Swirls, Whirls and Flourishes ~ Stamps and Stencils ~ New Challenge

Happy New Year everybody! It's the first Thursday of the month and that means it's time for a new challenge over at Stamps and Stencils. Our very talented design team member, Ruth, has the honour of launching the first challenge of the year and I'm sure you'll agree that it's a great one, with lots of creative scope.The subject Ruth has chosen is 'Swirls, Whirls and Flourishes'. You can see Ruth's fabulous work, as well as some gorgeous projects by the rest of the design team, if you hop over to the Stamps and Stencils blog with this link . I've created this little book, inspired by Kate Crane and using Eileen Hull's Passport Book Die. I was fortunate enough to attend one of Kate's workshops last year, and she showed us how to blend paint onto a substrate and then build up layers of stenciling, stamping and doodling. It was great fun and making this little book, was like having a second bite of the cherry.

Here are the painted book covers. I used Deco Art Media paints with White Tinting Base, to blend the colours together. I then added a layer of stencilling........

Followed by some stamping, using one of Kate Crane's custom made stamps, as well as some bottle tops and swirly stamps from my stash.

I added a bit of doodling with a white pen, some brush strokes and finally a few strips of Washi tape.

I used one of my Gelli prints, to decorate the inside of the covers, and added some decorative papers to wrap around each of the three signatures.....

Eileen Hull's Passport Book die, is a pretty ingenious invention. It is very easy to put together and although I've used only three signatures, there's plenty of room to add more. I added a few beads to cord I used to bind the middle signature and finished the book off with a stamped quote from Donna Downey..........

 'Do what makes you happy', I think that is very appropriate as we start a new year ! It would make me very happy if you hop over to the Stamps and Stencils blog and join in the fun, with our first challenge of the year. We'd love to see your Swirls, Whirls and Flourishes, and as long as you use some stamping or stenciling or even both, anything goes! x