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Sixth Street Sundries

Emily Midgett

Pinkfresh Studio Create & Connect-What To Bring To Class?

Hi there! Today, I wanted to share some information about an event coming up for Pinkfresh Studio: Create & Connect! This virtual cardmaking event will take place on November 6 & 7, with some of your favorite cardmakers teaching classes all weekend long! You’ll receive an exclusive bundle of brand new products, and I’m so excited to have been asked to design a stamp set! (You can see a sneak peek of the set that I designed in the graphic below.) I will be demonstrating basic watercoloring techniques, as well as some more advanced techniques, time permitting. Read on to find out all of the details on this fabulous event!

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***PLEASE DO NOT PURCHASE ANY OTHER PRODUCT WITH THIS REGISTRATION.

***REGISTRATION CLOSES ON SEPTEMBER 5TH AT 11:59 PM CST.

***ALL OF THE INCLUDED CONTENTS OF THIS KIT ARE VALUED AT APPROXIMATELY $350+.

We are so excited to announce our first Create & Connect virtual event! Join us November 6-7 for 2 jam packed days full of crafty fun with our amazing instructors: Lea Lawson, Heather Hoffman, Laura Bassen, Carissa Wiley and Emily Midgett. Get the luxury of creating beautiful Pinkfresh Studio cards from the comfort of your own home with these five amazingly talented cardmakers!

Registering for our Create & Connect virtual event will give you access to 5 LIVE classes during the event dates, using brand new Pinkfresh Studio products that have never been seen or sold before! Throughout each class you will explore and learn new card making techniques, while gaining tips & tricks for using your favorite Pinkfresh Studio products. 

Each class will be 2 hours long, and you will create 2 cards with each instructor. We will provide a printed booklet for each class with instructions for each card created in case you want to complete the class projects at your own pace.

Each instructor will also provide a bonus project and project sheet for a Make & Take card that you will create on your own. These will give you more ideas for stretching your supplies and getting continued use from all the beautiful projects in your event kit!

What is included in your event kit? Let’s take a look!

Class 1

Elegant Note Cards with Carissa Wiley

  • (1) 4 x 6 stamp set
  • (1) coordinating die
  • (1) coordinating stencil

Class 2

Timeless Watercolor Florals with Emily Midgett

  • (1) 4 x 6 stamp set
  • (1) coordinating die
  • (1) coordinating stencil

Class 3

In The Meadows with Heather Hoffman

  • (1) wide washi roll (4” x 10 yards)
  • (1) 4 x 6 stamp set
  • (1) coordinating die

Class 4

Celebrate In Style with Lea Lawson

  • (1) 6 x 8 stamp set
  • (1) coordinating die
  • (1) coordinating stencil

Class 5

Built On Dreams with Laura Bassen

  • (1) 4 x 6 stamp set
  • (1) coordinating die
  • (1) coordinating stencil

Other products included with the kit

  • (2) Essential dies
  • (1) A2 Hot foil plate (we will share a dry embossing technique)
  • (1) pack of specialty bling
  • (3) 8.5 x 11 premium watercolor sheets
  • (1) pack of foiled sentiments ephemera 
  • (1) Printed booklet with project sheets for all the in class projects + make and take projects (10 in class projects + 5 make and take projects)

And some really fantastic event swag that is useful & high quality that we think you will just LOVE!

-Kits will be shipped out between Oct 20 – Oct 25.

-International kits will be shipped out via DHL/UPS/Fedex to avoid any shipping delays.

You will need to have your own general supplies to finish the class. Items are listed below.

  • White cardstock (We recommend Hammermill 100LB premium cover cardstock)
  • Dye inks (we will share the list of inks used by our instructors)
  • Blending brushes
  • Watercolors (Our class instructor will recommend her favorites)
  • Watercolor brushes
  • Diecut machine
  • Paper trimmer
  • Scissors
  • Liquid glue
  • Foam adhesive
  • Tape runner/double sided tape
  • Stamping platform
  • Jewel picker
  • Stamp cleaning cloth/Baby wipes
  • Glass mat (optional, but helpful)

Create & connect classes will take place in CST time zones between 9:00AM – 6:00PM in a private Facebook group that only registered attendees will be allowed to join. All of the class videos will be available for later viewing in the private Facebook group. We will send you a link to join our create and connect private facebook group 2-3 weeks after registration closes.

Not only will our opening welcome session and all classes take place in the group, but you will be able to share your projects with us and connect with all of the instructors and fellow students! We hope this event will make lasting connections and friendships between cardmakers from all over the world. We cannot wait to create and connect with you!

Disclaimer: All of the products included in this kit are not released before and are brand new. We will be releasing these products at a later date to the general public at full retail price.

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Registration has been open for a bit, so you might already have registered. If so, fabulous! I am so excited to be teaching at this great event, and I’m even more thrilled to be teaching using a stamp set that I’ve designed! My class will be a watercolor class, and while the kit includes the basic tools needed for my class (stamps, dies, watercolor paper), I wanted to give a few recommendations for my favorite watercoloring tools that will come in handy during the class:

Watercolors

For watercolors, I wanted to give an inexpensive option and a higher quality option. I have an extensive array of watercolors (much to my husband’s dismay, ha), and I’ve found that the higher quality watercolors generally give a better result and they last longer than the less expensive paints. The reason higher quality watercolors are more expensive is because they contain more pure pigments and a smaller amount of fillers. I find that higher quality watercolors generally seem to last longer, simply because you have to use less pigment to achieve vibrant color on your watercolor paper. I am going to be using the Daniel Smith colors during class, but I will be focusing more on technique than the specific colors, so you can choose whichever watercolor brands and colors best suit your budget or comfort level. The following links are merely my suggestions; please feel free to use whatever watercolor medium with which you are comfortable.

Daniel Smith-Ultimate Mixing Palette- this is a handy, pre-poured palette of Daniel Smith paints in 15 different shades. I purchased my first Daniel Smith paints 4 years ago, and I find them to be top of the line. Highly, highly recommend. This set is a great variety of colors, and the great thing about watercolors is that you can mix them to create your own unique shades! (AZ|EH)

Daniel Smith Watercolor Essentials set– This set comes with six 5 ml Daniel Smith tubes: a trio of cool primary colors and a set of warmer primary colors. These six colors can be mixed to create an endless amount of combinations, so if you are relatively comfortable with color mixing but haven’t tried the Daniel Smith line of paints, these would be a great option to begin building your palette. (AZ|EH)

Prima Tropical Palette-The Prima watercolors are a nice option for those who don’t want to invest in the Daniel Smith paints. They are beautifully vibrant, but the opacity and pigment movement is definitely different than the highly pigmented Daniel Smith paints. A lovely variety of colors at a great price point. (AZ|HBS)

Brushes

For paintbrushes, I generally stick to round brushes. My go-to brand is Silver Black Velvet; I find the way that they release water to work best with my watercoloring style. I would recommend a number 8 round and a number 4 round for our class. The larger size works well for background washes and larger areas, while the smaller number 4 round brush works well for details. The Silver Brush Silverwhite brushes are a great brush as well, made of synthetic hair and at a slightly lower price point.

Other suggested supplies:

~Low-tack washi tape or painter’s tape
~Watercolor Board or cutting board
~Porcelain plate/saucer/palette for mixing (you can also use the lid of your watercolor palette if you are using one to store your watercolors)
~Embossing Ink
~Your favorite shade of embossing powder

Well, that’s all of the information that I have for you! Registration closes at 11:59 central time on September 5, 2021.

If you’d like to register for the class and live in the United States, please click HERE.

If you’d like to register for the class and live in Canada/International, please click HERE.

(It’s very important to choose the correct link to purchase your registration, so please be careful!)

If you have any questions about the event, please feel free to email me (eamidgett at gmail dot com) and I will do my best to answer your questions or direct you to someone who can answer them more completely!

Thanks so much for reading, and have a marvelous day!

Altenew Thanks and Blessings Stamps/Dies/Stencils/Embossing Folders Collection Release Blog Hop + Giveaway ($300 in total prizes)

Hi again! I’m hopping along with Altenew to help introduce their Thanks and Blessings release. You should have arrived here from Vicky Papaioannou, and your next stop is Jenny Colacicco. You can also start back at the beginning at the Altenew Blog. I’ve been trying to use less pink and expand my colorful horizons… well, they’ve expanded to pretty-in-purple, and we just are not going to discuss how close purple is to pink. 😉 I have two projects for you today, so let’s get started with the details!

My first project features the new Blossom and Bloom stamps and dies! I heat embossed the main floral image from the stamp set onto some Altenew watercolor paper using silver embossing powder, then used the Artist’s Watercolor 24 Pan set to add some pretty purples and greens to the image. We always see yellow sunflowers, but who says they can’t be purple in your imagination? I die cut the finished watercolored image using the coordinating dies.

I love to use cover plates to create tone-on-tone backgrounds with subtle, elegant texture. I cut the Moroccan Lattice cover plate die from some light gray cardstock to coordinate with the gray center of the large sunflower and layered it on an A2 card base of the same gray cardstock. This adds some subtle texture without taking interest away from the large, busy floral die cut!

I heat embossed a greeting from Blossom and Bloom on some thin strips of New Purple gradient cardstock using more silver embossing powder. I popped up the watercolored die cut and the sentiment strips using Instant Dimension Foam Tape, then added a few shiny silver gems for some sparkle!

My second project also features a large purple bloom, this time from the Rose Tea stamp set. I stamped the large rose and foliage on some white cardstock using no-line coloring ink, then used Copic markers to color the rose in pretty shades of royal purple. I die cut the finished colored flowers with the coordinating dies.

Next, I softly blended some Deep Iris and Grape Agate ink on one side of a white A2 card base using Altenew’s Blending Tools. The pinky purple of the Deep Iris works nicely with the rich, plummy purple of the Grape Agate. I also die cut an edge using the Floral In ‘n Out Border die, which I adhered to the blended panel. I love the way the detailed white die cut pops on the pretty blending!

I adhered the Copic colored rose to the card front using some more foam adhesive, then added a greeting from Rose Tea which I stamped in Grape Agate ink on a rectangle of white cardstock. I finally added a few lavender gems to finish it off!

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

$300 in total prizes! To celebrate this release, Altenew is giving away a $50 gift certificate to 2 lucky winners and a $25 gift certificate to 8 winners! Please leave a comment on the Altenew Card Blog and/or each designer’s blog post on the blog hop list below by 09/09/2021 for a chance to win. Altenew will draw 10 random winners from the comments left on each stop of this blog hop and announce the winners on the Altenew Winners Page on 09/11/2021.

The next stop on the hop is Jenny Colacicco. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and happy hopping!


Colorado Craft Company September Anita Jeram Release Blog Hop + Giveaway!

Hi there! I’m so excited to be hopping along with my friends at Colorado Craft Company to celebrate their latest Anita Jeram release! You should have arrived here from Daniel West, and your next stop is Mansi Bhatia. The Anita Jeram line is just so wonderfully sweet. If you’ve read the “Guess How Much I Love You” books, you’ll have seen the delightful illustrations. It’s so much fun to be able to create my own little storybook cards with these darling stamp sets in the Anita Jeram line! I particularly enjoy no-line watercoloring these beautiful images… the whimsical storybook feel is right in my comfort zone! Let’s get started with the details.

I have been itching to get more practice in with my Holbein gouache paints. I have a bad habit of collecting various mediums and brands and not getting the opportunity to really dig in and play with them, so I thought this was the perfect opportunity to get some practice in! From what I understand, illustrators frequently use gouache for their paintings because it is opaque and completely flat, and therefore won’t have any reflections when they go to scan their paintings. I wanted to be super authentic (ha) so I thought these sweet bunnies from Flurries of Fun were a perfect match for some gouache practice!

I began by stamping the sweet little bunnies, bird, and snowbunny from Flurries of Fun onto some Fabriano Artistico hot press paper using Ink On 3’s Fadeout Ink. Next, I used Holbein gouache to do some watercoloring on the image, allowing the blue sky to help create plenty of contrast to keep the snowbunny looking white. Gouache is a bit more intense and opaque than traditional watercolors; you can treat it like acrylic paints and keep things thick and completely opaque, layering your colors to achieve shadows and depth, or you can use it more like traditional watercolors and allow the wet paintbrush and water to move the pigment for you. I treated the gouache more like traditional watercolors, but the opacity helps to keep the colors super vibrant. I also found glazing (glazing=adding more color over the top of a dried section to intensify the color or add more depth/shadows) to be much more intense with the gouache. Such a fun medium!

The blue sky was particularly receptive to the glazing technique; I was able to achieve a really fun, artsy background with layers of blue and lavender gouache and lots of water. I splattered the background with some white gouache to create snowflakes, but it kind of sank in to the blue and wasn’t very visible. I think I had diluted it with water a bit too much. (Practice makes progress!) I ended up dotting the background with my white gel pen to create more visible flurries.

After I’d finished my painting, I used some black pigment ink to add a simple sentiment from Flurries of Fun to the card front. This would be a perfect thank you note for a Christmas gift or winter birthday or something! Plus, totally flat, so very easy to mail.

Now, to celebrate this release, Colorado Craft Company will be choosing one winner from the comments on each stop on the blog hop! Winners will receive one stamp set of their choice from the new release. The cutoff for entries is September 6th at midnight mountain time. 3C will pick and announce the winners on the Colorado Craft Company blog September 8th. The more comments you leave, the more chances you have to win!

Your next stop is the über-talented Mansi Bhatia. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and happy hopping!

Altenew Build-A-Flower: Wild Rose Release Blog Hop + Giveaway ($200 in total prizes)

Hi there! A new month means a new Build A Flower from Altenew, right? Today, we’re introducing the new Build A Flower Wild Rose! You should have arrived here from Seeka, and your next stop is Jenny Colacicco. I always love the curvature and grace of Altenew’s large floral sets, and this month’s set is no exception:

Look at how beautiful those flowers and foliage are! I love that Altenew gives you the option to use the layered stamps or take some time to do some coloring. You can always subscribe to the Build A Flower series to receive the sets each month at a discounted rate! I have a super feminine and pretty watercolored project for you today, so let’s get started with the details!

I began by heat embossing the main floral image, some foliage, and some filler flowers from Build A Flower Wild Rose using Rose Gold embossing powder onto some of Altenew’s watercolor paper. The smooth, subtle texture of the watercolor paper makes for beautifully embossed images! I then used the Artist’s Watercolors 24 Pan set to add some pretty coral and jungle green watercoloring, maintaining the pink feel from the rosy metallic embossing with the pink petals and peachy filler flowers, adding some touches of very diluted pink and yellow to the foliage for a bit of added interest.

For the card base, I cut some very pale blush cardstock down to mini slimline size (3.5″x6″), then die cut some rose gold matte foil cardstock using the Floral Lace die. I adore the tone-on-tone combo of the rose gold foil and the blush card base. So soft and feminine! I die cut this large die just once from the foil, then using my scissors, snipped and angled it so that it covered most of the background.

I arranged my watercolored floral die cuts on the lacy blush card front, then used Instant Dimension Foam Tape and liquid adhesive to adhere the bouquet to the card front. I stamped a sentiment on a thin strip of more blush cardstock, and added it to the card front. The final touch was to add some rose gold gems.

Now for some fun giveaway information!

$200 in total prizes! To celebrate this release, Altenew is giving away a $50 gift certificate to 2 lucky winners and a $20 gift certificate to 5 winners! Please leave a comment on the Altenew Card Blog and/or each designer’s blog post on the blog hop list below by 09/07/2021 for a chance to win. Altenew will draw 7 random winners from the comments left on each stop of this blog hop and announce the winners on the Altenew Winners Page on 09/09/2021.

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

Warm Hugs and White-On-White.

Hi there! I have some inspiration using brand new goodies from the Autumn Splendor release! I absolutely adore a good standalone die, and the dies in the Lovely Layers line are so beautiful. I love that they are proportional and you can use them together! I’ve combined the new Lovely Layers Sunflower with the older Lovely Layers Hydrangea to create a pretty autumnal bouquet. Let’s get started with the details!

I began by die cutting the layers for Lovely Layers Sunflower from three gradient shades of yellow cardstock, then used blending brushes to blend a light and darker yellow around the edges of the petals to add some depth to the petals. I also used some deep brown cardstock for the center, as well as some emerald green for the leaves. I blended some even darker green ink around the edges of the leaves to add a little interest and shape to the die cuts. I die cut some super pale pink individual hydrangea flowers from the Lovely Layers Hydrangea, then lightly blended some pinky coral ink around the edges. I love how the ink blending on these Lovely Layers die cuts help to emphasize the beautiful debossed details on the die cuts!

I have a thing for white-on-white textures. I love the subtle, clean, crisp background that is created by a white die cut cover plate layered on a white card base, so I layered a white Plaid A7 Top Cover Plate die cut over the top of a white 5×7 card base. I think plaid is perfect background for fall, and the bright white gives the fall feel a crisp and modern look!

I arranged all of the die cut florals and foliage into a bouquet on the textured plaid card base, then adhered them using a mixture of liquid and foam adhesive. I stamped a greeting from Sweater Weather on some white cardstock using mustard colored ink, die cut it using the coordinating Honey Cuts, and adhered it using foam adhesive. I finally added some gems to the flower centers and to add some sparkle.

Well, that’s all for my project today! I love when you can combine old and new products. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous weekend.