Sixth Street Sundries

Emily Midgett

christmas in july

Christmas In July: Icy Birdhouse with Simon Says Stamp!

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

Hi friends! I am back with another holiday project for my Christmas In July series, this time featuring some new, non-holiday products paired with a few older holiday products to create this icy holiday card. I love a good birdhouse die; there are so many ways to customize it: dress it up, dress it down, make it the focal point or a supporting player, add texture or sparkle… it’s really a great product to have in your stash! I used the new Cozy Birdhouse die to create this wintry scene. Let’s get started with the details!

*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!*

To begin, I die cut the Jolly Birdie, Cozy Birdhouse, and Snowflake Burst Pinpoint Plate from white Hammermill cardstock. Before layering the pieces for the bird and bird house, I decided to use two pale aqua Copic markers to add some icy aqua to the accents on the bird house and create a layered ombré birdie. I love that the Jolly Birdie and Cozy Birdhouse’s sizes work so beautifully together! The proportions are just perfect! Once I had finished adding color to the images, I adhered the different layers together with liquid adhesive.

Before I began assembling my card, I wanted to create a little nest of holiday greenery from two different kinds of white specialty cardstock. I pulled out some white glitter cardstock as well as some iridescent white foil cardstock to die cut the Branching Corner Holly and Budding Branches holiday foliage dies. When working with an almost-monochromatic card like this, I find it essential to add many elements of texture to the project to keep things visually interesting. One of my secrets to adding texture is to add specialty papers, whether it’s glitter cardstock, vellum, pearlescent papers, or shining foil papers in my chosen color palette. It keeps things interesting without adding any additional colors to my color palette!

Once I had completed cutting all of the die cuts, I used a combination of thin and thick adhesive squares as well as liquid adhesive to adhere all of the die cut pieces on my Snowflake Burst Pinpoint cover plate die cut. (Another element of texture!) I added a simple Happy Holidays sentiment from Peaceful Trees, stamped with silver metallic pigment ink and die cut with the coordinating die. Finally, I added one last element of sparkle with some Opal Pawsitively Dazzling Gems.

Well, that’s all for my project today! I love a good white-on-white project with a pop of color, don’t you? This card is so sparkly in real life; it’s so hard to capture that sparkle in photos!! I think the sparkle is just perfect for the holidays! Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!

Christmas In July with Simon Says Stamp!

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

Hi friends! It’s Christmas In July week here on my blog, and I have some super fun holiday projects to share with you that are perfect for jumpstarting your holiday crafting! I know, it’s maybe a little early, but my holiday projects from earlier this month started the holiday wheels turning in my head and I couldn’t resist pulling out some favorite supplies. It also gave me an opportunity to use some products that I didn’t have a chance to play with last year! I thought I would start with some vibrant jewel tones that are a bridge between summer colors and holiday imagery. I also have been itching to paint the gorgeous poinsettia bouquet from my Holiday Blossoms stamp set that was released a few years ago. It’s one of my favorite holiday sets that I’ve illustrated, and I always love a chance to work with my own illustrations in a new way. I have a two-fer for you today that would make the prettiest gift set, so let’s get started with the details!

*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!*

Poinsettias come in such a wide variety of colors, so I jumped at the opportunity to use some incredibly vibrant colors as my initial holiday project. I selected some vibrant magenta cardstock, pretty Plum Glitter Cardstock, Lisa Horton Pink Champagne Shimmer, and Taffy Pawsitively Dazzling Gems, along with some fun coordinating acrylic paint colors to create a sweet miniature canvas art piece!

To begin my gift set, I stamped the poinsettia bouquet from Holiday Blossoms onto my mini canvas using gold pigment ink, the color of which worked nicely to keep the ink lines subtle, while the pigment ink formulation also stamps cleanly on the canvas. I found this little mini canvas and easel at my local dollar store and thought it was perfect to practice my acrylic painting! I have not worked with acrylic paints very much, so this was a fun practice exercise. I just love how it turned out! After I had completed the painting, I knew that I needed to make a coordinating card to go along with it using the same vibrant fuchsia color palette.

To create my card, I stamped the same poinsettia bouquet image from Holiday Blossoms onto some deep magenta cardstock using Lisa Horton Pink Champagne Shimmer, which creates a subtle tone-on-tone effect while also adding exquisite shimmer to the card front. I rotated the stamp on the card front, allowing it to spill off of the sides to keep the pattern continuous throughout the card front.

After I had finished creating the subtly shimmering background, I die cut the Forest Border Frame from some Simon Says Stamp Plum Glitter Cardstock, which worked beautifully with the magenta cardstock to create a monochromatic effect. I adhered the frame to the bottom right of the card front with foam adhesive squares, trimming off the excess with sharp scissors. I created a greeting from Holiday Blossoms using white pigment ink and Hero Arts Iridescent Purple Embossing Powder and die cutting it with the coordinating die. I popped the sentiment up with a double layer of foam adhesive, then tucked a bow tied with Simon Says Stamp Iridescent White Cord beneath the sentiment, finally finishing the project off with some Taffy Pawsitively Dazzling Gems for added sparkle.

Well, that’s all for my first post for Christmas In July Week! I hope you’re as ready for some elegant and festive projects as I am! Happy Christmas In July, and have a marvelous day!

Poshta Designs Christmas In July Sneak Peeks- Day !

Hi friends! My sweet friend Lizzie Jones from Poshta Designs asked me to be a guest creator for her Christmas In July release, and I was so over the moon to help her introduce these Christmas products! I have such a soft spot (obsession?) with holiday crafting, and with my newfound love (more obsession?) with felt and all things stitching, I was totally thrilled and honored to be a part of the release. For Day 1 of the sneak peeks, we are showcasing the new Santa’s Sleigh, Pretty Packages, and some new festive felt colors to adorn your holiday projects. I have two different projects to share with you today, so let’s get started on the details!

Reminder: All of the links for the products will be available after the official Christmas in July release on Saturday, July 5th, 2025 at noon Eastern time.

I paired the gorgeous new Northbound Color Story to bring this beautiful sleigh to life. I am a huge fan of non-traditional color palettes at Christmas, and the cool teal, minty green, and icy blue in this color story won my heart over immediately. I paired it with some beautiful iridescent silver felt that I already had in my stash for the runners and accents, because who doesn’t love all things shiny and metallic at Christmas?? After die cutting, I stitched all of the components onto some printed snowflake cloth that I’d mounted in an embroidery hoop, using the coordinating floss colors for the Northbound Color Story. Now, if you’re new to stitching like I am (well, relatively new!) you will be so pleased to know that Lizzie includes the most helpful and detailed stitching guides with each die purchase so that you can easily assemble the pieces in the correct order. She also has tons of marvelous videos available to show you how to create your own felt masterpieces!

Once I had stitched my sleigh filled with gifts to my embroidery hoop, I used my iPad to create a beautiful calligraphic “sleigh” sentiment, a play on the current slang “slay” that my 11 1/2 year old daughter says constantly with an adorable giggle! I simply typed “sleigh” out on my iPad using Procreate in my chosen font, then placed my fabric directly on top of the screen and traced the outline of the letters. My daughter gave me the idea; she likes to trace pictures on her school laptop to use as coloring pages! I used a satin stitch with the coordinating deep teal embroidery floss to stitch the sentiment, and I am so pleased with how smoothly the embroidery came out and how vivid the contrast is between the deep teal lettering and the delicate snowflake fabric background.

Once I had finished embroidering the cheeky word, I added lots of sparkling and metallic details with the coordinating embellishments that are included with each Color Story collection. While the Santa’s Sleigh die set comes with a beautiful snowflake embellishment for the sleigh itself, I chose to create my own decoration for the sleigh with some sparkling holographic thread, seed beads, and sequins to embroider this elegant sleigh just waiting for Santa!

My second project is in the same color family, this time pairing the beautiful icy blue felt included with the Northbound Color Story with the new Pretty Packages die! This project was a fairly quick one once I had decided on the color palette. I kept the cool blues from the previous project, adding some more of that iridescent silver foil felt for the bow and ribbon. If you can’t be extra sparkly and shiny at Christmas, then when can you?

After I had stitched all of the layers together following Lizzie’s fabulous guide, I decided to add a loop of deep teal velvet ribbon to the top to create a pretty ornament! Wouldn’t this be perfect to add to the packaging on a special Christmas gift, so that the recipient could also add it to their Christmas tree later?

Well, that’s all for my projects today! You can see more inspiration over on the Poshta Designs Blog, and don’t forget to come back tomorrow for more sneak peeks and inspiration! Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!

Christmas In July Begins!

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

Hi friends! We are more than halfway to Christmas (yikes, right?) and I thought I would share some “Christmas in July” inspiration on my blog this week! I am always up for an excuse to play with my holiday supplies, and dedicating a full week to Christmas cards during this obnoxiously hot week in the dog days of summer seems like a great way to beat the heat! I don’t use much red when working on non-holiday projects, so it seems only appropriate that red be a featured color on these projects. Sometimes, it’s hard for me to get into a holiday mindset when it’s so seasonally opposite of the holidays, but using the color red with some sparkles always helps! Let’s get started on the details for my project.

I began my project by die cutting the different elements of the Berry Stems die set from different shades of red and green cardstock in the Concord and 9th cardstock collection. I assembled the berry branches using two different shades of red berry just to add some extra variety. I also used Welsh Gold glitter cardstock to die cut some additional pine sprigs.

To adorn for my holiday foliage swag, I die cut the Bell die from some Champagne Matte foil cardstock and assembled the images with liquid adhesive, adding a glittery clapper cut from the same golden glitter cardstock used for the pine branches. I die cut a vivid red bow using the Perfect Bow die. It really is perfect; such a sweet size and the shape is wonderful! I just love a good bow.

Before I assembled my holiday arrangement, I ran a panel of white cardstock through my die cutting machine with the Wistful Leaves embossing folder. This somewhat neutral foliage background is the perfect textured backdrop for this arrangement of holiday foliage. I trimmed the panel down slightly and adhered it to the center of a white A2 card base, creating a thin, solid mat around the edges of my textured panel. I added the bells, foliage, berries, and bow to my card front using both liquid and foam adhesive for varying heights and dimension, then added a greeting from Making Spirits Bright, which I heat embossed using Brutus Monroe red glitter embossing powder. Finally, I added a few sparkling Cherry Pawsitively Dazzling Gems for added shine!

Well, that’s all for the first project for Christmas In July week here on my blog! Red, green, and white with some sparkly gold are classic Christmas, I think, and they’re a perfect way to kick off a week of holiday fun. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!

Childhood Inspiration for Christmas with Spellbinders!

Hi friends! I have some more inspiration for you today using the new  De-Lightful Christmas Collection from the  July 2023 Spellbinders Holiday Release. Earlier this week, I posted some super saturated inspiration with a more traditional color scheme of intense, vibrant red and accents of green, but today my inspiration comes from my childhood. My mom had a couple of different themes for our Christmas trees when I was growing up, ranging from the more traditional hodgepodge of handmade and hand-me-down ornaments with colorful lights to a sophisticated and coordinated Victorian tree, complete with aqua, pink, gold, and pearl color scheme-and even pink lights! I channeled that tree when I was creating these two cards, so let’s get started with the details.

To start, I pulled out several different color elements that I wanted to incorporate into my projects, including Pink Lemonade and Sea Glass cardstock from Concord and 9th, as well as Pink Lemonade, Sea Glass, and Juniper inks, also from Concord and 9th.

For my first card, I began by hot foiling the beautiful Glimmer Holly Background on some Hammermill cardstock (super smooth and my preferred white cardstock for basically everything) using Satin Rose Gold Foil from Spellbinders. This background is so beautifully detailed, so full and rich, that it could easily stand on its own. I can’t wait to try adding watercoloring or alcohol markers!

For this card, though, I used the Layered Glimmer Holly Stencil Set with Pink Lemonade, Sea Glass, and Juniper inks from Concord and 9th, increasing the intensity of the Juniper ink for the holly leaves and decreasing it for the little spruce sprigs to get multiple colors from just one ink pad! The Layered Glimmer Holly Stencils are designed to be a bit stylized, leaving some of the images without color, some completely colored, and some with bare spots to add some highlights to the images. Such a unique look without compromising the beautiful design in the slightest! I trimmed down the full background panel and added a couple of strips of Pink Lemonade and Sea Glass cardstock to accent the colors in the stenciled panel.

The background is so lovely that I kept the card itself very simple so as to allow the background to be a main point of focus. I hot foiled one of the large sentiments from A Merry Little Christmas Sentiments using Satin Rose Gold Foil and die cut it with the coordinating die. I popped up the greeting using some foam adhesive, orienting it over the seam of the colored cardstock. The final touch was to add a few Aura AB gems for some sparkle. A simple card, but so effective!

My second card features the gorgeously detailed Poinsettia Bloom Dies. I began by die cutting the Poinsettia Bloom Dies twice from white cardstock. I removed each individual piece from the die cut and used a small blending brush to lightly blend some Pink Lemonade ink, concentrating the darkest blending towards the center of the flower. Once I had finished blending each piece, I die cut the solid outline piece from some heavyweight vellum cardstock and adhered the super detailed piece from the top layer using liquid adhesive. I then placed each blended petal in it’s appropriate spot using liquid adhesive. A bit fiddly, but replacing each piece honestly went a lot more quickly than you would think!

For the background, I ran an A2 panel of Pink Lemonade cardstock through my Platinum 6 using the Holly & Foliage 3D Embossing Folder . My matchy-matchy-loving heart adores that each element from the De-Lightful Christmas Collection coordinates perfectly together! To add a little interest to the background, I also blended some Pink Lemonade ink around the edges of the embossed panel, giving it just a touch more depth and dimension.

I popped up the blended poinsettia die cut using some foam adhesive, then added a few sprigs of pine cut using the Christmas Blooms Dies from White Glitter Foam. I love adding little individual botanical die cuts to bouquets like this; it helps to fill out the bouquets and direct your eye to the sentiment, because you can orient the direction of the bouquet based on where you place the additional sprigs. For the greeting, I used another hot foiled sentiment from the A Merry Little Christmas Sentiments using Satin Rose Gold Foil. I popped it up using a double layer of foam tape to give it a little extra height from the poinsettia. The final touch was a few more sparkling Aura AB gems!

Well, that’s all for these projects!

One last thing: the Christmas In July sale from Spellbinders is going on through July 16, and there are tons of stunning holiday products and essentials on sale for up to 50% off! (Click HERE to check it out!)

I have lots more to share with you using these beautiful new products from Spellbinders, so be sure to check back for more holiday inspiration! Thanks so much for stopping by today, and Merry Christmas in July!