Spring Foward with Cheery Ideas

Spring brings with it more sun, more daylight, longer days, green grass, budding trees and plants ... what's not to love! 

Here are a few little projects, old and new, to show the versatility of Eileen Hull's dies and other Sizzix dies. 

I'll begin with the basket created with the older LOAF PAN die. The die-cut piece was then  embossed and filled with little felt flowers made from another Eileen Hull thinlit die.  Wire handles are added that are made by using the TWIST & STYLE tool by Eileen also. You can find a link to the older blog post here (LINK).

Next comes one of my very favorite dies, the GIFT BOX! This die makes a great square box that can be refigured in so many ways.  Here I used it to create a square basket to hold some spring flowers. I covered poster board with fabric before cutting the shapes. The scalloped edge is also from the die and made with more poster board covered with white fabric.  The basket handle is twisted strips of torn, green fabric, again made using the TWIST& STYLE tool. 

The second piece in this photo used the Eileen Hull 3D VASE die-cut to hold the handmade, paper mache primitive bunny. 

Here is the latest little projects made using Sizzix dies.  The little bunny pins are made using the oval shape from Eileen Hull's TINY BOOK die.  The ears are cut from a leaf die-cut from the FOLIO PAGE & FLOWER thinlit die set.  The tiny felt flowers, leaves, bow and hearts are other various Sizzix dies.  Again I layered a muslin fabric to a sheet of kraft colored card stock to cut the oval and ears. I sealed the edges of the fabric shapes with some clear gesso to keep the edges from fraying too much.  A pin tack was glued to the back side of the oval.

Also the TULIP were made from a different Sizzix die and the sculpture foam. All placed on a TAG cut from another SIzzix die. These were made as little gifts to give to a few friends that I was recently able to finally see, actually in person, in a safe setting after months and months of FaceTime or Zoom meetups!

NOTE: Some of the dies used in these projects are not available through Sizzix any longer. They may possibly be found by searching online.

Designer Craft Connection - I LOVE This Tool!

February's blog theme was to choose a technique or tool that I LOVE.  For me that's a tough choice!

If I am not making a quilt or clothing, I can honestly say that my "go to" tool seems to always be my Sizzix Big Shot™ and dies.  Whether designing a project for a gift, shared ideas or myself, I normally find some way to include the use of these items.  No matter what type of materials I could be working with, it's still the most used tool in my workroom.  Cutting fabric, felt, metal, thin plastics and wood, cork, chalkboard and magnetic sheets, I LOVE this little machine.

Make simple decorations or more intricate ones with the wide variety of shapes available from Sizzix.

Use nested heart thinlit dies (6) and two sizes of red jeweled hearts at bottom of string

I made this simple "String of Hearts" in a couple hours yesterday with scraps of red papers and a set of Sizzix Heart Thinlits™ nesting dies and the Big Shot™.

Simply cut four hearts from different papers for each various sized hearts.  Fold each of the heart shapes in half.  Glue the hearts together.  Before gluing the last fold of the fourth heart, insert bakers twine along the middle fold of the hearts.  Space each different sized heart on the twine, spacing evenly.  Form a loop at the top of the string for hanging.  (NOTE: I began the heart placements at the bottom of the twine by placing two small jeweled red hearts at the very end of the twine, followed by two larger jeweled hearts.  Then continue with the sets of paper  hearts - smallest to largest - up the twine to the hanging loop.)

I just made the one string, but I could see making a few more to hang along the arched area above the fireplace for decoration.  These hearts could be made from white papers and used for a wedding theme decoration, or switch out the shapes and use snowflakes, holly leaves, fall leaves, egg shapes, just to name a few, for other holiday decorations.  These were made from paper scraps, but consider using fused fabric, felt or fun-foam for a start.