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Sixth Street Sundries

Emily Midgett

Hero Arts

August 2018 My Monthly Hero Blog Hop+Giveaway!

 

Good morning! Today is the monthly Hero Arts My Monthly Hero Blog Hop celebrating the fabulous new My Monthly Hero kit! You should have arrived from Clare’s blog and your next stop is Ilina’s blog.  This month’s kit is coffee themed, with some fabulous coffee images and coordinating dies, as well as a fantastic fancy die that I used in this post. So many fun images, accessories, and that fabulous fancy die… here’s the breakdown of the items included in the kit:

6″x8″stamp set
3.5″x4.5″ window fancy die
11 coordinating frame cuts
Crystal Clear Lacquer Pen
White Puff Embossing Powder
2 8.5″x5.5″ sheets of coffee and tea hand dyed decorative paper

There are so many amazing coffee themed images included in this kit, and it’s a bargain at $34.99 (valued at over $70!). These kits frequently sell out, so it’s always a good idea to subscribe if you want to ensure that you’ll get your hands on one! The kit & add-ons go live in the Hero Arts store on Monday August 6th at 1pm eastern/10am pacific. The main kit is available for a limited time only – once it’s gone, it’s gone. Kits begin shipping from Hero Arts on Friday, August 10th.

For my project today, I wanted to invoke those lovely chalkboards that you see so frequently in cafes and coffee shops. I love creating chalkboard cards with my colored pencils and black card stock, so I thought I’d recreate that feel with my stamps, some white ink, and a white colored pencil. Let’s get started with the details!

I began by stamping the tall, footed coffee cup and some whipped cream from the main kit onto some black cardstock using Unicorn White pigment ink, as well as a few images from the new add-on stamp set Tea Time. I die cut all of the images using the coordinating dies.

I arranged my cluster of coffee shop goodies on my card front in approximately the spots that they would be on the final card, then began work on my custom sentiment. I love accenting certain words in sentiments with die cut letters, so I trimmed off the “coffee” of the “You’re the cream in my coffee” sentiment included in the main kit, then die cut the letters from white card stock. I stamped the partial sentiment in white pigment ink. I then used my gridded mat to arrange my die cut letters in a nice straight line, used washi tape to pick them up and add adhesive to the back, then adhered them to my card front.

I adhered my coffee die cuts using foam tape, then used my T-square to create a white frame around the edge of my card panel. Looks just like a sandwich board that you’d see outside a coffee shop, right? Love this technique!

Now for some fun giveaway information! Hero Arts is giving away an August My Monthly Hero kit (and if you purchase a kit and then win, they will reimburse you!). All you have to do to enter is comment on the blog hop posts. The more comments you leave, the more chances to you have to win! Here’s the full lineup in case you get lost:

The Hero Arts Blog
Amy Kolling
Amy Tsuruta
Clare Prezzia
Emily Midgett<— you are here
Ilina Crouse
Janette Kausen
Jennifer McGuire
Jessica Frost-Ballas
Julee Tilman
Kelly Latevola
Laurie Willison
Libby Hickson
Lydia Fiedler
Michelle Short
Nichol Spohr
Wanda Guess
Yana Smakula


Give Me All the Peonies

Good morning! Happy Saturday! Things have been a little quiet on the blog over the last week… I’ve been prepping for a few upcoming events, and I am not allowed to share them…. yet. 😉 Stay tuned tomorrow for new, beautiful products being peeked from Honey Bee Stamps! For today’s project, I thought I’d share some no-line pencil coloring using my favorite stamp set from Hero Arts’s Spring catalog release: Peonies. I haven’t had time to make my Man Card Monday this month, so Girl Card Saturday is my solution. 🙂

I started by stamping the main peony image on some colored pencil paper using Inkon3’s Fadeout Ink. I then stamped some leaves and a bud without masking…. one of the fun things about using such pale ink for no-line coloring is making easy bouquets with no masking required, because the ink lines are covered up with the coloring! Score. But…. that’s about the quickest part of this card haha. No-line colored pencil work is very time consuming. Time consuming, yes, but in my opinion, the results are definitely worth it.

I then used my Polychromos pencils to color the image. I wanted a deep, saturated fuchsia peony with jade green leaves… I wish I could remember which colors I used! Next time I will write them down haha. After I’d finished coloring the image, I black heat embossed the sentiment from the Peonies stamp set. I used my T-square to create a frame around the edge of the card front, then used my black fine tipped pen to add some random dots.

The final step was to add some Ombre Purple Sequins on the card front to add some sparkle.

Well that’s all for me today! I hope you are having a fabulous weekend. Be sure to check back tomorrow for some Honey Bee release fun! Thanks for visiting!


Get Cracking on Christmas!

Hi friends! Merry Christmas In July! Today, some super talented crafty friends have gathered to do a “Christmas in July” version of Jenn Shurkus’s Cracking on Christmas series. (You can read all about the details of Jenn’s series here!) Basically, she and some seriously talented crafty ladies get a jump on their holiday cardmaking all.year.long. Smart, right? And this month, I and several other crafters are joining them!

For my project today, I wanted something that was full of bright, saturated color but would also be fairly easily mailed…. ink blending seemed the obvious choice. I absolutely love the Snowflake Confetti cover plate from Hero Arts, so I cut one from some plain white card stock, then blended Antigua, Ocean, and Indigo dye inks (all from Hero Arts and linked below). I absolutely LOVE this color combination… unexpected, but soothing for a peaceful holiday card, right? I also spritzed some Hero Arts Iridescent Shimmer Spray onto another panel of white card stock, then layered the blended cover plate die cut over the top.

For my greeting, I created a dimensional “peace” die cut by cutting the Peace Stamp & Cut three times from navy blue card stock, then adhering them together. I stamped the rest of the greeting onto thin strips of white card stock and popped them up using dimensional foam adhesive. The final step was to add some shimmer pen to the die cut “peace” and some sparkly sequins.

Well, that’s all for this post! I hope this hop will inspire you to get “cracking” on your own holiday cards… I know I certainly need to get moving on mine!! Here are the links to my fellow blog hoppers:

Jenn Shurkus
Susan Opel (posting on Jenn’s site)
Chari Moss
Cheiron Brandon
Libby Hickson
Caryn Davies
Emily Midgett<— you are here!
Vera Yates
Tifany DeGough
Loni Riley
Jana Millen
Lydia Fiedler
Lisa Cisneros
Susan Wymer
Jessie Banks
Jessica Frost-Ballas
Teri Anderson
Lisa Henke


Man Card Monday: June Edition!

Good morning! Happy Monday! It is impossible for me to believe that it’s the final week of June. Where in the world did this month go?? Summer is flying by! (Except I am totally fine if fall temps want to arrive early. I am over the heat and humidity and we’re only technically a few days into summer.) It’s the last Monday of the moth, so it’s time for Man Card Monday! Today’s card is really more of a “gender neutral Monday,” but I still say it counts for a man card haha! Let’s get started!

For my project today, I did a little masking and a little ink blending so that I could have a seamless, one-layer card that also had some Copic coloring on it. I started by stamping the super cute little Alpaca Stamp and Cut from Hero Arts using Intense Black Ink on Copic-friendly white card stock. I also stamped him once more on some masking paper, then fussy cut the image quite close to the black lines of the image.

After I’d colored my festive alpaca with a variety of colorful Copic markers and added some gray shadows here and there, I applied my masking paper over the top of the stamped and colored alpaca, then used my foam blending tool to blend Soft Sky ink from Hero Arts over the entire card front. I chose to do the extra step of cutting out the mask and blending the pale blue ink in the background (instead of just using the die cut) because I wanted a screen printed look, something that you might find in a stationery shop or something. 

The final step was to stamp a greeting from the Alpaca Stamp & Cut set onto a strip of white card stock and mount it on the card front using foam adhesive.

I love the simplicity of this card. I think that, and the lack of flowers (ha!) make it more man-friendly, or at least not overtly feminine… if you exchanged the pink for a dark blue, it would take any question of masculinity out of the equation, but I don’t think my hubby would be offended by this minuscule amount of pink. 😉

That’s all for me today! I hope you’re enjoying Man Card Monday… I like having an “excuse” to step outside my normal comfort zone each month. Thanks so much for stopping by, and have a marvelous week!


Hero Arts + Scrapbook Adhesives Blog Hop!

Good morning! I am thrilled today to be hopping along with the Hero Arts team and the Scrapbook Adhesives team! We are combining Hero Arts and Scrapbook adhesives products to bring you a blog hop that is chock full of inspiration… a match made in heaven! You should have arrived here from Christine‘s blog and your next stop is Ilina‘s blog.

For today’s blog hop, I created a project that features lots of dimension and texture. Foam adhesive is one of the most important staples that a craft room can have, and the 3D Foam Circles from Scrapbook Adhesives work beautifully. Bonus, they come in both white and black… perfect for a monochromatic card with a pop of color, like the one I’ve created for today!

I started by die cutting and stamping the Hero Arts Magnolia clear stamp using Unicorn ink onto some dark charcoal card stock. I then used my Polychromos pencils to color the bloom and foliage using the no-line coloring technique.

For the background, I used a technique similar to the one that I displayed in this video, creating a monochromatic card with that bright pop of color by using all the same color card stock for both the stamped image die cuts and the background die cuts. For this project, I first die cut the Hero Arts Bold Graphic Confetti die from the same charcoal colored card stock, then die cut that die cut with one of the Hero Arts Oval Infinity dies. I then used the same oval die and a smaller oval die from the same die set to create an oval frame, which I layered over the top of my intricate background die cut.

After I had completed all of the separate components, I adhered my magnolia to the decorative frame die cut, then added plenty of black 3D foam circles Black Mix  to the back of it. By using the black foam circles, you can continue the seamless, monochromatic look from every angle.

Well, that’s all for my project today! Here’s the rest of the hop list:

Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L®
Hero Arts
Amy Tsuruta
Christine Meyer
Emily Midgett
Ilina Crouse
Janette Kausen
Libby Hickson
Linsey Rickett
Margie Higuchi
Michelle Short
Shannon Morgan
Shellye McDaniel
Teri Anderson
Terri Burson
Tracy McLennon
Valerie Ward
Yvonne van de Grijp

Now, for some fun giveaways!! Scrapbook Adhesives and Hero Arts have each created prize packs worth $35. To enter, leave a comment on each stop on the hop saying what you liked about that particular project, then enter the Rafflecopter by clicking the big red button below:

Thanks so much for stopping by today! I hope you enjoyed my project!

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/0f302f8d56/