Autumn Retiform

Back to my roots this morning, with some good old-fashioned stamping.

I first saw this technique when a friend posted a card on FB and mentioned that she used the 'retiform' technique. I googled "retiform technique" and there were some excellent tutorials on YouTube. The theme this week at The Male Room is Autumn or fall, so I used my Autumn Days stamp set, which hasn't seen the light of day for quite a while. I added images from Simply Sketched, French Foliage and Lovely As A Tree.

 

I started by masking off areas of the card using More Mustard ink and in this way formed the 'grid'. Then by masking of the individual panels using post-it notes, I stamped the connected images using Tangelo Twist, Chocolate Chip and More Mustard. I made the sentiment attachment using an oval die and the birthday greeting from Simply Sketched. My biggest problem was keeping the ink in the
right place, stamping cleanly and selecting the images moor each panel. Other than that it was a breeze!
Going to link up with the challenge at Make My Monday, haven't played over there in such a long time and I see that they have an Autumn colours challenge.

Autumn Oldies

I am having a thing at the moment about using old stamp sets and this morning I have dusted off a real favourite of mine that got shoved to the back of the drawer, French Foliage. It's perfect for Autumnal cards and this morning I have used it for a colour challenge at CAS Colours and Sketches

I love these colours together. They are quite 'floral' but today I've made them into leaves, although the deep Mossy Meadow green only gets a token showing in my card as a layer and for stamping the sentiment.

 

I made the panel, stamping the leaves and layered up on the three colours of card stock. Then I stuck this on the inside of my card and cut the front panel to expose the mat.

I stamped and fussy cut out one leaf which I added on foam pads to the slim front of the card and stamped the sentiment from Wetlands (another all time favourite stamp set ) just above.

Just to prove my point about 'floral' this is the card I first made for the challenge, using Work Of Art and Best of Flowers stamp sets

Bouquet Of Leaves

The new colour challenge at CAS Colours and Sketches, chosen by our hostess for November, Lizy, is another cracker of a combination

Perfect for Christmas cards, male or female occasion, anything you like. I'm not sure I need any more Christmas cards and in my normal way, decided to make something everyone else was making weeks ago - Autumn leaves. Lucky for me, the challenge at The Paper Players is CAS- with leaves.

I love kraft on kraft, so that's where I started, using my French Foliage stamp set. Then I stamped the leaves and cut them out, securing my 'bouquet' with a green ribbon bow. I made the tag by stamping with some text and then overstamping the sentiment from Whacky Wishes.

I do know that the green DP is not strictly Old Olive, but we don't restrict our challenge to Stampin' Up shades, so you'll have to forgive me this one! (I just loved this paper so much)
Finally, I stamped inside to complete the sentiment and decided to add a few more windswept leaves.

I do hope you'll give this challenge a try, there's more inspiration from the team over at the blog.

It Must Be Wimbledon!

Strange title?  Well, it's Wimbledon time and for me that means...no, not tennis - strawberries!
I love them, I especially like picking them at the fruit farm, or if I'm very lucky from my garden, all warm from the sunshine, sweet and juicy...yuuummm.
Next best thing to eating them is making a card with a strawberry theme and that's just what I've done for the sketch challenge this week from CAS-Colours and Sketches. This is the sketch -it's a beauty, isn't it?

For the main image on my card I used two stamp sets - Fruit and Flowers and French Foliage (closest I had to strawberry leaves)

I stamped some leaves onto the card blank, then layered up fussy-cut fruit and more leaves. The inside is stamped with more strawberries and leaves, but you'll have to take my word for it as I forgot to photograph the inside. The sentiment stamp is from Friendly Phrases. Here's a close up of those strawberries- I finished them off with some Glossy Accents to make them even more dimensional

I hope you enjoy the tennis, if you're a fan, and have a strawberry or two (I especially like mine dipped in dark chocolate!).
I've found a couple of challenges out in blogland into which I'm going to pop my card. Kreativeinkauf -The Challenge Blog -a German site where the theme is Strawberries (perfect!) - I love that this whole craft thing is worldwide, and A Little Bit Crafty Challenge Blog  where the challenge is A Little Bit Sweet

Dynamic Duo Green and Orange

I am not at home at the moment, so crafting is a bit more difficult than normal, but I thought I would still have a go at one or two of the challenge blogs.  This is my first offering - it's for Dymamic Duos colour challenge - orange and green.

I stamped the green leaf image from SU's French Foliage set first and then added a punched daisy flower to each one. I put a little orange rhinestone for the centre of the flowers. Then I stamped and coloured the leaf from another SU set, Paisley Petals, and coloured it using Promarkers.  I stamped the flower from the same set onto orange cardstock and heat embossed it to make the definition on the flower stand out and then snipped these two images out to combine them and pop them up with dimensionals. I edged the card with my Pear Pizazz Stampwrite marker and the paper twine and little leaf and flower tag finishes the job!
I have to admit that I'm really into watching the Olympics, and was in London yesterday to see the Ladies' Marathon...wow, they are amazing, but, watching them, I think I'll stick to crafting!