Eileen Hull

Three dimensional art... with heart

Drawer or Box? You decide…

On the Sizzix blog, I showed this Stacking Drawers project I created using the new Candy Drawer die from the Sweet Treats collection.

I promised to show you another way the die can be configured to make a box with a lid- yes- all from the same die… It’s all in how you tape it up. 

The drawer part goes together the same either way. Add strong double sided tape to all tabbed areas. Fold the drawer up and center the square piece on the bottom of the tabs. Press into place.


I also decided to emboss the frame section of the drawer so I ran it through the Big Shot with a Textured Impressions folder.

Add tape to the two segments of the box nearest the notched end. Place the drawer section on top of the second segment and fold and press the notched end up to the edge of the drawer. This forms a fun little box that opens and closes. I love that this box may be used in different ways!

I couldn’t resist adding some glitter. Take your Versamark Watermark stamp pad and run it over the raised areas of the embossing. Pour glitter on top and shake off excess. I love these new Momenta metal stickers and this one was just what I was looking for. Add sticker first, then glitter.

Wishing a Happy Birthday to my son Chris who is in Afghanistan. Can’t wait to give him a huge hug…


Thanks for stopping by!

Sizzix and Craftside team up!

Hi everyone! Wow what a weekend- lots going on!

  • our three week old grandson is coming for a visit this weekend
  • the Olympics have started
  • there is a supercool cross promotion and giveaway on the Sizzix and Craftside blogs this weekend! The members of the Sizzix Design Team each selected one of of my dies to work with and have created amazing projects with them! They have taken the dies and gone above and beyond anything I dreamed of. What an inspiration to see! Check out the links above to see how to enter to win- there are a few ways.
  • Jess from KinderStampO has a great blog post and project up at My Craft Channel using my Teacup die!

I had to join in the fun too. We redid the guest room to fit my daughter and SIL’s new family status and I wanted to make a little welcome gift to leave in the room. So I created a baby bottle announcement from the Candy Jars die, brand new from the Sweet Treats collection.


I love the Little Darling papers from Graphic 45 and was just waiting for the chance to use them. I cut a 12” x 12” piece of paper in half and spray-adhesived it (is that a word?) to a piece of 6” x 13” matboard. The process of rolling the die and matboard through the Big Shot cements the paper to the board and creates perfect score lines. Remember to place the right side to the die when cutting. I also ran a piece of kraft paper through for the bottle nipple and trimmed it to size and glued it on top of the bottle.

Daniel’s birth info was printed on cardstock and inserted  into the window opening. This picture was taken when he was only a couple of hours old. He kept putting his hands up to his heard with a concerned look on his face. Apparently being born is a little scary!

Five butterflies were cut from cardstock, then embossed and inked. I tried to sew through the stack but it was too thick so I wound up sewing through one layer of the antenna which gave the same effect and glued it on top of the butterfly. Leaves were placed on the bottom of the bottle with the butterfly on top. I tied hand dyed seam binding around the top. A metal embellishment from my stash finished it off.

Make sure to stop by the Sizzix and Craftside blogs and enter to win a prize package- good luck everyone! Have a great weekend- I am parked on the couch watching the Olympics with plenty of tissues!


CHA Wrap-up

I loved being at CHA and seeing everyone! The energy at the show was fantastic. Although  attendance was down from last year, it doesn’t bother me. Those who go will make connections and do business- you know that the ones who come are hard core! Everyone seems so much more relaxed at the summer show- there is time to talk and connect that you don’t get at the winter show. I didn’t get into every booth but think I saw the highlights. 


Time in the Sizzix booth was so much fun!  I loved meeting Gretchen Schmidt, Shelly Hickox, Jeanne Streiff, and Ronda Palazzari from the Sizzix Design Team and, as always, the time I got to spend with the talented Tammy Tutterow, DT Lead, was super fun… except for at dinner where she was eating some kind of gross octopus thing which she claimed “tasted like chicken” :-0. gah 
Demoing in the booth with my new collection From the Heart was a blast- I appreciate all of your nice comments and ideas. Can’t wait till it comes out- January seems so far away… 

Here’s a pic of our end of the booth. Once again I forgot to take photos… Thanks to those who did and posted them on Facebook- hope you don’t mind if I borrow them (Gretchen :-))! 
Here’s where we demo’d. My good friend Karen Burniston is shooting a video. Her new Pop ‘N Cuts were quite the rage- congrats Karen!

I want to thank Beth Reames of the Sizzix Art Department who designed the projects displayed in the booth made from my art. They were perfect- Beth is so great at what she does! I also want to thank Marty, who can build anything apparently, for the amazing display piece…

I had the pleasure of showing my dress in the Crafty Couture display. There were sixteen dresses- it was funny how each dress looked like the person who designed it. You would probably be able to tell which one was mine 🙂 Many thanks to Crescent Cardboard Company, manufacturer of the matboard I used- they sponsored my entry. 

I used foil for the bodice because I was not sure if the measurements on my dress form matched the one that would be at the show. The color was achieved by blending alcohol inks on the foil.

The flowers are die cut from one of my new flowers and soda cans and alcohol inked as well. Can you guess what my favorite color is?
 

On Tuesday night of the show, we all gathered in an upscale bowling alley to watch our friends, Andrea Currie and Lisa Fulmer, on TV! They were contestants in the new reality craft show, Craft Wars, and wound up kicking butt and winning! What a party that was. I am so proud of them…

So it was a good trip and I will remember it fondly. And now, time to get back to work!

CHA is around the corner…

… and I am working around the clock to get everything done! I never actually get everything done but I would be happy with even half of the things on my list…


Just wanted to pop in and show another sneak peek of my new Sizzix collection being released at CHA. I love this flower- there are so many ways to use it! This flower will be used in one of the workshops I’m teaching at the show.  

Wish me luck- it’s going to be a long week and very little sleep!

It’s Summer…

… and our yard is in bloom! Don’t these cherry blossoms look real?


I never showed you the unbelievable cherry blossom centerpieces created by my talented (and patient!) friend Sandy Oujiri for the military wives club we both belong to. 

Sandy’s job was to create centerpieces for our “Cherry Blossom Luncheon”. 200 people had signed up to attend, which meant she had to make 20 of these arrangements, and she was working with a very small budget. Luckily, to Sandy, that is not a problem! 

Sandy used my Sizzix Flower, Layers #9 die to make the blossoms. She alternated stacking light pink, dark pink and white tissue paper and then die cut thousands? from the smallest flower on the die. She punched a hole in the middle of each flower and then added a drop of hot glue in the center, which kept them all in one piece, then scrunched the petals into the middle of the flower and fluffed out. Each blossom was glued to budding branches she cut from her yard.  She made a stand for them so they fit on the table- that girl is just so full of ideas- but I put the ones she gave me in a vase and plan on setting them out at Easter each year. I’m not kidding- the people at the luncheon thought the arrangements were real and she had compliments galore!


Here’s a project I made that’s up on the Sizzix blog using the Bigz Borders and Hydrangeas die from the new Sweet Treats collection. 

I even did a video to show how I made it. This was a labor of love, let me tell you… probably each minute of film took 2 hours to do! It has got to get easier… right??? There are a lot of mistakes but it’s better than the last one.

Happy May Day!

I was just looking at a post of Ann Butler’s and she has a sweet May Day flower cone project up to celebrate this mini-holiday. Read her blog post to see where this tradition came from. I love it! Here’s my version for all of you, blog friends 🙂 

I used the ScoreBoard Pro Cone die which I covered with pretty papers from the IOD Devotion collection at Creative Imaginations.
  1. Coat the 12″ x 12″ piece of matboard with spray adhesive, then add the paper on top. With paper side facing the die, cut the cone using Big Shot Pro machine. 
  2. Adhere red glitter gift wrap to a piece of scrap matboard and cut four scalloped edges for the cone. 
  3. Cut a tag using the “For You” tag from the Sweet Treats for You Sizzlit set (coming next month from the Sweet Treats collection) from kraft paper and back it with red paper.
  4. Assembly is so quick! Run a line of strong double sided adhesive down the edge of the flap of the cone and adhere to the opposing side. 
  5. If desired, add a ruffle of crepe paper around the inside of the cone. Paper shred may be added inside to anchor the stems.
  6. The flowers are made using the Bigz Hydrangea & Borders die (also coming very soon!)

I hope to post a video soon showing how to make the hydrangeas- stay tuned and in the meantime, Happy May Day to all of you!