Sixth Street Sundries

Emily Midgett

bottle brush trees

Pink and Red Bottle Brush Tree with Simon Says Stamp!

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

Hi friends! I am back with another non-traditional holiday project today, this time featuring vibrant magenta and deep cherry red. I had a few leftover felt bottle brush trees from a project that I posted earlier this week featuring some festive pink and red bottle brush trees, so I thought I would turn the leftovers into an entirely different felt project, this time on an embroidery hoop! I loved the hot pink and red color palette so much that I thought I would make a coordinating card so that they could be given as a gift. Don’t you just love it when everything coordinates? Let’s get started with the details on my projects!

*I have gathered links to all of the products used at the bottom of the post for your convenience, using affiliate links. Thank you for shopping with my links! I truly appreciate your support for my work!*

I had die cut several bottle brush trees from two different shades of pink felt as well as some metallic red foil felt and used this as my color palette for both projects, adding in some crisp white backdrops and some snowflakes to help enhance the holiday imagery!

I filled a medium sized embroidery hoop with some crisp white fabric with a subtle white snowflake pattern, then adhered the detail layer of these Small Bottle Brush Trees and Large Bottle Brush Trees die cuts in a row on the printed fabric using felt glue. I added a die cut Merry Word from CZ Design for Simon Says Stamp, cut using the same metallic red foil felt from my stash, beneath the row of trees, tucking a red hemp twine bow beneath it. For some additional sparkle, I added some Clear Pawsitively Dazzling Gems and a few snowflake sequins, sewn on with embroidery thread and embellished with a seed bead.

To create the coordinating card, I used blending brushes to blend Pawsitively Saturated Inks in shades of Cherry, Guava, Apple on an A2 card front, then used white pigment ink to stamp some snowflakes and a white gel pen to add some snowy dots on the blended background. I used red foil, magenta, and bright red cardstock to die cut the different components of the Small Bottle Brush Trees and Large Bottle Brush Trees, adhering the detail layer to the solid background layer with liquid adhesive.

After I had die cut the trees and put them together, I used foam adhesive to place the trio of bottle brush trees on my snowy card front, adding a glittery die cut Merry and coordinating embossed sentiment from Season’s Tweetings, which I stamped on a strip of red cardstock using Simon Says Stamp White Pigment Ink and added some White Satin Pearl embossing powder. I flagged the end of the sentiment strip and added the sentiment pieces to the card front using foam adhesive. Finally, I added a few Taffy Pawsitively Dazzling Gems for additional sparkle!

Well, that’s all for my projects today! We are heading straight into holiday crafting season (anybody know the “I’m shifting into soup mode” meme? I’m shifting into holiday mode!) so I hope you’re ready for snowflakes, sparkles, trees, bows, and poinsettias galore!! Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!

NEW DieCember with Simon Says Stamp and Tim Holtz!

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

Hi friends, and happy Friday to you! Simon Says Stamp’s DieCember release launched late last night, and it is absolutely cram-jam full of marvelous die cutting fun. One of the best surprises was a collection of dies to coordinate with Tim Holtz cling stamps that are exclusive to Simon Says Stamp! These coordinating dies are Simon-branded, and so are totally exclusive to the Simon Says Stamp store. I created a colorful and sparkling project using the super sweet Tim Holtz Bottle Brush Trees cling stamps + special DieCember Exclusive Simon Says Stamp coordinating dies. Let’s get started with the details!

Just a note: because these Simon-exclusive dies are Simon-branded, they do not count towards the $25 Tim Holtz purchase requirement for the Walter freebie promotion. The Tim Holtz cling stamps with which they coordinate, however, are certainly included with the promotion!!

I began by stamping the Tim Holtz Bottle Brush Trees cling stamps onto some heavyweight vellum using silver sparkle embossing powder. Once I had finished embossing, I used the DieCember Exclusive Simon Says Stamp coordinating dies to die cut each tree. I love that there are so many different heights and widths in both the trees and the bases. The variety is wonderful and creates such amazing projects! I wanted to create the glow of colorful Christmas lights behind the bottle brush trees, and so embossing them on vellum helped to lighten the die cuts a bit to keep them from being too heavy on the colorful background.

After I had heat embossed my sparkling silver trees, I used ink blending brushes to blend Dublin, Tidepool, Cadette, Amethyst, and Taffy Pawsitively Saturated inks onto my panel, keeping the color concentrated in the center and fading out towards the edges of the card front. I have some sparkly silver bottle brush trees on my mantlepiece with colorful Christmas lights right behind them, and the lights create the most spectacular glow and colorful sparkle on the glittery trees! After I’d finished my ink blending, I splattered some sparkling silver watercolors on the background to add an extra bit of magic.

While my background panel was drying, I die cut the Merry word die twice from plain white cardstock and adhered them together to create a dimensional die cut greeting. I only did two versus three layers to keep things a little flatter for mailing, but you could definitely do three layers to add extra dimension! After my panel was completely dry, I adhered the trees using some foam adhesive, hiding the tape behind the solid embossed areas to keep the trees nice and light, like they were floating on the colorful background. I added the die cut greeting directly over the top with some liquid adhesive, and then as a final touch of magical sparkle, I added some twinkling star confetti. I just love how this card came out!!

Well, that’s all for my project today. If you haven’t taken a peek at the new Simon Says Stamp DieCember products, you’re missing out. There are so many fun new products with which to get super creative!! Don’t forget to come back tomorrow for the first part of the DieCember Blog Hop. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!