Eileen Hull

Three dimensional art... with heart

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.

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!

Tag Box

My daughter had to have emergency surgery last week (she’s fine… and luckily the appendix is not a vital organ). But in my worried state I needed to keep my hands busy so I decided to make her some gift card tag folders. One thing led to another and next thing I knew, I was making a box to hold the tags. It was one of those nights…

I bought some Grafix Rub-Onz film probably a year ago and decided it was high time to use it. I laid a nameplate out in Illustrator using the Duetica Piper font. Duetica is a cool on-line lettering system that you can subscribe to. The software allows you to test out many versions of each letter so you can customize the word or phrase to look just how you want it. When we were working on Jess’s wedding invitations, this was one of the fonts that she liked so I used it here. The red, white and blue color theme reflects her job- she’s a LTJG in the Coast Guard.

You will need:

access to Duetica fonts
Sizzix Big Shot die cut machine
ScoreBoard Notebook Pocket die (on sale for $15.99!)
3 sheets of 6″ x 13″ matboard
red half pearls
ribbon
3 tags- 6 1/4″ x 3 1/8″
kraft paper
embossing folders (I’ve used one of my brand new sets coming out in December)
Distress ink pad- Lipstick
stencil brush

Box:

  1. Cut out three Notebook Pocket dies from the red, white and blue matboard pieces in the Big Shot machine. Assemble each box.
  2. Lay out a background design in your photo-editing software. Import the text you have selected from the Duetica site and insert in the design. 
  3. Following directions, print label (or desired graphic) on Rub Onz film. You will have to print in mirror image mode for designs with text.
  4. Rub image onto box! It worked- so cool!
  5. Stack three boxes together. Run a line of double sided tape down the back of the ribbon, then wrap around the bottom of the stack of boxes, keeping them even. Wrap a strip of kraft paper around the top and tape in place.
  6. Sew a paper ruffle on your sewing machine. Crumple and adhere to the kraft paper strip.
  7. Slip a paper handle down each side and fold up. Adhere to strip. Cover strip with adhesive backed ribbon
  8. Add adhesive pearls to finish off!

Tags:

  1. Emboss bottom of tag using Textured Impressions borders. Score at 1 3/4″ from bottom.
  2. Run thin line of double sided tape down both sides of the shorter flap. Fold up to make a pocket.
  3. Rub ink over embossed sentiment with stencil brush.
  4. Add ribbon to top of tag.
  5. Insert gift card tag in each box.

Write your message on the back of the folder, insert your gift card and present it to your neighbor and thank them for picking your paper up while you have been away on vacation, for your babysitter, caregiver or teacher. These are so handy! Make a bunch of them to give as gifts or to use yourself.

Feel better Jess! Love you…