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Sixth Street Sundries

Emily Midgett

Concord and 9th Guest Post- Balloons!

Good morning! I’m back today with another guest post for Concord and 9th‘s Feature Friday during their 2nd Birthday celebration! Today, the Where Creativity Meets C9 design team is focusing on the darling new Happy Balloons stamps and dies! (I love that you can purchase them in a bundle for a discounted price, too!) Last week, I lamented the fact that I hadn’t had time to use the fabulous Sprinkles Turnabout to make both a masculine and a feminine card, so I wanted to definitely do that this week with the Happy Balloons, because these stamps and dies are super versatile and just plain adorable.

I chose to work with my Distress Oxide inks this week to create an ethereal, bokeh-like effect. I thought the creaminess of the Oxides would be perfect to go with the balloons in the set!  I started by blending the Oxide inks, Cracked Pistachio and Broken China for the masculine card, Spiced Marmalade and Worn Lipstick for the feminine version, then spritzing both panels with some shimmery spray to bring out the “oxidized” effect on the blended panels. I also used a wet paintbrush to create some artsy splatters! Next, I used the solid balloons and my white pigment ink to stamp a random pattern of balloons. I thought the sheer white balloons reminded me of the bokeh effect that you see in those beautiful pictures on Pinterest!

After I had created my backgrounds, I die cut two of the larger balloons from plain white card stock, as well as a balloon string for each and a banner for each from the Happy Balloons die set. I stamped them with their coordinating images and sentiments from the Happy Balloons stamp set using silver sparkled embossing powder. I also die cut two of the “happy” balloon die cuts using silver sparkle paper, then trimmed off the balloon portion, leaving just the die cut word.

I trimmed each panel down a bit so that I could layer them on some more silver sparkle card stock, then adhered my die cuts using both dimensional adhesive and liquid adhesive. I love how that little banner is still 3-D even after it’s been adhered down with liquid adhesive. I have a feeling that will mail beautifully, because it lays totally flat when you put it in the envelope!

As a final touch, I added some Spectrum Noir shimmer pen to the balloons, then covered them with Nuvo Crystal Glaze to add even more shimmer and some different textures to these cards.

Well, that’s all for today’s post! Don’t forget to enter your card into the Where Creativity Meets C9 challenge this month… the theme is Anything Goes, and Concord and 9th has generously donated a $25 gift certificate to the lucky winner! You also have the opportunity to be chosen as a guest designer on a future challenge! Thanks so much for stopping by today… have a marvelous weekend!

New brushes+new stamps=happiness.

Good morning! I have a pretty watercolored card for you today using some of my new synthetic Silverwhite brushes and my Daniel Smith watercolors. In case you missed my first post giving my initial thoughts on these brushes, you can find it here. This project differs only in the fact that I used hot press watercolor paper. To be honest, this was the first project that I made with the new synthetic brushes. I didn’t share it first because I liked the results on the textured cold press watercolor paper better.

For this project, I used a new-to-me stamp set from Mama Elephant: Timeless Tulips. I have been in love with it for a long time and found it on sale a few weeks ago, so I snatched it up! The petals are nicely sized, perfect for practicing shading. I thought this would be a great image to use with my new paintbrushes. 

I started by heat embossing the main floral image from Timeless Tulips onto some Arches Hot Press watercolor paper using some silver embossing powder. I watercolored the three tulips with a combination of Daniel Smith Quinacridone Rose, Opera Pink, and added Moonglow for some shadows.  I watercolored the leaves with Hooker’s Green, then added a halo of Payne’s Gray around the watercolored image. I covered the flowers with some Post It Notes, then added a few “artsy” splatters!

The rest of the card was pretty simple to finish. I added a black die cut Just For You from Papertrey Ink’s Big Basics line. Easy peasy!

I found that the synthetic brushes were a bit stiff for the super smooth hot press watercolor paper. If I worked the color too much, it seemed to pill the paper, as you can see in the halo around the edge of the image. Overall, I’m pleased with the performance of the synthetic brushes, but they do require some adjustments to your technique.

I hope you enjoyed this quick project! I always forget that sometimes quick and easy are just as much fun to put together as the super detailed projects. Have a marvelous day, friends!

No-line coloring with Prismacolor Pencils+VIDEO!

Good morning! I have been a little silent on the blog over the last few weeks… went out of town, then had some visitors, then my kiddos caught a bug… it’s been so crazy that I haven’t had time to finish editing the colored pencil video that I peeked on Instagram almost two weeks ago! After my company left this weekend, I was determined to get this video finished and uploaded for the beginning of this week. I think they’ve given me a few of their germs (joy), so if I sound a little sniffly and scratchy, I apologize!

Today, I wanted to focus on my favorite technique with Prismacolor colored pencils: coloring on colored card stock. I really adore how beautiful and vibrant the color is on the colored card stock when you have a few tricks up your sleeve. Check it out!

Well, what do you think? I’ll be honest…. This technique is not for the faint of heart or for someone in a rush, especially when you have a fairly large image, as I did here. I had to be very succinct with the amount of time I spent on each petal in the video, as I was trying to keep the time on the video as close to ten minutes as I could, but coloring this image was most certainly a labor of love. If I’ve glossed over something in the video that you’d like explained more fully, please don’t hesitate to ask!

If you can’t watch the video, here’s a brief overview of the project and the technique.

To start, I stamped the image using Papertrey Ink’s white pigment ink, which I find to blend more smoothly with pencils than other white pigment inks. Next, I move petal by petal, first coloring the petal with the white Prismacolor pencil, then going over the top of the white with my colored pencils. (For the anemones, I used Deco Pink 1014, Pink Rose 1018, Pink 929, Process Red 994, Pomegranate 195. For the morning glories, I used Scarlet Lake 923, Pale Vermilion 921, Sunburst Yellow 917, Canary Yellow 916, Lemon Yellow 915, Cream 914. For the leaves, I usedGrass Green 909, Prussian Green 109, Apple Green 912, Spring Green 913, Yellow Chartreuse 1004.) After I had laid down my color over the white layer, I used my blender pencil to blend the colors seamlessly. I find that the white layer really helps keep the color from sinking down into the colored card stock and getting lost. Adding just the slightest touch of black after all of the initial blending helps, as well, to really make the shadows pop.

For the morning glories, I have found that their shading is a bit backwards. Where I would normally have the darkest shading towards the center of the flower and lightening as it reaches the outer petals, with morning glories I start with the lightest shade in the center of the flower and blend outwards towards the darkest shades. I used the same technique of adding a white layer beneath my yellow and orange pencils, then blending with the blender pencil.

After I stamped the greeting from the Kind Soul stamp set and heat embossed it with white embossing powder, I went back with my T-square to add some white lines about 1/2″ from the edge of the penciled panel. When I have a fairly detailed and meticulously colored image, I like to keep the rest of the card fairly simplistic so the focus remains on the coloring! I used my T-square and white Prismacolor pencil to create a frame around the edge of the panel, then added a few sequins to add some texture. Finally, I mounted the card on a black A2 sized panel and mounted it on my card base.

I hope that seeing this technique in action, even if only briefly, has made clearer my technique when using the Prismacolor pencils to color on colored card stock. I know I’ve tried to explain it in blog posts before, but it’s really something that you almost have to see to fully understand. I hope I’ve explained things clearly. 🙂 It’s such a fun technique; I’d love to see what you create if you do try it!

Well, that’s all for me today, friends. Have a marvelous Monday!

Concord and 9th Add Some Sprinkles!

Good morning! Today, the Where Creativity Meets C9 team is joining the Feature Friday posts for Concord and 9th’s Second Birthday Celebration! Today, we are featuring the newest in the phenomenal Turnabout Series: Sprinkles Turnabout! This particular set comes with the main sprinkles image, but it’s also chock full of other awesome little pieces to make some truly amazing and unique cards. The coordinating Sprinkles Tag Die set even includes a super useful tag die that I can’t wait to play around with!

One of the things I absolutely love about the Turnabout line is that you can create such unique cards simply by changing up the color scheme. For this card, I chose to turn the Sprinkles Turnabout four times, using pink, purple, peach, and blue inks to create a very birthday-ish card. This could easily be replicated with a more masculine color scheme…. LOVE when cards can flip flop like that!

After I had stamped my Turnabout, I decided to use the versatile Double Cut Alphabet Dies combined with the lovely scripty Perfectly Penned to create a custom sentiment! I die cut the “calm” and “sprinkles” from black card stock using the Double Cut Alphabet, then added the rest of the greeting using black ink and the Perfectly Penned set. I die cut the little cupcake from the coordinating die set, then stamped it with coordinating ink colors.

I trimmed off the edges and added a raspberry colored cardstock panel behind to bring out the pink sprinkles. I popped up the cupcake with some dimensional adhesive at the top of my greeting, then finally added some shimmer pen and Nuvo Crystal Glaze drops to the die cut letters to add some more texture to the front of the card.

Well, that’s all for me today! I have company for a few days, but I can’t wait to have more time to play with these fantastic new sets. Don’t forget to enter your card into the Where Creativity Meets C9 challenge this month… the theme is Anything Goes, and Concord and 9th has generously donated a $25 gift certificate to the lucky winner! You also have the opportunity to be chosen as a guest designer on a future challenge! Thanks so much for stopping by today… have a marvelous weekend!