Technique lovers Retiform

I am so excited. Today I got to host the technique lovers challenge at SCS. TLC244 I have lots of cards that show that technique, but I felt compelled to make a new one. I really like how this one turned out.

Faux Enamel Butterfly

Today was a very stressful day. My job had me on the verge of tears several times. I needed to make a comfort card for me today. I used my favorite colors, and my favorite image... a butterfly. This was for the technique lovers challenge to make a faux enamel embellishment. The color for the butterfly was made using melted crayons. I used my electric skillet lined with foil. I placed my cardstock on the foil. I then drew on the cardstock and the heat melted the crayons. I removed it from the heat and covered it with glue.

This technique made me think of my cousin Alissa and my sister Shari. When we were little and lived in Phoenix AZ, in the heat of summer we would take rocks from our Granny's garden. The rocks would be so hot we would almost burn our hands touching them. We then would draw on the rocks and the crayons would melt making them so colorful. We would cover the rocks with glue to make them shiny.

After the glue was dry on my butterfly I spray painted it with a clear shiny acrylic spray. I glued glass beads for the body and added two thin strips of black cardstock for the antenea.
The base of my card was made using the retiform technique.

Fall Leaf Print Tutorial

For this technique, I used a green leaf

that was moist and pliable, my brayer and post it notes.

I have a limited supply of ink,

but what I used was yellow, green,

orange, red and brown (cabin fever is my brown).

I also used my acrylic block.

I inked up my brayer using the brown.


I placed my leaf with the top side of
the leaf face up on my acrylic block.
I brayered over the leaf making sure
that the whole surface of the leaf was inked.




I cleaned my brayer. I placed the leaf, ink side
down on my cardstock. I then used the
brayer to push the leaf onto the paper.






I carefully pulled up the leaf and reapeated the steps
a couple more times.

After inking the leaf, it was time to make the

masks for the leaf prints. I traced around the

edges of the leaf with a pencil.

I cut the leaf masks out.

I made tape loops to put on the back of the

masks. To make the tape less sticky I put the tape

on the back of my hand first.

I place the masks over the leaf prints. I then used the post it

notes to do the retiform technique that I described in

a previous tutorial. I used the inks in this order:

Yellow, Green, Orange, Red and lastly Brown.

Here is what it looked like when I removed the

post it notes.

I stamped little flourishes with the brown ink.

I used my itty bitty background stamp with

brown ink to add some texture.

These four cards were made with this technique.

Retiform Tutorial

I have a very easy technique to share with you.

To do the retiform technique you need

3 to 4 different inks that are complimentary

and vary from a dark to light.

The other materials needed are a brayer,

an acrylic block and post it notes

Ink up the brayer using the lightest color of ink.


After putting ink on the brayer, I roll it over the acrylic
block to make sure the ink is spread evenly.




Then I roll the brayer over the cardstock.

I place 3 post it notes randomly on the cardstock.

Ink up the brayer with 2nd lightest color of ink.
Roll on acrylic block(not shown again).

Then I roll the brayer over the

post it notes and cardstock.

I add more post it notes. Randomly placed.

Ink up brayer again with next to darkest ink.

Roll over the post it notes. You get the idea. Add the last

few post it notes and use the darkest ink using the

same steps as the other inks.

After using the darkest ink, pull the post it notes off

and you have a geometric looking paper.

Wasn't that easy?

Here is a card that I made for today's limited supplies challenge

using the retiform technique..

We were to make an opposite card. We were to use our:

oldest set... my roses are my oldest set.

newest tool... my brayer is my newest tool.

favorite colors... turquoise and peach are my favorite colors.

least favorite embellishment... mine are the swirly clips.