Spring Clean and Simple Month

Well, here we are in a month dedicated to "Spring Clean and Simple". Although this challenge is often difficult for me--face it, I am not known for simple work--it should be a great opportunity for you. All you have to do is make a card that is clean and simple, or perhaps just springy, put it online and link it to the Mr. Linky on the Dreamweaver Stencils Blog. You could win great prizes from Dreamweaver Stencils. Just remember, the theme is "Spring Clean and Simple".

Here, I used both Spring and Clean and Simple. The Spring stencil that is used is actually the slightly larger, retired version of Spring LM 293. The gorgeous butterfly is Butterfly LJ 916. I used a Cuttlebug to create these parts, but any hand die cut machine would work. They were both done in an almost identical way, but with a slightly different placement of the black coated aluminum. Here are the steps:

1) Place your Spring stencil face up on your base. Put the black coated aluminum on top with the black side facing up. Tape down with a very small piece of removable tape. Place your Details Embossing mat on top. Cover with your top mat and send through the machine. Leave the metal on the stencil.

2) Decide on the placement of your butterfly on the metal. Place the butterfly face down on the base of the machine. Put your metal black side down on the butterfly. Tape it down with just a little removable tape. Cover with the Details mat and your regular mat. Send through the machine. Leave the metal on the stencil.

3) With both of the pieces, you can create sharper details by using a Mercart Metal Teflon tool and pressing the metal down and into the stencil where applicable.

4) Remove the butterfly from the stencil and sand to reveal the silver.

5) Leave the Spring word on the stencil and sand to reveal the silver. Then, remove the stencil.

6) Assemble.

See? Clean and simple. I think it may have taken me longer to type all of this than to do it. Hopefully, you will give it a try. Check out the other posts this week and get inspired to do something Clean and Simple yourself. Then, don't forget to link it and win. I will try hard to make something else simple, and I will see you next week.....