Eileen Hull

Three dimensional art... with heart

Vote for Jo Packham!

No, she is not running for President… yet… 

Is there anyone who has not heard of the incredibly talented and well- connected Jo Packham of Where Women Create, Chapelle Publishing, and The Creative Connection? I have had the honor and pleasure of spending some time with her recently and find her to be a delight- a humble and amazing woman with so much passion for what she does. This lady has done it ALL!

But wait- there’s more! Jo is now looking for help. She needs your vote to win a $250,000 grant from Chase. Would you please go vote for her here?


Where Women Create would love your support in our quest for the Mission: Small Business grant. Go to https://www.missionsmallbusiness.com/ click on “Log in and support” search for “Where Women Create Business” and click vote. We realize it is a number of steps and appreciate your help.

It only takes a minute- I just did it. 

I can’t think of a more deserving entrepreneur than Jo and look forward to seeing what she will do if she gets the grant! Please help her by casting your vote now so we can all find out what’s next! I can only imagine… the White House?

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.

Long Live the Queen!

It all started when I turned on the TV the other night and watched Katie Couric interviewing Prince William about his grandmother, the Queen, and what it was like growing up in the royal household. I was inspired to create a tribute to the good Queen for 60 years of service to her people and her country.

I used a page from a cool vintage atlas from the early 1900’s as a photo backdrop.

The crown was made using my ScoreBoard Cupcake Holder die and the royal Crown Stand was made from my new Sweet Treats Cupcake Stand & Pennant.


Today is first Monday so don’t forget to check out other cool projects by the Designer Connection- click on the blue icon on my sidebar and you will be taken through the webring!


Visit the Sizzix blog today for instructions on how to make this project. Thanks for stopping by- tata! 

Duetica Baby Shower Layout

Last month we had a baby shower for my daughter Jess. She is due with her little guy at the end of June so we’ll be headed down to Miami. I can’t wait to meet him! And see my daughter and SIL of course 🙂

Here’s a layout I designed using the beautiful Mandolyn font by Duetica. I formatted the text in Illustrator and cut them out using my Sizzix eclips. Now, in addition to all of the fun  designs you can cut from eclips cartridges, there is a new feature called eCAL that allows you to cut files that you design yourself! Love it- and it’s really easy to do! Can you imagine cutting these delicate letters by hand? 

Supplies:
Duetica Mandolyn font (go sign up right now!)
computer
Sizzix eclips machine
Big Shot die cut machine
Borders & Hydrangeas Bigz die (shipping any day now!
white glossy 12″ x 12″ cardstock
photos and paper to mat them with
adhesive- glue pen and spray
scoring board
cardstock for words
scraps of paper for rick rack 

FYI- The background paper grid actually looks like bathroom tiles especially using the glossy paper…. My daughter looked at this and said, “Oh cool, I get it- baby SHOWER”. Yeah, I meant to do that. Really.

  1. Using Mandolyn font, lay out words on 12″ x 12″ paper, sizing them as large or small as you’d like. I love the graceful curves of this font and made my letters fairly large, about 2 3/4″ tall. The contrast of gray text on white is really crisp and not as harsh as black might have been.
  2. Assemble photos. Print and cut to desired size. Arrange on page. Mat with complimentary colors. I chose a light blue since blue tones were visible all through the photos. 
  3. Lay white paper on the scoring board and score every 1/2″ vertically on the wrong side of the paper, filling the page. Flip it over and rotate one quarter turn. Score every 1/2″ again.
  4. Add a border made from scraps trimmed from paper the words were cut from. Cut a few rick rack pieces from other colors in your layout and adhere them where there are gaps.
  5. Lay elements on page to arrange them and adhere in position. Use spray adhesive on the back of the “baby shower” pieces so they lay flat.
The theme we picked was “Welcome Sweet Pea” (realized this was not original as I shopped for plates and napkins) but I had a special reason for wanting it. My Grandpa Mamitsch was a florist and won numerous awards for his sweet peas at the International Flower Show held in NY in the 40’s.  I am lucky enough to have some of the certificates he received. I nestled the awards in pots of begonias, Gerber daisies and and some perennials. I considered buying cut flowers but decided this way we could plant them and enjoy all summer (or at least until I forget to water them). 

For favors, everyone took home a little peat pot and sweet pea seeds so they could grow their own.

 Crayon art masterpiece by Maryanne- isn’t it cool?

Something went wrong with our plan for the punch. It tasted good but the little marshmallow peep ducks weren’t swimming properly- kept flopping over…

Since rain was in the forecast, we put the tent up on the deck. It was decorated with big white and blue tissue paper flowers which we hung from the ceiling. 

 For sure…

My friend Lorine made some killer cupcakes…. and here’s the banner before it’s assembled. I made it using my Triangle Box ScoreBoard die and Serif Essential letters. 

We asked everyone to fill out one of these and sent them to the important people who could not be at the shower. I’ll make a book from them for the baby so he knows how much he is already loved. 

My three amazing girls (and baby)! So glad I have them…

Thanks for stopping by 🙂

On the Road…

It has been a whirlwind the last few weeks! I traveled out to Lake Forest, CA to Sizzix HQ for a meeting which went really well (I think, I hope!). Then it was on to Minnesota where Karen Burniston and I taught at VIP Scrapbooks in Rochester, MN and also got to spend time with her sister Julie, her husband Randy and two adorable nephews. Randy cooked us Mother’s Day dinner and I heard from all of my kids so that was a good day 🙂


Then we drove back to Minneapolis to the Mystic Lake resort to teach classes at a retail event put on by Erickson and Associates. Here we met store owners and reps and were able to give tips and techniques for working with our products. It was great to talk to the store owners because I got to hear things from another perspective.

I showed how to make a badge holder from the Index Card box die by cutting off a flap and adding two Business Card boxes to the inside. I put my cards in one box and other people’s cards in the other. You can also fit a few dollars for lunch and a tiny pen. On the back of the box you can put your badge. It’s a great way to carry all you need in one place, especially at trade shows! 

We did a Make and Take the first night and the next day I taught a class called Stacking Candy Drawers. I made stamps from my Borders and Hydrangea die and fun foam. Stephanie Barnard’s inks were used to stamp the flowers on the box. Loving these nice and bright colors! The flowers were outlined with black marker dots for a little extra touch. Adhesive pearls were added for the flower centers and a matching ribbon tied it all together.

 

We received some coupons when we checked into the casino- if you put $10 in the machine, you’d get it back when you cashed out. So each night we would go down and play the quarter slots… the first night we won $82, next night $38 and the last time $25. Since I didn’t have my ID with me the first night, we decided to play on one ticket and split the winnings- lucky lucky me- Karen has a way with those slot machines! 

We visited a very cool paper store called Anchor Paper when we got to Minneapolis (thanks to June, one of our students). So all of my purchases there were covered by the money I won! Almost like it was meant to be…

On Saturday, I head up to NY where I’ll be visiting the National Stationery Show, on the lookout for cool stuff. Will let you know know what I find!

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!