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Sixth Street Sundries

Emily Midgett

Elegant Christmas Cards in 20 Minutes or Less: Volume 2 with Simon Says Stamp!

Hi there! I’m back again today with another idea for my “Christmas Cards in 20 Minutes or Less” series, this time featuring a gorgeous stamp from Simon Says Stamp called Center Cut Holiday Floral and a fun chalkboard technique that is super easy and quick but adds that extra special touch to create a beautiful Christmas card!

Here’s the video:

Or you can watch in HD here.

One of my favorite quick-but-high-impact techniques is to create a “chalkboard” card. It’s basically some heat embossing with a few extra additions of white. In the video, I talk about adding different values of white, basically meaning different intensities of white to create that white halo left behind on a chalkboard. To achieve this, I utilize a white pencil, white gouache splatters, and some white ink blending around the edges, which totally reminds me of when I was in grade school and the erasers needed to be taken out back (ha) and beaten together to clean them! These different intensities of white help to add to that overall chalkboard look and are quite quick to pop on your card front!

I began by heat embossing the gorgeous Center Cut Holiday Floral with white embossing powder on some Charcoal cardstock cut to 5×7. (Such a large, beautiful stamp deserves to be shown off in it’s entirety!) I then used my white pencil to add some light shading on the larger poinsettia leaves and added a few splatters of watered down white gouache. After the gouache had dried, I added some white blending around the edge using Simon Says Stamp White Pigment Ink and a foam blending tool. After I’d finished all of my chalkboard additions, I die cut the Simon Says Stamp’s Season’s Greetings die twice from white cardstock, then adhered it to the center with some liquid adhesive. The final touch was to add some red “berries” using the Studio Katia Scarlet Red gems to add some extra sparkle!

Well, that’s all for my “Christmas Cards in 20 Minutes or Less” project today. I hope these videos are giving you some useful tips for your last minute holiday cardmaking! We all are so busy this time of year that any little tricks to simplify things a bit helps! Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!

Elegant Christmas Cards in 20 Minutes or Less-volume 1 with Colorado Craft Company!

Hi there! Today marks the start of a series that I’ve been hoping to do for several weeks, but just finally found the time to devote to getting it done. As most of you know, I have four little ones- a set of 7 year old twins and a set of 8 month old twins. The older kids are remote learning this year, so sometimes my time in my craft room has been severely curtailed. I’m sure I’m not the only crafter lacking in time to create all of the Christmas cards that I need, so I thought it might be fun to devote a special video series to how I create elegantly crafted Christmas cards in 20 minutes or less! This first video is dedicated to the beautiful Slimline Poinsettia stamp set from Colorado Craft Company.

Here’s the video:

You can also watch in HD here.

One of the best ways that I’ve found to make a quick but elegant Christmas card is to utilize detailed stamps, colored cardstock, and sparkling embossing powder. The detailed stamps don’t require coloring (even though they are super fun to color if you have the time!), the colored card stock helps give it some extra oomph, and who doesn’t love glitter for Christmas?

This particular card is a slimline design, featuring a 3.5″x8.5″ card base cut from Concord and 9th’s Eggplant cardstock, upon which I heat embossed the beautifully detailed poinsettias from Slimline Poinsettia using Turkish Nights embossing powder from WOW. The lavender and rose gold sparkles in this embossing powder pop perfectly on the dark purple background. I embossed the greeting from Slimline Poinsettia in the center, then lightly blended a bit of Eggplant ink over the top to make it pop a bit more. Some Espresso gems and a rose gold metallic frame (created using my T-square) finished it off!

Well, I hope you’ve enjoyed this first installment of my 20 Minute Christmas Card series! I have several more videos featuring more ideas on how to maximize your Christmas cardmaking time! Thanks so much for stopping by, and have a marvelous day!

December 2020 My Monthly Hero Blog Hop+Giveaway!

Hi there! Today is the first Monday of the new month, which means a new My Monthly Hero kit (and fabulous add-ons) is now available for purchase! We are celebrating with a blog hop and giveaway. You should have arrived here from Debi Adams, and your next stop is Ilina Crouse. This month’s kit is filled with absolutely gorgeous images that project the hopeful feeling I think we can all admit that we feel for 2021!

The kit includes: 6″ x 8″ Clear Stamp Set, Hope Word Fancy Die, Cloud Fancy Die, Cloud Window Die, 4 Reactive Ink Cubes (Early Dawn, Morning Mist, Yellow Chartreuse, Thistle), Yellow Prisma Embossing Powder 0.5 oz.. The kit is valued at $78, but retails 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, one using the main kit, and one using a couple of the lovely add-ons. Let’s get started with the details!

I started my card using the main kit by die cutting the beautiful cloud window from some plain white cardstock. I also die cut a couple of the standalone clouds from some more of the same white cardstock.

I placed the cloud window over another A2 panel of white cardstock, then used that as a guide to blend a lovely morning sky using Pool and Bubble Gum inks with blending brushes. I also spritzed some Iridescent Shimmer Spray on the blended card front to add some glimmer.

After the blended panel had dried, I added the sunshine rays using Silver Shadow Ink. I adhered the cloud panel using liquid adhesive, then added the clouds and a greeting from the main kit using foam adhesive for extra dimension. The final touch was a bit of glitter on the clouds to add extra emphasis on the die cut dimension on the clouds!

For my second card, I used the absolutely beautiful Sea and Sky stencil as my focus. I blended Pool, Bubble Gum, and Butter Bar inks to create my morning sea background. While the stencil was still adhered to my white card front, I spritzed it with some more Iridescent Shimmer Spray. The spray has the added benefit of kind of smoothing out the blended background.

After the background had dried completely, I applied my anti-static tool to the center of the sun, then heat embossed the cheerful greeting from You Shine.

I trimmed the blended panel down just slightly and adhered it to a Canary card base. Simple, subtle, but some pretty shimmer and shine to help the background pop!

Well, that’s all for my projects today, and we have some fun giveaway information for you!

We will give away one $50 gift card, drawn from the comments left across the hop. Enter by Sunday, December 13th at 11:59pm pacific, and the winner will be announced on the Hero Arts blog the following week. The more comments you leave, the more chances you have to win!

Your next stop is Ilina Crouse. Happy hopping!

Altenew Craft A Flower: Snow Drop Blog Hop+Giveaway!

Hi there! Today, Altenew is releasing this month’s Craft-A-Flower die set, called Snow Drop. These lovely little blooms are clean, simple, and oh, so elegant! You should have arrived here from LauraJane, and your next stop is Jessica Frost-Ballas. These layered floral dies in the Craft A Flower series are so much fun each month, and if you love them as much as I do, you might want to subscribe to receive them each month (and at a discount!).

Side note: My little ones have been watching this show on Disney+ called Bluey, an Australian show about a mum and dad dog and their two little girl dogs, and one of the games that Bluey and her little sister play is “kids,” where Bluey pretends to be the mom, and Bingo (her sister) is her toddler, “Snowdrop.” Every time I type Snow Drop, I think of Bluey chastising “Snowdrop” for throwing the groceries on the ground haha!

For my card today, I die cut the blooms from Craft A Flower Snow Drop from some plain white cardstock, then cut the foliage out from some dark green cardstock. I added a bit of dimension to the leaves with a Copic marker down the center of leaves where they are folded in a bit.

For the card base, I cut an A2 base from some pretty rose-colored cardstock, then added some blending in the top corner using blending brushes and Midnight Violet ink. I also splattered some white gouache on the card front to help the white flowers pop even further. I adhered all of the blooms to the card front using liquid adhesive, then added a sentiment from Sentiment Strips 2, also stamped in Midnight Violet, and adhered it using foam adhesive. The final touch was some shimmering white gems for sparkle!

Well, that’s all for my project today. Now, as always, Altenew is giving away some fabulous prizes to celebrate this release!

$200 in total prizes! To celebrate this release, Altenew is giving away a $50 gift certificate to 1 lucky winner and a $15 gift certificate to 10 winners! Please leave a comment on the Altenew Card Blog and/or each designer’s blog post on the blog hop list below by 12/13/2020 for a chance to win. Altenew will draw 11 random winners from the comments left on each stop of this blog hop and announce the winners on the Altenew Winners Page on 12/15/2020.

That’s all for me today! Your next stop is Jessica Frost-Ballas. You can also start from the beginning at the Altenew Blog in case you get lost. Happy hopping!

Altenew Quiet Reflections Stamp and Die Release Blog Hop+Giveaway!

Hi there! I’m excited to be helping Altenew celebrate their December 2020 Quiet Reflections Stamp and Die release as a stop on the blog hop! You should have arrived here from Norine Borys, and your next stop is Amanda Baldwin. I have two cards featuring the beautiful new Tranquility Rose and You Are Beautiful stamp sets, which are super fun to color, so let’s get started with the details!

For this first card featuring Tranquility Rose, I put the beautiful colors in the Altenew Artists’ 24 Pan Watercolor set to use! These beautiful watercolors are a dream to work with and are super affordable. Definitely a must-have. I began by heat embossing the images from Tranquility Rose using silver embossing powder onto Altenew watercolor paper, then used the Altenew Artists’ 24 Pan Watercolor to add color in lovely cool shades of lavender, blue, and mint.

Once the images were dried, I used the coordinating dies to cut everything out. I also taped a 3.25×8.25 panel of watercolor paper to my watercolor board, then used the Artists’ 24 Pan Watercolor to create a lovely, subtle ombre for the background. I allowed it to dry while still taped to my watercolor board (helps to reduce warping!), then once dry, adhered it to a 3.5×8.5″ panel of silvery shimmer cardstock.

I arranged all of the floral die cuts on the slimline card base to create a long, cascading swag down the front, adhering them with both liquid and foam adhesives. The final touch was some iridescent gems for sparkle!

For my second project, I focused on the You Are Beautiful stamps and dies. These beautiful hibiscus blooms are absolutely massive and so much fun to color. I stamped them using Fadeout Ink on some Copic-friendly white cardstock, then used my brightest, most tropical-feeling Copic markers to add lots of vibrant color.

I die cut the colored images using the coordinating dies and arranged them on a plain white A2 card base. While they were still in their arrangement, I picked the die cuts up using Press’n’Seal and added foam adhesive to the back. Before replacing the die cuts on the card base, I used a black pen from the Fineliner Pen Set and my T-square to create a black frame around the edge, then placed the blooms back on the card front.

I stamped a greeting from the You Are Beautiful using Obsidian Black ink onto a strip of white cardstock, then adhered it to the floral card front. Finally, I added some black gems to help make the black frame and sentiment pop even more.

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

$300 in total prizes! To celebrate this release, Altenew is giving away a $40 gift certificate to 3 lucky winners and a $20 gift certificate to 9 winners! Please leave a comment on the Altenew Card Blog and/or each designer’s blog post on the blog hop list below by 12/09/2020 for a chance to win. Altenew will draw 12 random winners from the comments left on each stop of this blog hop and announce the winners on the Altenew Winners Page on 12/11/2020.

Your next stop is Amanda Baldwin. You can also start at the Altenew Card Blog to get the full hop list! Thanks so much for stopping by, and happy hopping!