Faux Pottery

It is my turn up on Creative Paperclay blog!

I am sharing what I call Faux Pottery, I love the high gloss finish and funky shapes. I just love the way the finish pottery looks. I have never done pottery and wondered if I could achive a look a like version. Best I could do is try.....so that I did.

Hop on over to the Creative Paperclay blog and check out how I did it.

Here is a sneak peek!

What do you think?

I think it looks pretty darn close!

Thanks for popping by!

It's A Baby Shower!

Welcome Leo!

Anna-Karin is a very special member of the Eileen Hull Inspiration Team. Last year there were a lot of changes in her life, including a move from one continent to another and just a few months later, a new baby! Leo arrived weeks ahead of schedule (and just 20 minutes after reaching the hospital!) but thankfully he and Anna-Karin are both doing well. 

We want to show Anna-Karin how special she is to us, so we are giving her a virtual baby shower today to celebrate Leo's birth! Even though we can't be with her, we send our love and a special crafty surprise. We invite you to visit each team member/shower guest's blog to see what they created for this new little guy. 

If you have a message for Anna-Karin, please visit  Eileen's blog  to leave your well wishes in the comments- then she can read them all at once. Thanks for being part of our celebration!

I didn't have any little boy stamps....so I put my drawing cap on and went to work drawing a romper made just for Leo! I then colored it with colored pencils, I now had my image for my card! Has his name on it and a tag with love. 

I used Eileen's NEW Passport Book die to make Leo a little photo album.

 I added a flip page with his name 

 Some inserts

 Another flip page

 I hope she loves it as much as I loved making it!

Eileen Hull

Amy Bowerman
Donna Braaten-Budzynski
Pam Bray

Tracy Evans
Diana Hetherington
Shelly Hickox

Lisa Hoel

Oxana Moupasirido
Nicole Wright

Congratulations Anna-Karin! 

Art With Heart Challenge-Go Green!

Hey everyone!  It’s hard to believe that March is here and spring is right around the corner. This month our Art with Heart Challenge is “Go Green”.  Whether you want to interpret that theme with a St. Patrick’s day project, an up-cycled creation or simply add a little greenery to your piece, it is completely up to you. 

We can’t wait to see what you create for the Go Green challenge.  

As always there is a fun Sizzix die up for grabs from my From the Heart Collection…the mini shopping bag! What a FUN die!

 Let’s Go Green!

I made a wreath!

Check this out! I used Eileen Hull Garland die! I also used oly*fun! Have you heard of it? It is a multi-purpose craft material! It can go outside or inside! Fun and easy to work with! Want to learn more about it? Check them out HERE!

What you need:

Eileen Hull Garland Die

oly*fun 

Old wire hanger

Sizzix die cutter

Small piece of wire

Removable Glue Dots®

1. Cut garland out using Eileen Hull Garland die. I used one 20 inch X 3 yards of each color.
2. Shape hanger into a circle.
3. Using your garland pieces, tie them on or you can make a slip knot around the wire hanger. (fold in  half,wrap around hanger and pull through loop)

Continue all the way around the wire hanger until full!

There are 3 shapes on the garland die, so what I did was one white and one green of same shape. On to second shape, 3rd shape. Repeat all the way around.

4. Make a bow and add to wire hanger using a small piece of wire.

Close up...............

Obvious reason for wreath......it is green and I used a old wire hanger (recycled) but..........the BEST part of this Wreath is.............I used removable Glue Dots® on the shamrocks so I can take them OFF! You say sooooo? Well now I can put Bunnies or eggs on. When Easter is over I can remove them and put on flowers! Halloween a witch or ghosts, Christmas I could pop some red in here easy! Talk about recycle!!!!!

I hope you liked my Go Green Art with Heart challenge piece!

Want to play along?
Head on over to Eileen's Art with Heart challenge HERE!
You might just win a prize, come play and have some fun!

Thanks for stopping by!

Hop with Eileen Hull's ATB and Stampendous!

It's time for a hop around the Block!

Artist Trading Block that is!

                             
I am up today!

I hope you have been hopping along! So many great ideas! Many different styles!

I received the Cling Hydrangea Garden stamps #CRS5067, with that I also received the matching cutting die set and something that I had never used before. It is called Spoonful of gold dust, Embossing Powder & Elements. Have to say.......I LOVED IT! 

 I colored every element with my Prismacolor pencils and blended them with Gamsol.

After everything was colored and blended, I took the Spoonful of gold dust and sprinkled some on the flowers and the butterflies and heated them from underneath the sheet of paper. What a spectacular effect it gave! OM-gosh I can't wait to get some of the rust!!!!

I liked it so much I choose to use the Sizzix Little Sizzles black Mat Board so that I could sprinkle the Artist Trading Block with the GOLD DUST! Oh yeah! It looks FABULOUS! Using the Sizzix black Mat Board I did have to leave my heat gun on a little longer and moved it around so not to burn the Mat Board.

I used the largest ATB and I stuck a Styrofoam ball into the box so that I could arrange my floral arrangement!
I had some twigs that broke off of a twig wreath and thought that would make great stems for my flowers and give some added interest. I used very, very thin wire to adhere the butterflies to so that they look like they are flying.

 I really like the way this ATB turned out! 

It has depth and interest and 

it is full of GOLD!

We know this form of crafting will spark your interest and give your mojo a serious boost! That’s why we have prizes!!! We’ll choose three winners at random from the comments on all blogs in the hop. Then from those three we’ll randomly pick a GRAND PRIZE winner! Two of the winners will receive Stampendous PenPattern Petal and PenPattern Flutter cling stamps. They’ll also receive enough pre-cut, premium matboard from Sizzix to make two boxes of your own, plus some extra pieces for fiddly bits! The Grand Prize winner will receive the stamps as above, a whole package of matboard, AND the Sizzix die to cut your own ATB boxes! Uh, WOW!
If that weren’t enough, eligibility for these amazing prize packages has expanded to include our international fans too!

We know you won’t want to miss a single creation in this hop, and the Eileen Hull Designs Inspiration Team has several members that live outside the United States, so it took a while for them to get their products from us. We need to give them time to post and you time to comment, so the comment deadline will be Sunday, March 8th. A whole extra week! We will continue posting links as we receive them from the Inspiration Team, so be sure to keep checking back. You get one entry for every comment, so you don’t want to miss the chance to leave a thoughtful comment on each project. For those who tend to get lost, we’ll post a “cumulative” link list of links so far on Saturday, February 28th and Saturday, March 7th. Then you can check your progress.
Here are the designer’s participating today —

Stampendous Blog

Pam Hornschu
Asia King
Jamie Martin
Kristine Reynolds
Janelle Stollfus
Amy Hurley-Purdie
Tenia Nelson
Wendy Price

Lea Kimmel

Eileen Hull Blog

Anna-Karin Evaldsson
Anne Redfern
Donna Budzynski
Diana Hetherington

You can find all of the Fabulous Stampendous products used in these gorgeous projects and connect with Stampendous by following the links below:
Shop Stampendous
Stampendous Blog

Looking for Sizzix dies to use your Stampendous products with?  You can find Eileen Hull's complete catalog below:
Shop Eileen Hull Sizzix Dies

Vintage Window Frame Makeover

It's time I use one of my window-less windows to do something!

So let's make a home decor tac board to hold my ideas and pictures!

Materials Needed:

Old window frame

Plaid Folk Art  Home Decor Chalk paint - Cascade

Plaid Folk Art Home Decor Wax - Clear and Antique

Brushes

Lint Free rags

md hobby metal sheet - Elliptical

md metal snips

md gloves

Aleene's Fast Grab Tacky Glue

1/4" piece of wood to fit in window x 2

Muslin flower

Fabric

Batting

Vaseline

Misc. metal to decorate

1. Prep your surface for painting
2. If you like a more chipped look. Add Vaseline in a few areas where you want the paint to rub off.
3. Paint on two coats of Plaid Folk Art Home Decor Chalk paint-Cascade, wait 2 hours between each coat. At this same time paint one of the wood panels cut.
4. Add Plaid Folk Art Home Decor Clear Wax and let cure overnight. Buff to desired sheen. Also panel.
5. Add Plaid Folk Art Home Decor Antique Wax over the entire surface, wiping back some areas and letting the crevices sit. Let cure overnight and buff to desired sheen. Also panel.
6. Cut md metal sheet using md metal snips.
7. Take the painted panel and metal panel and pin in place using a piner or you could use glue and adhere in place.
8. Cut fabric and batting to fit over third panel. Wrap panel with fabric and adhere into place using Aleene's Fast Grab Tacky Glue. Pin this last panel into place.
9. Add any extra embellishments at this time.
10. Add hanger to the back.

 Paint on chalk paint.

You can see where the Vaseline was wiped off.

 Panels are cut.

 These MD snips work fabulous!

Talk about a FAST GRAB TACKY GLUE!

 Finished pictures

Hope you enjoyed!

Chippy Chair Redo!

This chair was headed to the dump! 

I had to intercept and SAVE it!

 As you can see it is pretty worn, it wobbles, but not done in this life!

Materials Needed for this project:

*Old chair
*Plaid Folk Art Home Decor Chalk paint-Parisian Grey
*Plaid Folk Art Home Decor Wax-Clear
*Plaid Folk Art Home Decor Wax-Antique
*Plaid Craft wax and chalk finish paint brushes
*Lint free rags-extra rags for hands
*Screwdriver
*Vaseline

I cleaned the chair and made sure all of the screws were all tight. Sanded any of the loose areas of paint. I did not sand hard, I wanted this chippy look to shine through.

 Before starting my base coat I caked on some Vaseline in areas where I did not want the Plaid Folk Art Chalk paint to stick. Paint right over it.

This is what the chair looked like after base coat and clear wax were applied and cured.
Time to buff out using a soft lint free rag.

Time to apply my Plaid Folk Art Home Decor Antique Wax. Let cure overnight. Using a lint free rag, buff to the sheen you desire.

At this point, I wanted some words on my new chair. I went to Pic Monkey and chose the wording and style I wanted and printed it out. Using transfer copy paper I transferred the words to the chair.

Using acrylic paint I painted the letters. I did put a coat of the Plaid Fold Art Home Decor Clear wax over the letters and let cure. Again I buffed it out and now I have a CUTE chair for my studio!

 I can use it, I can decorate it. I can use it as a prop!

I LOVE IT!!!

Easy and Fun Garden Flag

Are we sick of winter yet? yes, yes, yes!

Ready for SPRING?  Duh?

Well I have something for you to work on while you wait for spring!

Let's make a Fun and Easy garden flag! 

Finished size is 11" X 18"

This great fabric is fun, bright and super easy to use!

Some super fun names of the fabric.....

Orange Crush

Bubble Gum

Kiwi

Jelly

Sea Green

These are just a sample of them!

What is this Fabric called?

It is called oly*fun!

This is made by Fairfield.

It comes in so many great colors!

Another fun fact....it does NOT fray! No hems...if you don't want to!

It can go outside or inside!

 Materials Needed:

oly*fun-variety of colors
Sky blue
Orange crush
Black
Sea green
Blueberry
Kiwi
Bubble gum
Orchid
Jelly
Yellow
Brown

Embroidery Thread to match
2 black buttons
3 misc. buttons
1 metal rod or wood dowel
Black cord for hanging
Needle
Sewing machine (optional)
Clover Kanzashi flower maker (optional)
Sizzix Eileen Hull die - bird
Die cut machine

Instructions:

1. Draw out project (or copy mine)
2 Cut 2 - 11" X 20" of Sky Blue oly*fun (this will be your front and back of flag)
3.Using your drawing cut out house, butterfly, leaves, etc...also cut bird using your sizzix die.

4. Pin on pole and hand stitch it to front of flag
5. Pin base of house on and hand stitch it to the front of flag just above the pole

6. Pin roof, base and birdhouse hole onto base of the birdhouse and hand stitch them
7. Pin butterfly body and bird on and hand stitch. Add wings of butterfly over the body base and stitch
8. Hand stitch a dotted line behind the butterfly to resemble her flight
9. Using the Clover Kanzashi flower maker, make 3 flowers and stitch onto flag
10. Hand stitch stems and leaves to each of the flowers
11. Machine stitch front of flag to back of flag
12.Turn 2" over on top to make a pocket for the rod to go through. I stitched the 2 black buttons on to hold it in place. Add you rod into the pocket and tie cord around rod and hang

***It would be really fun to use your child's drawings to make flags. It would be fun for them to see their art in the yard or even on the front door!

Last shot of the flag.

I hope you enjoyed this project as much as I did! I am going to try and find some kids art and make a banner with it! I think that is a GREAT idea!

Here is a pattern you can use. Print it out on a letter size paper and it should be the right size.

The pole size is 9 1/4" X 1 1/2"