The difference between a mask and a stencil is, in my own words, that one is the ‘negative’ of the other. What is blocked by one, is open in the other. Both have their merits and advantages of course, and since I had never tried a mask before, I was curious about its effects.

I only have one large masking stencil in my possession at the moment, and it is one by Studiolight. It is large enough for an A4 (or US Letter) size, which also makes it perfect for the giant #12 craft tags by Ranger.

My craft tags were black, and I already knew from an earlier experiment that the Distress Oxide colors by Tim Holtz were not my preferred sprays when used on black. They show up quite clearly, but they seem to loose much of their actual colors and everything turns a very pale pastel.

So, I dove into my stash to see what else I might use, and rediscovered my Color Bloom sprays by Prima Marketing. These are inks with mica-based dye, so they not only show up on black, but add some nice shimmer as well. And although there was some loss of color here as well, it didn’t bother me as much, thanks to the nice metal sparkle the mica brings.

For my masked tag I chose the most industrial colors I could find in my stash; which weren’t many for I only have about 7 or 8 sprays. So I chose three shades of purple and one bronze. The effect was stunning, better than I had thought! And on a black substrate an industrial-themed mask is of course perfect, since its pattern will show up in black.

The most important disadvantage to the Color Bloom sprays is their price – as far as I have seen these are the most expensive on the (craft) market. A second, minor issue I have with them is their enormous nozzle, which makes them ridiculously difficult to store in any kind of efficient way. They just take up too much room. However, this is only a small point, I would definitely buy some more – except they’re not being produced anymore! I don’t know why but Prima Marketing seems to have quit this product line; perhaps they didn’t sell as well as they hoped.

However, I’ll definitely keep using the Color Blooms I already have, every time I want to spray something onto a black base!

In fact, I’ll show you another Color Bloom experiment next time, when I try my hand at some monoprinting! 🙂