Eileen Hull

Three dimensional art... with heart

Haunted House

Happy Columbus Day to all! I just wanted to pop in and show you all a cool project sent to me by Susan Tierney Cockburn. She blogs at My Mother’s Apron Strings where she shares mouth watering recipes and photos of yummy desserts. I met her at about a year ago at CHA. She brought projects that she had done with some of my other dies and I was amazed at her attention to detail and meticulous work. She is so nice and friendly- we just hit it off!
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Here’s a picture of my Sizzix ScoreBoard Pro House die (above). Susan turned it into a spooky Haunted House for Halloween (below)! Can you believe these tiny little flowers? The haystack and tree? And it looks like some critter is up in the tree but I can’t tell what it is from this picture…Can anyone figure that out? I love this- what a fun project!

Susan- thanks so much for letting me share this cool project! Now I am in such a Halloween mood. Bring on the candy corn 🙂

Sizzix Fresh Vintage Blog Hop: Flower Layers #9

Hi everyone and welcome back to the fourth Fresh Vintage blog hop!  Every Tuesday and Thursday until November 3, one of the 12 dies in the collection will be featured. 6-10 projects for every die will be posted by 75 of the most creative designers in our industry. I am thrilled that they have agreed to work with my Flower Layers Sizzix dies and the projects that have been posted so far have been super inspiring!

To view the hop, you can click on the Fresh Vintage blinkie on the sidebar. This will take you around to all of the designers on the hop OR you can click on the linky party below for a look at all the projects. To see projects that have already been posted, visit the page above titled “Sizzix Blog Hops”. For a chance to win this die, answer the question about today’s hop on the Oh My Crafts blog today.
Eileen Hull Flower Layers #9 Sizzix Die
The die we are all working with today is Flower Layers #9. This is such a versatile die! I have made flowers cut from all kinds of fun materials:

  • book pages
  • old maps
  • sheet music
  • fabric, fleece
  • felt
  • ledger paper
  • coffee filter
  • bubble wrap
  • soda cans… the list goes on…

Ways to Create with Flower Layers

Ways to create with Eileen Hull Flower Layers #9 Sizzix Die

You can spray the Flower Layers petals with mists and dyes, stamp them, ink the edges,and add glitter. They can be framed, made in bunches and used for paper flower bouquets, added to shoes and hair accessories, and of course, you can add them to your layouts and card projects. They make beautiful home decor projects if you cut a bunch from fleece or felt and add them to pillows, lampshades or baskets.

Let’s see what our designers have created for you today!

Flower Layers Headband Tutorial:

I made a quick and easy headband from fleece.

Eileen Hull Flower Layers #9 Fleece Headband Tutorial

Supplies:

fleece, headband, needle and thread, elastic

Steps:
  1. Buy a premade headband in desired size and color.
  2. Cut a piece of fleece 6″ x 12″ and fold over. Run piece through Big Shot and flower layers die, yielding 2 of each flower sizes.
  3. Layer flower pieces on top of each other staggering petals so they lay in different positions.
  4. With needle and thread, sew all layers together. Secure In the middle with a button.
  5. Cut leaves from green fleece and position as desired around flower.
  6. Sew a piece of elastic to back of flower. Wrap around headband to measure and stitch to other side, forming a loop to slide over headband and make it interchangeable.

Wouldn’t these be a great activity for a child’s party or even to give as a gift with several flowers in different colors? I love fleece because it never wrinkles or unravels, has a nice feel to it, and gives great dimension. For a more sophisticated look, use designer fabrics. If you want romantic, use filmy sheers and organdies. Add beads, buttons and fringe too!

Sizzix Fresh Vintage Blog Hop: Butterfly

Thanks for stopping by for the third in a series of twelve Fresh Vintage blog hop projects! Every Tuesday and Thursday, until Nov. 3, a new die will be featured here starring the fabulous designers that are putting their crafty skills to the test, creating some seriously cool designs. Today’s featured product is the ScoreBoard Butterfly die. ScoreBoard dies are designed to cut and score thick materials like matboard (my favorite!). But that’s not all…

Designer Tip for the Day: ScoreBoard dies also work with paper, fabric, felt, leather, recycled packaging, soda cans, etc! The only thing you will have to do is score the lighter material by hand since the scoring blade is set higher for thick material. However this takes just a few seconds using your scoring board, If you are like me, getting the best value for my money is important so I hope you will experiment and use your dies to the max.

The butterfly is a symbol of freedom, renewal and hope to me. It is appropriate to use for so many occasions where we handcraft cards, gifts or memory items.

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OK, on to the amazing projects! I get so excited the night before a hop posts because I have no idea what everyone will be doing- these designers just blow me  away. Let’s see what they have been up to…

I want to pass along a project that is free, eco-friendly and beautiful. When I got this die, it occurred to me that the butterfly would make a really cool pin if I could find an inexpensive way to cut it out of metal. And then the lightbulb went on- SODA CANS! So I cut one up and it worked great! I was concerned that the edges of the metal would be too sharp but it is not the case- they are fine- I have gotten more cuts from paper.But this butterfly still needed more…Wait a minute- how about running it through a Textured Impression folder? SCORE- another success- it looked great. And now for the color…hmmm, maybe those alcohol inks that had been sititng there on the shelf for a while might work…Yes, perfect!

Now we have a colorful pin that may be customized to each person’s favorite palette or to reflect the seasons. I have been saving cans all summer and plan on selling these at my annual Barn Sale in a month. The butterflies (or as my granddaugther Trinity calls them “beautiflies”) could be added to a project, layout or album cover for some great dimension. I have also used map pages and paint chips to cut these out, as well as double sided cardstock, matboard, glittr chipboard, vinyl and any other material I think would work.


Soda Can Butterfly Pin:

  1. Cut soda (or beer) can top and bottom off, then cut down the middle of remaining piece.
  2.  Place opened can on die and run through die cut machine using Butterfly die.
  3. Run butterfly shape(s) through a Textured Impression folder.
  4. Lay die cut butterflies on non-stick craft mat and put on latex gloves- this gets messy! Ink foam applicator with three colors of alcohol ink, and sponge on, blending and covering until you have desired look.
  5. Allow to dry. Add a line of glue dot lines on the back of the cut out butterfly shape and lay on top of solid butterfly.
  6. Add pinback adhering with Zips (clear adhesive lines) and gift wrap in a fun container or card!
Cupcake:
  1. Coat wrong side of matboard with spray adhesive and lay an old book page on top. Run matboard through die cut machine using ScoreBoard Cupcake die. Lay Crafter’s Workshop stencil on top of cupcake die cut. Mist with paint of choice. Let dry.
  2. Assemble cupcake using tacky tape.
  3. Add embellishments.
  4. Fill with crumpled shimmer tissue paper.
  5. Place butterfly pin inside container and add a tag.

You are finished- love these quick and easy projects!

Supplies used:

Westcott Pink Challenge

Westcott Scissors
Many thanks to Westcott Brand® Cutting Tools, maker of my favorite scissors, The Duck Brand® Duct Tape and VELCRO® Brand Hook and Loop Fasteners and to Marisa Pawelko for organizing this fun challenge! Our task was to create a project using product provided by these three companies… and it had to be pink… Hmmm, my mind immediately went to matboard since that is my primary medium. I decided to make a mini- album using matboard as a base. Did you know that you can cut matboard with scissors? You sure can! However, I opted to use the pretty pink Westcott Hobby Knife that they sent me along with the pink cutting mat so that my cuts would be straight and precise. I used a metal ruler as a guide.

Make sure to hop around to the other 32 participating designers’ blogs to see what they created for this challenge! Click on the DCC blinkie on the sidebar and you will be taken to the next blog in the hop!

Here’s a look at how I made it my mini- album…

 

Mini-Album:

  1. Determine the size of your album. I decided to make mine 4″ x 6″. Cover a piece of matboard measuring about 8″ x 10″ with pink Duck Tape on one side and white Duck Tape on the other side.
  2. Using your Westcott Hobby Knife and pink cutting mat, carefully trim two pieces of matboard to size at 4″ x 6″. Cut another piece of matboard covered with tape to the desired size spine you would like (mine is about 4″ x 3/4″).
  3. Emboss both covers with Sizzix Textured Impression folder by Eileen Hull. Ink raised part of design with Staz-on permanent ink and distress edges of book.
  4. Cut a piece of contrasting tape with your Westcott non-stick scissors. Place all three piece of matboard face down on a flat surface about 1/8″ apart from each other. Make sure they are arranged in a straight line. Run the piece of Duck Tape down the middle and cover the spine. Wrap around to the front and press down. Now your cover is all one piece and can fold in either direction.
  5. Make 5 signatures of paper, fold in half and wrap rattail cord around each section attaching closely to the spine of the book. Tie to other end of cording. Add beads to cording. Cut a 5″ strip of Pink Zebra Duck Tape and fold over, leaving a 1/8″ strip of adhesive. Make fringe by cutting every 1/8″ and wrap around remaining spine cording.
  6. Design a title for your album using the Duetica Lettering Arts System in your favorite editing software. This album is going to my friend in Germany just recovering from surgery, so I customized it for her. I added a piece of Velcro on the back of the tag and glue gunned another piece of Velcro to the front of the album so she can change the title if she wants.
  7. Make a flower from the pink Zebra Duck Tape and adhere to a scrap of matboard with a glue gun. Place a small square of Sticky Back Velcro ont he back and one where you want to adhere the flower. Now you can change the flower to another embellishment if you want!
  8. Cut a slit on the front edge for a closure. Thread Velcro Plant Tie through. Fold over one side and glue closed with glue gun. Adhere to front of album. Wrap other piece around and press done.

Support the cause! Here’s the link to the on line auction where some of these pieces will be offered up for your bids.

Did you know…
·         Westcott Brand® Scissors are the WORLD’S FAVORITE SCISSORS™ meaning Westcott sells more scissors than any other manufacturer in the world!
·         Westcott Brand® Titanium Bonded Non Stick Scissors are the BEST Non Stick Scissors on the market that never get stuck and can easily cut through Sticky Back VELCRO®, Duck Tape and multiple layers of fabric and other materials!
·         Titanium bonded blades are 3 times harder than stainless steel and never need sharpening!
·         Westcott Brand® Cutting Tools have the best performance! The 3” scissors can even cut through 5 layers of fabric!
·         Westcott Brand® Cutting Tools are ergonomic and come in several different color options!

Supplies used to create this project:
Duetica Lettering Art Studio font: Mandolyn
Sizzix Textured Impression folder by Eileen Hull
Queen and Company Pearl Bling
Tsukineko Staz-On black stamp pad
rattail cording, beads, glue gun

Sizzix Fresh Vintage Blog Hop: Fringed Flower

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Welcome to the second of twelve Sizzix Fresh Vintage Blog Hops! Today the featured die is the Fringed Flower.

This is one of my favorites because there are so many fun things you can do with it. Let’s take a look at what our fabulous designers have to show you!

I decided to use my ScoreBoard Box with Lid die as a base for this project partnered with some yummy papers from Melissa Frances, luscious colored twine from The Twinery and a cute little charm from Epiphany Crafts. My friend Patty has a birthday on Friday and I bought a pair of earring for her at the Garlic Festival this weekend that will fit perfectly in here- don’t you love when that happens?

Box with Lid:

  1. Cover matboard piece with paper. The 6″ x 6″ paper pad was the perfect size. I covered the front and back of the box and lid each with a coordinating but different paper.   A little tip: Place the paper right side down over the area of the die you want to cut. Coat the matboard with spray adhesive and place over top of die. Repeat on the other side, add adhesive and flip matboard over and press down again. The adhesive will squish the paper and matboard together when it’s rolled though the machine to give a nice tight bond and cut all of the edges exactly to size! If you are adding paper to your matboard, always place the right side down because that’s where the score lines will be cut. Sorry this started as a little tip but is now more like a book 🙂
  2. Roll matboard through Big Shot. Fold each scored flap all the way over and back, breaking the fibers.
  3. Fold up flaps to form box and lid. Hold in place by wrapping rubber bands around them. Run lines of Zip Dry glue down the inside corner of each box and let dry for about 10 minutes.
  4. Add pompom fringe to edge of box with Zip Dry glue.
  5. Cut 3 yard lengths of twine in desired colors and wrap around the box lid  over pompom trim and tie in a knot.
  6. Using your Epiphany Craft punch, find an element in the paper you would like to use as an accent and punch it out. Cover with acrylic bubble cap and place on jewelry finding- so cute! Add to the center of the twine knot. Finish tying into a bow.
 

Fringed Flower:

  1. Cut a stack of 10 pieces of tissue paper in half. Fold in half and keep folding smaller until you have a piece about 5″ x 6″. Place on top of Fringed Flower die and cut out. You will have a good stack of pieces. If you want a full rounded flower, use pieces all of one size. If you want more of flat flower, use about one third of the stack of each size.
  2. Stack flower pieces smallest to largest and add a brad to the center. Secure flower together.
  3. For this project I used the medium flower shape using all layers which I cut from pink tissue paper.The smaller flower is cut from an old sewing pattern.
  4. Start scrunching up the flower edges and squishing them into the center of the flower- very technical terms! It takes a while if you do each layer individually, so with tissue paper I will do a few layers at a time. With book pages, I do one at a time. You can spray the papers which helps make them a little more pliable, but it’s an extra step and it works just as well without it.
  5. Once you have drawn all layers into the middle, start fluffing and fiddling with them until you have a flower you LOVE! If you want the flower to keep it’s shape, you can spray with a shot of hairspra, but again it stays pretty poufy anyway. If you need to mail the card and don’t want to have all the volume of the flower, you can tell the recipient that they may have the pleasure of the poufing and instruct them as to how this is done.( I would love to get a card like that that teaches me a new technique!)
  6. Cut leaves using grocery bag fabric. Place on lid of box and adhere with glue dots. Place glue dots on the bottom of the flowers and position as desired. Add some millinery flowers to the arrangement along with pearl bling and you are in business!

Sizzix Fresh Vintage Blog Hop: ScoreBoard Album

Welcome to our first Fresh Vintage blog hop, my friends! You are in for such a treat!  Every Tuesday and Thursday for the next 6 weeks, one of the 12 dies in the collection will be featured. 6-10 projects for every die will be posted by 75 of the most creative designers in our industry. I am thrilled that they have agreed to work with my Sizzix dies and I can’t wait for you to see what they have done.

To view the hop, you can click on the Fresh Vintage blinkie on the sidebar. This will take you around to all of the designers on the hop OR you can click on the linky party below for a look at all the projects.

As if all that inspiration is not enough, we have teamed up with some great craft manufacturers and their talented Design Teams, to show how well these dies work with supplies that you probably have on hand (or need to buy!) After you have checked out all of the projects, head over to Oh My Crafts blog to answer the Hop Question of the Day for a chance to win a die!

Today the spotlight is on Clearsnap. Is there anyone who does not own a Colorbox stamp pad? I have quite the collection and love the vibrant colors these pads produce that dye inks can’t quite match. I was lucky enough to score some of Stephanie Barnard’s new ink pads at CHA and love them. The colors are really bright and juicy but what I like is the surface of the pad. It’s smooth and kind of spongy and best of all there are none of those pesky strings that lots of my other pads get. Thanks Clearsnap, for providing us with quality products that have stood the test of time (some of my ink pads are 10 years old!).

The featured die today is the ScoreBoard Album. For those of you who are not familiar with ScoreBoard dies, they are specially designed to cut and score thicker material like matboard creating a nice sturdy finished product. 

Book Assembly

  1. Die cut album pieces from Bazzill embossed chipboard using Big Shot. NOTE- you must cut 2 cover pieces so make sure you have enough board. One 12″ x 12″ sheet was plenty for this project.
  2. Paint or ink the covers in stripes masking off with tape or post-its for each color. I used acrylic paint in aqua, red and green. Let dry. Rub extra paint off embossed area of book and buff.
  3. Cut 2 pieces of cardstock 4 1/4″ x 6 1/2″ to cover front and back of covers. Adhere with double sided tape.
  4. Adhere front and back covers of book to binding with double sided tape.
  5. Punch hole in both covers of album with Crop-a-dile. Inset Hitch Fastener on front of album. On back, punch hole and insert elastic loop, then cover with eyelet and set. Stretch elastic loop over hitch in front for closure. 
  6. Punch holes in scalloped section of binding strip and add eyelets. Run ribbon through eyelets and tie a bow.

Pages

  1. Cut a strip of paper measuring 4″ x 12″. Score lines every 1/2″ and accordian fold paper. This will be the binding for your album pages. With double sided tape, run lines of tape lengthwise across paper and fold up accordian pleats. Run additional lines of double stick tape across the front of the binding strip.
  2. Cut 6 pieces of coordinating cardstock at 6″ x 12″. Score at 4″ across bottom and fold up 2″. These are your book pockets. Cut angles in center fold creating flaps so paper lays flat when folded in.
  3. Insert folded pages into sticky accordian folded binding. Press to adhere firmly inside book. Leave one set of folds at the front and back of the book to attach the pages to the cover.
  4. Add file tabs, journaling cards, photos and mementos as desired.

Embellishments

  1. Die cut Butterfly die from red glitter paper. Add teal pearls to body. 
  2. Make folded flower from Flowers, Layers #9. Make smaller flower from same die using brown packing paper  (instructions to come soon!)
  3. On scrap of red matboard, write “family” and cover with label piece. Add teal pearls.
  4. Add flowers and butterfly in a pleasing arrangement on front cover of book and adhere.

    Supplies used:

Additional products:

ribbon, kraft packing paper for flower accents

buttons, felt, fabric scraps

FAQ about the Fresh Vintage Blog Hop:
How do I hop around to see ideas using the current featured die?

Every Tuesday and Thursday between September 27-November 3, 2011 there will be a new Sizzix Fresh Vintage die featured on 6-10 of the 75 participating designers’ blogs. The navigation buttons for “Hop Back” and “Hop Forward” will allow you to easily hop around and see projects featuring whatever the current die is, since those buttons are programmed to navigate only to the blogs that are participating for that die. On the next Tuesday/Thursday, the buttons will automatically reprogram themselves to navigate to the blogs that are signed up for the next featured die.

What if I start at a designer’s blog that isn’t one of the 6-10 signed up for that die?

No problem! Simply hit either the “Hop Forward” or “Hop Back” button on the Fresh Vintage navigation widget from any blog’s sidebar and you’ll automatically advance to one of the participating blogs.

Can I go back and view the ideas for a previously featured die?

Of course! Go to the “Blog Hops” link at the top of the page. It will bring up all of the blog posts where you’ll find direct links to each participating blog along with a thumbnail image of the project.

Where can I buy the Sizzix Fresh Vintage dies, by Eileen Hull?

You can visit Sizzix.com to find a local and online retailers for Sizzix products. Also be sure to visit Oh My Crafts, one of this blog hop’s sponsors, (between the dates of September 27-November 3, 2011) and enter for a chance to win a Flower Layers #9 die!

The Blog Hop has ended and the navigation widget is no longer in the sidebar. How can I see the ideas?

Go to the “Blog Hops” link at the top of the page. It will bring up blog posts where you’ll find direct links to each participating blog along with a thumbnail image of the project.