Sixth Street Sundries

Emily Midgett

etched berry branch

A Final Ode to Pumpkins with Simon Says Stamp!

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

Hi friends! I am back with my final post for the month of October, just in the nick of time, too! I will be helping my kiddos get their Halloween costumes on as soon as I’m done: Sally from Nightmare Before Christmas, Harry Potter, and two firemen! (If you’ve never checked out the Halloween costumes from Costco, they are legit! The firemen costumes are incredible and were very reasonably priced.) For my last project for the month, I thought I’d do one final “ode to a pumpkin.” I don’t do spooky, and I’m not great a cute, so pumpkins are basically my favorite imagery for autumn and Halloween. They can be fun and playful, or they can be elegant, especially when paired with foliage and florals. I have been collecting more felt and embroidery items, and so I was itching for a project on which to use them. This autumnal wall hanging was the perfect project to start my obsession! Let’s get started with the details.

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

For both of my projects, I paired the Aurora Blooms, Etched Meadow Flower & Leaves, Cosmos Duo, Etched Berry Branch, Layered Pumpkin, and Leafy Sprig dies. I wanted to create some decor with felt as well as with paper, so I scoured my local dollar stores and big box craft stores for some fun “blanks” that I could decorate. I found this canvas wall hanging and little chalkboard easel, and I think they both are just perfect for embellishing with die cuts!

For the wall hanging, I began by die cutting all of the images from the die sets listed above using high-quality colored felt. I used a somewhat non-traditional color palette, pulling some deep, somewhat muted oranges together with cranberry and autumn rose, with touches of lime green and hunter green. I used some needle and thread with sequins and seed beads to adorn the center of some of the flowers, adding a touch of sparkle and additional texture to the felt images. I also die cut the word “gather” using the large-scale Hero Arts Alphabet Dies. I adore these alphabet dies; they’re perfect for creating banners and home decor (I used them to create a banner for my office Christmas tree last year!) and are such a great size.

For the pumpkin, I used some fabric glue to assemble the individual pieces from the Layered Pumpkin die set, then used a coordinating shade of orange to do a (very) simple blanket stitch around the edges of each piece of rind. This additional stitching around the edges adds some texture as well as helping to differentiate one segment from the next, so that it doesn’t look too flat.

After I had die cut and assembled the different components, I began to create my arrangement. I used a piece of ribbon to line up my letters, adhering them to the banner with some fabric glue, then began arranging my pumpkin, flowers, and foliage in a swag beneath my letters. I stitched some more sequins and seed beads to create “berries” amongst my floral arrangement, helping to fill in any gaps in the flowers. After completing the arrangement on the bottom, I felt that the area above the letters was a bit too bare, so added another, simpler arrangement above the letters as well. I think it will look so pretty hanging from my front door for Thanksgiving!

Since I haven’t been working with felt for very long, I decided to make another home decor project using my more typical cardstock, using the same color palette! I die cut the same images from the Aurora Blooms, Etched Meadow Flower & Leaves, Cosmos Duo, Etched Berry Branch, Layered Pumpkin, and Leafy Sprig die sets. I used some sparkling cranberry glitter cardstock from Altenew to create the Etched Meadow Flower & Leaves blossoms. I think this color palette is so pretty; it is definitely autumnal, but not super orange-y!

I found this little easel chalkboard at my local dollar store! They have them in both black chalkboard and white dry erase board; this black backdrop was perfect for adorning with colorful die cuts. After I had adhered all of the die cuts in a little arrangement on the front of the easel, I used a double layer of twine, wrapping it around the top of the easel multiple times, then added a fluffy bow. I used some glue to hold the bow down and prevent it from being untied.

After I had finished arranging the die cuts and adding my twine bow, I added some Gold and Lilac Pawsitively Dazzling Gems to the berry stems and flower centers, adding a touch of sparkle and texture to this piece of decor. I think this would look so sweet on a desk at work or perhaps on a piano or mantelpiece at home!!

Well, that’s all for my projects today. I am having such fun branching out from my typical cardmaking, and I hope you’re enjoying it too. It’s fun to try new things, right? Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!

Autumnal Thinking of You with Simon Says Stamp!

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

Hi friends! It’s finally the weekend, and I am so happy about that! We are in the complete throes of autumn here, with incredibly beautiful autumnal foliage making it a feast for the eyes every time I look or go outside! I am reading Anne of Green Gables with my big kids, and we just read the line “I’m so glad that I live in a world where there are Octobers.” It’s so true! It took a while for our trees to start impressing the world with their colors, but the oranges, yellows, peaches, reds, and magentas are finally here. Nature is surely showing off! This card is an embodiment of the view outside, filled with colorful foliage and a bit of sparkle and shine. Let’s get started with the details!

I began by creating a vivid ink blended base panel using Concord & 9th Cayenne, Pawsitively Saturated Blush and Cheeky, and Rainbow Splash Buttercream inks. (Side note- Rainbow Splash Buttercream ink is my new favorite color. It blends so beautifully with such a huge variety of colors, and is a little bit of a chameleon, changing the tone a bit with different color pairings. You should check it out of you haven’t yet!) The Buttercream ink worked beautifully as the lightest shade of my red and peach autumn ombré background.

Next, I heat embossed the new Autumn Leaf stamp from the Season of Wonder release onto some vellum with some sparkling metallic embossing powder. I fussy cut the image with my sharp scissors so that I could pop it up with some foam adhesive on my blended background. I also die cut some coordinating colorful foliage using the Etched Berry Branch and Ornamental Fine Leaves dies, using colored cardstock for the fine leaves and Tonic’s Purple Rain cardstock for the berry branch.

To coordinate with the warm, iridescent purple foil foliage die cuts, I die cut the detail layer of the Fancy Thinking of You die from some super dark maroon cardstock and backed it with a peachy outline layer. I popped the sentiment up on my huge glittery vellum leaf image using foam adhesive, then arranged the foliage die cuts to be peeking out from behind the sentiment. Don’t be afraid to cut your leaf die cuts apart; by doing so, you allow yourself the freedom to create fuller, more lush bouquets (or leaf clusters, in this case). After I had arranged all of my foliage pieces, I added some Topaz Twinkle gems for one last bit of sparkle!

Well, that’s all for my project today! The leaves will probably be blown away this weekend, as we are expecting a cold front (just in time for trick-or-treating on Halloween… darn it!), so I am going to enjoy the beautiful views while they last. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!

More Simon Says Stamp Holiday Sparkle!

Hi there! Today, I have a couple more projects using the new Holiday Sparkle release from Simon Says Stamp, both featuring tons of texture and layers. I may have started as a stamper, but die cutting is one of my most favorite ways to create these days. Standalone dies just have so many ways to that you can customize them to make them truly unique from project to project! One of my favorite ways to make dies extra exciting is to add lots of texture using different types of fancy papers. The new Pawsitively Velvet cardstock from Simon Says Stamp is the perfect way to add some luxurious texture to your card front without adding a ton of extra bulk! I have two projects to share with you today using these new papers, so let’s get started with the details!

Both of my projects feature an icy color palette using some beautiful Bazzill Icy Mint cardstock as the starting point. I love super pale colored cardstock; it’s just a hair off of white cardstock, but adds that hint of color to a crisp card or tag project!

For my first project, I used the green Pawsitively Velvet cardstock to die cut the Etched Berry Branch die. Because this die cut is very delicate, I also die cut the same branch from some black cardstock and adhered it to the velvet die cut to add some stability while I determined the rest of my card front. I used the white Pawsitively Velvet cardstock to die cut the base layer for the Layered Warbler bird die, adding some details with Icy Mint and Granite cardstock.

For the background, I trimmed a panel of white cardstock down to A2 size, then ran it through my die cut machine using the Exotic Vines embossing folder. I love how classy and elegant this folder is. The vines and berries help to give it a bit of a botanical feel to work well with my bird and berries!

To ground my bird and branch, I die cut the A2 Thin Frames dies from some white glitter cardstock. (Tip: keep your rectangle dies together in order to have double the amount of frames from one pass through your die cut machine!) I selected a very thin frame and smaller, but thicker, frame, then saved the rest for another project. I backed the smaller frame with some vellum to soften the area behind it a bit. This provides a clean canvas for my bird, branch, and sentiment.

I die cut the detail layer of the Snowy Greetings die set from some more Granite cardstock. I also heat embossed a greeting from a set that seems to be retired (whoops!), just to flesh out the greeting a bit. I adhered the thin frame around the edge of the embossed panel, then arranged the remaining die cuts on the vellum rectangle. The final touch was to add a few coordinating blue pearls as “berries” for the foliage die cut.

My second project is a simple tag to adorn a holiday gift! I die cut one of the Large Tag Dies from some more Icy Mint cardstock , then lightly blended some Winter Sky ink around the edge using a blending brush. I splattered the blended tag using some pearlescent watercolors to create some wintry shimmer.

I die cut a few individual snowflakes from the new Sparkling Snowflake Frame and Trio die set using the white velvet from the Pawsitively Velvet cardstock pack. I arranged them on the blended tag, snipping off the overhanging edges. I love the texture that this creates on this simple tag! I added a “for you” greeting, customized by snipping off the “here” from the CZ Design Here For You die. I popped up the glittery greeting using some very thin strips of foam adheisve and added a simple white raffia loop to make for easy attachment to a gift!

Well, that’s all for my projects today! The Pawsitively Velvet cardstock adds such a luxurious textural element to your holiday projects, and so inexpensively. Love that! Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!