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Sixth Street Sundries

Emily Midgett

Hero Arts

Hero Arts August 2021 My Monthly Hero Blog Hop + Giveaway!

Hi there! Hero Arts is celebrating their August 2021 My Monthly Hero release today with a blog hop, and we’re all about loving all of the colors this month! You should have arrived here from Debi Adams, and your next stop is Ilina Crouse. This month’s kit is so much fun, great for use with so many different coloring mediums, color schemes, and techniques!

This month’s kit features 4″ x 6″ Clear Stamp Set, Coordinating Fancy Dies, 5.4″ Square Cling Stamp, 5.25″ x 6.5″ Stencil, three Liquid Watercolors (Pink, Indigo, Dandelion), and six 5.5″ x 8.5″ Sheets Watercolor Paper. The contents are valued individually at $70, but the kit is for sale for $34.99! If you love the Hero Arts My Monthly Hero kits, you can always  subscribe to ensure that you get your own kit every month. I have two projects to share with you today, so let’s get started with the details!

My first card today features several elements from the main kit, focusing on the cling background stamp and die cut letters included with the stamp set. I began by stamping the cling background on some white cardstock using Embossing Ink, then added some clear embossing powder and heated it. I then blended the rainbow using different shades of ink and blending brushes, using one shade of ink for each circle in the patterned background. Ink colors (in ROY G BIV order, of course): Pale Tomato, Fresh Peach, Soft Vanilla, Mint Julep, Soft Pool, Passion Flower, Soft Purple, and Bubble Gum. Once the blending was complete, I spritzed some White Iridescent Shimmer Spray over the top to add some extra shimmer and shine to the card base.

Next, I die cut a vellum heart using the Heart Infinity Dies to place in the center of the blended background on top of which I placed my sentiment. The vellum provides a grounded area for the sentiment die cuts to rest, so that they’re not just floating out on the front of the card. For the greeting, I die cut the “love” included in the main kit from some Pitch Black cardstock, as well as white embossing the “sending” on a strip of Pitch Black cardstock. I used my gridded craft mat to line up the die cut letters, then adhered them to the vellum heart. I love the crisp black die cuts on that bold, colorful background!

I adhered the sentiment die cuts on the vellum heart using foam adhesive for lots of dimension. Adhering the die cuts to the vellum first also gives you a spot to hide the foam tape so that it’s not visible through the vellum! Sneaky sneaky. 😉 I added a few black adhesive gems to help finish off my rule of threes for the black accents!

My second project features the new Rainbow Heroscape. I don’t love primary colors as a general rule, so I was very specific in choosing non-primary colors for my rainbow, and I just love the result! I began by stamping all of the stripes of the rainbow using Bubble Gum, Orchid, Dusty Blue, Mint Julep, and Soft Vanilla. I then stamped the clouds using Soft Sky, and using my Misti, added a layer of Embossing Ink over the top, then sprinkled Sparkle Embossing Powder over the top and heated it up to create sparkly, iridescent clouds! Such a fun effect with this technique. I also stamped a couple of single clouds using the same technique and fussy cut them all out using some sharp scissors.

Next, I die cut some white and vellum clouds using the Cloudy Sky Scene dies. After determining their placement on my Periwinkle card base, I blended some Passion Flower ink so that it would just peek out of the corner where the clouds would be adhered. I added the vellum cloud with some liquid adhesive, then added the white cloud over the top with some foam adhesive.

I added one of the several curved greetings to the rainbow, then stamped a “happy birthday” (I just love that typewriter font included on the sentiments in the Rainbow Heroscape!) on a thin strip of white cardstock. I adhered the rainbow, clouds, and sentiment using lots of foam adhesive for tons of dimension on the card front. It’s so cheerful and sparkly!

To celebrate this release, Hero Arts is hosting a giveaway!

We will give away one $50 gift card, drawn from the comments left across the hop. Enter by Sunday, August 8th at 11:59pm Pacific, and the winner will be announced on the Hero Arts blog the following week.

Your next stop on the hop is  Ilina Crouse. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and happy hopping!

Fiesta Birthday Fun with Hero Arts!

Hi there! I’m up on the Hero Arts Blog with a super festive “fiesta” birthday project for you using the new Birthday Cake Border Fancy Die! These fancy border dies are some of my favorites with which to create; you can go super simple and just use them as silhouettes for a great background, or you can go super detailed (as I’ve done today) with your markers or watercolors to make a fun, colorful scene! Let’s get started with the details. 

I started by die cutting the Birthday Cake Border Fancy Die from some white Copic-friendly cardstock. I then used my Copic markers in the shades listed below to add lots of fun, festive color to the individual elements to create a fiesta party scene!

Once I’d finished adding the color to the entirety of the background, I adhered it to an A2 panel of white cardstock. I thought about doing some ink blending on the card base, but I loved the stark contrast of the vivid colors so much that I just kept the background plain to allow the colors to really stand out. 

I die cut a black “celebrate” from Birthday Stamp & Cut XL using Pitch Black cardstock and also added a stamped “make a wish” from the coordinating stamp set, stamped in black ink on the card base itself. 

I adhered the “celebrate” with Precision Glue (would also be cute as a dimensional die cut or with foam tape to pop it up!), making this a super flat, easily mailed birthday card. 

Well, that’s all for my project today! I had such fun coloring this Birthday Border Fancy Die… I hope you’ll try coloring your fancy silhouette dies! Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day! 

Hero Arts June My Monthly Hero Blog Hop + Giveaway!

Hi there! The new My Monthly Hero kit is here and we’re hopping to celebrate! This month we’re focusing on all things birthday, with the sweetest little festive critters. You should have arrived here from Debi Adams, and your next stop is Ilina Crouse. Here’s a sneak peek at the June 2021 kit:

This month’s kit features some darling little critters all ready to par-tay! The kit includes: 6″ x 8″ Clear Stamp Set, 17 Coordinating Frame Cuts, Light Mint Dye Ink Cube, Round Clay Sprinkles, Sparkle Lacquer Pen, and it’s valued at $72, but is yours for only $34.99! These kits frequently sell out very quickly, so don’t hesitate to purchase, because once it’s gone, it’s gone! You can also subscribe to ensure that you get your own kit every month. I have two projects to share with you today, so let’s get started with the details!

My first card is a shaker card featuring the sweet, sneaky little cake-eating kitty and one of the fantastic backgrounds available as an add-on! I started by stamping the kitty, the cake, a gift, and balloon (all from the main kit) using Intens-ified Black Ink on some Copic-friendly white cardstock. Using the confetti as my guide, I colored the images using Copic markers in shades of neon pink and bright blue.

I wanted to create a shaker using the confetti included in the kit, so next I embossed the new Candles Bold Prints background onto some Hero Arts vellum using silver sparkle embossing powder. I added heavy duty adhesive tape all around the edges of a white A2 card base, then placed some sprinkles from the kit in the center and adhered the sparkly vellum background over the top to create a thin shaker pocket filled with sprinkles! I also die cut a frame using another panel of A2 white cardstock and the Nesting Rectangles Infinity Dies, which I adhered over the top of my vellum shaker pocket to help hide the adhesive.

FInally, I arranged my Copic-colored kitty party scene atop a stamped sentiment strip (also from the main kit), using lots of foam tape for dimension. Who wouldn’t like to get this card for their birthday? Shaker cards are so much fun!

For my second card, I focused on the fantastic new Balloons Bold Prints stamp. This is one of those stamps that can look completely different depending on what color scheme you use with it. I chose to make this card kind of ethereal, but still with lots of color. I began by embossing the Balloons Bold Prints background onto some watercolor paper using white satin pearl embossing powder, then taped it to my watercolor board and used wet-on-wet technique to add a light wash of color (using Karin Brushmarker Pro markers) over the entire panel.

Once that initial wash of color had dried, I went back in withmore concentrated color to add details to the balloons to help them stand out further. I just love the way these balloons almost glow with this technique! Once my panel had dried, I trimmed it down to 3.25×5.75″, then mounted it on a 3.5×6″ panel of Paradise cardstock.

For the greeting, I used the new Birthday Stamp & Cut XL to die cut “celebrate” once from white cardstock and once from white iridescent glitter cardstock, adhering both pieces together to create a dimensional die cut. I white embossed the “it’s time to” on a strip of Paradise cardstock, then mounted both to the balloon background. Finally, I added a few iridescent gems to add a bit more texture and sparkle to the card front. So fun and festive!

Well, that’s all for my projects today! To celebrate this latest My Monthly Hero release, Hero Arts is sponsoring a giveaway!

We will give away one $50 gift card, drawn from the comments left across the hop. Enter by Sunday, June 13th at 11:59pm pacific, and the winner will be announced on the Hero Arts blog the following week.

Your next stop is Ilina Crouse. Thanks so much for stopping by, and happy hopping!

Hero Arts 2021 Summer Catalog Blog Hop + Giveaway!

Hi there! Today, Hero Arts is releasing their Summer Catalog for 2021, and we are celebrating all things summer with a blog hop! You should have arrived here from Debi Adams, and your next stop is Ilina Crouse. You can also check out all of the links to the hop at the Hero Arts Blog. I have two projects to share with you today, one featured in the new catalog, one not, so let’s get started with the details!

This first project was such fun to watercolor! Hero Arts has released their no-line coloring ink, called Contour Ink, and I used this ink to do some no-line watercoloring with the stamp and Hero Arts’s Liquid Watercolors! I stamped their new Succulent Bouquet stamp on some cold press watercolor paper using the new Contour Ink. I then taped my stamped watercolor A2 card panel down on a watercolor board using some washi tape and began watercoloring.

Succulents are so gorgeous; they’re like flowers, but green, which I find to be so much fun and so different! I used a variety of the Hero Arts Liquid Watercolors in shades of green, brown, and the super versatile Mulled Wine, which can be used on its own as a pretty, muted raspberry shade, or added to green or brown to created your own custom shades, perfect for creating shadows. I watercolored the entire image, gave it some time to dry, then while my watercolor paper was still taped to the board on all four sides, added kind of a reverse halo of Mulled Wine, laying color down at the taped edges, then cleaning my brush and using the clean brush to pull the color in towards the center of the card front, allowing just the tiniest hint of color to get near the watercolored image, leaving the halo around the image almost completely white.

Once my image had dried completely (I like to leave panels that have had a lot of water added to them taped down overnight to reduce warping), I removed the tape and splattered some concentrated Mulled Wine all over the panel to embrace the “artistic” look of the card front! I added a heat embossed greeting from the Succulent Bouquet stamp set, which I heat embossed in silver on a small square of Plum cardstock, then popped up with some foam adhesive for extra dimension.

My next card features the new Hero Florals Strawberries Line Art stamps and dies. This little set packs a big punch. Strawberries are my favorite fruit, so I couldn’t wait to color these beauties up! I stamped them a few times on some white cardstock using Intens-ified Black ink, then used my Copic markers to color the images ink bright red and green, leaving the little flowers white with just a touch of yellow to the centers. I cut out the images with their coordinating Frame Cuts.

For the card base, I trimmed down an A2 panel of Cherry cardstock, then placed the Graphic Deco Stencil over the top and blended some Unicorn white pigment ink over the top. I love the look of the white stenciled background on the bright red card base! I also splattered a bit of White Liquid Watercolor on the background to add some more fun texture.

I layered the die cuts over the stenciled and splattered card base, adhering them with foam adhesive, and added some sentiment strips stamped using the new Message Strips Stamp & Cut XL, then die cut them with the coordinating Frame Cuts. (These are SO handy.) The final touch was to add some white enamel dots to tie in to the white stenciling and white splatters in the background!

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

We will give away THREE $50 gift cards, drawn from the comments left across the hop. Enter by Sunday, May 30th at 11:59pm pacific, and the winner will be announced on the Hero Arts blog the following week.

Your next stop on the hop is Ilina Crouse. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and happy hopping!

Hero Arts May 2021 My Monthly Hero Blog Hop + Giveaway!

Hi there! Today is the Hero Arts May My Monthly Hero release and blog hop to celebrate it. You should have arrived here from Debi Adams, and your next stop is Ilina Crouse.

This month’s kit is a marvelous one-full of beautiful marine images: coral, jellyfish, seahorses, fish (even Nemo!)… and some darling punny sentiments with beautiful fonts. This month’s kit contents are valued at $70, but can be purchased for $34.99! These kits frequently sell out very quickly, so don’t hesitate to purchase, because once it’s gone, it’s gone! You can also subscribe to ensure that you get your own kit every month.

The images in this month’s kit are quite substantially sized; I wanted to use the main coral reef image as the base for my scene, and since it is such a large image, I decided to create a slimline card (3.5″x8.5″). I began by trimming down a panel of Arctic cardstock to slimline size, then used the new Water Flow Slimline Stencil to blend Tide Pool and Pool inks using blending brushes. I then spritzed some White Iridescent Shimmer Spray over the top of the stencil as well to create an extra shimmery background.

Next, I heat embossed several images from this month’s kit onto some white cardstock using White Satin Pearl embossing powder, then die cut them with the coordinating frame cuts and used a huge variety of inks and ink blending tools to add a rainbow of color to the embossed die cuts. (I’ll link the individual colors below.)

Finally, I used Moonstone pigment ink and more White Satin Pearl embossing powder to emboss the cute sentiment from this month’s kit. I adhered all of the pieces using foam adhesive, sometimes using a double layer to add lots of extra dimension. The final touch was to add some “bubbles” with iridescent gems. Lots of sparkle and shine on this one!

Now, for a completely different style. I have always fancied super high end stationery, and the new Seashells Fancy Dies are perfect for creating a quick, elegant card with just two shades of cardstock. I began by die cutting the scalloped shell from the Seashells Fancy Dies set from some pearlescent gold cardstock. The details in the die cut are so beautiful!

I trimmed a panel of Nautical cardstock down to slightly smaller than A2-sized, then used one of the Square Infinity dies to to die cut a window from the center of the panel. I heat embossed a greeting from the new Color Layering Abalone stamp set using Brass embossing powder.

I popped up the embossed frame panel on another full size A2 panel of Nautical cardstock using foam adhesive, then popped up the seashell using some more foam tape. The final touch to add a touch more gold to this overall simple card was to add some golden pearls.

Now for some fun giveaway information!

Hero Arts will give away one $50 gift card, drawn from the comments left across the hop. Enter by Sunday, May 9th at 11:59pm pacific, and the winner will be announced on the Hero Arts blog the following week. The more comments you leave, the greater your chances to win!

Your next stop on the hop is Ilina Crouse. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and happy hopping!