Eileen Hull

Three dimensional art... with heart

Melissa Samuels and Sneak Peek!!

The other night I was down in my studio making samples for CHA. I happened to notice a UStream event going on that looked interesting so I logged in. It was Melissa Samuels from the Art of Scrapbooking making a beautiful mini-album. 

After the class I contacted her about the possibility of her carrying some of my products in her shop. I sent her some samples so she could test them out. And voila! She has already come up with some CUTE projects using my Flower, Layers #9 from the Fresh Vintage collection. See what Melissa made!

Also I don’t know if she is sold out, but if you are in the Richmond area and are looking for a fun retreat to attend, she’s hosting The Art of Scrapbooking Luxury Retreat Getaway on July 15-17, 2011. Sounds amazing. Too bad I will be on the road to Chicago… CHA or bust!

Here’s a sneak peek from the workshop project that Karen Burniston and I are teaching for Sizzix.

Lots of textures and shimmers and all kinds of techniques. Can’t wait!

Categories:
CHA

Messy Studio Day

I am deep in preps for CHA today. Finishing up the samples of one of my new Sizzix PRO boxes that will be released at the show. Karen Burniston and I are teaching a workshop called Sizzix Super Duet Scoreboard & Pop-ups (sold out though- sorry) which is going to be lots of fun. We have come up with an amazing project because Karen is a genius and has all kinds of coolness popping out of this box. You can stop by the Sizzix booth to see a sample.

I am excited to be using Creative Imaginations Luminarte paint in our project as well as some fun papers by Cosmo Cricket. This is a shimmery rich paint that you can mix to match papers, fabrics, whatever you want. The paper collection we are using for the class is called “Odds ‘n Ends” and I LOVE the colors and designs. But there was no exactly matching shade of Luminarte so I used some of their fun new products- brushes, pipettes and salsa jars- and mixed myself up a batch of paint that is perfect. In the class, students will be encouraged to experiment with this also. I feel like a mad scientist in my lab-  drop of this, a drop of that, eye of newt, diet Coke…ah, success- love it!

Here’s a look at the mixing and matching…

Try it… you’ll like it! You might want to wear gloves unless you want pretty aqua hands 🙂

Designer Craft Connection Hop

Hi everyone and happy July! 

The day has finally arrived! All 30 designers who participated in the iLovetoCreate Beads in a Bottle challenge are posting their projects today. And I for one cannot WAIT to see what everyone has done with this fun product. 

I had never used anything like this before and am so glad that ILoveToCreate came up with it. After the paint dries, it really does look like those expensive adhesive half pearls and beads that come in a tiny little package. This bottle can make TONS of beads and you can make them as large or as small as you want them. They are recommended for fabric but I can tell you (because you always have to try…) that they work great on paper… and maybe a few other surfaces as well 🙂

For my project, I decided to make a headband for my 4 year old granddaughter Trinity. She came to visit last week and she was happy to model it. She loves her butterflies (last year she called them beautiflies…sigh). All the dies I used are part of my new Fresh Vintage collection by Sizzix.

You will need:

Tulip’s Beads in a Bottle– red, turquoise
Tulip® Glam-It-Up!™ Iron-On Crystals™
large and fine size netting
white canvas
headband
wire
green fabric scraps for leaves
felt for flowers
spray adhesive
Big Shot die cutting machine
Butterfly die
Leaves die
Flower, Layers #9 die

Instructions:

  1. Apply spray adhesive to two 6″ x 6″ pieces of netting. Lay netting adhesive side down on canvas squares.
  2. Lay both canvas squares on Butterfly die and roll through Big Shot machine. Layer fine netting in between canvas to give a little extra “poof” to the butterfly’s wings.
  3. Make sure that large netting is on top of the butterfly shape and use it as a grid to lay out the pattern for your paint design. I did several different arrangements. After they dried, I played around with which design would go on top and bottom of the butterfly.
  4. Cut several flower layers and punch a small hole in the center. Insert a brad or sew the layers together with a button and thread. Add random paint beads where desired.
  5. When paint beads are dry, add bling down the center of the butterfly’s body and on the flower.
  6. Arrange butterfly, flowers and leaves as desired and glue entire group together on a small scrap of felt. Add elastic to the arrangement so the it can be removed from the headband to switch out for another design.

 iLovetoCreate is having an awesome giveaway to celebrate-just look at all this stuff!


To find out how to enter to win, you need to get over to iLovetoCreate’s blog. Find out how to enter here.

 
Thanks for stopping by and make sure to hop around using the Designer Craft Connection button in the sidebar to see all of the other projects!

Designer Connection and iLovetoCreate partner up!

This coming Friday on July 1st, the Designer Crafts Connection Blog Hop is doing something special.  We have partnered with iLovetoCreate for July’s challenge! iLovetoCreate provided 30 designers from this group with Tulip’s Beads in a Bottle. We each used Beads in a Bottle to create a special project in our own style.

I can’t wait to see all of our completed projects on Friday, JULY 1ST, but if you want a sneak peek… here’s a YouTube Video preview.

And if that’s not enough… iLovetoCreate is having an awesome giveaway that some lucky winner will get their crafty hands on! Just check out this huge batch of goodies:


To find out how to enter to win, you need to get over to iLovetoCreate’s blog. Find out how to enter here!

That’s it for now….so get over to iLovetoCreate’s blog and then make sure you come back here on Friday to see all the amazing projects!

Vintage Flower Pin

Sorry to take a break in blogging- my granddaughter has been here for a visit and she took the front seat for a week!

I have a fun project to share. My Fresh Vintage Sizzix dies are finally here and I’ve been having such a great time making all kinds of cool flowers. Here’s a pin I made for a friend’s birthday. Once I made it, I realized I also needed a special way to present it and decided to make one in the style of a vintage button card.

I used a Duetica font called Tin Whistle to create the card. Duetica is a customizable font system where you are able to create unique lettering layouts. A year’s membership only costs $25- what a deal! They have some really fun fonts to pick from and I thought Tin Whistle was fun and had a hand written feel to it which went along with the handmade gift.

You will need:

Card:
access to Duetica Lettering System
Adobe software (Illustrator)
white cardstock
printer
matboard scrap in a coordinating color
Corner Rounder and Crop-a-dile- We R Memory Keepers
glue dots

Instructions:

  1. In Illustrator, lay out the project in the finished size you want so you can see how much room you have to work in. I chose a 4″ x 6″ layout.
  2. Go to the Duetica site and type in your text. Play with it until you have it just how you like it. Save it and import to your editing software.
  3. Create a shadowed affect for the title by layering one “fresh vintage” in brown, then copy it and change the color to white. Offset the white image and you have a title that really pops!
  4. After editing the project as desired, print on white cardstock.
  5. Cut a piece of matboard slightly larger than your artwork and round the corners. If desired, punch a hole for hanging or to add a ribbon for embellishment.
  6. Adhere card to matboard base.
  7. Add flower pin to card with glue dots.

Flower:
Sizzix Big Shot die cutting machine
Sizzix Flowers, Layers #9 die by Eileen Hull
brad
3 sheets of white tissue paper
Copic marker in desired accent color
Radiant Rain by Luminarte– Egyptian Gold
pinback
matboard scrap
small brad

Instructions:

  1. Fold all sheets of tissue paper in half and continue folding until your paper is about 6″ x 6″ and fits on the Sizzix die. Roll tissue paper through Big Shot with flower die.
  2. With the largest size flower, stack all pieces together in your hand. Run the marker along all of the flower edges and outline just the edge of the flowers.
  3. Punch a hole in the middle of all the flowers. Insert brad and close.
  4. Starting with the innermost flower, start scrunching one paper flower into the middle. Continue scrunching each flower one by one and drawing into the center of the flower. When all pieces are in the middle, spread them out and fluff! Beautiful!
  5. Add leaves made from scraps of ribbon and glue to back of flower.
  6. Add a matboard circle to the middle of the flower back. Glue pinback to circle. Attach to card.

Wasn’t this fun? Once you have your artwork laid out, it’s easy to change the message or colors up to coordinate for a special person or event.

For more ideas on ways to use fonts, check out the Duetica website under Inspiration and see the gallery of great projects created by the Duetica Design Team. Follow the Duetica blog to see what’s new and show us what you are working on at the Duetica Facebook page. We want to see!

Blown Glass Reveal

I wrote in a post a couple of weeks ago about my adventures in glass blowing at the New Orleans Glassworks and Printmaking Studio. Well, yesterday the box of my projects arrived! I was so excited to see how these pieces turned out since when I last saw them, they were still glowing red from the heat of the fire. As soon as they were done, they were whisked into the annealing oven to cool down slowly.

Are you ready? I will give you a little narrative since you may not be able to guess exactly what they are. 🙂 The piece below is a paperweight. And let me tell you, this thing is HEAVY.  I love the aqua blue glass embedded inside. Not sure about the green stripes but I think this was more of an exercise in how the different effects are achieved than making a “pretty” paperweight. Overall the shape was pretty good so that means my twisting and twirling was satisfactory.

Next we did the vase. This involved blowing glass gathered on the end of a long hollow stick until a bubble formed and caused a hollow in the middle. Then we pulled it out and shaped it into a bowl. I like the colors and ripply edge. And I know it’s not perfect but I still am amazed that I made that (at least a good portion of it).
Then it was time for this octopus. It is ever heavier that the paperweight. I am considering putting it on my bedside nighttable. Not sure I could lift it to hurl at intruders though.
If you angle it just the right way, it seems that there’s a little fish hiding in the water complete with eye and everything… Can you see it?
Now for the tough question. Which of these two do you think I did? No question about it, mine is the stumpy little one. I was too slow and let the glass cool down so when I went to pull the stem into the nice curlicue shape that Drake had done, that stuff would not move for anything!
So what, I’m still happy I did this class and urge you to step out of your comfort zone once in a while and give a new craft a spin! It’s inspiring…