Sixth Street Sundries

Emily Midgett

create a wreath

Altenew Eclectic Vibes Stamps/Dies/Stencils/Embossing Folders Collection Release Blog Hop + Giveaway

Good morning! I’m popping in quickly from vacation again to share my projects for the July Altenew Eclectic Vibes release! You should have arrived here from Verity Biddlecombe, and your next stop is Jenny Colacicco. You can also start back at the Altenew Blog if you get lost! I have three projects for you today, so let’s get started with the details.

For my first project, I created a muted happy birthday card with lots of texture using the new Gardenia Duo and Just A Number die set paired with the older Deck Planks 3D embossing folder. I heat embossed the Gardenia Duo onto some watercolor paper, then watercolored the images using the Artists’ Watercolor 24 Pan set.

I embossed a gray background using the Deck Planks 3D embossing folder, then blended some Lava Rock ink around the edges to give it a really weathered look. I adhered the watercolored magnolias using Instant Dimension Foam Tape, as well as the greeting die cut from Just A Number die set from black and white card stock. Finally, I added some iridescent white pearls for some extra texture!

My next project features a sympathy card with a chalkboard look using the new Pressed Flowers 3D embossing folder. I began by running an A2 panel of black cardstock through my die cutting machine using the Pressed Flowers 3D embossing folder. I then used a foam blender to brush some white pigment ink over the raised areas on the embossed panel. I love the subtle chalkboard effect it creates! I also splattered some white paint for added texture.

I cut the Fancy Peace die twice from white cardstock and adhered them together to create a dimensional die cut. I also white embossed a greeting from Thinking Of You onto a strip of black cardstock, then popped it up with some more Instant Dimension Foam Tape. A few more white iridescent pearls finished it off.

My final project continues the black and white color scheme, but with a pop of vivid pink using the new Watercolor Extravaganza stamps. I stamped a variety of blooms using the pink inks from the Spring Bouquet ink set, then die cut them with their coordinating dies. I also die cut the new Thank You For Being My Friend die from black and white cardstocks, layering them together with liquid adhesive.

For the background, I die cut a white Layered Plaid B die cut, then cut a circle from the center using the Create A Wreath die set. I also die cut a plain wreath using the same die so that I could inlay the circle frame within the plaid. I added the flowers and sentiment die cut using Instant Dimension Foam Tape, then added a few hot pink gems for sparkle!

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

$300 in total prizes! To celebrate this release, Altenew is giving away a $50 gift certificate to 2 lucky winners and a $25 gift certificate to 8 winners! Please leave a comment on the Altenew Card Blog and/or each designer’s blog post on the blog hop list below by 07/11/2021 for a chance to win. Altenew will draw 10 random winners from the comments left on each stop of this blog hop and announce the winners on the Altenew Winners Page on 07/13/2021.

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

Altenew Craft A Flower Morning Glory blog hop+giveaway

Hi there! Today, Altenew is releasing another installment in their monthly Craft A Flower series: Morning Glory! We are showing it off with a blog hop! You should have arrived here from the Altenew Card Blog and your next stop is LauraJane. Each month, Altenew releases a set of these fantastic dies that you can use to create super detailed and intricate, yet bold and substantial die cut flowers and foliage. You can purchase each set individually at your own discretion, or you can subscribe (click here) to receive the Craft A Flower Release each month at a discount!

This Morning Glory set is particularly lovely, because you receive several different angles of the opened flower, as well as buds, foliage, and little curly sprigs to create a morning glory vine. I love the way that Altenew has been grouping their layered floral die cut sets by layer; it helps so much with the layering, not to mention saving time! Grouping the layers into one die means fewer passes in your die cut machine! Isn’t that so clever? The Watercolor Garden set is set up this way, as well!

I kept my cards to a fairly traditional color scheme, focusing on the beautiful blues that you can find with morning glory flowers. I tried to keep things monochromatic, as well. As seems to be my custom with these Craft A Flower releases, I die cut and assembled a large amount of the flowers and foliage, then just had fun arranging them!

For this first project, I wanted to create a vine of morning glories creeping up a pretty frame. I die cut the Create A Wreath oval die from some very pale aqua cardstock, then arranged my Morning Glory die cuts over the top. Once I had arranged the flowers to my satisfaction, I used my favorite Press’n’Seal hack to add the adhesive on the back: lay the Press’n’Seal over the top of your floral arrangement, then press down firmly on your die cuts, and pick up your arrangement. Then, add your adhesive of choice to the back with the Press’n’Seal still attached, and adhere back on your card front! Saves so much time pushing paper around, ha!

After I’d adhered my die cuts to the card front using foam adhesive for lots of dimension, I added a greeting from Sentiment Strips stamped on a thin strip of the same pale aqua cardstock to maintain the monochromatic look. The final touch was some gems for sparkle!

Since I had so many leftover flower die cuts, I made a second card with another vine of morning glories creeping around the greeting. I die cut a greeting using the Tall Alpha dies and some navy blue cardstock, which I adhered using my T-square to ensure that the die cuts were nice and straight.

Once I’d adhered my die cut greeting, I arranged the Morning Glory die cuts on the pale aqua card front, creeping up and around the greeting again. The greenery in this die set has such a graceful feel to it; you can create a beautiful arrangement almost effortlessly with such lovely foliage to work with. Again, I used the Press’n’Seal trick to pick up my arrangement and adhere it to the card front, finally adding some more pretty blue gems to help fill in any holes in the design.

Well, that’s all for my projects today! As always, Altenew has some wonderful giveaways to celebrate this beautiful new Craft A Flower 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 01/12/2021 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 01/15/2021.

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

Altenew October 2019 Stamp+Die Release Blog Hop+Giveaway!

Hi there! I’m super excited to be taking part in Altenew’s October 2019 Stamp and Die Release Blog Hop! Altenew always has incredible stamp and die releases, and this month features some absolutely stunning new florals, as well as some beautiful holiday stamps. You should have arrived here from Jen Schow‘s blog, and your next stop is Svitlana Shayevich‘s blog. You can also start back at the beginning in case you get lost! I have three projects for you today featuring the new goodies, so let’s get started with the details!

For my first project, I used the gorgeous new Precious Peony stamps and dies. I began by stamping the main floral image onto some Copic-friendly white cardstock using black ink, then used my Copic markers in pretty shades of peach to color the image. I die cut the image with the coordinating dies.

On the white A2 card base, I stamped the main floral image a few times in the upper left hand corner using Coral Bliss ink, then using a blending brush, blended some Coral Bliss and Coral Berry inks over the top of the stamped images, creating a subtle tone-on-tone pattern. I adhered the Copic-colored die cut to the card front using foam adhesive, adding a sentiment (also from Precious Peony) and some jewels for sparkle!

For my second card, I used the beautiful new Winter Wishes stamp set to create this serene holiday card. I began by stamping the main image from Winter Wishes onto some watercolor cardstock using Obsidian Black ink, then adding clear embossing powder over the top and heating it. I used my Daniel Smith watercolors to add some loose watercoloring to the image in serene tones of blue and green.

After I’d finished watercoloring the panel, I used the oval die in the Create A Wreath die set to cut a window from a panel of creamy white A2 cardstock. I stamped a greeting from Winter Wishes on the bottom, again with Obsidian ink and clear embossing powder, then adhered the window panel over the top of the watercolored scene using foam adhesive.

For my final project, I wanted to do some no-line watercolor using the absolutely gorgeous new Grateful Heart set! This set features both the outline and layering stamps, so that you have endless crafty possibilities! The lines on these new florals are utterly graceful; they were an absolute pleasure to color. I began by stamping a little bouquet on a long rectangular panel of watercolor cardstock with Ink On 3 Fadeout Ink, using the mask stencils from the Grateful Heart bundle to create a seamless bouquet of flowers and foliage.

Next, I used the stunningly vibrant and beautiful colors in the Spring Garden Watercolor Brush pens to do some no-line watercoloring, adding lots of layers for extra dimension. After I’d completed the watercoloring, I trimmed the watercolor panel down slightly and mounted it on a mat of deep fuchsia cardstock. I also heat embossed a greeting from Grateful Heart using white embossing powder on some strips of the same deep fuchsia cardstock, which I mounted on the card front using foam adhesive. The final touch was to add some bright turquoise jewels to add a touch of sparkle and texture!

Well, that’s all for my projects today. Now, there are several ways to win today, so pay close attention:

To celebrate this release, Altenew is giving away a $50 gift certificate to 6 lucky winners! Please leave a comment on the Altenew Card Blog and/or Altenew Scrapbook Blog by 10/16/2019 for a chance to win.

We’ll also draw a winner to receive a $20 gift certificate from the comments left on each designer’s blog on the blog hop list below. All winners will be announced on the Altenew blogs on 10/20/2019. The more comments you leave, the more chances you have to win!

Here’s the full hop list in case you get lost:

Altenew Card Blog
Jennifer McGuire
Nathalie DeSousa
Kelly Griglione
Nicole Picadura
Mindy Eggen
Jaycee Gaspar
Lilith Eeckels
Ashlea Cornell
Jen Schow
Emily Midgett
Svitlana Shayevich
Kathleen Graumüller
Therese Calvird
Altenew Scrapbook Blog
Vicky Papaioannou
Norine Borys
Terri Koszler
Maryam Perez
LauraJane
Virginia Lu
Kymona Tracey
Jessica Frost-Ballas
Sveta Fotinia
Amber Rain Davis
Laurie Willison
Caly Person
Reiko Tsuchida
Keeway Tsao
Zinia Redo
Kelly Janes
Erum Tasneem

Altenew September Stamp and Die Release Blog Hop+Giveaway!

Hi there! I’m super excited to be taking part in Altenew’s September Stamp and Die Release Blog Hop! This month, we have a huge variety of stamps and dies to share with you for the September release, including some floral, some holiday, and some autumn… a little something for everyone! You should have arrived here from Christine Pennington‘s blog, and your next stop is Erum Tasneem‘s blog. I have four projects to share with you today, as well as some giveaway information, so be sure to read all the way to the end!

For my first project today, I wanted to use the fabulous new Candy Cane Stripe Cover Die. I love cover plate dies; they create such a huge impact with just a swift pass in your die cutting machine. I took it one step further and added an inlaid, die cut oval frame in the center of the cover plate die cut.

To create the inlaid die cut frame, I first die cut a panel of deep red card stock using the Candy Cane Stripe Cover Die. I then used the oval frame from the Create A Wreath die set to die cut the center from the striped red die cut. I also die cut another red oval frame die from a solid panel of cardstock. I adhered the striped die cut piece to a panel of white cardstock using liquid adhesive, then inlaid the oval die cut frame in the center.

I used the beautiful Holiday Bow stamps and dies with a variety of red and green inks to create a pretty holiday swag, which I layered above a sentiment from the new Modern Poinsettia stamp set. A few jewels finished it off!

For my second project, I used the new Happy Pomegranates stamps and dies to create a Thanksgiving card! I began by gold embossing several of the images on some watercolor cardstock, then used the Winter Wonderland Watercolor Brush markers to add lots of layers of deep, saturated color to the images.

For the card base, I used the Buffalo Plaid Builder stencil to add a bit of subtle, tone-on-tone texture to a brick red card base. I layered the watercolored die cuts on the stenciled card base using foam tape, then added a greeting, heat embossed on the same shade of brick red card stock, as well as a few gold glitter gems.

My next project uses some non-traditional holiday colors, but who says that Christmas cards can only come in reds and greens? I did some no-line coloring on the new Modern Poinsettia stamp with my Copic markers in shades of deep, deep fuchsia , accenting the bright pop of pink with some silver foil and navy glitter foliage cut from the Create A Wreath die set.

I layered the large flower and foliage images on a white Circle Quilt Cover Die cut that I had adhered to a white A2 card base. Using white cover plate die cuts over a white card base is one of my most favorite ways to add subtle texture and dimension to a background without overwhelming the main focal point. For the greeting, I used the new Tall Alpha die set and the older Holiday Script Words die set. A few sparkling gems finished it off!

For my final project, I used the new Flower Garden stamp set to create a pretty watercolored floral bouquet. I began by embossing several flowers and foliage using silver pearl embossing powder onto some watercolor cardstock. I then used my Daniel Smith watercolors to add some pretty cool pinks, blues, and aquas to the flowers.

After I’d finished watercoloring all of the flowers and foliage, I blended some Azurite ink around the edge of a panel of pale blue cardstock. I then spritzed some water into my hand and dribbled drops of water on the blended panel, tapping the water droplets with a paper towel to lift some of the color up. I arranged the flowers in a pretty bouquet and adhered them to the blended panel using foam adhesive. I added a sentiment from Sentiment Strips stamped in more Azurite ink. A few gems added a touch of sparkle!

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

To celebrate this release, Altenew is giving away a $50 gift certificate to 6 lucky winners! Please leave a comment on the Altenew Card Blog and/or Altenew Scrapbook Blog by 9/10/2019 for a chance to win.

We’ll also draw a winner to receive a $20 gift certificate from the comments left on each designer’s blog on the blog hop list below. All winners will be announced on the Altenew blogs on 9/13/2019.

Also, Altenew is having a fun promotion: Limited Time Offer! Get a FREE mini inspiration guide with every order from the September 2019 Stamp/Die Release collection! Free gift will be added to cart automatically. One gift per order. While supplies last! Shop the latest release here.

Your next stop on the hop is Erum Tasneem‘s blog. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and happy hopping!