May Flowers with Eileen Hull Dies

Hi everyone and welcome to my post as part of the Eileen Hull Design Team. This month we are showcasing May Flowers using Eileen's dies.

For this project I used one of my all time favourite dies of Eileen's, the Sizzix ScoreBoards XL Die - Book, Passport, it is such a fantastic, versatile die that can cut so many materials. I have some step by steps for you below:

Die cut the Passport pieces from mountboard. We have a front and back cover and the spine.

Crumple a piece of white tissue paper to create creases and then adhere to each of the die cut pieces. I used Distress Collage Medium to adhere mine.

At this stage I was thinking about texture and decided that I now wanted to emboss my pieces and was still hoping that some of the creases in the tissue would still be visible after embossing. I was delighted that some still remained even after the embossing process. I used Eileen's Daisy Wreath Embossing Folder, which I thought fitted perfectly for the May Flowers Challenge.

I then painted all my pieces with black acrylic paint, making sure to cover all the white areas.

I then dry brushed with DecoArt Media Metallic Silver Paint which really highlights the texture beautifully.

From this picture you can see that some of the creases I created with the tissue paper are still visible, which I love.

Now time to add some flowers to my design. I opted for Eileen's Stitchy Flowers and Leaf Thinlits Die, again another fantastically versatile die. I die cut several pieces to create dimensional flowers.

I spritzed the die cut flowers with a light misting of water.

I then scrunched each of the die cut flowers to add texture to each die cut piece and I then layered three large flowers and two small flowers together.

I added a brad to the centre of my flowers to add another detail element to my design.

I also added some small beads to the centre, again adding further texture and added some highlights of silver acrylic paint to the petals.

I assembled the book and I am absolutely delighted with the finish, the texture and dimension is something I love.

I added the butterfly to the centre, my stamp from AALLandCreate which you can find HERE.

I added some touches of texture to my butterfly, adding small pieces of cheesecloth to the wings. I also included beads and a Story Stick from Tim Holtz. My butterfly sits on one of Tim Holtz frames.

I love the texture on the spine of my book and I also included a few more small beads for added interest.

I added one of Tim Holtz Mini Hardware Pulls for added dimension which sits perfectly against my dimensional flowrs.

I added black pages to my book and also included another one of my stamped butterflies, coloured with metallic markers.

I added black pages which enables the recipient to add white doodling or metallic sketches etc to the pages.

My fellow team members have created further designs to inspire you this month, please pop by Eileen's BLOG to see more details.

Thanks so much for stopping by. Tracy x x

April Showers with Eileen Hull Dies

Welcome to my monthly post for Eileen Hull. This month our theme is April Showers - Create a project with a Shower (baby or bridal) or party theme. Favours, invitations, decor pieces etc.

 I really  had to think about this one as I don't really create items for parties or weddings. After much deliberation, I opted for a Wedding Planner using Eileen's fabulous Sizzix ScoreBoards XL Die - Book, Passport. This is one of my favourite dies to use, I just adore the size and possibilities. At the time of writing this post, this die is available in the UK from That's Crafty HERE.

I began by die cutting my front and back covers from mountboard. I did not add my wedding paper to the mountboard at this stage as the paper is embossed and the embossing would only be flattened during the die cutting process. Once I had die cut the front and back covers, I then covered each piece with my embossed paper. If I was using an embossing folder, I would add my paper or simply emboss the mountboard, however, I found this paper in Hobbycraft and it seemed perfect for a wedding theme.

I then drew a flower onto the embossed paper with a grey pencil crayon, which would also act as my shading. Once I was happy with my flower, I then painted each petal with Distress Paints Spun Sugar, Worn Lipstick and Picked Raspberry.

I then added glue to the centre of my flower and randomly around my petals and then added Creative Expressions Gold Metallic Micro Beads and allowed the glue to dry completely. I also added a Finnabair metal heart embellishment to the centre which I coloured with some wax.

I added a story embellishment to the clip at the top of my Wedding Planner.

I then dry brushed DecoArt Media Metallic Gold paint across the front and back covers and also the binding.

I added some gold beads to the binding, to add a touch more opulence and interest to my Planner.

I added the text Wedding Planner to the front cover and also added decorative papers inside.

The idea behind my Wedding Planner is that the bride would add fabric samples to the pages along with details of all her plans for the wedding, bridesmaids outfits, venues, fabrics, flowers etc etc and this would be a record for her for life.

Eileen kindly sent me some wonderful decorative file folders and I used a couple of those to add decorative pages to the inside.

I also added a couple of gold pages to the inside to add a touch more luxury to the Planner.

You can find other wonderul ideas from my fellow Design Team Members over on Eileen's Blog HERE.

Thanks so much for stopping by. Tracy x x

Eileen Hull Art With Heart Challenge

This month the team are combining Graphic 45 Papers with the fabulous Eileen Hull dies and the challenge theme for our Art with Heart Challenge is October Hauntings and Holiday Calendar.

This month I was inspired by Eileen Hull's paper trail; she is visiting many places in her own Trailer and demonstrating to many shops all over the USA. I thought I would create my own Halloween Travel Trailer combined with the Book, Passport.

I began by die cutting the Passport Book from mountboard which I had covered with the Graphic 45 Rare Oddities Papers. The front cover has also had a niche cut from the centre using Tim Holtz Sized Arches and I added shading to all the edges with Ground Espresso Distress Ink.

I added a Prima mini magnifying glass to the skeleton's face on the inside of my aperture and created a box to fit at the back to create a niche that would house my skeleton's and clay bony  hand. The mini plastic skeletons and clay bony hand were painted with DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylics; first painting each piece with Titan Buff, drying with a heat tool and then adding a wash of Carbon Black and Quinacridone Gold mixed with water and once again drying with a heat tool. I also included a small Tim Holtz Heirloom rose which I again coloured with DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylics and added to one of the bony fingers. I die cut "Rare Oddities" from the Graphic 45 paper using a Tim Holtz Thinlits Label, again adding shading with Distress Ink around the edges. To add a touch more texture I machine stitched the front and back cover to the spine.

I added three sets of pages all decorated with Graphic 45 paper and all the edges shaded with Ground Espresso Distress Ink. I think Eileen's Passport Book would be perfect to add pictures to from your Halloween Celebrations that you could then look at year after year.

I added BOO to the top of my book using Alpha Parts along with a few white Remnant Rubs for added interest. I also nestled a die cut bat, which I cut from book pages and then used Fimo Liquid to do an image transfer of the text page. The Fimo Liquid dries clear when baked in the oven and gives a 3D like appearance.

The die cut Trailer has also been covered with Rare Oddities paper and I have added a metal strip across the trailer for added interest and die cut windows from the Trailer using Tim Holtz Mini Openings Set. I then added little wood strips to the windows to give a type of log cabinn feel and added skulls to the windows which were once again coloured with DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylics.

I added wood strips/twigs to the top of the trailer, once again to add to the log cabin type of feel and I also added three plastic skulls which I painted with DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylics. The outside areas of the trailer were painted with DecoArt Carbon Black Fluid Acrylic. I also added Label Letters to add "Halloween Trail" to the Trailer and then applied a coat of DecoArt Matte Medium to protect all the areas.

Hope you can all join in with the fun challenge this month.

I would also like to enter this piece into the DecoArt Mixed Media Haunts Challenge running through until the end of October. The DecoArt Design Team have produced wonderful pieces to inspire us during October.

Thanks so much for stopping by. Tracy x x