Eileen Hull

Three dimensional art... with heart

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.

Blog County Fair

This is so much fun! Fellow designers Vicki O’Dell and Laura Bray decided to get a linky party going showing a bunch of projects that you might see at a county fair. Click on the Blog County Fair blinkie in the sidebar for more info.

I decided to enter a three layer cake. Doesn’t every fair have a cake competition? Don’t drool too much- it’s a little dry… it is made out of matboard! I told my friend Lorine my dream job would be making cakes like this every day. Each one is different and the scrapbooking and paper craft supplies are perfect embellishments for the cake base. You can use them for all kinds of celebrations.

Sooooo…. here is my entry to the fair. I used beads, texture paste, air dry clay and dimensional paint to simulate icing and cake decor. Is it a prize winner? That would be up to the judges… Thanks for stopping by!

Creative Connection

Have I mentioned that I am heading out to the Creative Connection this week? This is the second year it will be held and basically it’s a gathering of women entrepreneurs who have found a way to market what they are passionate about and will be sharing how that has worked for them. I am so excited for many reasons:

  • have never been to Minnesota
  • a road trip is always fun
  • seeing my great designer friends
  • classes with Charlotte Lyons and Cathe Holden– learning from the masters!
  • reading on the plane, no cooking
  • meeting new people and hearing about what they do
  • hope to get lots of blogging tips
This week was crazed as I had many items on my plate to finish- my next Sizzix collection for CHAS 12, coordinating the upcoming Fresh Vintage blog hop (starting September 27!), making prototypes for my annual 1800 holiday AAUW card order, samples for another large invitation order and mailing two large boxes to the military posts I supply with product. When it rains, it pours… Speaking of rain, I also had major cleanup as my studio had 2 floods in the middle of this! Sheesh. Enough already! Yes another reason I am looking forward to the trip this week 🙂
One little side note… I just got an email blast from Oh My Crafts and they have the Sizzix Fresh Vintage Flower Layers #9 on sale for $7.88! If you have been considering buying it, get it now- that’s less than wholesale! Just click on the picture of it and you will be at the Oh My Crafts site where you can make the purchase- they make it so easy.

 

Hope you all have a great week and sunny skies! If you are also headed to Minneapolis for the conference, let me know and maybe we can meet up?

Designer Connection hop

Happy Labor Day to all! That just sounds wrong, doesn’t it? “Happy” and “labor” do not belong in the same sentence if you ask me 🙂

Today is the monthly round of fun- make sure to visit all of the blogs where you see the little blue icon like I have on my sidebar. We are a group of (mostly) CHA designers who post projects the first Monday of the month. Many of these designers will be joining me later in the month to show their take on my Sizzix Fresh Vintage dies. See the post below for more info.

Usually we select a common topic to post about and the one for today was Baby. I just happen to have a baby project that I created 8 years ago and sold to a magazine. After it was returned, I put it in the Home for Retired Projects and forgot about it. But I did think about it just this weekend because Kelly, my niece and the subject of this project, came for a visit. She is turning 8 years old this week. I thought it would be fun to give her this little album I made her. The pictures in the book were taken on Christmas while we were at the hospital after Hayward’s mom had her second stroke. She never recovered from it and died a few days later. We are not looking our best but that’s life…

The cover is made of pink matboard and I daubed some stencil paste over a brass stencil for the shoes and then inked over them in white. I did add some twine (from The Twinery!) and Stickles for a little update. I think she will be excited to get this and hope she knows how much we love her.

Off to work on my next set of dies for Sizzix. It is Labor Day after all, even though that is more fun than work 🙂 See you soon…
I know I have not been posting much lately, but occasionally I have to take a break to get some stuff done so I have more to show you! Lots coming soon- thanks for stopping by…

Sizzix Fresh Vintage Blog Hop

COMING SOON ————————>
Another fun and idea filled Sizzix blog hop begins on September 27!

Every Tuesday and Thursday for 6 weeks, we’ll be featuring one of my twelve Fresh Vintage dies: a collection of three dimensional flowers and signature ScoreBoard dies, including a bird, butterfly, suitcase, album, vase and caddy. ScoreBoards are unique to Sizzix and specially designed to cut and score matboard and thicker materials. Fresh Vintage dies were created to be used with recycled and vintage materials, fabric, fleece, felt, packaging materials, old patterns, ledger sheets, tissue paper and coffee filters. And of course, paper 🙂 I just can’t wait to see what the designers come up with!

In addition to your favorite designers from past hops, we’ll be joined by supporting manufacturers and their talented design teams, showing how well their products enhance and are used to embellish the dies.

12 dies…
6 weeks…

prepare to be
inspired, amazed, blown away and asking yourself,
“How did they ever THINK of that?”
See you soon!