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Sixth Street Sundries

Emily Midgett

balloons

Alex Syberia Designs One-Year Anniversary Release Blog Hop | Giveaway | Over £800 ($1000) in prizes

Hi friends! Today, I am ever so excited to be joining a blog hop to celebrate one year of fabulousness from Alex Syberia Designs!! You should have arrived here from Raquel, and your next stop is Erin. You can also find the full hop list over on the Alex Syberia Designs Blog Post. To celebrate this impressive achievement, tons of your favorite companies are joining in on the fun and have sponsored marvelous giveaways. Read all the way to the bottom to find out how you can be one of the winners of these fabulous prizes!

I have a thing for birthday cards. I love to go all out on them and make them crazy festive, with tons of layers, sparkles, textures… the sky is the limit! I think going all out on the birthday card makes the recipient feel extra loved, and who wouldn’t want that? Balloons with flowers are certainly having a moment on my blog (remember this project??), and I fell in love with these beautiful, sketchy floral clusters from the Floral Balloon Extravaganza Stamps (ASD | SSS) and Dies (ASD | SSS), so much so that I created two different cards using two different techniques using these gorgeous balloons! Let’s get started with the details.

For my first project, I wanted to create some transparent balloons to make them look as life-like as possible by adding color with some light ink blending. I also wanted to test out my Karin Decobrush Pigment Markers on vellum to create the opaque flowers! I am absolutely in love with this technique and can’t wait to play with it some more.

I started by heat embossing the different balloons included in the Floral Balloon Extravaganza Stamps (ASD | SSS) set using gold embossing powder on some lighter weight vellum paper. I then die cut the individual images with the Coordinating Dies (ASD | SSS). Once I had each of the individual components ready, I flipped them over and began using the opaque Karin Decobrush Pigment Markers on the flowers only. Adding this opaque color on the back of the die cuts allows the details of the embossing to still be visible from the front. Because the floral images are on the small side, you don’t need to worry much about adding details and shading, because the embossed details on the front do the work for you. The opaque paint is solely adding color to the image, as well as a sneaky place to hide your adhesive!

After the paint had dried, keeping the balloons with the embossing face down on my work surface, I used a blending brush to blend Cheeky and Blush Pawsitively Saturated Inks. The semi-transparent vellum combined with the water-based dye ink allows the ink to simply dye the vellum without compromising the transparency! I think the balloons look positively weightless and so unique. It’s such a fun technique! I also heat embossed some balloon strings on some more vellum to allow them to “float” on my card front, as well.

For the background, I die cut a slimline panel of white cardstock using the new Slimline Nested Stitched Die (ASD | SSS). I then used the same Cheeky and Blush Pawsitively Saturated Inks with the super festive and fun new Carnival Party Stencil + Die (ASD | SSS) set from the Alex Syberia Birthday Release. I blended the two part streamer stencils on the top of my die cut panel, then lightly blended the Cheeky ink around the upper edges of the panel. I splattered the entire piece with some super sparkly gold watercolors, as well.

For the greeting, I hot foiled the sentiment strips using the new Celebrations Sentiments Hot Foil Plate (ASD | SSS) onto some white cardstock using shining gold foil, then die cut the sentiments with the Thin Stripes Cover Die (ASD | SSS). (I have a bunch of birthday sentiments ready to go-love these one-and-done hot foil plate and die sets!) I also die cut the “wish” portion of the Birthday & Wish Die Set (ASD | SSS) from some super shiny gold mirror cardstock. I arranged the balloons on my blended card front, hiding the clear dimensional adhesive behind the opaque floral bouquets, then added my sentiment pieces. The final touch was to add a few shimmering gems to this super festive card front! I love that you can still see the streamers through the balloons. So much fun!

My second card is a bit more traditional. I heat embossed the balloons and the gorgeous floral bouquet from the Floral Balloon Extravaganza Stamps (ASD | SSS) set on some watercolor paper using pale rose gold embossing powder. I then added lots of beautiful pink, peach, and jade watercolor to the images using my Karin Brushmarker Pro watercolor markers. I glazed the finished pink balloons with some super shimmery, handmade glitter watercolors from Etsy, as well. Birthday cards, especially super feminine pink floral birthday cards, need as much sparkle as you can pack on, in my opinion!

For the background, I cut down an A2 panel of Dragonfruit cardstock from Concord and 9th and blended it with the coordinating Dragonfruit Ink around the edges of the card front. I splattered some more rose gold metallic watercolor on the background to add extra interest and shimmer to the background.

For the greeting, I heat embossed one of the beautiful scripty sentiments included in the Floral Balloon Extravaganza Stamps (ASD | SSS) set using the pale rose gold embossing powder. I used the coordinating dies (notice the sentiment dies for each individual sentiment, including the tiny sentiment strips! Now that is some attention to detail! Well done, Alex!) to die cut the sentiments. I then arranged the floral bouquet and balloons on my blended, splattered card front using foam adhesive for extra dimension. I heat embossed some more balloon strings on vellum so that they were as floaty and ethereal as possible, then added them to the card front with tiny dots of liquid adhesive. I added the greeting pieces using more foam tape, finally finishing the card off with some sparkly gems!

Well, that’s all for my projects today! Now for the fun giveaway information I promised at the beginning of the post:

To celebrate their birthday, Alex Syberia Designs has collaborated with a ton of wonderful sponsors to give away a grand total of £800 ($1000) in prizes!

Alex Syberia Designs: 5x £40 ($50) Gift Cards

Altenew : $50 Gift Card
Auzz Trinklets n crafts : $30AUD Gift Card
Crafty Purple Frog: £25 Gift Card
Dies to Die For : £25 Gift Card
Doeading : 50€ Gift Card (only for EU)
Gina K  : $100 Gift Card
Glitter and ink : $50 CAD Gift Card (only for Canada)
Jennifer McGuire Ink : 1 Share Handmade Kindness goodies bag -$75value
Kit & Clowder : $15 Gift Card
Mennys Bastelshop : 2x 20€ Gift Cards (EU)
Online Card Classes : 3 x free spots to any classes
Paper & i : $25 Gift Card (only for USA)
Pear Blossom press : $25 Gift Card
Scrap Shotz : $25 CAD Gift Card (only for Canada)
Seize the Stamp : 2x CHF 25 Gift Cards
Simon Says Stamp : $100 Gift Card
SCT Magazine : $50 Gift Card
The Glitter Hubb : $25 CAD Gift Card
WOW Embossing : 2x $25 Gift Cards

Be sure to leave comments by midnight BST (London, UK time) on September 17th, 2023, for a chance to win!

Start your comment by telling us where you’re from (USA, Canada, Europe, or Australia) and what your favorite product is from this September Anniversary release.

All the winners will be chosen at random from the comments left on any of the posts in the blog hop, upcoming YouTube hop, and the three upcoming Instagram hops. Winners will be announced on the Alex Syberia Designs GIVEAWAY WINNERS PAGE on September 18th, 2023.

Make sure to come back and check if you are a winner! Prizes not claimed within two weeks will be forfeited.

To increase your chances of winning, be sure to comment on this blog hop, the upcoming Anniversary Video Hop that starts on the 9th of Sep on Alex Syberia Designs YT Channel, and the three consecutive Instagram Hops on Alex Syberia Designs  Instagram starting on the 11th of September.

Thanks so much for stopping by today, friends, and happy anniversary to Alex Syberia Designs! May this be the first of many years of success!

Birthday Blues with STAMPtember from Simon Says Stamp !

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

Hi friends! STAMPtember, the incredible month-long party celebrating stamping and so many of the companies that we love, has officially begun over at Simon Says Stamp, with their first STAMPtember release going live last night! I shared a could of blurple projects with you last night featuring several of the new products for this first fabulous release (which you can check out HERE), but I have switched things up today to create this aqua (aka gender neutral!) birthday card using the new Party Hat die from the STAMPtember release! Birthday cards are one of my most favorite cards to create, because you can make them so fun and festive by adding sparkles, layers, and shine. Let’s get started with the details!

I began my project by die cutting the different layers of the new Party Hat die using a variety of pool-colored cardstocks, starting with Seaglass Cardstock for the base and accenting the stripes with turquoise glitter cardstock. I layered all of the pieces together using liquid adhesive to create a super fun party hat!

To accent the party hat and create the party atmosphere, I die cut several of the smaller balloons in the Balloons die set, cutting them from both Lawn Fawn Pearlescent Vellum and Pearlescent cardstock. Layering the vellum balloons behind the solid pearlescent cardstock gives you the opportunity to hide the adhesive behind the solid die cuts so that they don’t mess up the semi-transparent vellum! I also die cut a simple happy birthday sentiment using the Happy Birthday on a Line die from some more Pearlescent cardstock, adhering two more layers die cut from plain cardstock to create a dimensional die cut greeting!

Before I began arranging my different die cut elements, I trimmed down a panel of Seaglass Cardstock to A2 size, then used the Layered Confetti Stencil to create a fun, almost bokeh, effect for the background. I blended Tropic and Tidepool Pawsitively Saturated inks using the two stencils with the smaller circles, then spritzed Hero Arts Iridescent Shimmer Spray over the stencil with the largest circles. The large, shimmering circles add an ethereal quality to the background, I think! I arranged the balloons, party hat, and sentiment in a cluster on the card front using dimensional adhesive and added some shimmering gems to add even more sparkle. I also added some balloon strings with a glittery gel pen!

Well, that’s all for my project today! Be sure to check back tomorrow for the awesome blog party to kick of STAMPtember 2023 in a big way with an awesome scavenger hunt, not to mention tons of inspiration from an abundance of talented bloggers. Thanks so much for stopping by, and have a marvelous day!

Weekend Playtime: Trinity Stamps x 2!

Hi friends! I was excited to be asked to help my friends at Trinity Stamps celebrate their birthday earlier this summer (check out that post HERE), and summertime being the crazytown that it is with four kids plus the accompanying summertime activities plus working, I haven’t had a chance to post these other projects that I made with the goodies the folks at Trinity were so kind as to send me! I have two projects to share with you using some old and some newer goodies, so let’s get started with the details!

I am a sucker for a beautiful calligraphy font, and the Big Celebrate Foil & Cut (TS | SSS) is so gorgeous. To accompany the festive intent of the sentiment, I hot foiled it using Speckled Prism Glitter Foil. It creates an iridescent rainbow sparkle… so festive and fun! I hot foiled the Celebrate onto some Hammermill cardstock, which is my favorite white cardstock for pretty much everything except watercoloring, then die cut it with the coordinating die.

For the background, I put the Stars & Sprinkles Stencil Set (TS | SSS) to use, color coordinating the sprinkles to the iridescent colors in the hot foiled sentiment! I used blending brushes to blend Dragonfruit (C9 | SSS), Grapefruit (C9 | SSS), Buttercup (C9), Sea Glass (C9 | SSS), and Harbor (C9 | SSS) inks on the stencil, then went around the edges of the card front to create a gorgeous, colorful rainbow that coordinated perfectly with the colors on the background. Such a fun way to create a super colorful card front!

I also die cut several sizes of balloon using the Celebration Balloons Dies (TS | SSS) and some different iridescent cardstock textures. I used iridescent white glitter paper, iridescent shimmer pearl cardstock, and iridescent vellum, layering them all together in a cluster and hiding the foam adhesive behind the solid die cut balloons in order to keep the vellum balloons nice and clean! I used a black pen to create the balloon strings super quickly.

To coordinate with the hot foiled sentiment, I silver embossed a greeting from the Simply Sentimental Birthday (TS | SSS) stamp set onto a strip of white cardstock. I like to keep the sentiment pieces as cohesive to the background as possible, so I used the residual ink leftover on the blending brushes to blend a rainbow on both the foiled die cut and the embossed sentiment die cut. After popping up the sentiment pieces with foam adhesive, I added some iridescent Suncatcher gems for even more iridescent sparkle! (If you haven’t checked out Trinity’s collection of jewels, you are totally missing out; I use them on almost every card!!) I absolutely love how this card turned out! Nothing beats a pretty rainbow, right?

My second card features a totally different style and color scheme; I used the beautiful Teacup Blooms Stamps (TS | SSS) and Dies (TS | SSS) to create the vintage vibe on this encouragement card! I started by stamping the images from Teacup Blooms (TS | SSS) onto some watercolor paper using black pigment ink, then clear embossing over the top. The embossing helps make the watercoloring go lickety split, because the raised lines help to keep the watercolor inside each specific area. I used Daniel Smith watercolors to add some soft pinks, purples, and creamy yellows to the images, then die cut the images using the Coordinating Dies (TS | SSS).

To coordinate with the soft colors on the teacup, I wanted to keep the rest of the card simple and ladylike, so I die cut the A7 Diamond Eyelet Cover Plate Background (TS | SSS) from some ivory cardstock. The ivory cardstock coordinated beautifully with the soft, buttery yellow on the teacup and definitely gives off a vintage tablecloth vibe! Because the cover plate die is generously sized to fit an A7 card front, you can not only use it for A7 but also for A2 and mini slimline card fronts! I love when products can be used in multiple ways.

I trimmed down the lacy “tablecloth” to fit in the center of an A2 black cardstock card front, leaving a crisp black border around the edge. I also heat embossed a greeting from the Punny Cup of Tea sentiment set (TS | SSS) using Platinum embossing powder. I arranged all of the die cuts and sentiment strip on the “tablecloth” and adhered them using foam adhesive. The final touch was to add a few Andesine Aura jewels for some sparkle!

Well, that’s all for my projects today! Trinity Stamps just released some gorgeous new Autumn and Halloween themed goodies, so be sure to take a peek at those, as well. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous weekend!

Honey Bee Stamps 4th Anniversary Celebration!

Hi there! If you follow me on Instagram, you’ll know that I’ve been sneaking peeks of Honey Bee Stamps‘s release. This release is a doozy… over 50 new products being debuted… and it’s super appropriate, because it’s their 4th Anniversary! Four years of Honey Bee goodness! I am so proud of how much Honey Bee Stamps has grown, and so honored to have been part of Melissa’s Design Team for almost two years now! I seriously am so lucky to be able to work with so many wonderful people in this industry, and Melissa is on one of my absolute favorites!

There’s a huge blog hop going on today and tomorrow (my “official” blog hop post is tomorrow), but I created so many projects using the new goodies in this release that I thought I’d spread the details about them out over two posts! This post will be long, with lots of pictures, but that’s just how much I have to show you!! 🙂 Let’s get started!

For my first project, I wanted to create a birthday card using the fantastic new Balloon Bunch dies. These are a set of nested dies, with two different shapes included in the die set, and they range from teeny tiny to gigantic! I die cut a bunch of them from some watercolor paper, then used Vicki Boutin’s Watercolor Brush Markers (such gorgeous, vibrant colors in this watercolor set!) to watercolor the solid balloons in a pretty mint, jade, pink, and fuchsia color scheme! I also added a generous layer of Ink On 3’s Pixie Dust to each ballon to make them super festive.

Next, I blended some pretty purple, pink, and mint inks on a white A2 card using blending brushes, layered my die cut balloons over the top, and adhered them with foam tape. I also die cut a glittery white “birthday” using the new Birthday Honey Cuts die. I white embossed a coordinating greeting from the new Happy Birthday stamp set onto some strips of vellum. (So many cute sentiments in that stamp set! Definitely a must have.) The final touch was some jewels and Nuvo drops.

For my second project, I used the absolutely stunningly detailed new Mandala die. I die cut the Mandala from some beautiful gold card stock, then layered it on an alcohol ink background that I had in my stash. (I like to make a bunch of them at once and then have them on hand for a quick background!) I stamped the greeting from Thanks a Bunch using Brass embossing powder onto some heavyweight vellum, then fussy cut around the edges.

The final touch was a few gems around the edge of the intricate Mandala die cut.

I saved my favorite for my final project today… Y’all know I’m a sucker for anything peony, and these new Spring Peony stamps from today’s release immediately claimed my attention as soon as I received my package. They’re gonna be awesome in any medium. For today, however, I decided to put my Luminance pencils to use. I absolutely love the look of colored pencils on colored card stock to create a seamless, almost screen-printed look, so I stamped several of the blooms and foliage from Spring Peony onto some beautiful teal card stock using white pigment ink, then colored them with my C’aran D’ache Luminance colored pencils.

I wanted to keep that deep teal background, allowing the peonies to be some bright pops of saturated color, which was accomplished by coloring the flowers on the same shade of teal card stock, then die cutting them and layering them on my teal background. I also die cut one of the new Double Stitched Polygon dies from that same teal card stock and popped it up on the teal card base using foam tape.

I die cut the white “bloom” from the new Bloom Honey Cuts and added the rest of the sentiment from the Bloom stamp set on strips of white card stock. I arranged the flowers on one side of the Double Stitched Polygon die cut, then adhered them and the greeting components using liquid adhesive. The final touch was a few jewels for sparkle!

Well, that’s all for my projects today. Be sure to stop by the Honey Bee Stamps blog to get linked up to Day 1 of the Blog Hop. (Psst… There are prizes to be had!!!) And don’t forget to come back here tomorrow for Day 2 for even more inspiration using the newest release from Honey Bee Stamps! Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!