Eileen Hull

Three dimensional art... with heart

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!

New Arrival and Fourth of July

Life has been so much fun! Last week, my husband, two daughters and I drove our RV down to FL to be with my other daughter due with her first baby. My husband’s 92 year old stepdad Ray is living with us so my sister Marie, a nurse, had graciously agreed to come up to stay with him while we were gone. Unfortunately, the same day we left, a record breaking heat wave started in VA leaving Marie and Ray without power/AC for three days.  But Marie is amazing and has managed just fine (so far). I am so glad I bought the little pool before I left in case it got hot…


We arrived just in time. Our new grandson, Daniel Benjamin, arrived on July 2. He is just perfect and he wants to wish you all a Happy Fourth of July! 

In the midst of all of this, I am finishing up my art for Sizzix dies for next summer and getting ready for CHA. Life is good! 

CHAS 12 Sneak Peek

Just a quick look at two of my new dies coming out in a few weeks! Can you guess what the theme of this collection is?


Here’s how I used the seam binding I made here.

Visitors and a quick tip

For the past week, I have had some clients and friends visiting from out of town. I loved seeing everyone- but it reminded me how lucky I am to work from home and not have to commute into DC every day!


A while back, I saw something on a video or blog about dying your own seam binding. I decided this would be handy because you could buy a package of white and then make whatever color you need. So I went into my JoAnn’s to buy some packaged seam binding to give it a whirl. To my surprise, JoAnn’s no longer carries it- there’s hem tape, quilt binding, piping, twill, etc. but not plain old seam binding! So I went on eBay and found a 100 yard roll of it for $8.50 and bought it. It arrived yesterday and I went to town. What fun and so easy!
All you need are some spray mists, a ZipLock bag, and the seam binding. 
  1. Cut seam binding to desired length and put it in the plastic bag. 
  2. Spray mist in the bag. How much you add depends on how dark or light you want your seam binding. It dried a little lighter. The first two I just added one color- the third one I got crazy and sprayed green first, then brown which toned down the green a little. The colors bleed into each other for a cool ombre effect.
  3. Hang seam binding somewhere to dry. (the shower rod works great)
  4. The crumpling process also adds a crinkly textured effect to the seam binding. If you want it smooth, you can use an old curling iron or straightener (instead of getting out the iron) to get the wrinkles out.
Tips: 
  • if the seam binding is totally saturated, blot with a rag and then hang to dry so prevent a big mess.
  • experiment with different dyes and inks. One color I used was Radiant Rain Key Lime from Luminarte and it had a nice shimmer to it. 
  • the seam binding is so inexpensive on the roll! Use it to wrap gifts, as accents on layouts and cards and for jewelry cording.
Next post will show what I did with the seam binding- and you might get a sneak peek of my CHA Summer release!