Skip links

Sixth Street Sundries

Emily Midgett

christmas card

Songs of the Season: I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day…

This post is sponsored by Simon Says Stamp. Thanks, Simon!

Merry Christmas in July, friends! I am always so bummed when the holiday season is over and I have to put away my holiday stamps, dies, and hot foil plates in favor of non-holiday images. Companies just keep coming out with wonderful new products each year, and sometimes I don’t even have time to use them all, so they sit in my bins and wait hopefully for the following year’s holiday cardmaking season. To rectify this sad situation, I have decided that I am going to post a distinctly holiday-themed card on the 25th of each month to give me more opportunity to use my supplies and get a head start on my holiday cardmaking.

I wanted to come up with a name for this series, similar to the “Get Cracking on Christmas” series that my friend Jenn Shurkus shares each month, and thought to myself what is my favorite part about the holidays? The food, the gifts, the decor, the generally festive and happy feelings that the holidays evoke… all are individually wonderful pieces that, when put together, make the holiday season as a whole such a special time. But as a child, I was most influenced by the music of the Christmas season. In a past life, I earned a Master’s of Music in vocal performance, due in no small part to the impact that holiday music made on my life. As a young teenager, I wanted to sing the Messiah, the traditional Christmas carols, the popular secular pieces like White Christmas… Singing these familiar pieces on my own and during my voice lessons gave me the opportunity to practice different vocal techniques and styles, from classical oratorio arias to crooning ballads, and listening to those pieces (and singing along whenever possible) made the holiday season truly begin for me. So, my new holiday series is going to be based on the Songs of the Season. Each month, I will select a different holiday musical piece to use as my inspiration for my project.

This month, I have selected a favorite: I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day, specifically the Johnny Cash version. The simple melody (and his equally simple vocal technique) is enhanced to perfection by the simple guitar accompaniment and female backup singers. You can listen to this version HERE on YouTube. His voice is simple, but it resonates with me, reminding me of long car rides in the cold to visit family, tightly wrapped in my coat, perhaps cuddling a new doll or clasping a new purse or book. For my projects today, I started by creating those bells using the Bell dies from Simon Says Stamp. Let’s get started with the details on my projects!

For both of my cards today, I kept the colors intense, but still somewhat muted, with a deep cranberry, pine, and minty green with shimmering rose gold accents. Both projects feature a deep cranberry card front that I first embossed using the Pine Bouquet Embossing Folder. To enhance the beautiful embossed details, I first blended some Redwood ink around the edges with a blending brush, then gently swiped the Rose Gold Pigment Ink pad from Altenew over the raised areas. This beautiful rose gold metallic ink highlights the details so perfectly! The foam pad is not too firm, with just the right amount of springiness to allow this technique to work beautifully. I also splattered the backgrounds with some handmade metallic watercolors to create many levels of sparkle and dimension on the background!

My first project is a fairly literal representation of I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day. I wanted to create a cluster of ringing bells, decorated with some sprigs of holiday foliage and a how. I die cut the Bell dies twice using Brushed Rose Metallic Cardstock, adhering all of the layers with both liquid and foam adhesive to create extra dimension.

To accent the ringing bells, I die cut some holiday greenery using the Etched Berry Branch die and the Fir Branches die. I cut the berry branch from Simon Says Stamp’s Midnight Green cardstock and the fir branches from a lighter shade of green to allow some contrast between the two styles. I accented the berries on the berry branches with some blush pearls to coordinate with the rose gold bells. I also die cut a double bow using the bow die from the Pinkfresh Studio Wrap Around Elements die set, layering the two die cuts together to create a very full bow.

I arranged all of the different die cut elements on my embossed card front using both liquid and foam adhesives for tons of dimension on the textured background. I die cut a Fancy Happy Holidays from the same shimmering white cardstock used for the bow cluster and heat embossed a greeting from Inside Greetings: Christmas using rose gold embossing powder. I popped the greetings up on the card front using foam tape. So much dimension and so many fun individual elements on this card!

My second card uses up some of the leftovers from the first. Before beginning a card heavily laden with botanical die cuts, I always cut a bunch of the elements before building the arrangement. I frequently end up with leftovers, which just gives me an excuse to make another card! I also wanted to use another of the beautiful sentiments from the Inside Greetings: Christmas. Several of them are large enough and have beautiful designs that they can be focal points on a card front. I heat embossed one of the greetings onto a rectangle of the same deep cranberry cardstock that I used for the embossed card base using rose gold embossing powder. The contrast between the light metallic rose gold embossing powder with the deep maroon cardstock is gorgeous!

I assembled the card with both liquid and foam tape to ensure lots of dimension. I love that the sentiment stamp is large enough to stand on its own amongst the busy background. I tucked the leftover bits of foliage around the sentiment and added a few more blush pearls to accent the rose gold color scheme.

Well, that’s all for this month’s edition of Songs of the Season! As we head into the holiday crafting season, there will be plenty more holiday inspiration, but until then, you can check back here on the 25th of each month to get your Christmas card fix. Thanks so much for stopping by, and have a marvelous day!

Honey Bee Stamps Holiday Cheer+Pretty Poinsettias!

Hi there! The Honey Bee Stamps Holiday Cheer release is now available for pre-order, and I’m super excited to have designed a new holiday floral stamp set: Pretty Poinsettias! This new release has so many absolutely stunning new “country Christmas” products, from gorgeous plaid cover plates to snow globe dies to two amazing new truck sets to a fabulous new holiday floral set designed by yours truly! I have a project to share with you today using my new set using the Karin Metallic Brush Marker Pro and some black watercolor paper, so let’s get started with the details!

For this non-traditional card, I began by stamping the images from Pretty Poinsettias on some black watercolor paper using white pigment ink. I was super excited to see how well the white pigment ink disappeared beneath the metallic Karin markers. This bouquet was stamped really quickly, too, because there was little to no masking involved! The metallic markers covered up the overlapped images so well.

Next, I used the Metallic Karin Brushmarker Pro to add color to the images. Not my usual meticulous coloring, but it was certainly fun to try something different. I did add a layer of white gouache to the poinsettia to make sure that I could get some depth on those large flower petals. After the gouache had dried, I laid down some of the purple metallic Karin ink on the petals, then pulled the color out with a damp paintbrush.

Once the painting/coloring was finished, I heat embossed a greeting from Pretty Poinsettias on some vellum using silver embossing powder. I trimmed down the colored panel and added some strips of matte silver foil on either side, then mounted the vellum sentiment strips on the colored panel, folding the edges over the sides and hiding some of the adhesive on the back of the solid cardstock portion, adhering the rest with tiny dots of adhesive. Finally, I adhered the colored section to an A2 lavender card front using foam adhesive.

For my second project, I used the Pretty Poinsettias with my new Holbein gouache to create this super vibrant patterned background panel. I stamped the images again using white pigment ink, then had some fun playing around with the gouache to create this super vibrant, almost velvety patterned panel. Once I’d finished adding color to the images, I used my white gel pen and T-square to add a rectangular frame around the edges.

I white heat embossed a greeting from the new Merry Buzzword stamp set on the coordinating pierced die, also stamping the rest of the greeting on some strips of red cardstock.

I adhered the sentiments to the card front using foam adhesive, finally adding a few Moonlight gems to add some sparkle and extra texture to the card front.

Well, that’s all for today’s projects. I have loooots more to show you, but this is just a little taste! Due to some shipping delays (dangit, Covid, quit messing with our crafty purchases!), the new release will be shipping on or around November 2, 2020. The team is going to be having an inspiration week November 2-6, so be sure to keep your eyes peeled for lots of gorgeous inspiration on Instagram, the Honey Bee Blog, and YouTube channel!

Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!

Icy Winter Inspiration with Pinkfresh Studios!

Hi there! I have some super icy holiday inspiration using some new (and some old!) products from Pinkfresh Studio. I love the elegance of using white on white with pops of color for holiday cards, and it was so fun to pair this favorite monochromatic technique with these icy pastel colors for today’s projects. Let’s get started with the details! 

For both projects, I created the backgrounds by layering white Folklore cover plate die cut and the Geo Floral cover plate die cut over some sparkling white glitter cardstock. This tone-on-tone background provides lots of texture, while also creating a sparkly and simple backdrop for the colorful focal points. 

For the first card, I die cut PEACE from white cardstock using the Kelly Alpha Upper dies, then used Copic markers to add some ombre shading from navy blue to hyacinth purple. I also die cut some branches using the Leafy Branch die, again beginning with white cardstock and adding Copic coloring, this time in a pretty shade of mint green. 

I adhered the PEACE die cuts to the center of the card front using foam adhesive, then added the leafy mint green branches beneath them. In hindsight, I wish that I’d used a bit deeper green for the branches, but I do like the subtlety of the mint; it allows the deep blue/purple of the greeting to really stand out. The final touch was to add some Essentials Jewels in pale pink as “berries.” 

For my second card, I used the Share Cheer stamps and dies as my focal point. I began by stamping the main image and the bow on some plain white, Copic-friendly cardstock, then colored the image using that same blue/purple, mint, pale pink combination, adding in some touches of vanilla peach and teal. 

I die cut the image and layered it on the sparkling tone-on-tone card front using foam adhesive for lots of extra dimension. The icy color scheme is the perfect pop of subtle color on the sparkling textured background! 

Well, that’s all for me today. I hope your holiday cardmaking is going well, and if you haven’t started, I hope my projects have provided you with some inspiration! Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day! 

Spellbinders Holiday Release with Sharyn Sowell!

Hi there! Today, I have some more holiday inspiration for you, this time featuring some of the brand new products from the latest Sharyn Sowell Holiday 2019 release by Spellbinders! I love working with die cuts as the focal point of my cards. There are so many fun techniques that can be done with them, but you can still create a super quick and simple card! I have two projects for you today using the Love Came Down Etched Cover Plate and the Starry Forest Etched Die Set using the same rose gold and china blue color scheme. Let’s get started with the details!

For the first project, I kept things super simple for some easy mass-production inspiration! I began by die cutting the beautiful and incredibly detailed Love Came Down Etched Cover Plate die from some shiny rose gold foil cardstock. Die cutting these incredibly detailed dies from foil cardstock is one of the best tips I can give for using these intricate dies; the foil die cuts like a dream, and you get the added bonus of having a beautiful metallic shine!

For the card front, I blended some pretty china blue ink on a light blue cardstock base. (You could blend two different shades of blue instead of using the blue cardstock; I have found that blending on colored cardstock saves me SO much time and achieves similar results as blending an entire panel!) I also splattered some white paint on the blended card front to add a bit of extra texture and interest to the background. I adhered the shiny foil die cut to the card front using foam adhesive for lots of dimension. A quick and simple card using just a few supplies and ONE die cut definitely fits the mass production bill required for holiday cardmaking!

My second card is a bit more involved. I began by die cutting the Starry Forest Etched Die Set from navy blue matte cardstock, rose gold glitter cardstock, and some more shiny rose gold foil cardstock. The variety of textures and finishes helps to differentiate between the different die cuts and allow that detail to really shine through!

On a blue A2 card base, I lightly blended some more of the china blue ink approximately where I wanted to focus my little woodland scene using a blender brush to create a halo and attract the eye towards my cluster of die cuts. I arranged the Starry Forest die cuts in a cluster and adhered them to the card base using foam adhesive for lots of dimension.

After I’d adhered my little cluster, I heat embossed a holiday greeting on some more navy blue cardstock using rose gold embossing powder. (Absolutely love the contrast of the rose gold on that deep navy!) I adhered it to the card front using more foam adhesive. I then added some pretty sequins to match the color scheme, finally adding a few dots of “snow” using my white gel pen. Slightly more involved than the first card, but allowing the beautiful detailed die cuts to remain the focal point still shaved my crafting time down by quite a bit!

Well, that’s all for my projects today. I hope they’ve inspired you to use some of the new dies from the Sharyn Sowell Holiday 2019 collection to create quick, elegant holiday cards! Each of the die sets in this collection are truly beautiful. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!

25 Days of Christmas Tags with Ellen Hutson!

Good morning! Today, I have the pleasure of helping represent Ellen Hutson for Tracey McNeeley’s 25 Days of Christmas Tags event! Each year, Tracey hosts a month of fantastic tag inspiration, focusing on a different company each day, and today we are focusing on the gorgeous holiday products from Ellen Hutson!

I love using non-traditional colors for holiday projects, especially intense jewel tones. For today’s project, I’ve combined the adorable Hard Candy Christmas stamp set from Ellen Hutson with a few other craft room staples to create this fun shaker tag in a jewel-toned rainbow! Let’s get started with the details!

I began by stamping the apothecary jar from Hard Candy Christmas using Intens-ified Black ink on some white, Copic-friendly cardstock. I then did a little simple masking with a Post-It note to add several pieces of ribbon and hard candy, coloring the images with my Copic markers. I die cut the image using the coordinating dies.

Next, I stamped the Concord and 9th Woven Plaid background on a panel of white cardstock using Magenta ink from Altenew. I then used the new Scallop Square Gift Tag dies from Honey Bee Stamps to die cut the background and a frame, backing the frame with acetate and filling it with sequins.

I white embossed a greeting from Retro Holiday Greetings on some deep magenta cardstock. I adhered the die cut and greeting strip on the shaker tag. Finally, I created a loop using some silk ribbon.

Well, that’s all for this project! I hope you’ll check out the other inspiration on Tracey McNeeley’s blog! Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!