Eileen Hull

Three dimensional art... with heart

Designer Connection and iLovetoCreate partner up!

This coming Friday on July 1st, the Designer Crafts Connection Blog Hop is doing something special.  We have partnered with iLovetoCreate for July’s challenge! iLovetoCreate provided 30 designers from this group with Tulip’s Beads in a Bottle. We each used Beads in a Bottle to create a special project in our own style.

I can’t wait to see all of our completed projects on Friday, JULY 1ST, but if you want a sneak peek… here’s a YouTube Video preview.

And if that’s not enough… iLovetoCreate is having an awesome giveaway that some lucky winner will get their crafty hands on! Just check out this huge batch of goodies:


To find out how to enter to win, you need to get over to iLovetoCreate’s blog. Find out how to enter here!

That’s it for now….so get over to iLovetoCreate’s blog and then make sure you come back here on Friday to see all the amazing projects!

Vintage Flower Pin

Sorry to take a break in blogging- my granddaughter has been here for a visit and she took the front seat for a week!

I have a fun project to share. My Fresh Vintage Sizzix dies are finally here and I’ve been having such a great time making all kinds of cool flowers. Here’s a pin I made for a friend’s birthday. Once I made it, I realized I also needed a special way to present it and decided to make one in the style of a vintage button card.

I used a Duetica font called Tin Whistle to create the card. Duetica is a customizable font system where you are able to create unique lettering layouts. A year’s membership only costs $25- what a deal! They have some really fun fonts to pick from and I thought Tin Whistle was fun and had a hand written feel to it which went along with the handmade gift.

You will need:

Card:
access to Duetica Lettering System
Adobe software (Illustrator)
white cardstock
printer
matboard scrap in a coordinating color
Corner Rounder and Crop-a-dile- We R Memory Keepers
glue dots

Instructions:

  1. In Illustrator, lay out the project in the finished size you want so you can see how much room you have to work in. I chose a 4″ x 6″ layout.
  2. Go to the Duetica site and type in your text. Play with it until you have it just how you like it. Save it and import to your editing software.
  3. Create a shadowed affect for the title by layering one “fresh vintage” in brown, then copy it and change the color to white. Offset the white image and you have a title that really pops!
  4. After editing the project as desired, print on white cardstock.
  5. Cut a piece of matboard slightly larger than your artwork and round the corners. If desired, punch a hole for hanging or to add a ribbon for embellishment.
  6. Adhere card to matboard base.
  7. Add flower pin to card with glue dots.

Flower:
Sizzix Big Shot die cutting machine
Sizzix Flowers, Layers #9 die by Eileen Hull
brad
3 sheets of white tissue paper
Copic marker in desired accent color
Radiant Rain by Luminarte– Egyptian Gold
pinback
matboard scrap
small brad

Instructions:

  1. Fold all sheets of tissue paper in half and continue folding until your paper is about 6″ x 6″ and fits on the Sizzix die. Roll tissue paper through Big Shot with flower die.
  2. With the largest size flower, stack all pieces together in your hand. Run the marker along all of the flower edges and outline just the edge of the flowers.
  3. Punch a hole in the middle of all the flowers. Insert brad and close.
  4. Starting with the innermost flower, start scrunching one paper flower into the middle. Continue scrunching each flower one by one and drawing into the center of the flower. When all pieces are in the middle, spread them out and fluff! Beautiful!
  5. Add leaves made from scraps of ribbon and glue to back of flower.
  6. Add a matboard circle to the middle of the flower back. Glue pinback to circle. Attach to card.

Wasn’t this fun? Once you have your artwork laid out, it’s easy to change the message or colors up to coordinate for a special person or event.

For more ideas on ways to use fonts, check out the Duetica website under Inspiration and see the gallery of great projects created by the Duetica Design Team. Follow the Duetica blog to see what’s new and show us what you are working on at the Duetica Facebook page. We want to see!

Blown Glass Reveal

I wrote in a post a couple of weeks ago about my adventures in glass blowing at the New Orleans Glassworks and Printmaking Studio. Well, yesterday the box of my projects arrived! I was so excited to see how these pieces turned out since when I last saw them, they were still glowing red from the heat of the fire. As soon as they were done, they were whisked into the annealing oven to cool down slowly.

Are you ready? I will give you a little narrative since you may not be able to guess exactly what they are. 🙂 The piece below is a paperweight. And let me tell you, this thing is HEAVY.  I love the aqua blue glass embedded inside. Not sure about the green stripes but I think this was more of an exercise in how the different effects are achieved than making a “pretty” paperweight. Overall the shape was pretty good so that means my twisting and twirling was satisfactory.

Next we did the vase. This involved blowing glass gathered on the end of a long hollow stick until a bubble formed and caused a hollow in the middle. Then we pulled it out and shaped it into a bowl. I like the colors and ripply edge. And I know it’s not perfect but I still am amazed that I made that (at least a good portion of it).
Then it was time for this octopus. It is ever heavier that the paperweight. I am considering putting it on my bedside nighttable. Not sure I could lift it to hurl at intruders though.
If you angle it just the right way, it seems that there’s a little fish hiding in the water complete with eye and everything… Can you see it?
Now for the tough question. Which of these two do you think I did? No question about it, mine is the stumpy little one. I was too slow and let the glass cool down so when I went to pull the stem into the nice curlicue shape that Drake had done, that stuff would not move for anything!
So what, I’m still happy I did this class and urge you to step out of your comfort zone once in a while and give a new craft a spin! It’s inspiring…

Mod Podge to the Rescue

I was at Office Depot last night buying labels and found the cutest thing. It’s a notepad in a plastic case and the pen is what holds it closed. It’s brilliant! I have a notebook in my purse now now but after a while it gets torn and messed up plus I have to search my bag for a pen because there’s no place on the notebook to hook a pen to… am I weird that this bothers me?
Anyway, I bought this little beauty for $1.99. Not feeling it’s too beautiful though…

So I decided to customize it with my logo and one of my favorite crafty products, Mod Podge!

It was so quick and easy- here’s how to do it:
You will need:
Mod Podge– I used the Glossy formula but any kind will work.
plastic object to work with
paper cut to size
brown ink for distressing
crystals for blinging (optional)
Instructions:
  1. Print out logo, image or desired text. (This would be cute with photos too, don’t you think?) Trim paper to fit the top of the box. (I cut mine just a tiny bit smaller)
  2. Ink edges of paper if you want a more distressed look. Once you start brushing the Mod Podge on though, this ink may move a little depending on what kind you used. I liked how mine turned out but you might want to seal the ink first with spray fixitive.
  3. Lay down a fairly thick coat of ModPodge on the top of the plastic case (following directions on bottle). I used a paintbrush to apply it because it was a small project but check to make sure there are no stray paintbrush hairs on your surface before it starts drying. Mine was shedding all over the place!
  4. Center and place paper image on top of box. Add another coat of Mod Podge on top of the paper. Let dry for 30 minutes or so. Layer on one or two more coats, allowing drying time in between.
  5. Add a crystal or two- this really makes the project! It can be glued or affixed with a heated tip tool.
  6. Hard to see in the photo but I also added a crystal to the end of the pen and colored it with a Copic marker to color coordinate! Love it!

This technique will work with any plastic container so feel free to start personalizing kid’s school items, household storage containers, craft totes, gift boxes, recycled Crystal Light containers or whatever you have around the house.

I am excited to have a personalized pen and pad right on hand and easy to grab when a creative inspiration hits me!

Designer Connection blog hop

Our theme for the Designer Connection June blog hop is “Patriotic”. And I can’t think of anyone more patriotic than military wives and moms!

To see more of the red white and blue, hop on over to my fellow designers’ blogs by clicking on the blue Designer Crafts Connection button on the sidebar. You will be taken around a fabulous hop. Make sure you find the blog with the great giveaway! Keep hopping 🙂

I started designing matted artwork about 20 years ago. Traditionally, in the army, a small gift (usually bearing some reference to the military or unit) is given to welcome a new spouse to the family support group. Items like this were hard to find so my good friend Kim and I started designing military wife pieces for this purpose and later expanded into baby items and everyday sayings, as well as creating custom farewell gifts, volunteer appreciation and other gifts for the commanders on post. I am happy to say these pieces continue to sell well for me on line, at craft shows and in military post gift shops and boutiques. I am happy to help support the units with donations to many worthy causes such as scholarships and organizations helping the military community. I loved our time in the military and am proud that our children have also chosen to serve.

This is a small sampling of some of the military wife specialty gifts I create and sell. If you are interested, see more on my website.

Happy Memorial Day!

Sending out a huge thank you to all who have served in the military. Having visited other countries, I sure appreciate living here and the freedoms we enjoy. The military life is not an easy one, but one I feel blessed to be part of because of all of the amazing people we met and still have as friends. You guys are my heroes (especially the one I married and two I gave birth to). Go Army and Coast Guard!

Here’s a Patriotic Banner I designed for the Buttons Galore and More blog. Hop on over to see how to make it.

Enjoy your day off. We’re celebrating with a cookout and some relaxing. It’s supposed to be 97 degrees… time for the AC.