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Sizzix Journal Techniques and Tutorials

28 Jul

Hey everyone! The Inspiration Team has been working hard this month to bring you Sizzix Journal Techniques and Tutorials. We’ve seen some amazing creations so far and today we have even more plus a few non-journal projects using my Heartfelt Collection…you’re in for a treat!

Sizzix Journal Techniques and Tutorials

Lisa Hoel starts us off with an absolutely breathtaking Mermaid Journal. If the cover is any indication of how awesome this journal is just wait till you see the inside! Lisa’s use of color and imagery is sure to make your artful heart swell with joy.

DO. NOT. Miss this sensational creation…head to Lisa’s blog for a look inside and a video!

Karen Bearse shares a Bo Bunny Journal chock full of creative techniques including embossed foil and resin paper flowers! Karen used several dies from the Heartfelt collection in her unique techniques and the results are marvelous!

Visit Karen’s Blog for more gorgeous details, steps and instructions.

Julia Aston has a gorgeous Garden Verse Journal to inspire you! Her Monocrhomatic cover was created with Distress Oxides and Mica Sprays, then decorated with a whole lotta Heartfelt die cuts. Can you guess which ones? The pages inside are just as lovely as the outside and each contain a nifty trick or two.

Check out Julia’s blog for more tips and tricks plus a look inside her gorgeous Garden Journal.

Diana Hetherington has a fabulous felt Gratitude Journal to share with you today. Felt is oh so fun to create with and Diana’s cover is pure joy! Eileen Hull Sizzix Die cuts past and present are represented here. I just adore the old favorite bird die nestled into the new stitchy flowers.

Fly on over to Diana’s blog for more details and a look inside her fun felt Gratitude Journal.

Mitsyana Wright shares a drop dead gorgeous Floral Journal that you’re sure to love! Mitsyana’s flower making skills are unmatched in her ability to create realistic looking flowers out of plain old paper.

You won’t want to miss Mitsyana’s detailed tutorial on how she put this lovely journal together.

The Heartfelt collection is more than just journals, our next two projects take a break from journaling and show you how to really get creative with the Heartfelt Sizzix Collection.

Michelle Zerull shares a breathtaking Floral Favor Basket design complete with fancy fringe and glittered stitchy flowers. This looks like an expensive piece you would find in a fancy boutique, but Michelle is sharing her secrets on how you can create this fancy floral favor basket yourself.

Visit Michelle’s blog for all the lovely details!

Jonathan Fong is no stranger to creative ways to use a Sizzix die. His latest project with the Heartfelt Collection is not just creative it’s also delicious! How clever are these Heartfelt Quesadillas? I don’t know about you but I’d sure like to dig into these adorable Heartfelt House Pocket delights.

Get the recipe and all the steps to create your own Heartfelt Quesadillas at Jonathan’s Blog.

Hope you enjoyed this weeks round of Sizzix Journal Techniques and Tutorials…stay tuned for more next week!

Eileen

Heartfelt Sizzix Journal Ideas

21 Jul

Hey everyone! The inspiration team is back with more Heartfelt Sizzix Journal Ideas to awe and inspire you. All month long you’ll see unique ways to use my new Heartfelt Sizzix Collection along with the uber popular Journal Die. Let’s see what the IT has in store for us today…

Heartfelt Sizzix Journal Ideas

Anna-Karin Evaldsson starts us off with a gorgeous Seaside Journal just brimming with pretty patterned papers and technique. Stitchy Flowers, binding tips, and patterned journal cards are all within the pages of this journal and AK’s tutorial.

Heartfelt Sizzix Journal Ideas: Seaside Journal Tutorial by Anna Karin Evaldsson

Visit Anna-Karin’s Blog for more lovely details.

Tonya Trantham shares a “Blah-Blah” Journal is anything but! Each page is uniquely crafted to include pockets, envelopes and even book marks.

Heartfelt Sizzix Journal Ideas: Blah-Blah Journal Tutorial by Tonya Trantham

Check out Tonya’s Blog for more clever details.

Susie Bentz shares a gorgeous canvas. featuring the stitchy flowers. Susie’s technique can be used for home decor, scrapbooking and journaling alike!

Heartfelt Sizzix Journal Ideas: Sizzix Stitchy Flowers Canvas by Susie Bentz

Head to Susie’s Blog for more details and steps

Last but certainly not least Jenny Marples shares a vintage sewing travelers journal that is sure to amaze and inspire you. Tons of Dina Wakley Media Techniques are included and just wait till you see the pages inside!!

Heartfelt Sizzix Journal Ideas: Vintage Sewing Travelers Journal by Jenny Marples

Visit Jenny’s Blog for more details and a video on how to create this stunning journal.

Hope you enjoyed this weeks Heartfelt Sizzix Journal Ideas! We’ll see you soon with more inspiring tutorials.

Eileen

Amy Powers’ Sizzix Journal Stitch Book

9 Jul

Today I’d like to share a beautiful surprise- Amy Powers’ Sizzix Journal Stitch Book! This girl is so talented! And I am so lucky she lives right down the road from me. We get together at our friend Pam Keravouri‘s beautiful studio (recently featured in Where Women Create!) once a month or so with other crafty friends and create.

Amy took the Journal die in a different direction and created a Stitch Book…

A Stitch Book is just like a sketch book only instead of pen and paper you use needle and thread to fill the pages! This book is a perfect place to sample new embroidery stitches, explore a design, or simply doodle with thread! A perfect take along, this project tucks nicely in your overnight bag. Just grab a needle and thread and let’s get stitching!

Materials:

1 Large Felt Piece, 9.5″ x 15″

6 to 9 Assorted Felt Pieces, cut to 8″ x 8″

Assorted Embroidery Floss

Round Elastic for binding

Optional: Frixion by Pilot Pen

Tools: (list 1 per line)

Iron

Scissors

Needle

Instructions:

Embroider a design for the cover. You can sew this design directly onto the felt piece for the cover or you can opt to sew it on another fabric which you then sew to the cover. The cover design should be 4″ x 9″ and will go on the right half of the fabric, ending 2.5″ from the right.
To create the cover, similar to a checkbook cover, fold over 2.5″ on each end of the 15″ long felt piece. Iron to crease the edge. Sew into place. I used a blanket stitch all the way around the book.
Thread the rounded elastic through parallel center holes of the mattboard cover to create 3 elastic bands. Knot to secure.
Insert the assembled book cover (mattboard) into the felt cover. You may need to bend the book spine backward to fit into sleeve.
To create the inserts for the book, fold each of the 8″ x 8″ felt pieces in half, using an iron to crease. Sandwich 3 of felt pieces. Sew along the inside seam of the inner most felt piece to bind these pages. Continue with the other groups of 3 felt pieces to create as many inserts as you’d like. The book will easily accomodate 3 inserts. You can make extras to have on hand to switch out as you fill the book with stitches!
To insert the pages, open to the center fold of each mini felt book and thread through the elastic band.
To embroider on the pages, you can keep the pages inserted in the book, or remove them, whichever is more comfortable for you. Keep a variety of needles and embroidery floss with the book so that you are ready to stitch whenever the urge hits. If you pre-thread your needles with assortment of flosses, it’ll be even easier to pick up and stitch in your new Stitch Book.
Tip: Draw the design you want to stitch onto the felt using a Frixion pen by Pilot. The ink in these pens disappears with heat which is handy for stitching since you can run a hot iron over the design you’ve stitched and poof! the design you drew for reference is gone!

About Amy

Like most middle children, Amy Powers learned early how to entertain herself marvelously. An active imagination decorated her world and occupied her mind. She grew up making art and telling wild stories. She still remembers precisely what it was like to be that little girl. More than a few decades later, Amy‘s still making stuff. Amy lives in the Washington, DC suburbs with her husband Rich and their adorable son Alfredo.

Ultimate List of Kunin Felt and Eileen Hull Sizzix Projects

2 Jun

Hey everyone! Wow I can’t believe we are into June already. For the entire month of May the Inspiration Team has been collaborating with Kunin Felt to inspire you with amazing Felt Projects featuring my new Heartfelt Sizzix Collection. Today we are recapping all the tutorials we’ve seen this month with the Ultimate List of Kunin Felt and Eileen Hull Sizzix Projects! You can catch up on projects you may have missed AND check out some cool new projects.

Ultimate List of Kunin Felt and Eileen Hull Sizzix Projects

Anna-Karin Evaldsson shares a gorgeous Felt Flower Basket using Kunin Felt along with my Basket and Stitchy Flowers dies from the Heartfelt Sizzix collection. As always an informative tutorial on how to assemble and distress your basket is included along with lovely stepped out photos!

Ultimate List of Kunin Felt and Eileen Hull Sizzix Projects: Felt Flower Basket Tutorial by Anna-Karin Evaldsson

Head to Anna-Karin’s blog for all the lovely details on how to create this Felt Flower Basket.

Anne Redfern shares the perfect photo holder project! How cute is this Felt Camera Photo Holder? Anne used my Journal Die and carefully placed felt pieces to create this adorable make.

Ultimate List of Kunin Felt and Eileen Hull Sizzix Projects: Camera Photo Holder Tutorial by Anne Redfern

Check out Anne’s Blog for more “snapshots” of the steps she took to make this amazingly creative Camera Photo Holder.

Ultimate List of Kunin Felt and Eileen Hull Sizzix Projects

Hope you enjoyed this months Ultimate List of Kunin Felt and Eileen Hull Sizzix Projects you can find all of these fun felt creations by following the links below:

Stay tuned next week for a new collaboration filled with fresh inspiration!

Eileen

How to Assemble the Sizzix Journal

24 Apr

Just a quick post to show how to assemble the Sizzix Journal die and create inserts. There has been so much interest and chat about this versatile die, I thought it might be good to do a post and keep all of the resources in one spot. Thanks so much for your interest!

Here’s what the Journal die packaging looks like:

The Journal is a ScoreBoards die, designed to cut and score thick material like matboard and chipboard, forming a rigid cover for your book! Matboard is the perfect blank canvas- add paint, ink, stamps, sprays, texture paste, stencils, buttons, beads, and more. You can also cut it from paper, fabric, felt, paper leather, metal or combinations of these materials. You can run the matboard through embossing folders too, creating a rich dimensional cover.

One of the things I love about this die is that it’s so easy to put together. And once you make one… well, you’ll see- they are addicting! There are so many ways to use this die- make art journals, planners, for a special occasion, photos, baby book, guest book, wedding journal, junk journals, and traveler’s notebook. It’s your Journal- decorate it as you’d like in the colors, style and materials you’d like!

In this Facebook Live video, I show how to assemble the Sizzix Journal, after looking at some amazing samples from the Inspiration Team. Please watch and see how easy it is! Skip ahead to about minute 30:- for actual assembly.

The Journal measures 8 3/4″ x 4 1/2″ when assembled. Three to four inserts may be added to the book. Watch here to see how to make Journal inserts and how to thread the elastic though the spine to keep the inserts in place:

NOTE- I admit I am not an expert book maker. Here’s a quick tutorial from my friend Pam Keravuori.

Signatures

The story I’ve heard suggests that the sections, or “signatures”, which are the sets of pages sewn into a book, supposedly got their name from monks. When monks finished hand-writing their section of a book, they signed it and that section became known as a signature. Now it means sheets of paper, or “folios”, stacked and folded in half. A signature may be one folio, or one sheet of paper folded in half to make four pages, but generally it is two or more sheets/folios (and sometimes more folds).

The Pamphlet Stitch

The pamphlet stitch is probably the simplest and most popular binding technique for notebook inserts like ours, because you can stitch the pages and the cover of the signature at the same time. You can use 3 or more holes along the fold, but the trick is to start and finish on the same side (whether inside or outside) and have both ends of the twine end up together at the same hole to tie off. Usually this means having one long stitch go over (rather than through) the center hole.

So, for a 3-hole pamphlet stitch, your needle would go through the center hole from inside to outside (or reverse), then through one end hole from outside to inside, then across the center hole to the other end hole, going through from inside to outside, then back through the center hole from outside to inside. Both ends of your thread would now be on the inside at the center hole, ready to tie around and secure the long stitch that crossed over the center hole.

Alternatively, if you stitch with a back stitch and wind up with one thread end inside and one thread end outside, you can make a loop knot to anchor the thread around the earlier stitch at the hole before going through to join the other thread end. This is called a saddle stitch binding.

I usually use 5+ holes for my pamphlet stitch because I think it makes the spine sturdier and puts less pressure on each hole (to avoid tearing). More holes also help keep smaller sized papers in place, so they don’t slant or settle to the bottom. As I start stitching, I leave a thread tail long enough to reach near the bottom of the signature, where I hold onto it against the paper until the 2nd or 3rd stitch, when it becomes secure (without a knot until the tying off). General advice is to always pull your thread parallel to the spine in the direction you’re stitching, since pulling the thread straight out from the spine tends to tear the holes.

Please follow me on Facebook at Eileen Hull Designs and watch for extra LIVE shows in honor of this new Heartfelt Sizzix release! I hope you have enjoyed seeing how to assemble the Sizzix Journal and will consider getting one for yourself!

If you would like to purchase a die, there are a few left in my Etsy shop!

Even More HeARTfelt Journal Ideas

20 Apr

Hey there, hope you’re all having a good week so far. The Inspiration Team is back again with more HeARTfelt Journal Ideas! The Journal die from my new Sizzix Collection Heartfelt is quickly becoming a favorite. There’s no question as to why folks fancy it so much if we’re judging by all of the AMAZING journal ideas we’ve seen thus far. Let’s take a look at some of the journaling techniques, tricks and all around awesome journals the team has for you this week.

More HeARTfelt Journal Ideas

Nicole Wright has a delightful Travel Journal filled with adventure and lots of techniques! Tags, tabs, diecuts, stamping and BEARS…Oh MY! Nicole’s journal is chock full of adventurous creativity that you won’t want to miss!

Take a trip to Nicole’s Blog for more details!

Mitsyana Wright shares a gorgeous couple’s journal perfect for recording memories with your sweetie for a honeymoon, anniversary or any trip or endeavor you embark on together.

Stop by Mitsyana’s blog for more lovely details on how to create this couple’s journal to record your own memories with the one you love!

Julia Aston has more HeARTfelt Journal Ideas than you can shake a stick at. Her latest, lovely journal creation is this gorgeous felt garden journal. Covered in fine felt flowers from the Heartfelt Sizzix collection, lace trim and lush gray felt.

Don’t miss Julia’s detailed tutorial and a peek inside her garden HERE.

Tonya Trantham’s Journal offering is an absolute delight! This “Tidbits” journal is full of color, texture and fun and I just love it to tidbits! The mix of papers, doilies and that darling winged gentleman makes me want to dig through my stash and create my own Tidbits Journal.

Take a trip over to Tonya’s Blog for more Tidbits on how she created this journal.

Donna Budzynski has a real show stopper to share with you today! There’s simply too many techniques to mention but I’ll name a few…paper stitching, Eileen Hull Blends Ink techniques, and a nifty technique for creating wider pages!

Stop by Donna’s Blog for more details on this Technique filled Travel Journal.

That’s all for this week stay tuned next week for more HeARTfelt journal ideas!

Eileen