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Sixth Street Sundries

Emily Midgett

Altenew Paint A Flower: Coral Sunset Blog Hop+Giveaway!

Good morning! Today, Altenew is releasing their latest in the Paint A Flower series: Paint A Flower: Coral Sunset, and of course, we’re sharing loads of inspiration with you in a blog hop! You should have arrived here from the Altenew Card Blog, and your next stop is Jenny Colacicco. This gorgeous peony swag is so beautifully detailed; I couldn’t wait to do some watercoloring with it! 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.

I began by stamping the main image from Paint A Flower: Coral Sunset using Embossing Ink on some of Altenew’s Watercolor Paper. This paper is extremely smooth and great for embossing beautifully detailed stamps! I heated some platinum embossing powder over the top, then taped my image down to a watercolor board to minimize warping.

Next, I used the Tropical Fiesta watercolor brush markers to add lots of vibrant color to the panel. When using liquid watercolors, I prefer to scribble the color out onto a ceramic palette, then pick up the color using my watercolor brushes and apply it to the paper with the damp paintbrush, rather than putting the brush marker directly to the paper. This way, I am guaranteed a bit more control with the intensity of the color. It’s easy to add layers of color to achieve super vibrant looks, but it’s much more difficult to take color away, so I try to make sure that I add color to the paper in small doses in all of my watercoloring.

Once my panel had dried completely, I splattered some dark purple watercolor to add a bit of artistic texture, then, once that had dried, heat embossed a greeting from the Paint A Flower: Coral Sunset stamp set, again using platinum embossing powder. I trimmed the sides of the panel and mounted it on an A2 panel of shimmery, deep magenta cardstock, finally adding a few gems to add a bit of sparkling texture.

Well, that’s all for my project today! As always, to celebrate the new release, Altenew is hosting lots of giveaways!

$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 03/27/2021 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 03/30/2021.

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

Sympathy and Dahlias with Honey Bee Stamps

Hi there! Today, I have a sympathy card for you created with Darling Dahlias, Oval Spotlight Stencils, and With Sympathy stamps and dies. Sympathy cards often are quite difficult to make, not simply because of the subject matter, but also because they must not be too cheerful with color or embellishments. I find that it’s easier to create sympathy cards and have them on hand rather than having to create them as they’re needed.

I began by stamping a small cluster of flowers on watercolor paper using the Darling Dahlias stamp set and some no-line coloring ink. I also used one of the stencils from Oval Spotlight Stencils to lightly pencil an oval around the floral cluster. The oval frame helps to ground the flowers.

I used some Prima watercolors to watercolor the image, using a variety of colors to create an almost marbled background, and taking care to keep the paint within the edges of my penciled oval frame. I used the same colors from within the frame to add some highlights and other colors to the flower, adding interest to the flower to keep it from being too flat.

I trimmed the panel down and mounted it on an A2 panel of coral cardstock. I die cut and heat embossed a sentiment from the With Sympathy stamps and dies on some dark gray cardstock. The deep gray helps the sentiment pop from the muted colors of the flower and oval frame in the background.

Well, that’s all for me today. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!

Preppy Trio with The Greetery!

Hi, I’m Emily, and I have a slight obsession with colored cardstock and ink. In my opinion, few things have such an impact as your color choices. I love crisp, clean, bright white projects almost as much as I love intense, bold, vibrant color. I have a trio of projects today using products from The Greetery, cardstock from Hero Arts and Concord and 9th, and inks from Pinkfresh Studio… deep pinks, emerald green, turquoise, and lilac. Let’s get started with the details!

Today’s projects feature the Fresh Floral Background Stamp, Budding Beauties Summer, Pitcher-esque (which is on sale!), Fresh Florals, and word dies: Sentiment Starters, Slim Alphabet, Let’s Have A Word: Beautiful. I paired them with pretty inks from Pinkfresh Studio: Emerald City, Meadow, and Mint, Candy Violet, Soft Lilac, and Lavender, Raspberry Bliss, Bubble Gum, and Sparkling Rose, and Aquamarine, Mermaid Cove, and Tidal Pond.

My first card uses the Pitcher-esque stamps and dies, stamped with Aquamarine, Mermaid Cove, and Tidal Pond ink. I stamped the flowers from Budding Beauties Summer using a variety of pinks and purples, then die cut them using the coordinating dies.

I stamped the Fresh Floral Background Stamp on a panel of deep teal cardstock using Emerald City. (Side note-I absolutely love the combination of the deep teal cardstock with the green ink over the top. Such a unique combo that I’m definitely going to have to remember for the future!) I arranged the flowers and put them with the pitcher, adhering them to the patterned card front using foam adhesive. I added a bright white greeting cut from Sentiment Starters and Slim Alphabet and threw a few iridescent gems on for a touch of sparkle.

My second card features the same stamps and dies, but with a bright pink tone-on-tone color scheme. I stamped the Fresh Floral Background Stamp on some deep pink cardstock using Raspberry Bliss ink. I trimmed the edges down and mounted the patterned panel on a full size A2 panel of mint cardstock, so that the mint was just peeking out on the sides.

I arranged some more of the flowers from Budding Beauties Summer on the floral patterned card front and adhered them using foam tape. I stamped a greeting from Sentiment Suite: Thinking of You and die cut it with a flagged strip from the Sentiment Suite Basics dies. A few pink gems finished it off!

My final project features a deep green background. I stamped the Fresh Floral Background Stamp on a panel of green cardstock using Emerald City ink, then used a blending brush to blend some more Emerald City ink in the center. I love this technique, because it helps to create a spotlight area for the sentiment! I trimmed the green patterned panel down slightly and mounted it on another A2 panel of hot pink cardstock.

I stamped a few individual blooms from Fresh Florals and fussy cut them. I die cut a sentiment from Let’s Have A Word: Beautiful using white cardstock and adhered it in the center of the blended patterned panel using liquid adhesive, then arranged the fussy cut florals around it. I adhered the flowers to the card front with foam adhesive, then added some more gems for sparkle.

A trio of springy, preppy cards!! I don’t often get the time to just sit and play, so it was great fun to pull out these beautiful stamps and dies from The Greetery and gorgeous inks from Pinkfresh Studio. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!

Birthday Mice with Colorado Craft Company!

Hi there! Today, I have some fun little birthday cards created with some of the new Anita Jeram stamps from Colorado Craft Company! The So Sweet Slimline stamps are full of darling little mice sharing some sweets with the recipient. I created a trio of birthday cards to share with you today, so let’s get started with the details!

I stamped the trio of little mice from So Sweet Slimline with their chocolatey offerings using some Copic-friendly ink and colored them with my Copic markers. I die cut them using the coordinating dies and turned my attention to the card bases.

I stamped the polka dotted striped strip from the Stripes and Dots on three different card bases using Watermelon, Pale Blush, and Spring Rain inks from Simon Says Stamp. I used my Misti to stamp each of the bases lickety split! I added some subtle ink blending on each card, with placement depending on where I wanted the die cuts and sentiment strips to end up.

Next, I stamped several greetings from the So Sweet Slimline on some plain white cardstock using black pigment ink. (I absolutely adore the sweet font used on this set!) I trimmed them down to strips so that I could add them to the cards.

I adhered all of the die cuts and sentiment strips to the stamped and blended card fronts using foam adhesive.

Aren’t these little mice darling? Paired with the sweet sentiments they create such a precious set of cards!

If you haven’t checked out the stamps from Colorado Craft Company featuring Anita Jeram’s illustrations, you are totally missing out. They’re absolutely precious, and there are stamps for so many different occasions! Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!

Spellbinders Stamp of the Month-March!

Hi there! Spellbinders has a large variety of monthly club kits to which you can subscribe featuring fun stamps and dies. Their monthly stamp club is a real bargain: $10 for a full size stamp set when you subscribe! The sweet little bunnies in this March Stamp of the Month remind me of springtime toile, so I created a trio of cards using these beautiful stamps.

Sometimes, using one ink color can be just as impactful as a variety of ink colors, and it can allow the detail in the stamps to really shine! Using my trusty Misti stamping tool, I was able to create three stamped panels using three different shades of ink- Ballet Slipper, Grapefruit, and Sea Glass- super springy colors, in my opinion!

After I’d stamped each panel with the bunny and wreath of flowers using colored ink, I used a black pigment ink to add a crisp black sentiment from the March Stamp of the Month on each panel. I then trimmed them down from A2 size and added a black mat that was very slightly larger to create a thin black frame around the edge.

For the bases, I chose coordinating shades of colored cardstock and trimmed them down to A2 size. I then used the same ink shades to stamp a custom tone-on-tone pattern just around the edge of each colored cardstock panel using some of the individual floral stamps from the March Stamp of the Month stamp set.

Once I had stamped all of the pieces of colored cardstock, I mounted the black framed panels on each of them using foam adhesive. Such clean and springy projects! I love when you can create lovely projects easily and quickly because of beautifully designed stamps.

Well, that’s all for my projects today! I hope you’ll check out all of the Spellbinders Monthly Club Kits… there are so many fun options to choose from, and the variety of styles and products represented is a wonderful value!