Thursday, January 16, 2014

Clean and Simple and NEW Stencil!

The Dreamweaver January monthly challenge, in honor of all those resolutions we hope to achieve, is "Losing the Weight...AKA Clean and Simple (CAS)". If we all try really hard to simplify our design-work without losing our creativity, we can all say at the end of the month that we've lost some weight! Maybe not off of our waistlines, but at least off of our cards! Gotta start somewhere!
Of course, CHA, the Craft and Hobby Association Convention was this past week.  I don't know about my fellow design team members, but I would definitely fall off the resolution wagon at that fun event!  For the purposes of my blog, though, I am going to continue my best efforts to be Clean and Simple.  I am also presenting one of the NEW RELEASES for Dreamweaver, and I couldn't be more excited about this beautiful heart stencil.
Yep, super simple and very clean.  I used two stencils:  the new and gorgeous LJ928 Swirly Hearts and the classic LS22 Congratulations.  The other materials that I needed were Fuschia Coated Mercart Aluminum, the Stamping Details Rubber Embossing Mat, a manual die cut machine (I used a Cuttlebug), Mercart Teflon Tool (optional, but from the Beginner Kit), sandpaper, scissors, adhesive and card stock.  How quick was it?  Well, it took me longer to write this post!  First, I ran both stencils through the die cut machine with metal and the embossing mat.  I just switched up the order.  For the heart, I put the stencil face down with the metal pink side down over it, followed by the rubber mat and the usual cutting mats.  The congratulations stencil was placed face up with the metal pink side up on top of it.  I made the word a little "crisper" by pushing the metal down against the stencil with the Teflon Tool.  I sanded it with the stencil still in place.  The stencil was removed from the metal before I sanded the heart.  Then, I simply assembled the card.  Done.  Seriously!
I would appreciate a comment if you get a chance.  Also, be sure and visit the blogs of my fellow team members, as everyone should be posting some new stencils this week (and you don't want to miss out on seeing those!)

Thanks for stopping by!  Have a great day.

8 comments:

  1. As per usual...so creative and loving that I have it to look at first hand. Eat your hearts out (no pun intended) everyone. That Laura is the bomb when it comes to ideas with metal cardmaking!!!

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  2. OMGosh, simple and gorgeous! I have to try it and buy that swirly heart!

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  3. Love the bright pink with the new design!

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  4. Love the new heart stencil but what really caught my eye was your technique using the congratulations stencil -- will have to give that a try.

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  5. what a beautiful card! I love working with metal and will definitely give this technique a try... never knew you could emboss with your metal stencil in the Cuttlebug... thanks for sharing!!

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  6. I love how you did this Laura! Simply beautiful!

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