Retiform Technique – Behind the Scenes

In the wonderful world of social media, we tend to see the ‘perfect’ end product. What we don’t always see is the behind the scenes mishaps, mistakes and frustration. As a crafter, we have the ability to hide little mishaps with embellishments or turn the paper over and start again….not on this card!

I was scouring the internet for different card techniques and came across a technique called Retiform. It looked quite easy and thought I could get the card made in a short amount of time. Hahaha, I laugh at myself!! In this post I’m going to share with you my behind the scenes mishaps and mistakes….and my frustration was that this quick card took more than a short amount of time to create.

I had been waiting a while to get my hands on the Daisy Delight stamp set, punch and Designer Series Paper and was so excited when they finally arrived in the post. I couldn’t wait to share a card made with the stamp set paired with the Colorful Seasons stamp set and decided to use the Retiform Technique.

First attempt: (below) As this was a technique I had never done before, thought it would be best if I lightly drew my lines on the card front first. Began shading, all good, did my masking and stamping, still all good, until I was ready to erase my pencil lines….Oh no, not good, the pencil lines simply refused to erase! I tried at least 3 different erasers to get those pesky pencil lines off, but to no avail. First attempt put aside….

Second attempt: (Below) No pencil lines this time. Looking at my first attempt, I thought the stamped images looked a bit washed out and decided they might look a little more dramatic if I used a darker shade of ink. Oh no…. I was so wrong! Second attempt put aside….frustration creeping through at this point in time knowing that I had to attempt this card yet again!

Third attempt: (Below) No pencil lines and switched back to the ink used in the first attempt for the stamped images. I wasn’t entirely happy with images stamped in the first two attempts so decided to change them around. Finally, I think I have it…Yay!! Something worthy to share with the world.