Artist Trading Block for Eileen Hull + Giveaway

Hello Friends

I wanted to celebrate the fact that it is my 4th Anniversary with Eileen Hull's Inspiration Team!  I started out on the Artist Trading Block (ATB) side of the team and  my lovely friend Tracy Evans was on Eileen's other Inspiration Team. I thought I would mix up the Spring Flower theme for this month by creating an ATB, using Eileen's ATB die and stamps designed by Tracy for AALLandCreate.

I have a few step out photos and some brief instructions for you.

I started by created the large flower first.  I die cut the petals using Eileen Hull's Pansy Flower die and coloured them with Eileen's ColorBox Blend Ink in 'Stop' (bright red).  After spritzing the petals with water, I scrunched them up, dried them with my heat tool and assembled the flower.

The background was created by adding some ColorBox Blend to my craft mat (in 'Stop' and 'Bay' - a beautiful turquoise) and brayering this over a piece of A4 card, quite randomly until I got the desired effect.  Once dry, I used a stencil, by AALLandCreate (Stencil #28 by Autour de Mwa) and also added some marks here and there with stamps and the lid to the paint top.

Once I had die cut the 3 inch ATB, I coloured the edges with ColorBox Blend in Bay and left this to dry.  Then I cut the brayed and stenciled piece into 2.7/8" squares and inked the edges with Bay.

I stamped four of the squares with an AALLandCreate stamp (Set #70) set by my talented friend Tracy, and stamped and coloured the flowers in 'Stop' ColorBox Blend on a separate piece of card, fussy cut them and added them to the stamped flowers on the squares.  I added words to each side, again using Tracy's stamp set.

To finish off I added some black threads to the top before mounting my big flower on top.

All this month my team mates have been creating Spring Flower projects which you can see on Eileen's Blog, HERE.


Giveaway!

My other project this month was this Passport Journal die that I made into a little rusty and patina storage box and using another of Tracy's stamps for the butterfly.  To celebrate my 4th Anniversary as part of Eileen's team I would like to offer this project as a Giveaway.

If you would like a chance to win the box, please leave a comment below and I will choose a winner  on 30th May here on my blog.  You do not need to follow me but it would be quite nice if you did!  I am happy to post this box to anywhere in the world, to the winner.

Thanks so much for your visit, hope to see you again soon!

Hugs, Anne  xx

Favourite Eileen Hull die.....

Hello Friends and New Followers!

This month, Eileen's Inspiration Team are sharing their favourite of Eileen's dies - that is a difficult ask for me because anyone who knows me knows that I love ALL of Eileen's dies, her Scoreboard dies have been a revolution in die cutting and a pure joy for those of us who love 3D crafting!

In the end, after much deliberation, I went for Eileen's Cantilever Sewing Box die (660768) and her beautiful Flower, Pansy die for my creation, I hope you like it!

I made this as a thank you gift for a friend I am visiting, I am away at the moment, if I missed a post, I apologise!

I die cut all the elements for the sewing box, using Sizzix Matboard.

To construct the boxes I used a strong wet glue and wrapped an elastic band around the box until dry.  I then applied strong tape to add my paper.  You could attach your design paper first (or paint the board) and then die cut, but I just prefer to do it this way.  Once dry, I assembled the sewing box according to the instructions.  You can download the instructions by clicking download, HERE.

I lined the insides of the box with the reverse side of the same beautiful Maja Design papers I used for the outside.  I painted the box struts with PaperArtsy paint in Cherry Blossom and added some knobs to the top, after painting them with the same colour of paint.

The flowers were die cut using Eileen's Flower Pansy die (661109) and using a product called Flower Making Foam, after seeing my lovely blog friend Lisa use it so beautifully... here.  I had so much fun making my flowers!  After die cutting and giving them a little touch of Eileen's Color Box Blend Ink in Tutu, I pressed the petals onto my hot craft iron and let them 'curl' into shape and assembled them, adding some stamens to the centre.

I hand dyed some seam binding, colouring it with Picked Raspberry Distress Spray Stain and assembled my little floral decoration.

A final look at the finished sewing box, these wonderful little boxes are ideal for storing lots of bits and pieces and/or sewing items.

All month long, my teamies on Eileen's Inspiration Team will be sharing their favourite Eileen dies.  If you do have time I hope you will pop over HERE each week for some wonderful inspiration!

Thanks so much for your visit, I hope to see you again soon!

Hugs, Anne  xxx

Eileen Hull and DCWV - Winter Wonderland Part 3

Hello Friends

I have enjoyed Eileen Hull's collaboration with DCWV so much I decided to make another

project and I think this might be my favourite so far....  For the whole month of November, my

teamies have been making the most fantastic projects and I hope you will find some time to visit Eileen's blog.

I used Eileen's Cantilever Sewing Box die (Sizzix 660768) and DCWV Cranberry Christmas papers to make my project.

As you can see I used some of the softer colour tone papers from the pack.  I constructed the box, following the instructions on the package and used the papers to cover the outside.

The struts, feet, brads and knobs were coloured with IndigoBlu Pantry White acrylic paint, it is rich in pigment and only one coat was required.

I made the flower, for the top, first.

After cutting three each of the flower petals using Eileen Hull's Pansy Flower die (Sizzix 661109), I spritzed them well with water and scrunched them up.  I carefully unraveled the wet petals and layered them up and left them to dry.  Once dry, the flowers are very strong and they will keep their shape really well.

The tag was cut from the paper pack too, I just added the word and also some ribbon.

I lined each of the sections with some co-ordinating paper from the pack.

I used the same papers and one of the labels from the paper pack to make a matching card.  To finish off I added some cream vintage seam binding and a fabric brad from my stash.  I love that I can make simple cards entirely from the paper pack.

I hope you like my final project for November using Eileen Hull dies and these beautiful papers!

My apologies if I have not been to visit you in the last few days, I have been away, attending a fabulous group of workshops by the amazing artists - Andy Skinner, Brenda Brown and Mark Gould, held by Tando Creative.  If you ever get the opportunity to take a workshop with any of these artists please take it, you will not be disappointed!

Thanks so much, as always, for looking!

Hugs, Anne xxx