23 May 2017

I Felt at Home with Eileen Hull Designs Inspiration Team

Hi everyone and welcome! Today marks the start of a new crafty journey as I post my first project for Eileen Hull Designs. As many of you will know it was my absolute honour to help represent Eileen at the Creativation show back in January. Having initially been invited to be a part of Eileen's magnificent Inspiration Team some time ago, the stars have finally aligned and I'm thrilled silly to be jumping on board.

For the entire month of May the Inspiration Team are sharing projects featuring Eileen's HeARTfelt Collection by Sizzix with Kunin Felt, which is 100% Polyester Fibre, made from recycled post-consumer plastic bottles. I have never worked with this felt before and am now well and truly hooked! It cuts like a dream, is easy to sew, adheres well with adhesives and comes in a huge range of colours.

Given recent form, it takes little guesswork to know what I created as my first project...


Cutting and binding the notebooks (shared recently over several posts) by hand has got quicker but is still time consuming.
Eileen's Passport Die speeds up the whole process immeasurably and here's how;


I began by cutting two cover pieces and one spine from Matboard, then painted them (Cracked Pistachio Distress Paint).
I also cut two covers and the central section of the spine from Kunin felt.


I machine stitched some wavy lines over the two felt cover pieces (this felt is a dream to stitch on!) and then hand stitched some more lines embroidery thread. Tucking all the spare bits of cotton underneath, I then stuck the two felt covers to the coordinating painted Matboard covers before attaching them on each side of the spine with a strong wet glue. None of it bled through the felt and it gave me a bit of 'wiggle room' to match up the cover pieces perfectly and stayed in place firmly when dry.


Cutting Eileen's Stitchy Flowers from the felt was a breeze when I used the following sandwich through my Big Shot; Multi Purpose Platform, Precision Base Plate, a piece of copy paper, Kunin felt, Thinlits dies, Cutting plate. My favourite parts to this set are the central stamens and they cut easily too.


I cut more of the stamens from card to add to the bottom of the felt layered flowers, then stitched a little more embroidery thread to the centre of each flower to secure them. Then it was just a case of cutting a couple of leaves from the same set, positioning the flowers and leaves on the cover, and gluing them in place. At this stage I also added the central spine section cut in felt to the Matboard base.


To enable me to add signatures easily inside I threaded three pieces of coloured elasticated cord through the holes on the spine that are part of the die design, Travelers Notebook style. The ends were trimmed too.


Now this is the bit that can take time - creating the pages to go inside the notebook. However, Eileen has made life so much easier by including the page template part of the die design.


I used the matching floral sheets from her HeARTfelt Paper Pad and cut three as cover for the signatures. The design pre-cuts the holes for stitching and even rounds the corners off perfectly! You could colour in those flowers to match.


I used the same part of the die to cut the pages by folding copy paper in half and running three sheets through at a time. So that's 6 pages cut in one hit! Once you've cut enough pages simply pop them inside each of the three patterned paper covers and thread through some waxed cotton, knotting it on the back to secure them.


 The signatures easily slip through the elasticated cord inside the notebook as can be seen below;


And here's the full view of the completed felt cover;


So that's it for my first 'official' Eileen Hull Designs project as part of the amazing Inspiration Team!

I hope you've enjoyed seeing just a fraction of what Kunin Felt can do when combined with Eileen Hull Designs fabulous dies. Eileen will be sharing lots of the team's makes and also those by the Kunin Design Team all this month HERE so do make sure you check them out.

For now enjoy the rest of your week, take care of yourselves and get creative! Jenny xxx

36 comments:

  1. Wow Jenny. What a great post and I am patiently waiting on the journal die coming to uk. The tips you have given in this post will be of great help to many of us, so thanks for showing your beautiful work in the making of your journal. Hugs Rita xxxx

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    1. Thank you so much Rita. I'm so glad you like it. Equally waiting for the journal die which is why I went for the Passport Book die this time xx

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  2. Wow!!!! This is gorgeous and those felt flowers are just stunning Jenny xx Huge Congratulations on becoming a designer for Eileen Hull, whose dies you showcase beautifully xxx like mum I am looking forward to the Journal dies arriving in the UK

    Huge hugs
    Annie xx

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    1. I'm so glad you like it Annie. Thank you so much for your kind wishes xx

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  3. Congratulations Jenny on designing for Eileen Hull with her team. Loving the design of your passport book, striking and funky and the felt looks perfect on your cover.
    Julie x

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    1. I'm so glad you like it Julie. Thank you so much for your kind wishes xx

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  4. Welcome Jenny, so happy to have you on the team! You have rocked your first official project! The flowers are dreamy in felt! Looking forward to a lot more inspiration from you <3

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    1. I'm so glad you like it Nicole. Thank you so much for your kind wishes and the big welcome to the team xx

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  5. WOW!!! This is awesome! I love the felt and wonderful flowers. Purple too my favourite colour.
    Hugs
    Linda xxx

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  6. Fantastic first project. Love the colours and the different types of stitching, including the couching that you used to offset your fun flowers.
    Hugs!
    Cec

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  7. This is a gorgeous little book Jenny! Love your stitching and the flowers are fab too ! X

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  8. And what a brilliant first project it is too Jenny!! Your colour choices are beautiful and I love your machine and hand stitching. It is so fantastic to have you on the team too! Anne xx

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    1. I'm so glad you like it Anne. Thank you so much for your big welcome to the team xx

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  9. Welcome to the team!!!! Love love your 1st project especially the cool stitching.

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    1. I'm so glad you like it Karen. Thank you so much for your big welcome to the team xx

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  10. Oh My Jenny! This is fabulous! Love the dramatic colours you have used! Congratulations on your joining the DT! Hugs, Chrisx

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    1. I'm so glad you like it Chris. Thank you so much for your kind wishes xx

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  11. Congratulations on joining the Eileen Hull Team, Jenny .. so well deserved!! Fantastic first project!! The colours are so gorgeous and I just love the stitching and the flowers .. looks fabulous!! hugs xx

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    1. I'm so glad you like it Margaret. Thank you so much for your kind wishes xx

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  12. I FELT I should tell you that I absolutely adore your FELT journal and am happy you FELT at home being a member of the Inspiration Design team and using this new FELT! Can you believe it - FELT made from plastic bottles. You are so talented and we all admire your work so much.
    Thank you for the great tutorial!!
    Sandy xx

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    1. I'm so glad you like it Sandy. Thank you so much for your kind and heart FELT wishes xx

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  13. Jenny, we are so glad you FELT at home :-). It is such a pleasure to have you with us. Your journal- wow! This looks so rich with the fancy stitching and extra touches you have added. I love how you made the little signatures from the doodled Heartfelt pages and also you you bound the book. Wherever did you find just the exact green elastic to go with the ink??? I love every single thing about this project. So glad you are part of the team- thank you for sharing your talent with us!

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    1. I'm so glad you like it Eileen. The elastic colour match was pure chance but a very happy one. Thank you so much for inviting me to be part of your amazing team and for the opportunity to get to play with your wonderful designs xx

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  14. Oh Jennie this is absolutely glorious, I soooo adore how you have put this together, the richness of the colours, the wonderful stitching, the gorgeous flowers and the beautiful finish. Brilliant. You are the perfect match for the team huge congratulations xxx

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    1. Thank you so much Brenda. I'm so glad you like it. And thank you for your kind words xx

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  15. Amazing Jenny - I love how the felt has given such a wonderful base and a richness of colour. Just stunning! And congratulations on being on the team - you will be a great asset and I look forward to seeing your makes. Must see if I can find Eileen's flower die - it looks great. Jennie x

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    1. Thank you so much for your kind words and I'm so glad you like it. The flowers are a real favourite :) xx

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  16. What a gorgeous felt journal Jenny! Love the dark purple and your wonderful stitching on the covers - your inserts are so fun using the coloring pages from Eileen's paper pad too! So happy to have you with us on the team! Julia xx

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    1. Thank you so much Julia! It's an absolute honour to have joined such a talented team xx

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  17. First of all Big Congratulations! Jenny - so pleased for you. Secondly , your project is fabulous . Love all the 'wiggly' stitching, your flower embellies and use of colour throughout al make for a really lovley little book . Thirdly ,Thanks for sharing the step by step and finally sincere apologies for arriving here much later than I had hoped to leave the love for all your fab work I have caught up on today .
    Off to sit on the naughty step now for my tardiness.
    x

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    1. Thank you so much for your lovely comments Amanda. No need to apologise for lateness - real life has a habit of disrupting our best laid plans! So glad you enjoyed seeing this xx

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  18. I know I knew this news, but I don't know whether I've offered official congratulations! No surprise to see you offering up a brilliant "debut", given the amazing work you've been doing with Eileen's dies for yonks now. Fantastic!
    Alison x

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    1. Thank you Alison. It's a real honour to be an official part of the team and get the chance to play with Eileen's fabulous dies xx

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Thank you for stopping by and leaving your comments - they are really appreciated and will be published when moderated. Jenny xxx

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