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Sixth Street Sundries

Emily Midgett

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Flower On the Grain: Pre-Orders Now Open!!

Hi there! Today, my husband and I are opening preorders for our business: The Flower On the Grain. We had been looking for something that we could do together as a couple, and this collaboration combines both of our talents: his woodworking (the grain) and my floral illustrations (the flower). Thus, The Flower On the Grain was born. While I’ve worked hard to improve my artistic skills, he’s come up with clever and incredibly useful tools for me to use in my art studio, and now we are so excited to be able to offer them to you, as well! We previously had sold them last Christmas, and with life and all of these kiddos keeping us busy, we haven’t been able to open preorders up again until now.

If you’ve watched my live painting demonstrations before, you’ll have seen my watercolor board that I use nearly every time I paint. My husband has made a few of these watercolor boards as gifts for friends, but we have now decided to offer them for sale, along with a few other useful crafty tools that he has crafted and we have embellished with laser engravings of my illustrations, personalizing them even further with names, monograms, or initials.

Without further ado, please allow me to (re-)introduce our new products:

First up, we have our original product: The FOTG Watercolor Board.

Make your watercoloring table a little prettier and a lot more functional with these customized watercoloring boards! These 8.5″x11.5″ wooden boards are created from beautifully grained 9-layer birch plywood, cut to fit, then engraved with your choice of floral illustration and name/initials/monogram and stained and sealed to protect your beautiful board!

The hinged stand creates a slight angle for your watercoloring, and it is complete with inlaid magnets to ensure that the hinges stay closed when you are working with the flat board. The sealed surface creates a large, smooth area for you to tape your watercolor pieces down, helping to minimize warping on your finished watercolored piece, while the sealant creates a waterproof surface to help protect the wood of your board. 

Four stain options are available from which to make your selection: Kona, Antique Walnut, Weathered Gray, and Natural. The featured board in the first photograph is stained with the Antique Walnut. The board pictured has been stained with the Antique Walnut selection. 

Customized FOTG Watercolor Board Price (not including shipping): $65


Next, we are proud to introduce the FOTG Wooden Watercolor Palette.

These wooden watercolor palettes have been carefully designed and crafted with your watercoloring needs in mind. They are crafted from fine hard maple wood, and have been cut and carved to fit 40 half pans. We have added a metal piece to the bottom of the base, so that you can attach your magnetic pans to the bottom of your palette and easily be moved or removed at your leisure! (We are waiting for these custom sized metal components to arrive later this week, which explains their absence in the photo.)

The watercolor palettes also feature inlaid earth magnets to ensure that your watercolors are safely enclosed inside your palette while traveling!

These boards can be customized with your choice of floral illustration and name, monogram, or initials.

FOTG Customized Wooden Watercolor Palette: $70

***The following photos show the different customization options available for your FOTG wooden artist supplies***

Each of these five illustrations has been drawn by me and are exclusive to the FOTG product line! Your choice of illustration will be laser engraved on your board, as well as your name, initials, blog name, or other customization of your choice.

Here are the individual images shown a bit large to better capture the detail. It’s amazing what incredible detail the laser can capture!

We also have assembled a selection of fonts for you to add your name, initials, or other customization to your FOTG wooden artist supplies:

You have four choices of stain to add color to your FOTG wooden artist supplies:

Be sure to look carefully at all of the choices before making your final selections!

We are also offering a discounted bundle featuring the FOTG Wooden Watercolor Board + Watercolor Palette.

Individually, these two items would cost $135, but we are offering a 10% discount on this bundle for $121+shipping!

Our final product reveal for today is our new FOTG Monogram Metal Palette.

These metal palettes are a more inexpensive option for those who want to add the beauty and functionality of our wooden palette to their art table at a price that is a bit more budget-friendly! These white tins are super smooth and silky (think the outside of your Yeti cup) and make the perfect canvas for the exclusive, detailed Anemone Wreath+Monogram!

The crisp white of the palettes is a perfect background for the detailed Anemone Wreath drawing and monogram of your choice!

These palettes are 4″x6.5″, and easily hold 48 watercolor half pans. The metal base means that the magnetic bottom of your pans will quickly adhere to the bottom, while also being easily moved and removed.

FOTG Metal Monogram Palette: $40+shipping

Now for the ordering details:

As you might know, my husband Chris and I have four young children (two sets of twins, aged 8 and 2), as well as a full time job for him and my job as momma and illustrator/stamper, so this new venture is something that we are enjoying doing as a side business. Because of this, we are going to structure this release similarly to my coloring panel releases, with preorders open for a certain period of time so that we have a better idea of popularity of each item. Think of it as our “store hours.”

For this release, the “store is open” from today, Sunday May 8, through Sunday, May 15, 2022, during which time we will accept preorders.

To order your own custom pieces from The Flower On the Grain, please send an email to
eamidgettsketches (at) gmail (dot) com.

***Be sure to include the following information in your email:***

~Which piece(s) you would like to order- FOTG Watercolor Board, FOTG Wooden Watercolor Palette, or FOTG Metal Monogram Palette.

For your wooden pieces, please also include the following information:

Select one of the five exclusive floral illustrations to adorn your watercoloring board:

1-Rose and Berries

2- Black Eyed Susan 

3- Anemone Corner

4-Cosmos Corner

5- Tree Peony

Please also select your choice of stain and font.  Examples and names of each are in the photos above. 

For your wooden pieces, be sure to include in your email your floral illustration, stain, and font selections, and what name/monogram/initials you would like engraved on your pieces.

For your FOTG Metal Monogram Palette orders, please include which initial you would like on your engraved palette.

(Paint, brushes, and magnetic pans seen in the photos are not included.)

Once all of the necessary information has been verified, we will send an invoice to be paid no more than 48 hours later. Shipping costs will be calculated based on the number of items ordered and the weight of those items. *We have tried to price the pieces as reasonably as possible while still making this venture worthwhile, and with shipping prices increasing rapidly, we unfortunately cannot offer free shipping.*

Custom orders can also be accommodated for an extra fee, so please don’t hesitate to reach out for something truly unique! 

***These items are custom, made to order pieces. Please allow at least 10 days from the date of payment before shipping, and plan accordingly. Quality craftsmanship is worth the wait!***

Emotional blurb alert:

Thank you all for the incredible support you’ve given both myself and my husband over the last few years. There is a graphic that I’ve seen many times recently on social media, the main message being that when you purchase from a small business, a real person does a happy dance. With each purchase-whether it is coloring panels from me, a pen from 51 Woodworks, or one of these new artist supplies, you are helping to support not just our side business, but our family. For that, we truly thank each of you.

Thank you so much for reading, if you’ve read all the way to the bottom, and happy shopping!!

Introducing OLO Markers!

Hi there! If you’ve followed my blog for any length of time, you know that coloring is basically my favorite thing to do in my craft room. I love so many mediums and brands, and I am always excited to find and try a new brand, and today’s post is super exciting to me, because I’m helping to introduce a brand spanking new brand of alcohol markers: OLO Markers!

*OLO provided these markers for me free of charge, but the opinions within this post and my video are my honest thoughts on the product*

These alcohol markers were just introduced to the public during the last few weeks at NAMTA/Creativation in Florida, and if you search on YouTube there are some fantastic videos showing them in action at the show. I was lucky enough to be sent a full set of markers from OLO, and I’ve had an absolute blast playing with them over the last couple of weeks! I have a video below or here on YouTube that shows them in action.

Like traditional alcohol markers, the OLO markers feature a brush nib and a chisel nib, and they come in a wide variety of vibrant colors. These markers do, however, have a few unique qualities that make them wonderful tools to have in your craft room.

  • These markers come with both brush and chisel nibs, but you can easily customize the markers by putting either a long, paintbrush-like handle on one end, or making both ends brush or chisel nibs. Your choice!
  • Each marker half contains 2 mL of solution, and instead of being suspended within a core inside the marker, the ink solution is free-flowing, allowing you to use 90%+ of the ink. The core inside traditional markers means that only 65-70% of the ink inside the marker is useable, but the ink within the OLO markers is free-flowing, which means that you have seamless flow when putting your marker to the paper.
  • When you run out of ink, you can purchase individual cartridges that simply screw on to the marker. Super easy-no weighing, no messy dripping, just unscrew the old one, screw on the new one, and you’re ready to go!
  • The nibs are super high quality and will last a very long time, but replacement nibs are available and are very easy to replace in the marker itself.
  • Colorless markers are available, which are great for adding textures, to dilute vibrant color, and to help touch up any mistakes.
  • These markers will retail for $6.99 each and come with 4 mL of ink total, making them a super economical addition to your coloring collection! The OLO website also has some special introductory pre-order pricing, which you can check out HERE.

The OLO website has a downloadable chart that you can print and color in yourself like I’ve done here. You can see how unbelievably vibrant all of these colors are; the color families are grouped together so that it takes the guesswork out of selecting which shades will work together.

One way that I like to familiarize myself with my coloring mediums is to create swatch charts like this. I simply cut white cardstock into 2×2″ squares, and add and label my favorite blends for each family, and add them to the coin pockets that we papercrafters use for our ink swatches, so that I have a quick and easy reference when I’m ready to color an image! I have created swatches for most of the color groupings, so that you can see the wide variety of colors available.

I am especially excited about those purple blends, because they will fill in a very noticeable gap in my alcohol marker color spectrum! These markers will work in conjunction with my other coloring mediums, and I’m so excited to keep playing with them.

These are a few examples of some of my drawings that I’ve colored using these vibrant markers. You can see the incredible depth and dimension that you can achieve. I’m seriously impressed! I even used the chisel nib side to create some custom ombré colored cardstock to create my word die cut. I can’t overstate how smoothly these markers blend.

Now, until 4/24/22, OLO is offering special introductory pricing for preorders. They are offering a variety of packages at a discount, ranging from a set of 16 markers all the way up to the full 128 markers (with which you would receive a full set of replacement cartridges for free- an incredible value), which you can check out on their website. Click HERE to see all of the details. This super special pricing only lasts until 4/24, so be sure to get your order in early to take advantage of this remarkable deal! The markers are expected to ship in midsummer, perfect for when it’s hot and sticky and you just want to sit in your cool craft room and color to your heart’s content!

Also-feel free to use the color combinations that I’ve shown in the swatch cards in your own coloring. 🙂

Many thanks to OLO markers for sending me these beauties to use in my craft room!

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

*affiliate links used at no extra cost to you. I appreciate your support!*

VIDEO: Easy Watercoloring with Stencils!

Hi there! I’m up on the Pinkfresh Studio YouTube channel today with this fun stenciled watercolor technique:

Or you can click here to watch the video on YouTube.

If you like the look of watercoloring but aren’t sure if you want to invest in all of the “stuff” that goes along with watercoloring, this technique is for you! I know that I’m not the first person to use layering stencils to create watercolored look, but it’s the first time that I’ve tried it, and I have to say: I’m obsessed! Watercoloring this image was just so quick that I almost feel like I cheated!

I started by embossing my new Chrysanthemum Slimline stamp from the February 2022 release with some silver embossing powder. The key for this project is in the paper; I used watercolor paper that was specially made for liquid watercolor mediums, which I will link below, but I am sure that this would work brilliantly with most watercolor papers. You want something that will stand up to lots of liquid without pilling or falling apart. I then used the coordinating layering stencils and Slumber and Blue Jay inks to add some pretty blue to the bloom, Mint and Meadow inks to the foliage. I tapped some Blue Jay ink onto my mini media mat from Waffleflower, then used a damp paintbrush to add a few touches of extra intense shading. I also used a clean, damp paintbrush to smooth out the layered stencil lines to create a smoother fade from dark to light. I think the “watercoloring” looks almost like I watercolored it for real!

For the card base, I stamped and die cut a pretty crosshatch background using the Pop Out Diamonds stamp and Simply Diamonds die, cut from white cardstock and stamped with Blue Jay ink. I also stamped some of the greetings from the Chrysanthemum Slimline stamp set and cut them with the coordinating dies. A few matte silver pearls finished it off!

Well, I hope you enjoyed this technique! It was a new one for me, but I thoroughly enjoyed trying something new. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!

Colorado Craft Company’s November Anita Jeram Release Blog Hop!

Hi there! My friends at Colorado Craft Company have a new release featuring more precious stamps designed by Anita Jeram featuring some sweet critters up to holiday antics! We are celebrating these sweet new stamps with a blog hop. You should have arrived here from Daniel West, and your next stop is Jenn Shurkus. The Anita Jeram critter stamps are always so darling, and the sentiments are one of my favorite elements in the sets. From the darling fonts to the sweet (and sometimes a little sassy!) statements, they are so wonderful. I’ve created two projects featuring the new Hiding Presents and Santa Bunny. Let’s get started with the details!

I love to keep holiday cards somewhat simple, in both color scheme and layout. I don’t normally do much in the way of mass-production, but these cards would be fairly easy to recreate in multiples. I am really embracing pops of red on bright white holiday cards, but I wanted to add some subtle texture and pattern to the background, so I heat embossed several snowflakes from the Big & Bold Slimline Nordic Snowflakes using some white pearl embossing powder on two white A2 card fronts.

My first project features the darling Hiding Presents stamp set. I stamped the sweet (momma?) bunny hiding gifts in the tree. This set really resonated with me, as I have Christmas presents for the kids hidden in all kinds of nooks and crannies all over the house… the sentiment “I just hope I remember where I hid it all!” particularly hit home, haha!

I stamped the bunny using some Copic-friendly black ink and colored the image using some warm gray, gray-ish brown for the tree, and then some very bright pops of red for the gift and the scarf. I used the coordinating dies to cut the finished image out.

I stamped the sweet greeting on a rectangle of white cardstock using some more black ink, then trimmed it down. I popped up the die cut image and the greeting using foam tape. I love the bright, clean feel to this card, and that pop of red makes it feel so festive!

I used the same basic color scheme for my second card, this time flipping my pearly snowflake background vertically. I stamped the sneaky Santa Bunny on some more white cardstock using Copic-friendly black ink, then colored it using the same muted grays and browns, bringing the coat to life with that vivid red. I die cut the colored bunny using the coordinating dies.

I adored the whimsical arrangement of the sentiment from Santa Bunny with that swirl, so I stamped it on some more white cardstock and fussy cut it with my sharp scissors.

I adhered the die cut Santa and the sentiment using some more foam tape. I’ve found that one of the most important elements when doing cards with lots of tone-on-tone color scheme is to make sure that there are a variety of textures and dimension to help keep things from feeling flat.

Well, that’s all for my projects today! Your next stop on the hop is Jenn Shurkus. Thanks so very much for stopping by, and happy hopping!

Pretty in Pink for the Flower Challenge!

Hi there! I am excited to be a guest for The Flower Challenge this month! I was so honored when my friend Aileen (@huh_what_pardon on Instagram) asked if I would be a guest for this challenge. This month’s challenge theme is Use a Shape. I love flowers, we all know that, and so I was excited to have an excuse to play with one of the stamp sets I’ve illustrated for Pinkfresh Studio: Best of Everything. I did some loose watercoloring for today’s challenge project, so let’s get started with the details.

I began by heat embossing my intricate floral image from Best of Everything onto some Arches Hot Press watercolor paper using white pearl embossing powder. I then taped it down to my watercolor board using washi tape and watercolored it using my “tie dye” method of watercoloring with Holbein watercolors. Essentially, I begin by getting my entire watercolor panel wet with clean water, then dropping in very diluted (less pigment, more water) color all over the background, not caring whether the color lands on leaves (which should be green) or flowers, basically just allowing the colors to bleed into each other and create an interesting base layer.

After my tie-dye layer had dried, I went back with the same watercolors that I used for the base layer, this time more concentrated (more pigment, less water) to add depth and shadows to the individual flowers. The base layer helps to add a bit of variation on the individual flower petals and leaves by allowing multiple colors to shine through on the lighter highlighted areas. Once it had dried completely, I trimmed it down and mounted the watercolored panel on a vivid pink card base.

For the “Add A Shape” component of the challenge, I die cut a Blanket Stitched Oval die from Pinkfresh Studio, cut from some heavyweight vellum. I also die cut a Happy Birthday greeting from an older, retired die set (whoops!). I die cut the sentiment twice from the same vivid pink cardstock, then layered them together to create a sturdier, more dimensional die cut. I adhered the sentiment die cuts to the vellum oval, then popped them up with clear dimensional adhesive. Vellum can be tricky to work with, but small pieces of the clear dimensional tape are fairly well hidden behind the sentiment die cut! A few sparkling gems from Pinkfresh Studio helped to finish the project off and add some sparkle.

Well, that’s all for my project today! I hope you’ll check out The Flower Challenge blog to see how you can enter your own project for this month’s challenge: Add A Shape. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!