Hello Planner Friends! I am so, so excited to share with you how I created this layout with you. Masking is a great way to combine creative with function in our planners. We can use bigger, decorative stamps in our layouts, without taking up all our planning space. This stamp set I used in my decorating is a space theme, and I wanted to be able to use lots of the planets, but not take up all my room for all our real life stuff that needs to go in there. I also wanted to “paint on” ink using a sponge to get a whimsical outer space look. So let”s jump in!

First I laid the foundation of the layout by choosing a darker purple ink and used a sponge to blot and smear ink the ink around the edges of the pages and in my notes section. There are two main ways I mask in my layouts. The first is to stamp an image on a scrap piece of paper and fussy cut it out. I then stamp then use that to cover up an image I don’t want to get ink on. That’s what i did in the following photo for the rocket ship.

The second is to use post it notes to block off sections that I don’t want to stamp on or ink or to partially stamp an image on the paper.

To really give this layout an outer space look, I used a white gel pen to add stars. Gel pens can be temperamental, so to get the ink flowing I always do small circular motions on my thumb, and then  I don’t have any problems with a good ink flow on the paper, especially when using it on pigment ink. It’s important to vary the size of the dots, otherwise it will end up looking like snow!

I also stamped some images on sticker paper to color and use in my Notes section. Colored pencils are my go to, and the blending pencil is amazing for blending colors together. For example, I colored one planet a light pink color all over, and then went over the pink in sections with a purple pencil using medium pressure. I then took the blending pencil and used soft circular motions to blend the purple out giving the planet a more interesting and dimensional look. The nice thing about stamping decorative images on sticker paper is that I can move them all around before I decide on where to stick them in my layout.

I saved my planner stamping for the end of this layout. Since I went pretty heavy on the decorative stamping this week, I needed to make sure I could still fit my lined boxes. That’s the great thing about stamps! You can see perfectly how they will fit, and you can easily mask off to make a box smaller if you need to! I wanted to keep with the outer space theme, so I used star check boxes and a star header box, and chose an ink that would compliment my stars and sky.

Thank you for stopping by and checking out my blog post. Have fun with your planner, try new things, and I hope that I have made planner stamping a little less intimidating.

Lindsay              IG: @glam2plan_pnw