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Sixth Street Sundries

Emily Midgett

Altenew Paint-A-Flower: Lotus Outline Stamp Set Release Blog Hop + Giveaway ($200 in Total Prizes)

Hi there! Today, Altenew is releasing the next in their Paint A Flower Series: Paint A Flower Lotus. This month’s stamp is a bit different than those previously released in the Paint A Flower series, as it features a full pond scene, complete with bubbles, fish, and rocks. We’re celebrating and inspiring with a blog hop, and your should have arrived here from the Altenew Card Blog, while your next stop is Keren Baker.

If you like to color flowers, you should definitely consider subscribing to the Paint A Flower series; you can get these beautiful stamp sets automatically sent to you each month, and at a discount, to boot! Let’s get started on the details for my project today.

For my project today, I used the fantastic Altenew Artist’s 24 Pan Watercolor set (which you can purchase in a discounted bundle with the Paint A Flower Lotus set!) to create a serene sunset scene. My husband loves sunsets, and he’s always asking me to paint one for him, so I thought this was the perfect opportunity. I began by heat embossing the main image from Paint A Flower Lotus on some of Altenew’s Watercolor Paper, which is smooth enough to ensure beautiful embossing on this detailed image.

I taped the image down to my watercolor board, as I knew I would be using quite a bit of water with this image and so wanted to reduce warping, then began adding lots of color with the Artist’s Watercolor 24 Pan set. I kept things light on the first layer, then added more concentrated color and details to ensure lots of contrast between light and dark, trying to make the lotus flowers beneath the water a bit shadowed compared to those above the water.

Once my watercolored image had dried completely, (I like to leave really wet and saturated watercolor pieces taped down overnight to reduce warping) I removed the tape and added a black cardstock frame that I trimmed with my trimmer. I also added a silver embossed greeting from Peaceful Serenity on another strip of black cardstock, all of which I popped up using Instant Dimension Foam Tape.

Well, that’s all for my project today! Now, we have some fun giveaway information for you:

$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 05/28/2021 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 05/30/2021.

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

Hero Arts 2021 Summer Catalog Blog Hop + Giveaway!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Altenew Classic Imagery Collection Release Blog Hop + Giveaway

Hi there! Today, Altenew is releasing a simply gorgeous collection of standalone dies, embossing folders, and stencils, called Classic Imagery, and of course we are celebrating with a blog hop! You should have arrived here from Jenny Colacicco, and your next stop is LauraJane. You can also start back at the Altenew Blog for the full hop list. I have two projects for you today, both an homage to gorgeous springtime flowers and fresh, springy color palettes, so let’s get started with the details!

I kept things relatively monochromatic for both projects, keeping with a pale peach and coral color scheme. I love using colored cardstock… there is something so luxurious about vibrant cardstock that I just adore.

My first project is pretty simple, but a fun mini-slimline size and some popped up alphabet die cuts add a bit of extra something. I started with a super pale peach mini-slimline card base (3.5″x6″), then embossed it with the new Spring Blossoms 3D Embossing Folder. These 3D embossing folders are absolutely amazing… I can’t get enough of the sheer volume of detail that you can achieve with them so easily. I used the Detail Blending Brushes to lightly blend some coral and green inks on the appropriate spots of the floral bouquet, but the embossing really doesn’t need anything extra- it’s stunning all by itself!

After I’d added a bit of extra color with the light blending, I used the Metallic Watercolors to add some rose gold splatters to my card front. This adds some extra shine and texture to the card front.

I love using the Inline Alphabet Dies to create custom die cut sentiments. I die cut the “thanks” using some dark coral cardstock, then adhered it to the embossed card front using Instant Dimension Foam Tape in a fun stacked style, which is super popular right now in the stationery world. I used my T-square ruler to make sure that everything was nice and straight.

My second project is a bit more involved. I began by creating a custom floral background, as well as stenciling a few extras on a separate sheet of cardstock, with the new Greenwood Flowers Stencil Set, again blending on the super pale peach cardstock, which has just enough color to make an interesting background, but not enough that it muddies the green stenciled leaves!

I added some sparkling glitter paste the centers of the flowers, and fussy cut one of the extra flowers and some leaves once the glitter paste had dried. In my head, having all of the flowers blended on the same shade of cardstock helps to maintain that monochromatic color scheme, rather than have that pesky border that is a different color!

I trimmed the background panel down, then mounted it in the top left corner of an A2 panel of darker coral cardstock. I added the fussy cut stenciled flower and foliage using more Instant Dimension Foam Tape, then added a greeting from Simple Greetings Dies, cut again from the pale peach and tomato red cardstock, then popped up with a double layer of foam tape to give it some extra visibility. I added a few gems for a bit of extra texture on the background.

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

$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 05/24/2021 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 05/26/2021.

Your next blog hop stop is LauraJane. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and happy hopping!

New Anita Jeram from Colorado Craft Company!

Hi there! Colorado Craft Company has some absolutely darling new sets illustrated by the talented Anita Jeram that are releasing today, and I’m so happy to be helping them celebrate! There are lots of fabulous designers helping to inspire you with these new goodies, and you can find the entire list over on the Colorado Craft Company Blog. I’m not normally very good at creating scenes with critters. Something in my imagination hits a bit of a creative wall when it comes to scene building, ha! Luckily, the new Home Sweet Home stamp set has an absolutely darling little scene already built for you, so that you can just stamp and color with your choice of medium! I have a cool blue project for you today, so let’s get started with the details!

I began by stamping the sweet scene from Home Sweet Home on some Arches cold press watercolor paper using no-line coloring ink. I then used my Sennelier watercolors to add lots of cool blues, grays, and purples to the scene, keeping the overall feel nice and loose to help maintain that sweet, storybook feel that Anita Jeram’s illustrations have. (PS-I love that there are coordinating dies for the individual elements of the scene! You could easily add lots more dimension to the card with the addition of some die cut elements. So much fun!)

I maintained a cool cornflower blue and gray color scheme throughout the card, thinking in my mind’s eye of an English summer cottage surrounded by a lovely garden full of beautiful flora and graceful fauna. When doing a larger scale no-line coloring piece like this, I like to do a large wash on the biggest section (in this case, the walls), then allow it to dry completely so that I can add the details without worrying about the paint running or blooming into each other. The Sennelier watercolors are very pigmented, and maintaining a light and airy feel requires lots of water so as not to add too much pigment to the card front.

Once I had completed my painting, I trimmed the panel down (the large size of the Home Sweet Home stamp means that it covers almost an entire A2 card front) and mounted it on a panel of Lapis cardstock from Hero Arts. I white embossed the greeting from Home Sweet Home (how apropos for these crazy covid times) and popped it up on the card front using foam adhesive.

Well, that’s all for this project! I hope you’ll check out the new Anita Jeram release, as well as the blog hop happening now! Your next stop is Amy Tsuruta. We also have some fun giveaway information for you:

Each designer will be giving away a $25 shopping code to one lucky commenter on their blog. All you need to do is visit each designer’s blog or IG page and leave a comment saying which of the new release is your favorite. You have 23 chances to win by leaving your comment. Giveaway ends on May 19th, 2021. Winners will be announced by each designer on May 20th, 2021.

Please be sure to subscribe to my blog (just enter your email address on the top left hand side of my blog) so that you receive email notification when I announce the winner. If you don’t contact me, I won’t be able to get your prize to you!

Thanks so much for stopping by today, and happy hopping!

Hello, Sweet Friend!

Hi there! I’m up on the Honey Bee Stamps blog today, and I have a project featuring some new and some old goodies, with a bright, cheerful color palette. I wanted to showcase the new No-Line Coloring ink, as no-line coloring is one of my most favorite techniques to add into my cardmaking, and I thought that it would be perfect paired with the new Just Bee-cause stamps and coordinating Honey Cuts. Let’s get started with the details!

I began first by stamping the honey pot and several of the accessories included in the Just Bee-cause stamp set on some watercolor paper using the new No-Line Coloring ink. I then used the Karin Brushmarker Pro markers to add lots of vibrant color to the images. With the Karin markers, I like to scribble the color on a ceramic palette or glass media mat, then pick up the color with a damp paintbrush. I find that this gives me a bit more control over the intensity of the color laid down. I can then maneuver that color with my clean, damp paintbrush.

The sunflowers in the Just Bee-cause set coordinate with the sunflowers in the previously-released Sweet Sunflowers stamp set, so I decided to use the Sweet Sunflowers set to create a background for my honey pot and accessories! I stamped the sunflower outlines using some crisp blue ink on a white card base, then used Blender Brushes to blend some of the same deep cobalt blue ink over the top, creating a subtle tone-on-tone effect. I also stamped a greeting from Sweet Sunflowers using the same blue ink on a piece of white cardstock, then die cut it with the coordinating Honey Cut.

I die cut some hexagonal frames using the Hexagon Thin Frames from some sunny yellow cardstock, then offset one of the larger frames so that it would hang over the edge of my sunflower card front, as my honey pot does, adhering it with some liquid adhesive. I added the Just Bee-cause die cuts to the card front with some dimensional foam adhesive, then added a few Unicorn gems for some sparkle!

Well, that’s all for my project today! Is there any color combo more classic than cobalt blue and sunflower yellow? Love how crisp and clean it is! Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!