Skip links

Sixth Street Sundries

Emily Midgett

altenew

Altenew May 2023 Marvelous Monthly Series Release Blog Hop + Giveaway ($300 in Total Prizes!)

Good morning, friends! The new May release for Altenew’s Marvelous Monthly series is here, and the new subscription products are just so beautiful! We’re hopping along to celebrate and inspire you today. You should have arrived here from Agnieszka, and your next stop is Virginia. You can also see the full hop list at the bottom of the post! We have some beautiful new stamps, dies, annnnnd… new colors in the Fresh Dye Ink line! Eeep! I have two projects to share with you today, so let’s get started with the details.

My first project features the luscious new Craft-A-Flower: Fragrant Peony. First, I began by die cutting the layers for the flower itself using the Craft-A-Flower: Fragrant Peony dies and plain white cardstock. Before I assembled the layers, I used a small blending tool to blend Rouge ink very lightly in the center of the peony, concentrating the color a bit more heavily towards the center of each layer and tapering off as I radiated out from the center of the flower, leaving the ends of the petals almost completely white. I also die cut the center of the flower from some bright yellow cardstock, toning it down by blending some Pumpkin Pie ink around the edges, which helps to highlight the beautiful texture embossed on the die cut.

Even when the peonies are crisp and pale and almost bleached, the foliage on the peony bushes remain a vibrant, verdant green, so I die cut my foliage dies from some deep, bottle green cardstock. Because I had two blooms, I wanted to make sure that I had an odd number of floral elements by cutting three different leaves. (An odd number of elements is more visually pleasing-an unwritten rule of design! I try to follow that rule when designing and adding embellishments.)

To allow my very lightly-colored peony blooms to stand out, I decided to keep my card base a bright, crisp white, adding some textural interest with white die cuts. I die cut two Leaf Frame Cover Dies from some white cardstock and layered them together to create a little extra height on my background, making the texture a bit more visible. I arranged my peony die cuts in a cluster and adhered them with foam adhesive, then nestled a “hugs” dimensional die cut greeting in amongst the foliage, cut three times from white cardstock using the Simple Greetings die set. The texture on this card is so fun, while still remaining that crisp, bright white!

My second project features the beautiful ink colors in the Red Sunset Crisp Dye Inks as the focal point. I began by blending an ombré gradient background using all four colors in the Red Sunset set, working from light to dark. I did blend two layers of ink to make sure that the blend was seamless and the colors were really saturated throughout the background.

Once I had my background completely blended and allowed a couple of minutes to dry, I used the Whimsical Bouquet embossing folder to add some beautiful 3D texture to the blended background. I also ran a white pigment ink pad over the top of the raised areas to help enhance the texture even further. The springy foam on the pigment ink pad combined with a light touch helps keep the white ink on only the raised areas. I also splattered some metallic watercolor from the Metallic Watercolor 14 Pan set to add some metallic texture to the background.

I didn’t want to pull attention too far from the vibrant background, so I kept the sentiment and accents simple. I die cut the Fine Frames Cover Die from some Brushed Rose Metallic Cardstock, then added two frames, one thick and one thin, on my blended card front. I also die cut a greeting using the Circled Greetings: Thanks die, cut from some glittery rose gold foam for extra dimension. Finally, I added a few opalescent gems for one last touch of texture!

Well, that’s all for my projects today, and now for some fun giveaway information!

$300 in total prizes! To celebrate this release, Altenew is giving away a $50 gift certificate to 2 lucky winners and a $25 gift certificate to 8 winners! Please leave a comment on the Altenew Card Blog and/or each designer’s blog post on the blog hop list below by 05/24/2023 for a chance to win. Altenew will draw 10 random winners from the comments left on each stop of this blog hop and announce the winners on the Altenew Winners Page on 05/26/2023.

*The winners of the $50 gift certificate will be chosen from comments left on the Altenew blog. 

~~Craft Your Life Project Kit updates~~

Please note: The Craft Your Life Project Kit will no longer be released to the public in the Altenew store, not like other subscription products. It will only be available via the Ultimate Subscription Plan or Craft Your Life Project Kit Monthly Subscription Plan.

If you find yourself loving the subscription products more and more each month, you can check out the Ultimate Subscription Plan, which automatically sends you *all* of the subscription products each month at an awesome discount! You can also subscribe to the individual subscription products to receive just the pieces that you want, but the discount isn’t quite as awesome as with the Ultimate Subscription Plan.

Here’s the full hop list:

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Thanks so much for stopping by today, and happy hopping!

Altenew April 2023 Marvelous Monthly Series Release Blog Hop + Giveaway ($300 in Total Prizes!)

Hi there! We are hopping along today to share inspiration using the brand new Marvelous Monthly collection for April 2023. You should have arrived here from the Altenew Blog and your next stop is Mindy Eggen. This release features some fun new Dual Tip Pens and a new series, called Dynamic Duo, in addition to the series regulars that we know and love! I have two projects to share with you today, so let’s get started with the details.

The new Dynamic Duo: Treat Yourself features some fabulous layering stencils and a small stamp set that you can use to create quick and fun blended birthday cards! I began by ink blending the sentiment from the Treat Yourself stencil set using Midnight Violet and Pinkalicious inks. I also blended a bunch of fluttering balloons around the sentiment, adding in some Dark Night ink to add a touch of drama.

I also blended several flowers and foliage using the same inks, then cut them out with my sharp scissors. I stamped a sentiment strip to coordinate with the happy birthday sentiment using the Dark Night ink, popping all of the individual elements up with some foam adhesive to make them stand out from the background. I also added a few gems to help add some sparkle! I love that this card was made almost entirely from ink blending… such a different look from my normal meticulously colored projects, but definitely a fun way to create a cute birthday card!

My next card features more of my traditional crafting techniques, this time using the beautiful new Spark Joy: Festive Flowers. The Spark Joy series focuses on hot foiling, and comes complete with a set of layering stencils to make adding color to your hot foiled images a breeze. I, however, prefer to use my favorite coloring mediums to add lots of vibrant color and shading to the images. I began by hot foiling the Festive Flowers image onto some white cardstock using Altenew’s Brass hot foil roll. I colored the images using the Mystic Garden Alcohol Markers. The lilies in the arrangement worked beautifully with the colors of the Mystic Garden set.

After I’d finished coloring the image, I used a blending tool to blend some Dark Night ink around the edge of the panel. Allowing the white to remain around the image itself while the edge of the card is dark and vibrant creates a kind of halo around the image, highlighting it.

For the greeting, I added a hot foiled “hello,” created using more Brass hot foil and Versatile Greetings hot foil plate + dies. I also heat embossed a sentiment strip using the Thinking of You stamp set. I popped both of these sentiment pieces up with some foam tape, finally adding a few more shimmering gems to add one last textural element to the card front.

Well, that’s all for my projects today! Now for some fun giveaway information:

$300 in total prizes! To celebrate this release, Altenew is giving away a *$100 gift certificate to 1 lucky winner and a $20 gift certificate to 10 winners! Please leave a comment on the Altenew Card Blog and/or each designer’s blog post on the blog hop list below by 04/24/2023 for a chance to win. Altenew will draw 11 random winners from the comments left on each stop of this blog hop and announce the winners on the Altenew Winners Page on 04/26/2023. *The winner of the $100 gift certificate will be chosen from comments left on the Altenew blog.

Your next stop is Mindy Eggen. Here’s the full hop list:

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Thanks so much for stopping by today, and happy hopping!

Altenew April 2023 Stamp/Die/Stencil & More Release Blog Hop + Giveaway ($300 in Total Prizes!)

Altenew has released a stunning new collection of products, and we’re celebrating with a blog hop! You should have arrived here from Nichol Spohr, and your next stop is Erin Thompson. You can also start back at the beginning at the Altenew Blog, or check out the full hop list down at the bottom of this post. The April 2023 Stamp and Die release is yet another stunner from Altenew, featuring such a wide variety of styles that there is sure to be something for everyone! I have two cards to share with you today, so let’s get started with the details!

When brainstorming for today’s projects, I realized that it had been quite a long time since I used any orange in my projects, preferring to stick to my favorite pinks and purples, and my favorite way to use orange is with a dash of bright pink! I decided to use my favorite orange color scheme, which I call my “fiesta” color scheme: bright orange, hot pink, lime green, and touches of black for extra drama!

My first project features Prim Peonies. I can’t ever turn away a pretty peony stamp, and Prim Peonies offered such lovely peonies that I couldn’t resist! I stamped the image onto some white cardstock using Altenew’s Permanent Black ink, then used the Sunshine Valley Artist Markers to add lots of vibrant color to the beautiful peony spray. I die cut the finished piece with the coordinating die.

To accent the pretty peonies, I ran a panel of heavyweight vellum through my die cut machine using the new Luxurious Motifs 3D Embossing Folder. This embossing folder features such incredible detail, and it looks utterly marvelous with the vellum, which is transparent enough to allow the color behind to be somewhat visible, while also allowing the soft orange glow from behind to highlight the beautiful embossed details. I trimmed down the panel slightly so that it would only cover a portion of my bright orange card front, then I trimmed a couple of very thin strips of black cardstock to adhere to the top and bottom of my embossed vellum panel.

I arranged the colorful peony die cut, cutting it down the middle and arranging it in a little swag across the front. Though it takes a smidgen of courage to cut my colored die cuts down the center, I love “rearranging” my die cuts like this to get even more uses out of them. I added a black XOXO & More “friend” die cut, enhancing the stamped sentiment from the Prim Peonies stamp set. A smattering of black gems finished it off!

My second card features the Ornate Flowers dies in the same happy color scheme. I have all of the specific cardstock colors listed in the link list below. The amount of detail in these dies is so beautiful! It’s a very unique set with a detailed graphic style.

I used some sparkly black cardstock for the veins on the foliage, so to accent that, I used the Fine Liner Pen set to add a few accents to the assembled flowers. I arranged the finished flowers on an A2 panel of coordinating orange cardstock, using both liquid and foam adhesive for lots of height and dimension with all of the cardstock layers and foam tape.

I heat embossed a sentiment from Sweet Bouquet onto some deep orange cardstock using the Obsidian Black pigment ink and clear embossing powder. I die cut the larger sentiment using the coordinating die and trimmed the strip with my trimmer. I adhered the sentiment pieces amongst the floral arrangement with a double layer of foam adhesive. Finally, I added a few black gems to complete my “rule of three” for black accents, while also adding another element of sparkle.

Well, that’s all for my projects today! Now for some fun giveaway information:

$300 in total prizes! To celebrate this release, Altenew is giving away a *$50 gift certificates to 2 lucky winners and a $25 gift certificate to 8 winners! Please leave a comment on the Altenew Card Blog and/or each designer’s blog post on the blog hop list below by 04/18/2023 for a chance to win. Altenew will draw 8 random winners from the comments left on each stop of this blog hop and announce the winners on the Altenew Winners Page on 04/20/2023.

*The winners of the $50 gift certificate will be chosen from comments left on the Altenew blog.

Here’s the full hop list:

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Thanks so much for stopping by today, and happy hopping!

Altenew 9th Anniversary Blog Hop Day 1 + Giveaway (over $2,200 in Total Prizes)

Hi there! I am so excited to be a stop on Day 1 of the Altenew 9th Anniversary Blog Hop! You should have arrived here from the Simon Says Stamp blog, and your next stop is Mindy Eggen. You can also start at the beginning at the Altenew Card Blog. One of the best parts about the anniversary festivities each year, aside from the fabulous blog hop filled with wonderful prizes, is the special large scale Anniversary stamp set. These enormous stamp sets (seriously-enormous. 8.5″x10″!!!) are so unique and beautiful. This year’s set, called Billowing Peonies, is extra special because the large scale of the images works beautifully with the new Stampwheel! And, bonus, Tasnim has designed a set of coordinating layering stencils that are absolutely phenomenal and totally massive. So if coloring isn’t your jam, you have incredible options at your disposal with these spectacular stencils! I have two projects to share with you today using the stunning peony arrangement in Billowing Peonies, so let’s get started with the details.

The Billowing Peonies stamp set features a pair of spectacular floral stamps that are so big and sooooo much fun to color. I find that large-scale stamps are the most fun to color, because they give you the room to really work on enhancing those details that might be too small to notice on a smaller set. I created a pair of peony projects (say that three times fast!!) using the new Billowing Peonies stamps: a slimline card and a piece of wall art, both watercolored using my favorite Artists’ Watercolor 24 Pan Set, which is hands down my favorite coloring medium in the Altenew catalog. I’ve had my set for several years and use it more than any other Altenew coloring medium. I’ve barely made a dent in the pans, so it’s a fantastic, long-lasting investment! If you are looking for an economical and good quality watercolor set, I cannot recommend the Artists’ Watercolor 24 Pan Set highly enough.

I began my slimline card by heat embossing the large peony duo from Billowing Peonies on a piece of watercolor paper that I’d trimmed down to slimline size. Even though I knew that I wanted to die cut the finished watercolored image, I started with the card size so that I could better visualize the final layout of the card. (Tip: if you don’t have the Stampwheel or are still waiting for your Stampwheel to arrive, you can use the back of your MISTI for this huge stamp. Tape the base of your MISTI to your work surface, then tape your paper next to your MISTI on your work surface. Place your large stamp on your paper, then close the *back* of your lid for your stamp positioner over your stamp. This hack gives you a bit of extra room to use those really large scale stamps, at least until you can get your hands on a Stampwheel!) I heat embossed the beautiful peony image using pearlescent white embossing powder, which I find creates a lighter, less severe aesthetic than using black stamped/embossed lines.

After I had heat embossed my image, I taped the panel down to my watercolor board with Satin Masking Tape and covered the entire panel with clean water. I then dropped in some diluted pink, green, coral, and yellow watercolors from the Artists’ Watercolor 24 Pan Set, which bloomed together beautifully on the damp watercolor paper. The wet watercolor will work with the wet watercolor paper to allow the colors to meld together beautifully and create some extra colorful interest to your floral images.

After speeding up the drying time with my heat tool, I went back in with more concentrated color to watercolor the beautiful peony images, adding depth and dimension to the flowers. The base layer of mottled color helps to create some color variation, mimicking the color variation found in nature. No real-life peony is only one color, so don’t be afraid to add touches of extra color! After it was completely dry, I went in with the coordinating dies and cut the image out. Because I had started on a slimline card base, the finished die cut image will fit perfectly on another slimline card base without needing to do any trimming.

To create the textured card base, I trimmed down a white slimline card front from some white cardstock, then used the Dotted Swirls Debossing Cover Plate Die at the top and bottom of the card front. Because the Dotted Swirls plate only pierces the cardstock and doesn’t actually cut anything, you can use it easily with a large scale card front like this! Simply line up where your plate ends with the previously-cut image to create a continuous pattern. I popped up the die cut watercolored image with Instant Dimension Foam Tape.

For the greeting, I stamped one of the chunky sentiments from the Billowing Peonies stamp set using Razzleberry ink onto some white cardstock, then while the stamp was still in place, stamped directly over the top with embossing ink. I sprinkled more pearlescent white embossing powder over the stamped greeting and heated it up, creating a pearlescent pink sentiment. I backed it with some Dazzling Diamond glitter paper so that the sparkle peeked out from the top and bottom of the sentiment panel, then layered that over the center of my watercolored peony and added a few shimmering pink gems for sparkle!

My second project using the new Billowing Peonies stamps is more of a home decor piece. I initially planned on watercoloring the entirety of the peony image, then chopping it up to create multiple card fronts, but after I had finished it… I decided I didn’t want to chop up those hours of meticulous watercoloring into something that would probably be thrown in the garbage.

I started by stamping the entirety of the image onto a 7″x7″ panel of watercolor paper using no-line coloring ink. You can see just how massive this image is; it’s even hanging over the edge of the 7″x7″ watercolor paper! I wanted to create a very pale lavender, almost white, peony (which I don’t think exist in real life, but it’s my garden so who cares, right?) so I mixed up some bright blue and purple watercolor from the Artists’ Watercolor 24 Pan Set, diluting the color with quite a bit of clean water to make it very subtle, and began adding that pale lavender to the shadowed areas of the first peony. I worked my way around the peony, keeping the wet sections separate from each other to ensure that those edges stayed nice and crisp, using the sharp point of my paintbrush to clean up any rough edges.

I used the same technique with the pink peony, this time mixing up some of my favorite bright pink with some of the purple to create a lovely shade of vibrant mauve. After I had completed the main watercolor on my peonies, I pulled out some yellows, pinks, and greens from my paint pans and diluted them on my palette so that they were the subtlest of washes. I used these subtle washes to “glaze” the edges of my petals, which is basically adding a watercolor wash over the top of an area of completely dry watercoloring. It helps to add some interest and color variation to your flowers. This technique is especially noticeable on the lavender/white peony; the white highlights on this super pale peony are picking up reflections of color from the neighboring flower as well as the foliage. I encourage you to try this technique on your next watercolor project!

Once I had finished watercoloring the flowers, I mixed some deep green and lime green watercolor to add pigment to the foliage. I like to think of each half of each leaf as it’s own unique petal, which allows me to visualize giving it the shape and shadows in the same way that I would on flower petals clustered together. After my initial painting, I mixed some black paint into the hunter/lime mixture, then enhanced the shadows on the leaves tucked behind the top layer of foliage. I matted the finished watercolored piece with some plain black cardstock, then mounted it on a panel of 8″x8″ white cardstock. It will fit perfectly in an 8″x8″ frame! Something like this would make a lovely Mother’s Day gift. 🙂

Well, that’s all for my projects today. To celebrate their 9th Anniversary, Altenew is offering some wonderful special gifts with purchase!

  • 4/5/2023-4/6/2023: Enjoy FREE U.S. shipping with code HAPPY9TH or $9 OFF shipping on international orders over $29 with code ANNIV23 at checkout and receive a FREE brand-new Playful Wildflower 3D Embossing Folder ($8.99 value) on orders over $69.

Here’s the full hop list:

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

It’s such an honor to be part of the Altenew Design Team. Working with beautiful flower stamps is the closest I will ever come to having a garden, and Altenew’s floral designs are truly unique and such a pleasure to color. Thank you so much for stopping by today, and happy 9th Anniversary to Altenew!

Altenew March 2023 Stampwheel Release Blog Hop + Giveaway ($300 in Total Prizes!)

Good morning! Today is the day… the long-ancitipated Stampwheel from Altenew is finally officially here! This exciting new tool debuted at NAMTA last spring, and is finally available to preorder! The Stampwheel is an innovative, multi-purpose tool, making stamping, stenciling, and blending super easy. We are doing a blog hop today to share lots of fun inspiration on how to use this new crafty tool! You can see the full hop list below or on the Altenew Card Blog.

After some experimenting with the Stampwheel, I found that the most unique way to use it was with layering stencils, a product category that Altenew does so very well! I sometimes find stencils to be a bit futzy to create with, having to fuss with washi tape, adhesive sprays, magnets etc, in order to achieve crisp blending, but the amazing photopolymer Stage (the base) on the Stampwheel creates an “adhesive” background upon which your card base can adhere cleanly and easily, while your stencil adheres to the photopolymer around your card base

For my project today, I created a card using the beautiful Greenwood Flowers layering stencil set. I began by placing my A2 card front on the photopolymer Stage of the Stampwheel. This Stage is basically a giant photopolymer stamp, flat on one side and gridded lines on the other. The flat “sticky” side is the side upon which you adhere your cardstock; if it becomes less sticky, simply wipe it with clean water and allow it to air dry, just like you would your regular photopolymer stamps! I adhered the white card front in the center of the photopolymer Stage, then placed my stencils over the top and did my ink blending. The sticky surface of the Stage creates a perfect seal around the entirety of card front so that your stencil will be hard pressed to move whilst you’re blending! No need to fuss with washi tape, adhesive spray, or copy paper anymore. So easy!

After I had quickly blended my floral pattern on my card front, I wanted to create a color-coordinated sentiment by using the same purple inks that I used for my flowers. I die cut the Fancy For You from some white cardstock, then adhered it to the Stage. I then used my blending brushes to blend the Shades of Purple inks over the plain white die cut while it was still attached to the Stage. This die cut is super intricate and a bit finicky for ink blending, so normally to do this I would have to keep it in the negative space and add washi tape to the back to keep the die cut from moving, but being able to adhere it to the Stampwheel’s Stage made the process super quick and simple! Once I had finished ink blending, I used Altenew’s Stamp Cleaner and a microfiber cloth to whisk away any remnants of ink left on the photopolymer. It worked beautifully! I did have some staining from some red ink on a different project, but it doesn’t affect the stickiness at all. It just looks well-loved.

Once I had finished all of my ink blending, I die cut a label shape from the Labels and Tags 2 die set using some heavyweight vellum. The opaque die cut softens the background pattern to allow the blended sentiment die cut to stand out. I adhered the greeting to the vellum, then flipped it over and added some foam tape to the solid areas on the back side of the vellum, hiding the adhesive to keep it from marring the vellum. I added a few glittery butterflies cut using the Mix and Match Mariposa dies and Dazzling Diamond glitter cardstock. A few minty green gems finished it off. Colorful, springy, and pops of sparkle scream spring!

Well, that’s all for my project using the brand new Stampwheel! This new tool is sure to be an excellent addition to your crafty bag of tricks, with some super unique uses that make it a great complement to the tools you already have in your craft room. The current stock is already sold out, but the next round of Stampwheel products are available for preorder! Click HERE to see all of the details.

Now for some fun giveaway information!

$300 in total prizes! To celebrate this release, Altenew is giving away a $100 gift certificate to 1 lucky winner and a $20 gift certificate to 10 winners! Please leave a comment on the Altenew Card Blog and/or each designer’s blog post on the blog hop list below by 04/05/2023 for a chance to win. Altenew will draw 11 random winners from the comments left on each stop of this blog hop and announce the winners on the Altenew Winners Page on 04/07/2023.*The winner of the $100 gift certificate will be chosen from comments left on the Altenew blog. 

Here’s the full hop list:

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Thanks so much for stopping by today, and happy hopping!