Favorite Projects of 2021 Roundup

Is tomorrow really December? Time has really flown by! Eileen Hull's Inspiration Team is taking a look back over 2021 and picking out their three favorite projects from the year. I had fun choosing my favorites and here they are! I'll link back to the original posts so you can go see the tutorials and all the details.

#1 - The Robot Folio Journal
Eileen's Folio Journal Die debuted in February and I created this cyberpunk 'robot' journal to put it through its paces. I was very pleased with the outcome! Check out the post for LOTS of photos and a tutorial.

#2 - Day & Night Reversible Journal
I had an idea that I just had to try out! I wanted to make an art journal that juxtaposed two opposites and I thought making the journal reversible was an interesting format. I used the Pocket Journal Die for the covers. Check out my original post for all the details and tutorial.

#3 - 4th of July Decor
The Vintage Truck and Camper Dies are some of my favorite dies from this year. They are so cute and can be used so many ways! I used both of them to create a festive 4th of July decoration for my house. I did not spare the red, white and blue ha ha. Original post can be found here.

Thanks for stopping by and paying a visit! Be sure to keep your eye on Eileen Hull's blog this month for loads of inspiration from the Teams!

Funkie Junkie Boutique Challenge - "Living Things"

Hello! I've been trying to get a project done for the current Funkie Junkie Boutique challenge, Living Things (ending tonight ha ha). Here I am getting it done at the last minute again. ;-) I'm still counting it though. Anyway, they have the best challenge themes and I had a hankering to make something Christmas-y, glittery, and woodsy. I've also had the vintage china container sitting on my shelf for a year waiting to get up-cycled. It all came together!

I kept the color scheme neutral but used lots of glitter and gold. ;-)

The bunny is a resin figurine from the craft store.

Back view

Thanks for stopping by! Be sure to check out The Funkie Junkie Boutique Blog, every two weeks they have a new challenge. I think they come up with great themes. Plus their design team is top notch and you will be inspired by all the makes. 

Feeling Fall-ish Birthday Card with Eileen Hull

Hello and welcome to November! This month the theme on Eileen's blog is 'Seasonal Makes' which covers all the bases this time of year. I created a fall themed card for my mother-in-law's birthday next week. Take a look:

The card background is a monoprint made using a gel plate and then stamped with one of Eileen's new stamps (Snail Mail Everyday Sentiments).

I used some of Eileen's retired flower and leaf dies to cut the parts for the embellishment. The big flower on the bottom I embossed using her fabulous (seriously one of my favorite 3-D Embossing Folders) new Sweater folder.  I used a double sided adhesive sheet to attach the plaid fabric to a piece of cardstock before cutting out the center flower. This helps stabilize the shape and prevents fraying at the edges. 

There you go, this is a clean and simple card for me lol.

Thanks for stopping by and be sure to keep an eye on Eileen's blog for more inspiration from the Educator and Inspiration Teams.

Supplies used:

Dies:

Eileen Hull Sizzix 

Sweater, 3-D Textured Impressions Embossing Folder  ( Sizzix / SB )

Romance Flower Die #661110 - retired

Leaves Die - retired

Heart & Soul Flower Die #661108 - retired

Other:

Eileen Hull Maker Forte stamp set - Snail Mail Everyday Sentiments

Gel Press Plate

Archival (permanent) inks

Distress Inks

acrylic paint

fabric

Double sided adhesive sheets

Some links in this post are affiliate links which do not affect the price you pay but allow me to earn a small percentage of a sale. Thanks! (My husband also thanks you!) 

Giggling Ghouls, Guest Designer for The Funkie Junkie Boutique

Happy Halloween! I am honored to be a guest designer on The Funkie Junkie Boutique Blog today with a project for their current challenge:

Grunge, Ghouls or Giggles – Halloween is just around the corner and this week we are getting our hands dirty. Will your makes be frightful and ghoulish or will they be cute and get giggles? Add a touch of grunge to your makes. Cards, décor, scrapbook pages, journal spreads, we want to see it all. We will be most Distressed if you miss out on the spooky cute Halloween fun! Happy crafting!

This is such a great theme and I had the perfect idea for a project to make!

I had a grungy decor lantern that I had picked up at a garage sale… I just knew it would be perfect for a spooky project.

I had the idea to make a layered perspective scene inside utilizing my Tim Holtz Halloween dies! Of course I had to add some purple Tiny Lights:

spoooooooky!

I embellished the top with more die cuts and Idea-ology from my stash:

So much fun! I tend to go for spooky cute in my Halloween makes so this fits the bill nicely. I have some 'behind the scenes' peeks so you can see a bit of my process.

1. After thinking about what dies to use and sketching out the sizes and placements of the die cuts, I began creating the layers. First was the background inked on a piece of plain vellum. I used the smallest moon in the new Moon Mask Set and inked with regular Distress Inks to maintain the translucency of the vellum. A spritz of Hocus Pocus Mica Stain added some nice glimmer.

 

2. Referring to my sketches, I cut out the pieces of foam core to create the bases for each layer. I painted them black and dry brushed green over the tops.

3. I created all my die cut elements. For the ones that would sit on "top" of a piece of foam core, I glued a piece of stiff wire on the back so I could just poke it into the foam.

4. I had to be strategic in my building because the bigger base pieces were a bit tricky to get into the lantern. I also hot glued in the light strand as I went

back layers first!

Working my way to the front:

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you check out the fun bi-weekly challenges they have on the Funkie Junkie Boutique Blog. They are always good for sparking your creativity! You have another week to join the current challenge so I hope you give it a go.

Tim Holtz Sizzix Dies used:

Ghost Town

Ghost Town #2

Costume Party

Vault Series: Halloween 2021

Toil & Trouble

Tangled Twigs

Twisted Edge

Frightening Faces

Some links in this post are affiliate links which do not affect the price you pay but allow me to earn a small percentage of a sale. Thanks! (My husband also thanks you!) 

Project on Scrapbook .com

Something's Fishy! Collaboration with The Crafter's Workshop & Eileen Hull

Hello Eileen Hull fans! Did you catch the Chapter 4 Release party and blog hop on October 1st? If so, then you know that Eileen's latest release is awesome! Here's what she had to say about it:

"The Chapter 4 Sizzix Release is exciting for so many reasons – there are two never-done-before designs! One is the Full Size Journal which is a Bigz Pro size – you will need a machine with at least a 9" throat to cut this die- like a Big Shot Plus or Pro. Not to worry, if you don't have that machine, Eileen will have the pre-cut pieces available in her Etsy store for you to work with. The other new technology is a 3-D Embossing Folder! It's called Sweater and is oh so cozy. Also new this release is a Bigz Notepad Die with lots of options for materials and uses, and a Heart Mandala Thinlits Die to decorate with! "

Today I'm sharing the tutorial for the mixed media Full Size Journal cover I made. We're doing a collaboration this month with The Crafter's Workshop so I've incorporated some of their fantastic stencils and other products into my make.

Front of the cover…

… and the back!

Let's take a look at how I did this and also how I saved it from a big oopsie. (ug)

I used a fun image transfer technique to apply those goldfish to my cover:

Step 1 - I'm kind of anal about how my images lay out so I "composed" them in a graphic layout program (Adobe Illustrator) on my computer.

I printed out the sides in black and white using my laser printer (important to use a laser printer or copier!) Also VERY IMPORTANT is to print out your images REVERSED.

I took into account the spine overlap for the placement of my fish images. The plan was to have the halves line up across the spine when the cover was assembled.

Next step is to paint over the toner images with acrylic paint. This painted layer will show through once the image is transferred!

Step 2 - Prepping the covers; I used a brayer and Fresco paint to lay down some color. (Other side of mat board for the insides of the cover were collaged with marbled paper and text pages from a fishing book.)

I also stenciled on the fronts:

Step 3 - Now for the transfer! I tore away the excess paper from the images.

I applied a layer of gel medium to the cover and then laid the images face down into it, squishing out any air bubbles. You need to make sure you have a good layer of medium on your substrate. I think mine was a little thin and was drying too quickly which led to an incomplete transfer of the fish images. You'll see later.

Once it was all dry, it was time to remove the backing paper. This part is a bit of a pain but patience is the key. Spritz sections of the paper with water and then gently rub off the soggy paper, revealing the image! You'll see areas of the fish where I didn't have enough medium so the image didn't stick and rubbed away with the paper. It definitely more of a distressed look!

Step 4 - Cutting out the cover parts. If you have a 'directional' pattern, you need to be careful about how you position your matboard when you cut the cover. If it's not flipped the right way, things like this happen:

I made two "front" covers. grrrr

In Eileen's recent Facebook Live, she shows how to put together the Full Size Journal Die and how you mark up your die so you don't make mistakes like this! Obviously I need to do that. You can watch the video here.

I really didn't want to redo the cover so I came up with an (imperfect) fix. The spine sections are supposed to overlap but I cut the back cover the wrong way. So, I just lopped off the scored spine section from the back cover.

At this stage, I also coated the cover with Gloss Varnish to
brighten the image and get rid of the 'paper residue haze'
from the image transfer.

Of course now my planned overlap of the fish images across the spine was completely screwed up but what are you going to do? I decided to live with it. ;-)

On the inside of the cover I taped the two pieces together with cloth book repair tape. It is flexible and has strong adhesive. I could also add more paint accents over it to make it blend in. I used my Crop-a-dile to punch through the tape that covered the holes in the spine for binding.

Once fixed, I continued decorating the cover.

I added some paint marks and used a stencil to add some TCW Turquoise Stencil Butter accents. It goes on really smoothly and has a beautiful metallic shine. I also used the Stencil Butter through the Flying Kitty stencil on the front. I lightly sprinkled it with some black embossing powder while it was wet. Once it was dry, I heated it to emboss the powder. You could still see hints of the turquoise through but the black made the cat much more of a focal point. I also stamped the words with paint and foam stamps as a final step.

Whew, that was long! I hope you give the image transfer technique a try. It's a fun one to have in your box of tricks. Thanks for stopping by and be sure to keep an eye on Eileen's blog for more inspiration from the Educator and Inspiration Teams.

Also keep an eye on The Crafter's Workshop blog to see how their Design Team utilized Eileen's dies in their projects this month!

Supplies used:

Dies:

Eileen Hull Sizzix 

Full Size Journal Die  ( Sizzix / SB )

The Crafter's Workshop supplies:

Stencils: Secret Garden, Mini Cell Theory, Mini Flying Cat

Stencil Butter - Turquoise

Other:

mat board

brayer

Lavinia stamp - Shoal of Fish

Tim Holtz Cling Foam Stamps - Block Lower & Upper case sets

lots of different acrylic paints from my stash

Paper Artsy Fresco chalk paint - Cloud 9, Paua Shell, Bora Bora, Caribbean Sea, Captain Peacock, Caramel

Archival (permanent) inks

black embossing powder

Gel medium

DecoArt Media Gloss Varnish

Dina Wakley Collage Paper (tissue)

Sakura Souffle pens

Some links in this post are affiliate links which do not affect the price you pay but allow me to earn a small percentage of a sale. Thanks! (My husband also thanks you!) 

New Eileen Hull Sizzix Dies - Notepad Die Tutorial

Hello Eileen Hull fans! Did you catch the Chapter 4 Release party and blog hop last week? If so, then you know that Eileen's latest release is awesome! Here's what she had to say about it:

"The Chapter 4 Sizzix Release is exciting for so many reasons – there are two never-done-before designs! One is the Full Size Journal which is a Bigz Pro size – you will need a machine with at least a 9" throat to cut this die- like a Big Shot Plus or Pro. Not to worry, if you don't have that machine, Eileen will have the pre-cut pieces available in her Etsy store for you to work with. The other new technology is a 3-D Embossing Folder! It's called Sweater and is oh so cozy. Also new this release is a Bigz Notepad Die with lots of options for materials and uses, and a Heart Mandala Thinlits Die to decorate with! "

Today I'm sharing the tutorial for the monoprinted Post-it pad holder I made using the Notepad and Heart Mandala Dies.

Open it up and you will find a Post-it pad!

More foiling on the back:

Let's see how it all came together!

Step 1 - after cutting out the cover pieces using Sizzix mat board, I printed directly onto the surfaces using my Gel Press plate. If you haven't played with monoprinting on gel plates you are missing out on a ton of fun! (Go fall into the rabbit hole of the Gel Press YouTube channel, you won't be sorry! If you are totally unfamiliar, here is a basics video.)

I brayered blue paint onto my gel plate and pressed a piece of bubble wrap into the paint to leave a texture. Next I pressed my cover pieces onto the plate to transfer the paint. (I did this to both sides.)

Step 2 - Creating layers in gel plate printing is the fun part! I added another color layer over the blue. I brayered pink paint onto the plate and positioned a mask cut from deli paper using the Heart Mandala Die. (Dies are so versatile!) The mask prevents the paint underneath from transferring onto your print (thus revealing the underlying layer already on your print).

At this stage, when the paint was dry on the covers, I also added more visual texture by stamping on them with archival inks.

Step 3 - Adding the foiling: Here's another trick to extend the use of your dies! I cut a Heart Mandala shape out of a double sided adhesive sheet. After peeling off the backing paper on one side, I stuck it onto the front cover and then carefully trimmed off the overhanging bits to use on the back cover.

The supplies!

I made sure to burnish the shapes down well so the adhesive would be firmly stuck to the covers.

After peeling off the second backing sheet, all I had to do was lay the Sizzix Effectz Foil sheet (shiny side up) over the sticky part, burnish, then peel off. Easy! I repeated for the back cover. What a great way to add bling to a project.

Step 4 - Since I wanted the notepad cover to be the height of a Post-it pad, I trimmed off the last two sections of the Notepad spine to make it thinner.

Step 5 - Finishing inside: the 5" long Post-it pad is too long to fit into the cover so I trimmed it and then glued it onto the back cover.

Step 6 - For a closure, I punched two holes into the back cover and then slid the ends of these elastic straps through.

Thanks for stopping by! Be sure to keep an eye on Eileen's blog for more inspiration from the Educator and Inspiration Teams.

Supplies used:

Dies:

Eileen Hull Sizzix 

Notepad Die  ( Sizzix / SB )

Heart Mandala Die  ( Sizzix / SB )

Other:

Eileen Hull Therm-o-web Easy Cut Adhesive Sheets

Sizzix Effectz - Gold Foil Sheets

Gel Press plate

brayer

Tim Holtz Stamp Sets - Ledger Script, Grunged

Sizzix Mat Board

Crafter's Pick - The Ultimate! glue

Tim Holtz Idea-ology: Elastic Bands

lots of different acrylic paints from my stash

Archival (permanent) inks

Some links in this post are affiliate links which do not affect the price you pay but allow me to earn a small percentage of a sale. Thanks! (My husband also thanks you!)