Old, New, Borrowed, Blue for the month of June!

At Dreamweaver Stencils, we love to make our monthly challenges something for everyone, and not so strict that no one wants to play along. This month our challenge is, "Old, New, Borrowed, Blue", with the obvious thought being a wedding theme...but not necessarily. Add an old embellishment or picture. Use a new stencil design or technique. Borrow, or CASE (copy and say everything) another designers project, and obviously, blue...is blue. Where will YOUR creative process take you for this month? We'd love to see! And remember, linking your creations with the Inklinkz tool at the end of the team posts, provides you with the opportunity to win the stencil of your choice!

After a week of creating almost every day for the blog hop we just shared with Tsukineko ....I am being a bit lazy and my BORROWED part of this creation, is in fact the whole card! This beautiful black and BLUE card is done by Jane Gill from just south of OLD London town in the wonderful UK. Jane is known for her wonderful work with punched flowers and yet today she has also added a NEW touch or technique of adding embossed patterns to the metal vase stencil (LG626). This creation can actually be considered  a Zentangle process for metal, done by first embossing the vase itself with a large stylus or paper stump and then using different metal working tools to refine the pattern. This is done by working on the back of the metal and then returning to the front side and refining some of the work. Different tools shown below can be used: styluses are used to push the metal down into the soft leather surface to create patterns, a nail sanding block and a fiberglass brush (the one with the red handle) can both be used to remove the black color so the aluminum color shows through. Each step in the refining process is as individual as the creator. 
The four silver tools that you see below in this picture are actually referred to and sold as "a beginner set" ABK.

Jane used aluminum coated with black paint and began by dry embossing the ginger jar stencil (LG626) with a large paper stump then used her other metalwork tools to continue the refining process.

Several weeks ago our fearless leader, Pam Hornschu used colored aluminum and die cut and refined an entire 3-D project. That project is an inspiration to those of us who aren't sure what to refine next in our metal work. She showed how you can use the background stencils and die cuts to add texture to your work.

Jane finished off the card with a rubber stamped sentiment from her own stamp designs made for Woodware Craft Collection in the UK and a die cut trimmed edging and then silver and black ribbon. The centers of the flowers are robin's egg blue colored pearls added as an accent to emphasize the blue of the background color.

Now be sure to join our old, new, borrowed, blue challenge and use the inlinkz tool below to share with all of us. Take a few minutes and visit the blogs of our design team listed below and be sure to leave some TLC (tender loving comments) to boost their creative spirits!

Leadonna Kimmel

Louise Healy

Laura Drahozal

Lynn Mercurio

Pam Hornschu

Jamie Martin

An InLinkz Link-up