Hello there! Friday seems to come round very quickly and we’ve got another new theme to challenge you at As You See It – it’s the dreaded speed stamping! We ask you to make a card in under 10 minutes, this time on the theme of fruit. I was struggling with this one, as I don’t have any fruit stamps, but then I remembered the lemon tree from ClarityCrafts‘ ‘Linda’s In The Garden’ series and off I went, picking up the top row from TicTacToe’s grid on the way.

Now, did I mention this is a speed challenge, to be completed in under 10 minutes? You can gather together everything you beed beforehand (and you all know that’s a challenge all of it’s own for me!) but your timer has to start the minute you apply ink or cut paper. Unsurprisingly I’ve got no step-by-step photos, but here’s a look at my starting point, with everything ready to go…

I’d found an inky mop-up in my stash to use as my background, so stamped the lemon tree and sign onto it with ‘potting soil’ Archival (I had them both on one mount to save a few seconds!) You won’t be surprised to know that I used most of my time shading in the image with Pergaliner pencils, before adding the sentiment from the ‘bijou retro’ set. I used a square embedder to emboss the frame on the front of a 5×5 card blank, ran a black Sharpie around the edges of the topper and attached it to the card.

Phew – I made it! Here’s my finishing time (which thankfully never includes tidying up afterwards!) So, are you up for the challenge of a fruity creation in under 10 minutes? Come on over and play!