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Sixth Street Sundries

Emily Midgett

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Autumnal Thinking of You with Simon Says Stamp!

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

Hi friends! It’s finally the weekend, and I am so happy about that! We are in the complete throes of autumn here, with incredibly beautiful autumnal foliage making it a feast for the eyes every time I look or go outside! I am reading Anne of Green Gables with my big kids, and we just read the line “I’m so glad that I live in a world where there are Octobers.” It’s so true! It took a while for our trees to start impressing the world with their colors, but the oranges, yellows, peaches, reds, and magentas are finally here. Nature is surely showing off! This card is an embodiment of the view outside, filled with colorful foliage and a bit of sparkle and shine. Let’s get started with the details!

I began by creating a vivid ink blended base panel using Concord & 9th Cayenne, Pawsitively Saturated Blush and Cheeky, and Rainbow Splash Buttercream inks. (Side note- Rainbow Splash Buttercream ink is my new favorite color. It blends so beautifully with such a huge variety of colors, and is a little bit of a chameleon, changing the tone a bit with different color pairings. You should check it out of you haven’t yet!) The Buttercream ink worked beautifully as the lightest shade of my red and peach autumn ombré background.

Next, I heat embossed the new Autumn Leaf stamp from the Season of Wonder release onto some vellum with some sparkling metallic embossing powder. I fussy cut the image with my sharp scissors so that I could pop it up with some foam adhesive on my blended background. I also die cut some coordinating colorful foliage using the Etched Berry Branch and Ornamental Fine Leaves dies, using colored cardstock for the fine leaves and Tonic’s Purple Rain cardstock for the berry branch.

To coordinate with the warm, iridescent purple foil foliage die cuts, I die cut the detail layer of the Fancy Thinking of You die from some super dark maroon cardstock and backed it with a peachy outline layer. I popped the sentiment up on my huge glittery vellum leaf image using foam adhesive, then arranged the foliage die cuts to be peeking out from behind the sentiment. Don’t be afraid to cut your leaf die cuts apart; by doing so, you allow yourself the freedom to create fuller, more lush bouquets (or leaf clusters, in this case). After I had arranged all of my foliage pieces, I added some Topaz Twinkle gems for one last bit of sparkle!

Well, that’s all for my project today! The leaves will probably be blown away this weekend, as we are expecting a cold front (just in time for trick-or-treating on Halloween… darn it!), so I am going to enjoy the beautiful views while they last. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!

A Plethora of Projects Using Spellbinders Make It Merry Card Kit!

Hi friends! Some days, I am reminded of how much fun it is to just sit and play with paper, without even stamping or anything remotely “technique-y.” When my friends at Spellbinders asked me if I would be interested in working with the Make It Merry Card Kit, I knew that I would love playing with these darling images! The Spellbinders Card Kits make for such wonderfully quick cardmaking sessions, perfect for someone who has limited snippets of crafting time (ahem) or someone who needs/wants to make a ton of cards and tags in a short amount of time! I sort of feel like I cheated a little, because there was very little stamping or “technique” involved in making these projects, but I feel like at Christmas time, volume is more important than spending tons of time on each card.

All of the elements work beautifully together, with the most gorgeous color vintage palette and plenty of themes to make your holiday cardmaking super, super simple. The kit even includes foam adhesive, double sided tape, coordinating 8.5″ x 11″ panels of colored cardstock, and two different sizes of card bases and envelopes to give you basically everything that you need to start crafting! All you truly need is a trimmer and your creativity to create a huge variety of cards!

The folks at Spellbinders have also created some additional coordinating products to make your holiday crafting even easier and add more of these beautiful elements to your cardmaking! The Make It Merry Add-On Bundle features the In the Pines Embossing Folder and the Make It Merry Floral Die Cuts (both of which I used in the projects above), as well as the Make It Merry Sentiments Dies. You can also purchase the Make It Merry 6×6 Patterned Paper Pad which features a most beautiful array of 6″x 6″ patterned papers to complement the papers included in your kit!

The kit includes a multitude of printed die cuts in a variety of themes, in regular cardstock-both with foil and plain, chipboard, and puffy word die cuts. The sheer volume of available images means that you will have an abundance of images from which to make at least 25 cards. I made these six cards and two tags and barely made a dent in my kit! One tip that I wanted to share: take a few minute and go through your die cuts to get a feel for what themes and images there are, the sizes and color palettes, etc. I also separated mine into images with the white outline and images printed right up to the edge of the die cut, as I don’t like to mix the two on the same card.

I combined strips of some of the beautiful patterned paper Make It Merry 6×6 Patterned Paper Pad with the gold foil cardstock included in the kit to create this festive background, then added one of the large senitment die cuts and accented it with coordinating floral images from the Make It Merry Floral Die Cuts add-on. The pre-cut printed die cuts make crafting your holiday cards an absolute breeze!

For this project, I paired the precious little fawn included in the printed die cuts with the In the Pines Embossing Folder. I embossed a strip of the deep green cardstock included in the kit and mounted it on an A2 panel of green gingham printed paper, adding some strips of the gold foil on either side to break up the patterns. I added the darling little deer and coordinating sentiment strip, flanked by some colorful Christmas trees! I have a thing for deer on holiday cards, and this precious fawn was irresistible!

My next card is quite simple, but I think it looks like something you’d find at a boutique! I pulled out a few of the winter house die cuts to pair with one of the sentiment strips. The little houses remind me so much of the little ceramic Christmas villages! Before I adhered the houses to my pink card panel, I blended some Coral Berry ink from Altenew in the center of the panel and splattered some metallic gold ink to coordinate with the gold foil accents. I adhered the die cuts with both foam adhesive and double sided tape to add some extra interest and dimension.

This card pairs the beautiful floral die cuts from the Make It Merry Floral Die Cuts add-on with the In the Pines Embossing Folder. I simply embossed a white panel (so that the white outline on my die cuts would not bother me so much-does that bug anybody else as much as it bugs me?) using the In the Pines Embossing Folder, then arranged the floral pieces in a pretty bouquet, popping them up with foam tape. I added a foiled greeting banner from the main kit, popping it up with a double layer of foam tape to give it a little extra height from the bouquet. Finally, I added a touch of sparkle with some of the deep red gems included in the kit.

These pre-printed images included in the kit make for some beautiful, super quick and easy tags, too! I cut an A2 panel of the blush cardstock in half and used my corner rounder punch to round the edges of the rectangle. I adhered one of the star and peppermint die cuts to the top of each to help reinforce the hole through which the twine would be strung, then used my hole punch to punch a hole at the top of the tag. I added a few die cuts with some foam tape (how sweet is the little car and the snowglobe?) and a red twine loop and bow to make for quick addition to holiday gifts! This kit is totally worth it just for the super quick tags on their own!

My last project is an A7 card. I wanted to take full advantage of the size of the In the Pines Embossing Folder, which is generously sized at 8.5″ x 5.5.” I ran a panel of the minty green cardstock included in the Make It Merry Card Kit through my Platinum 6 using the embossing folder, then used a blending brush to blend Juniper ink from Concord & 9th around the edge of the embossed panel. I also splattered it with some more shimmering gold watercolors. I matted the panel on a wine-colored full size A7 card front, creating a festive frame around the edge.

For the greeting, I used one of the puffy gold foil sentiment stickers included in the kit along with a chipboard greeting strip, also included in the kit. I adhered them in the center of the blended, embossed panel, then used several colors of cardstock from the kit with the Make It Merry Florals dies, arranging them around the greeting with both liquid and foam adhesive. Finally, I added some sparkling red jewels from the kit to make this a super festive card!

Well, that’s all for my projects today! This Make It Merry Card Kit from Spellbinders is totally worth the money, especially if you have lots of Christmas cards and tags to make. Having everything so perfectly coordinated makes it so easy to whip up lots of beautiful and elegant projects in a short amount of time! And the Make It Merry Add-On Bundle and Make It Merry 6×6 Patterned Paper Pad just further enhances the potential for even more projects!

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

Songs of the Season, August 2023: Silent Night

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

Hi friends! I am back with another installment of my Songs of the Season holiday series, where I use Christmas songs throughout the year as inspiration for a holiday card! This is a great way to get ahead on my holiday cardmaking by building up a little stash throughout the year so that the long list of names to whom I will send a card doesn’t seem quite so daunting come December! This month, I was inspired by that most classic of holiday songs: Silent Night. I jokingly said a few years ago, when my little boys were still babies and still up multiple times a night, that all I wanted for Christmas was a silent night. (I didn’t receive it, haha!) But the mental imagery that that song provides, of a peaceful, deep blue night sky with snowflakes gently falling to the ground, gave me some serene inspiration for today’s project. Let’s get started with the details!

One of my favorite ways to create unique projects is by stamping, or in this case die cutting, my own completely custom patterned backgrounds. I have been moving my craft room to a new space recently, and so have been “shopping” in some of my un- or under-used supplies, and I found a stash of gorgeous pearlescent colored cardstocks, including this stunning peacock teal cardstock. Tip: pearlescent or foil cardstocks die cut beautifully, especially with intricate dies like these snowflake dies for today’s project! I die cut Simon Says Stamp’s Sophie snowflake, Kate snowflake, Alicia snowflake, and Daphne snowflake dies from that pearlescent peacock teal cardstock, then turned my attention to the card base.

To create my vivid, peaceful blue background, I started by trimming down an A2 panel of Island Blue cardstock. I then blended Island Blue ink around the edges, keeping the center clean, then lightly blended some Galaxy Pawsitively Saturated Ink around the edges, keeping this dark blue area fairly subtle and right up against the edge. The combination of these two ink colors on this super saturated colored cardstock creates the most gorgeous glow! I also splattered some handmade glittery watercolors to add some shimmer to the blended background. Once my card front was dry, I began arranging my snowflake pattern, beginning with the largest snowflake die cuts, turning them so that they were falling at different angles, and trying to keep the spacing random so that the pattern would not look forced. I trimmed off the overhang, then used those leftover bits and bobs to fill in some of the edges of the card front. The combination of these steps helps to make the pattern look cohesive and continuous!

Finally, I die cut the Snowy Greetings die from some glittery turquoise cardstock. I chose this lighter shade of turquoise as a bit less saturated version of the peacock teal pearlescent cardstock, in order to ensure that it would stand out from the super vibrant background. I heat embossed a coordinating greeting from the Simple Holiday Greetings stamps using silver embossing powder on a strip of more Island Blue cardstock. I popped up the sentiment pieces with foam adhesive, then added a smattering of iridescent gems for some sparkle!

Well, that’s all for this month’s Songs of the Season post! I hope you will try using your favorite Christmas songs and carols as inspiration for your holiday cardmaking. It’s such a fun way to incorporate more music into your life, and it even gives you an excuse to listen to Christmas music all year long! Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!

Hero Arts Spring 2023 Catalog Release Hop+Giveaway!

Hi there! Today, Hero Arts is officially releasing their newest catalog for Spring 2023, with tons of images and products utterly redolent of springtime! We are hopping along to celebrate and inspire using these beautiful new products, which you can check out in their entirety HERE. You should have arrived here from Dana Joy, and your next stop is Ilina Crouse. You can also start at the beginning over at the Hero Arts Blog. I have a couple of new projects created with my favorite blushy rose gold color combinations, topped off with a pastel-and-charcoal project that you might have seen in the new Spring 2023 catalog! Let’s get started with the details.

I love pink and I cannot lie…. it’s a sickness. And the combination of blush pink with metallic rose gold is one from which I can’t seem to let go. Sorrynotsorry. I have discovered the Hero Arts’s Peony and Pale Tomato inks create the most stunning combination of blush pink, and I want to use it on eeeeevvveeerrryyything. These first two cards feature this lush combination with some pops of metallic rose gold and butterflies. I mean, what could be more indicative of spring than fresh, blushy pink and beautiful butterflies?

My first card uses the beautiful new Butterfly Hot Foil Plate. The size of this butterfly is just right. Big enough to make a bold statement on a project all by itself, but small enough that you can have a few butterflies on the card to create a lovely background! I adore that it coordinates perfectly with the outline on the large Delicate Butterflies Fancy Dies, as well, so you can die cut the foiled butterflies to your heart’s content.

I hot foiled two butterflies with Blush foil, offsetting them slightly on the edges of the white A2 card front. To add some more interest to the background (though the butterflies are lovely enough on their own to easily make a background by themselves!) I lightly blended Peony and Pale Tomato inks around the edge of the foiled panel. Keeping the ink blending light and subtle kept the fluttering butterflies so airy and ethereal! I also splattered some super sparkly rose gold metallic watercolor on the card front to add sparkle and texture. Almost a mixed-media feel, but still light and clean!

I white embossed a greeting from the new Floral Imprints bundle, which comes with some beautiful floral silhouettes but also several gorgeous, simple, all-purpose greetings… and coordinating dies to cut them out! After white embossing, I lightly blended some more Peony ink over the top, then die cut the greeting. Blending before die cutting ensures that the blending is nice and smooth, rather than getting caught on the die cut edges and concentrating the color around the edges. To help draw the eye to the center of the card, I die cut a super delicate white frame using the Nesting Rectangle Infinity Dies, which I adhered directly to the foiled and blended panel using Precision Glue. I popped up the die cut greeting with some foam adhesive, then added a few gems for one last element of sparkle and texture! I feel like this card could be totally all-purpose, for everything from birthday, to birth, to sympathy, to just sending some love to a friend or family member.

My second card features the new Delicate Butterflies Fancy Dies in all of their detailed glory. The die set comes with two different sizes of butterfly, and features both the outline and the detailed layers, so that you have tons of different options for your creative undertakings. I used the detailed layers to create this light and airy card featuring more gorgeous blush pink. I began by doing cutting down a full size slimline card front, 3.5″x8.5″, then doing some ink blending with the Peony and Pale Tomato inks in the zig zag pattern that I wanted my butterflies to follow. I also splattered some more rose gold watercolor on the ink blended area to add some subtle sparkles.

Next, I die cut an abundance of Delicate Butterflies Fancy Dies from Peony cardstock and some blush cardstock that I had in my stash, as well as a few tiny glittering solid butterflies, cut using the smallest of the Nesting Butterfly Infinity Dies and the rose gold paper from the Fall Glitter Paper pack. I arranged the butterflies so that they were popping off the page, adhering them only in the center of the butterfly and lightly curling the die cuts up a bit so that they had a 3D effect. I trimmed off the overhang to make the card fit nicely in a slimline envelope as well.

For the greeting, I heat embossed another greeting from the Floral Imprints bundle, this time on a piece of Peony cardstock. I popped it up in the center of one of the intricate butterfly die cuts using some foam adhesive. The final touch was to add a few blush colored pearls, which helps to add another level of texture and fill in some of the blank spots in the design! Such a delicate, ethereal card, made lovely with those intricate butterfly die cuts.

My second card is one that was created for the new catalog. I have a mild obsession with hot foiling on Hero Arts Acetate, and I used this technique several times to create projects for the new catalog. The project above was created using the glorious new Poppy Field Hot Foil Plate on Acetate with Pewter foil. The super smooth surface of the acetate creates absolutely perfect foiled results!

Because the acetate is completely transparent, I wanted a simple background that wouldn’t distract from the patterned, super shiny acetate panel. I lightly blended some Mist ink around the edge of an A2 Mist card front to add a little bit of interest to the flat cardstock panel. I trimmed the foiled panel down slightly so that the Mist cardstock would frame the edges, then hid small pieces of foam tape behind the solid hot foiled flowers so that they wouldn’t mar the transparent acetate.

For the greeting, I heat embossed a sentiment from the Wild Columbine bundle, stamping it with black pigment ink and then heat embossing with the White Satin Pearl embossing powder, the combination of which creates a lovely pearlescent charcoal that coordinates beautifully with the pewter hot foil. I also die cut a vellum frame using the Infinity Tag Frames dies and some of Hero Art’s Vellum paper. I layered the sentiment pieces in the center of the vellum tag die cut and adhered them using foam adhesive, then added another layer of foam adhesive on the solid areas behind the die cut to hide it. I love the unique look of the hot foil on the acetate! I think it’s so different and so cool, and the perfect foiled results that you get with the acetate just cannot be beat.

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

We’ll be giving away two $50 gift cards, drawn from the comments left along the hop. Comment on all the blogs for more chances to win! You have until Sunday, February 26 at 11:59pm to enter. The winners will be announced on the Hero Arts blog.

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

A Look Back: My Favorite Projects from 2022!

Hi friends! Somehow, some way, we are coming to the end of another year. I won’t say that 2022 has been the easiest year for me, personally, just because navigating life as a mom of four in this crazy world is pretty scary right now. But, I have always been someone who tries to be positive and compartmentalize the negative, and my cardmaking job/hobby (jobby? haha) has played a huge part in doing that successfully (mostly, ha). I am so, so lucky to be able to help support my family doing something that I love so much. 2022 was a wonderful year in the crafting world, with such an enormous array of beautiful new products to play with, so I thought I’d take a walk down memory lane and select my favorite projects from each month. This is a long post covering each month of the year, so let’s get started!

January 2022

I have been lucky enough to illustrate several floral stamp sets for some of my favorite companies over the last few years, and the project above features the first stamp set that I illustrated for Simon Says Stamp: Beautiful Bouquet. One of the reasons that I was so thrilled to start illustrating stamps was so that I could create massive blooms that people who loved to color would really enjoy coloring with their favorite medium. This Beautiful Bouquet stamp set is huge and covers most of the slimline card above, which I stamped using Contour Ink and used Copic markers to color in no-line style. I masked off the edges to do a little light ink blending to create a frame and added a vellum sentiment! You can see more of the details on this project HERE.

February 2022

Boy, looking through my archives for February made selecting a favorite really difficult. I couldn’t narrow it down to just two projects, because two of my favorite stamp sets that I’ve illustrated this year were released in February. The first set, Orchid Rose Bouquet, is another of my illustrations for Simon Says Stamp, which I colored using Copic markers on Neenah Desert Storm cardstock. These projects were especially unique for me, as this red/kraft combo is not a color combination that I use frequently. You can check out all of the details for these projects HERE.

My second project that I couldn’t help adding to this list features the Chrysanthemum Slimline stamp set that I illustrated for Pinkfresh Studio. Another stamp that is huge and hugely fun to color! I loved really digging into the nooks and crannies with my most favorite Copic color combo: RV99, RV69, RV09, RV17. You can read all of the details HERE or watch a video demonstration HERE. February was a good month for big fat flower stamps! 🙂

March 2022

The war in Ukraine sent the entire world reeling in so many ways. I was so proud that Pinkfresh Studio used the Sunflower Washi Suite that I illustrated to do a fundraiser to benefit the children impacted by the war in Ukraine. I created four projects, two using the Sunflower Washi Tape + Dies, and two using the Sunflower Stamps +Dies.

The different washi tapes from Pinkfresh Studio make creating an absolute breeze, like you have an endless supply of stickers! I am especially proud of the ones that I’ve illustrated and watercolored, because they help me to remember that even though I have no formal art training, I am an artist (no matter what the dreaded imposter syndrome might whisper in my ear!). These Sunflower Washi Tape images were the first washi tape images that I created, and they mark an important milestone for me, professionally.

The Sunflower Stamps coordinate perfectly with the dies used for the Sunflower Washi tape, allowing endless possibilities for creativity! I created a pair of cooler cards, adding pops of blue and crisp white, with accents of silver, to go along with my cheerful yellow watercolored sunflowers. You can read all of the details about the projects above HERE.

April 2022

April was the month of flowers. I promise this entire blog post is not going to be a catalog of stamps that I’ve illustrated, but the release of these stamp sets are so exciting to me, even months later, and the projects that I created with them remain some of my favorite projects from the year! This favorite project from April features the Lisianthus stamp set that I illustrated for Simon Says Stamp, but I actually illustrated four different sets for the April release: Thankful Magnolia, Just A Note Pansy, Celebrate Rose Corner, and Lisianthus.

Colored pencils are one of my most favorite mediums to use, but using them is quite hard on my wrists, so I have to limit how frequently (and intensely) I use them. You can’t beat the beauty of colored pencils on colored cardstock, in my book anyway, and so I thought they were a perfect match for this huge Lisianthus stamp and some lovely lavender cardstock. You can check out all of the details for this blog post (along with four other projects using stamps that I illustrated!) HERE.

May 2022

May was a month of experimentation for me. The Hero Arts Creative Team was challenged by Hero Arts to create Mixed Media projects for their new Mixed Media catalog. Now when I think of Mixed Media, I think of grunge and vintage, with splatters and lots of sepia tones. Totally the opposite of my normal super colorful, somewhat clean style! But I was informed by some of the Mixed Media masters on the Hero Arts team to not overthink it and that Mixed Media is exactly as it sounds: using more than one medium on a project, which can be different kinds of paint, different stamping mediums, different textures… using more than two different kinds of media on one project technically makes it “Mixed Media.” Cool, right?

These projects that I created for the Hero Arts Catalog feature one of my most favorite “discoveries” from 2022: colorful gouache on vividly colored cardstock. I mixed the Hero Arts Liquid Watercolors with white gouache to paint these floral images on deep navy blue Nautical cardstock. I absolutely love how they turned out! Lots of color, a little sparkle, a clean design… but still definitely checks the “mixed media” boxes. You can check out all of the specific details on my projects HERE.

June 2022

June was a bit of a slower month for me, with my big kiddos home from school and trying to keep everybody entertained and happy, ha! But, I was able to create a few projects that I really loved, including this pretty watercolored project using Altenew products.

No-line watercoloring continued to be a favorite technique of mine, and this project for the Altenew June release showcases just that! I love “leveling up” a somewhat simple image by stamping it first with no-line coloring ink, then watercoloring or coloring with alcohol markers. I think it lends an air of elegance to a simple image, like this image from the Sentimental Florals stamp set, and makes it look more complicated than it really is. I paired the Sentimental Florals wreath with the Artists 24 Pan Watercolor set, which is one of my most favorite watercoloring mediums. You can check out all of the details from this project HERE.

July 2022

July featured lots of different styles and subjects, including Christmas in July and lots of flowers (even a new Magnolia Apple Blossom set that I illustrated for Simon Says Stamp), but my favorite card that I created that month featured one of my favorite techniques that I really loved playing with in 2022: alcohol markers on standalone die cuts!

I used the Simon Says Stamp Ice Cream Scoop dies with my Copic markers to create these super fun vanilla, strawberry, and mint chocolate chip ice cream cones, then used coordinating colored inks and Layered Confetti stencils to blend this super festive and colorful bokeh background. Creating birthday cards is one of my most favorite “excuses” to create, following closely behind flowers and holiday cards, and this festive, happy, colorful card ticks all of the boxes for me! You can read all of the details on this project HERE.

August 2022

As the summer came to a close, the color combinations in my projects for August seemed to reflect the color combinations of late summer: lots of intense, warm colors, reminiscent of the warmth of the August sunsets. My two favorite projects from this month showcase those warm, rich tones.

This project from the Pinkfresh Studio August release utilizes lots of ink blending, both with stencils and without. I used the Happy Dance stamps with the coordinating stencils and dies, layering the stencils over a softly ink blended background. Layering the same shades of ink on top of each other created such a beautifully subtle effect, with each color fading into each other while still picking up the shading details on the stencils. Check out the full blog post HERE.

My second favorite project is technically for Stamptember, but the releases go live at 11 pm my time, so I’m sneaking this one in under the wire for August. Teehee! One of my favorite sets that I’ve illustrated this year was the Butterfly Ranunculus stamp set. The fluid grace of these blooms creates lots of movement, and I made sure to include lots of different sprigs of foliage and filler flowers to make creating bouquets a breeze. I did some no-line watercoloring, adding in a few sprigs of metallic solid leaves, an embossed background, and some metallic splatters to create this almost-autumn card. Check out the full blog post (featuring this project and another project that I created using another of my new sets- called Floral Frames) HERE.

September 2022

September was the month in which Christmas crafting started in full swing, and I. was. here for it! Christmas crafting season is one of my most favorite times of the year, and I could easily buy my weight in holiday themed stamps, dies, and hot foil plates. I did not have nearly enough time to use all of the beautiful holiday products that are currently residing in my stash, but I am really, really happy with the holiday projects that I was able to create in my (somewhat limited) crafting time!

These “blue Christmas” cards using a bunch of different goodies from Spellbinders were some of my most favorite holiday cards that I created this year. I am a sucker for unique, non-traditional holiday color combinations, as well as being a big fan of monochromatic color schemes, and the multiple shades of blue with those tiny pops of peach and sparkly, shiny silver accents made my heart go pitter-patter. Can we also just talk about the perfection of that Plaid Tidings hot foil plate? A more perfect plaid background cannot be found! Check out the full blog post HERE.

Switching gears slightly… September was a particularly prolific month for me in blog-land, so I have another favorite project to share with you from September. This almost-one-layer card features marvelously whimsical Anita Jeram stamps from Colorado Craft Company. I paired these sweet stamps with another of my most favorite new finds from this year: OLO markers! The vibrancy and intensity of these markers, as well as the simplicity of use, makes them one of my most favorite new additions to my craft room for the year. (Full disclosure-OLO sent me the markers to test out, but I absolutely love them and would not share my enthusiasm with you if I didn’t!) You can check out all of the details on this project, as well as another movie-themed project using Anita Jeram stamps, HERE. You can also check out several of my videos featuring the OLO markers on my YouTube Channel.

October 2022

Ah, October. The month of the holiday cards. Nearly every card that I created throughout the month was using one of the phenomenal holiday releases from the phenomenal companies with whom I get to work. I hope that I get the opportunity to create more projects with these beautiful products, because they are so creative and so inspiring!

Honey Bee Stamps had a particularly spectacular holiday release, and I was lucky enough to be able to play with several of the products from their release. These muted holiday cards feature more of my favorite non-traditional holiday color schemes, while the berries, pine needles, and overall wintry feel helped to make them feel very holiday-appropriate. If you haven’t taken a look at the Lovely Layers: Winter Greenery standalone dies, you absolutely should, because these dies are so infused with holiday imagery, they are sure to be a staple in my holiday crafting for a long time! Check out the full blog post with all of the products and creating details HERE.

The Grandma’s Christmas Tree Dies, 3D Embossing Folder, and Layering Stencils were some of the most unique and, may I just say incredibly clever, holiday products that was released this year from all of the companies. I’m sure that nearly everybody had a grandma, aunt, or other relative who had those beautiful lighted ceramic Christmas trees growing up. My Grammy had the most gorgeous white one, which my husband painstakingly replicated for me for my birthday a few years ago. The holiday cards above showcase these wonderfully clever products, creating a traditional A2 holiday card as well as a shaped card. Check out all of the details HERE.

November 2022

November was filled with more holiday goodness, with a few non-holiday releases sprinkled in here and there. I, however, was in full on Christmas crafting mode, so I was loathe to let go of my holiday stamps and dies!

I have to say…. I think these might be my most favorite holiday cards that I’ve created this year, which is saying something considering ho w many holiday cards I created with some utterly amazing products. The combo of Sparkling Snowflake Frame and Trio from Simon Says Stamp, peachy-pink cardstock, subtle ink blending, metallic splatters, and Rose Gold Metallic Foil cardstock (also from SSS) makes my pink-loving, monochromatic-obsessed heart go all-aflutter! Check out the full blog post HERE.

This card is a close runner-up for my favorite card of the month. I took part in the Honey Bee Stamps video hop and shared how I created this custom-colored die cut card using OLO markers and Honey Bee Stamps’s Lovely Layers: Poinsettia and Lovely Layers: Winter Greenery dies. I am in love with the rich Spruce cardstock and that intense, vivid, plum-colored poinsettia. It’s one of my top five favorite holiday cards from the year, to be sure. You can check out all of the details and the video HERE.

December 2022

Finally, we have December. The crafting community is starting to transition out of the holiday mindset, and with that comes a whole host of new product themes that are not Christmas related. Some people might be saying “hallelujah!” but I am personally quite sad, because I didn’t get to accomplish as many projects as I wanted. I guess there’s always next year! Hopefully, my entire family and I won’t be sick for 10 days in the middle of December 2023. Totally threw a wrench in my holiday plans!

Looking back over my projects from December, I particularly loved this celestial project that I created for the Hero Arts My Monthly Hero blog hop. It used the super creative and beautifully designed new Star Cluster Stencil, which I paired with a vibrant, ink blended background and White Hero Wax. I love that this is an outer space card that still feels like “me” with the pinks, purples, and navy blue galaxy. I sometimes struggle with projects that are not inherently feminine, so I was really happy with the finished product! You can check out all of the details for this project on THIS post.

Whew. That was a long blog post. I hope you’ve enjoyed this trip down memory lane as much as I have. I noticed during my tour of my 2022 blog posts was just how lucky I am to be able to have the opportunities to work with so many wonderful companies and their phenomenal product. So many of these products have been neglected in my craft room, because I always have new product coming in with which to create and share with you, so one of my goals for 2023 is to utilize these older products that I really love, perhaps with a new coloring medium, or paired with product from other companies! I tend to stick to one company’s product line when working on a card, so it will be fun to put my thinking cap on and pair the products of several companies together.

One last bit before I sign off on this New Year’s Eve day: I could not do this job without your support, your kind words of encouragement, and your use of my affiliate links when you are inspired. Your affiliate link purchases or the purchase of coloring panels or FOTG art supplies helps me to continue supporting my family while still being at home to do all of those important wife & mom things, too. Thank you. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. I sincerely send all of my best wishes for a peaceful and prosperous 2023 to each of you!