January Challenge/Fresh Start

New Owl stencil Zentangle work by Wayne Harlow

This past week we exhibited at CHA (Craft & Hobby Association), which is our annual trade show in Anaheim. Over the past year and a half we have promoted using our stencils for a technique called Zentangle and at this show we were fortunate to be across the aisle from Fox Chapel Publishing. They are the company that Suzanne McNeill sold her Design Originals publishing company to. It was great to see her and see what she has been doing. There are always new techniques and fresh things to inspire us at CHA. I also chatted with Kathy Yoshida from Hanko Designs. So today in honor of new beginnings and yet old friends I am posting a card made by Wayne with one of our new designs. He did zentangle work in the our new owl stencil (LG751) and I made it into a card with a piece of metallic gold and red Hanko designs washi paper and also some of Bazzill's Dotted Swiss "pepper" colored cardstock. I know it is hard to see the embossed dots on this last piece of mounting paper, but I love that added bit of texture and it really helps make the card extra special. Sometimes "simple" is the best effect.

I also had time to go to the Sakura booth to see what new things are happening with their micron pens. I learned that one of the issues that some people seem to have with tracing the design of the metal stencil with their pens is.... that the nibs of the pens can often be damaged in the process, because of the pressure against the metal. Everyone has a different touch when they trace. I tend to be more heavy handed with this tracing technique whereas Wayne never seems to have a damaged pen. Keeping the pen perpendicular to the paper's surface rather than slanting it and using a lighter touch seems to take care of this problem for him. Being aware that damage could happen makes me more careful as I do my tracing. I like to use a 005 pen for the really fine detail in some stencils, but an 01 can also be used and be a bit more sturdy for this work. Also if you are like some of us you probably have several pens, use one of your older ones for this purpose and mark it with finger nail polish to identify it. Sakura recommends elevating the entire stencil so the nib doesn't come into contact with the stencil. How would you do that? Wayne said he would accomplish that by making a template of acetate with a hole the size of the image to place under the stencil. You could make several different sizes just slightly smaller than the design image. Trying different things is my mantra for this new year's fresh start.

Here's hoping that all of you can also try something fresh and new in 2013. If you have never joined our challenges please give it a go. Click HERE to link up to mr. linky, and if you don't have a blog feel free to send me one of your creations and I will post it here for you...just email me at: lynell@dreamweaverstencils.com

This month our challenge winner will be chosen randomly. So let us know what your idea is for a fresh start and join us.

Here's hoping you'll have time to share a comment or two with my fabulous design team. Follow this list and see what they are posting to inspire a Fresh Start for our January Challenge.

Pam Hornschu   

Laura Drahozal  

Louise Healy  

Wendy Jordan  

Terrece Siddoway 

Kristi Van Doren 

Georgia Sommers 

Lee Kellogg 

Liz Martin

 Cyndi Bundy 

Cherylynn Moser