me.

I happened to have stain in the color I wanted but you can use paint, ink, or mist also.

When dry, remove the letters. Save them because they are re-usable!

My quote by Emerson says, "Live in the Sunshine. Swim the Sea. Drink the Wild Air." Poetic and appropriate for this photo of my son photo-bombing my selfie against the blue sky here in Hawaii. Because my title pretty much fills the whole space, I clustered and layered all of my embellishing close in to the photo. I used a tag in a stitched vellum pocket behind the photo to add some secret journaling. I was thinking that this layout is an interesting combination of words on top of words on top of hidden words. 
The paper I used as my background is from the Simple Stories DIY Boutique collection.  There are a few things I would do differently next time-which is one reason why I decided to play with this technique on a layout before attempting to make a larger canvas for my home decor. Thanks so much for joining me in the Art Studio this weekend. I hope you are inspired to get a little messy and free your inner artist! Have you ever tried masking on a layout? Do you ever actually try ideas that you pinned on Pinterest? I'd love to hear your thoughts! 

--xGia