May Flowers with Eileen Hull Sizzix Dies

For the month of May,  Eileen Hull's Inspiration Team is using Eileen's Sizzix dies highlighting flowers!

Today I used Eileen's older Cookie Box Die as well as her Heart and Soul Flower, Spring Leaves die and the tag is from Credit Card Tags and Sleeve. 

 (You can often find Eileen's retired dies on Ebay or Amazon)

It measures 1 3/4" tall and 3 1/2" diameter.  Six of these small 1 1/2" cookies fit nicely inside.

 I placed a little flower and 2 leaves on the side of the box.

 Here's the cover with the ribbons untied.

 And inside are 6 little cookies - plenty of room for many kinds of food/candy treats or gifts!

A few photos of how I put this all together.

I cut the pieces for the Cookie Box out of Little Sizzles Matboard from Sizzix.  I die cut pieces of patterned paper to cover the top and bottom circles and the box sides strip.  I cut two pieces for the sides since my patterned paper was not wide and I cut off the tabs before adhering them to the matboard piece.   

The paper shows succulent plants but the flower looked similar to my die cut flower and I loved the colors on the paper!

I assembled the box using the instructions on the packaging of the die.

You can also make the box double the height by cutting another side piece as shown below.

Then I started die cutting various flower pieces out of the new Sizzix Sculpting Foam sheets - it's like Fun Foam but paper thin so it can be shaped.  

It's so thin that it's got a lot of static on it when cut and I had to wet my fingers to get them off my hands (!?!)

First I die cut several colors  of each of the petals on Eileen's Sizzix Pansy Flower Die.

I used this ball tool (don't know it's 'real' name?!) to round all the petals. I have a foam pad under the petals.

I got out some stamens for the flower centers.  These are by Wilton and I got them at Michaels.  They have fun fuzzy heads!

Then I cut the petals of  Eileen's Sizzix Heart and Soul Flower

Next, I die cut leaves using Eileen's Sizzix Spring Leaves Die out of two shades of green Sculpting Foam.  

Then I embossed them using the new 3D Leaf Veins Textured Impressions Embossing Folder.  

They came out looking just like leaves!

Here I have a plain leaf next to an embossed one

And a close up so hopefully you can really see the leaf impression -  so fun and SO realistic!!

I folded each stamen in half and pushed the stem through each petal starting with the smaller petal up to the largest.  I applied glue where the petal hit the stem to hold it in place.  The stems are wire so can be bent to adhere the flower flat somewhere.

Here are the two large flowers I made and my thought was to put them on the top of the Cookie Box but I then placed them on the top to figure out how they would go and I felt they were too big!  

They measure about 3" diameter each.

I mostly design with the theory Less is More, so I ended up making a small bloom using just 3 petals from the Romance Flower die and two of the smaller leaves from Spring Leaves Die and I adhered it to the side of the box.

 I like the look of the 3 wrinkled seam tapes tied in a bow on the top.  This holds the cover closed and adds interest to the design as well without being too cluttered!  

I stamped the tag and tied it around the bow with twine.

I adhered the ribbons to the base with ScorTape so when the box is opened it holds the ribbons with the box.

So if you'd like to see some lovely spring flower projects - check out Eileen Hull's blog every Wednesday where the Inspiration Team's projects will be on parade! 

I'd also like to mention that Eileen Hull’s newest e-book, Pocket Notebooks with Eileen Hull & Friends, from Bella Crafts Publishing is now available! Follow the link to buy yours now to get your creative juices flowing! There are over 50 projects to inspire you, complete with instructions and links to the designer’s blog posts or videos. You will be amazed at the versatility of Eileen’s Pocket Notebook Die and the endless creativity of all the designers’ uses for it.

I'm proud to say that two of my Pocket Notebooks are included in this e-book! 

Stamps:  Happy Snippets - Penny Black.
Ink:  Obsidian - Altenew
Paper:  Little Sizzle Matboard - Sizzix, Hibiscus Burst - PTI, DP - Floral Paper Pad - Ms. Sparkle and Co/JoAnn.
Accessories:  Cookie Box Die, Spring Leaves Die, Heart and Soul Flower Die, Credit Card, Tags and Sleeve Thinlet Dies - Eileen Hull/Sizzix,  Sizzix Sculpting Foam, #D Leaf Veins Embossing Folder - Sizzix, flower stamens - Wilton, ScorTape, Tombow Glue, rounding tool, wrinkled seam tape, twine.