Several thoughts on a fresh start . . .

A fresh start can mean so many things and for me, one of the best ways to start the new year is to take in all the new products, ideas and inspiration at CHA, the Craft and Hobby Association's winter trade show.   We also celebrated the release of the new Dreamweaver Stencils – and a fun way to continue with this month's Fresh Start challenge theme!    

After the holidays, we all need thank you cards and here are two that are just perfect for conveying your warmest thanks with a bit of whimsy.

 The Bold Thank You stencil (LG748)  is perfect for the paper piecing technique.  Pick out your favorite coordinating papers and trace the letters, remembering to place your stencil face down on the wrong side of your patterned paper.  That is,  the side of the stencil with Lynell's name and stencil number should be placed against the back of your patterned paper so that when the letters are cut out, the tracing lines won't show and all your letters will be facing the right direction.  To make letter placement on the card front easier, I positioned the stencil on the card front and made faint pencil marks on the tops of each letter, so that I could recreate their position and spacing.  To give a little more definition, I outlined each letter with a Micron 03 pen from Sakura.

Those of you who saw this post know how much I love the Retro Sitting Cat (LL3020) and that I always have several (OK, more than several) images pasted up and ready to go.  So, when I got the Merci stencil (LS1011), I knew this would be a perfect match.

The cat is pasted with Glossy Black Embossing Paste (DGKP) and Merci is done with the double glitter technique  (you can find out more about that here).  Now, if you're very clever, you can glitter up the tiny beret from the (LG741) Kitty Words stencil and give this cool cat some real French flair!

That's it for today.  There will be more new releases and fresh starts throughout January.  For more ideas and inspiration, check out the rest of the team blogs and think a bit of your idea of a Fresh Start.  There are a lot of possibilities for interpretation, so let's see what you come up with.  There's plenty of time to post your project to Mr. Linky on the DREAM it UP! blog (where you will also find more information on the challenge) and you might just be a winner!

Pam Hornschu 

Laura Drahozal

Louise Healy  

Terrece Siddoway 

Kristi Van Doren 

Georgia Sommers 

Lee Kellogg  

Liz Martin (you're here)

 Cyndi Bundy

Cherylynn Moser

Wendy Jordan 

See you next week,

Liz