Grid Technique Tutorial

Well, I’ve had quite a few people comment on my cards this week (which is wonderful!!!!)  They’ve also been asking questions about this grid technique that I’ve been talking about and wanting to know how to do it.  So I thought I would do a little tutorial on how I made my blue butterfly card.
Firstly, I must say that I got the original idea from the Splitcoaststampers resources section it is called Retiform Grid Technique, you can see the tutorial here. 
I liked the look of it but I wanted mine to have more of a collaged background look.  I also wasn’t that keen on the “angles” on the card and wanted mine to be more rectangular. I looked up the meaning of Retiform and it means: net-like in form; having criss-crossed lines.  Which I’m not sure mine is anymore.  There is also a tutorial on Splitcoast for Collage stamping see here.  I hadn’t looked at this one before I made my card, some people had commented that they liked my “collaged” background and so I had a look at this tutorial too to see if I had actually said the wrong technique.  Anyway mine is perhaps a combination of the two things?
I hope you find my little tutorial helpful.  I’ll continue to call it Grid technique but WHO KNOWS what it really is?  I’m confused myself.

Step 1


Firstly I get my sponge.  I thought I’d show you this in the photo too.  I buy the pack of 3 stampin up sponges and cut them into 4 pieces (therefore you’ve got 12 sponges) and I write the colour on the side using a sharpie permanent marker so that the colours don’t get all messed up. I sponge with the rounded part.
Cut very vanilla card to size. I used 2 post it notes (I used the long ones but you can use the smaller or just sheets of copy paper) to mask off a rectangle.  I line up the post its with the edge of the card too to keep the lines straight. 

Step 2

Rub the sponge on the baja blue pad and then rub along the edges of the post its. The sponging will be half on and half off the post its. I also sponged up into the rectangle very lightly.

Step 3

Stamp whatever you like onto this rectangle.  I used NQN, a darker shade of the sponging colour.  You could use the same colour though for a more subtle look or a different colour entirely.  I used the Friendly Words wheel.

Step 4

Remove the post its and this is what you have.

Step 5

Next you need to cover the area you just stamped with the post it. Then I used another post it to make a longer rectangle under the stamped one, aligning edges so the lines will be straight.

Step 6

Sponge the lines again as before.

Step 7

Stamp this rectangle. I used Elements of style.

Step 8

Remove post its and this is what you have.

Step 9

Cover this over and make another rectangle and sponge the edges again.

Step 10

I stamped Because I care in this one.

Step 11

Again cover this up and sponge again.

Step 12

Used the music notes wheel. And didn’t do a great job either, doesn’t matter though because I am tearing off the bottom section of this for my card.

Step 13

Tear edge and admire your work!

I hope that all made sense.  If not just email me, I’m happy to answer any questions.
Kathy