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Sixth Street Sundries

Emily Midgett

copic coloring

Hero Arts 2021 Catalog Release Blog Hop+Giveaway!

Hi there! Today, Hero Arts is celebrating the release of their 2021 Catalog, and we have a blog hop to show it off with so many fun projects and fantastic guests!! You should have arrived here from Debi Adams and your next stop is Ilina Crouse. The new catalog has a huge array of wonderful new products, including some splendid new standalone dies perfect for making super festive birthday cards. I have two projects to share with you today using these new products, so let’s get started with the details!

Both of my projects are birthday themed and feature what I like to call my “fiesta” color scheme: tangerine, fuchsia, and plum, with some pops of bright, clean white. I created sparkly base layers for both projects by covering two white A2 card bases with Embossing Ink, then sprinkling them with Sparkle Embossing Powder and heat embossing to create custom glitter paper!

For this first project, I used the new Birthday Message Cover Plate die with some ink blending and the custom sparkle paper. I began by blending Tangerine, Raspberry Jam, and Grape Juice inks with a foam blending tool to achieve really deep, saturated color.

I die cut the new Birthday Message Cover Plate die from this super colorful blended panel, then adhered it with liquid adhesive to the sparkling background panel. Super flat and easy to pop in the mail! (And even kinda gender neutral, if you count the Raspberry Jam ink as more of a red than a pink!)

For my second project, I focused on the fantastic new Balloon Window Fancy Die. One of my favorite ways to treat these intricate dies from Hero Arts is to add Copic coloring to the detailed die cuts. It’s so fun to see the dies come to life with the addition of some color, but they are just as fun to use with a different medium! You could do ink blending, watercoloring, even leave them plain and have fun texture on your card front. I colored the balloons using my “fiesta” color scheme, but you could easily make this a very masculine or neutral card by switching up the Copic colors! It would be great with blues or aquas for a baby boy or shades of deep blue and green for a guy!

I adhered the Copic colored die cut card front to my sparkly background panel using liquid adhesive, then added a greeting using a dimensional die cut “happy” (cut three times from the Happy Fancy Die and adhered together), as well as some sentiment strips stamped from the Mix and Match Compliments set, which I adhered with some foam adhesive for lots of dimension.

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

Comment on the hop by Wednesday, February 24th at 11:59pm pst for a chance to win one of three $50 gift certificates to the Hero Arts store. The more blogs you leave comments on, the more chances to win!

Your next stop is Ilina Crouse. Thanks for stopping by today, and happy hopping!

Miss You, Friend!

Hi there! I am up on the Honey Bee Stamps blog today with a card using Harvest Blooms, one of the sets that I illustrated for Honey Bee Stamps. One of the things I’ve most enjoyed since coming “back” is having an excuse to use stamps that have been a bit neglected. I hadn’t had a chance to color the image with Copic markers yet, so I thought I’d pull out some of my favorite combos and go to town!

I started by stamping the pretty 6×6 Harvest Blooms on some white cardstock using Copic-friendly ink. I used a pretty combination of pale lavender, coral, and pink to color the floral images. I trimmed the panel down to 3.25″x5.75″ to create a panel for a mini-slimline card. I quite like this size, especially for a busy background like the Harvest Blooms.

I cut down a 3.5″x6″ black panel of cardstock to create a mat for the floral panel. To be a bit economical with my black cardstock, I cut out the “friend” (from the Slimline Stitched die set) and “miss you” (using the Tailgate Alphabet) from the center of the black panel. It will be hidden behind the floral panel, so the die cut areas will be hidden. Sneaky sneaky!

I adhered the floral panel to the black card base to create a black mat around the edge, then added the die cut greeting to the card front with liquid adhesive. Finally I added a few Obsidian gems for some sparkle.

Well, that’s all for my project today! I love the sentiment, especially now… so many friends that I miss and can’t wait to see them when things get a bit more normal! Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have. marvelous day!

Altenew Build A Flower: Bellaroma Hybrid Tea Rose Blog Hop+ Giveaway!

Hi there! Happy February 1st! It always feels like January is the longest month ever, right? And then all of a sudden, it’s February and it’s like how are we already two months into the year? Today Altenew is releasing their newest installment in the Build A Flower series: Bellaroma Hybrid Tea Rose! We’re celebrating with a blog hop, of course; you should have arrived here from Justine and your next stop is Kelly! (You can also start back at the beginning at the Altenew Card Blog to get the full hop list!) I color flowers all the time, because I want to put a flower on everything, so I thought I’d switch things up from the typical green leaves to something a little different: deep raspberry pink! Let’s get started with the details.

I started by stamping the outlines of the flowers and foliage from Bellaroma Hybrid Tea Rose using Copic-friendly black ink on Neenah Solar White cardstock. I then used my Copic markers to color the images in shades of bright coral and deep, jewel-toned raspberry pink. I love trying something different every now and then!

After I had finished coloring the images, I used the coordinating dies to die cut the colored images. I arranged them on a bright white card base in a cascade of flowers, trimming some of the overhanging edges off and using them to help fill in some of the some of the bare spots. I adhered some of the die cuts with foam adhesive and some with liquid adhesive to create lots of dimension.

I added a greeting from Bellaroma Hybrid Tea Rose using Obsidian ink directly onto the card base, then added some gems for some shine!

Now, as always, Altenew has some great giveaways to celebrate their new Bellaroma Hybrid Tea Rose release!

$200 in total prizes! To celebrate this release, Altenew is giving away a $50 gift certificate to 1 lucky winner and a $15 gift certificate to 10 winners! Please leave a comment on the Altenew Card Blog and/or each designer’s blog post on the blog hop list below by 02/07/2021 for a chance to win. Altenew will draw 11 random winners from the comments left on each stop of this blog hop and announce the winners on the Altenew Winners Page on 02/09/2021.

Your next stop is the super talented Kelly Taylor. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and happy hopping!

Altenew Fresh Start January Stamp and Die Blog Hop+Giveaway!

Hi there! Today marks Altenew’s newest stamp and die release- Fresh Start! We are showing off all of the beautiful new goodies with a blog hop! You should have arrived here from Svitlana Shayevich and your next stop is Preeti Chandran, or you can start back at the beginning at the Altenew Card Blog. I have some romantic floral cards and a sympathy card for you today, so let’s get started with the details!

My first cards showcase the absolutely stunning new Enchanted Roses stamp set. This huge, gorgeous stamp features a beautiful meandering rose vine that could easily cover a card front completely. I chose to cover a partial card front with it using two different techniques with a similar color scheme!

My first project features the Enchanted Roses background paired with three different shades of Perfect Pearls pigment powders: Pink Gumball, Cappuccino, and Iris. I stamped the image on the top half of an A2 panel of deep plum cardstock using watermark ink, then pounced the Perfect Pearls on over the top, trying to concentrate the Cappuccino on the stems and leaves, then keeping the Pink Gumball and Iris inks on the flowers. I also splattered the background with some gold gouache to add some artistic splatters.

I added a sentiment using the “love” from the new Illusion Heart dies, which I die cut from some glitzy gold glitter cardstock, and heat embossed the “& hugs” from the Mega Greetings 3 stamp set on a strip of the same plummy cardstock using brass embossing powder. The final touch was some pretty metallic gems to add some extra texture!

For my second card, I used the same Enchanted Roses background, this time heat embossing it in brass on some watercolor cardstock. I wanted to maintain the plum, pink, and gold color scheme, so I used my Daniel Smith watercolors to do some watercoloring (with some artistic license on the gold leaves) and adding a deep plum halo around the bouquet.

I flipped the panel so that the roses were coming up from beneath instead of dripping over the top, then added a greeting (absolutely adore that greeting!) from Enchanted Roses that I heat embossed using the same brass embossing powder on some more plummy cardstock, which I then trimmed down to create a stack of sentiment strips. I popped up the sentiments using some foam adhesive, then added more metallic gems.

My final project today features the beautiful new Vintage Garden stamps. Altenew has been releasing some scrumptious large-scale florals recently, and this Vintage Garden set is no exception. I did some no-line coloring using these pretty florals to create a “mini” slimline card, but there are also some fabulous layering stencils that you can use if you don’t feel like (or don’t have the time for) coloring. I stamped the images in a pretty background pattern on a panel of white alcohol marker-friendly cardstock (mini slimline is 3.5″x 6″) using fadeout ink and colored them with Copic markers.

Once I’d finished coloring, I used my trusty T-square and fine liner pens from Altenew to create a frame around the edge of the panel, adding some dots to the inside of the frame around the flowers.

Finally, I added a greeting from Versatile Vases 2 on a slim strip of white cardstock using Obsidian ink to create a crisp black sentiment, which I popped up using foam adhesive.

Well, that’s all for today’s projects. Now, as always, Altenew has some wonderful giveaways to celebrate their latest release!

$300 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 10 winners! Please leave a comment on the Altenew Card Blog and/or each designer’s blog post on the blog hop list below by 01/11/2021 for a chance to win. Altenew will draw 12 random winners from the comments left on each stop of this blog hop and announce the winners on the Altenew Winners Page on 01/13/2021.

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

My Monthly Hero January 2020 Blog Hop+Giveaway!

Hi there! Today is the first Monday of 2020, which means a new My Monthly Hero kit (and fabulous add-ons) is now available for purchase! We are celebrating with a blog hop and giveaway. You should have arrived here from Debi Adams, and your next stop is Ilina Crouse. This first kit for the new year is one of the prettiest kits I’ve seen, featuring a huge branch of cherry blossoms, beautiful sentiments, a fun honeycomb die, and the cutest little chubby bumblebees that you ever did see!

This gorgeous kit contains: 6″ x 8″ Clear Stamp Set, Coordinating Frame Cuts, Honeycomb Window Die, Honey Lacquer Pen, six 5.5″ x 8.5″ Sheets of Paper (2 each in Pale Yellow Glitter, Black Glitter and Gold Brillanca). The kit is valued at $70, but is available for only $34.99! These kits frequently sell out very quickly, so don’t hesitate to purchase, because once it’s gone, it’s gone! You can also subscribe to ensure that you get your own kit every month.

For my project today, I couldn’t resist doing some coloring with that absolutely gorgeous cherry blossom branch from the main kit. I stamped it on Copic-friendly cardstock using Intens-ified Black ink, then used my Copic markers to color the blossoms and foliage. I also stamped that cute, chunky little bee and colored him a pretty shade of gold.

In order to highlight the black on the stamped images (and as an excuse to use that beautiful glitzy black paper included in the kit), I die cut the honeycomb window die from some plain white cardstock and backed it with the black glitter paper.

I stamped a greeting from the main kit on a strip of white cardstock, then adhered the die cuts and sentiment using foam adhesive. I finally added some black enamel dots to the card front to complete the “rule of three” (i.e.- three different uses of black) and also add some more texture ot the card front.

Well, that’s all for my project today! I hope you check out the add-ons for this kit (I tore my craft room apart last week in an attempt to get organized for the new year and ran out of time to play with the absolutely darling add-ons!), because they’re so, so cute.

Now for some fun giveaway information!

We will give away one $50 gift card, drawn from the comments left across the hop. Enter by Sunday, January 10th at 11:59pm pacific, and the winner will be announced on the Hero Arts blog the following week. The more comments you leave, the more chances you have to win!

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