Sixth Street Sundries

Emily Midgett

fancy thanks

April Showers Bring May Flowers: Die Cut Edition!

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

Hi friends! I am back today with another project for my April Showers Bring May Flowers series, during which I share inspiration using my favorite cardmaking subject: flowers! I never tire of using flowers, creating (hopefully) unique cards by switching up the layouts, color palettes, and textures. I have several lovely floral dresses in my closet that provide me with ample inspiration, and this card is the result! While I am normally a traditionalist, preferring to use colors found in nature, the coppery foliage on the dress in my closet was so inspirational that I knew I needed to recreate it with the gorgeous rosy copper foil in the new-to-me Floral Elegance foil paper pad that I ordered last week. Let’s get started with the details!

The gorgeous Aurora Blooms dies were released over the winter, I think perhaps in December of last year, and they absolutely floored me with their beauty. The simple and unique designs remind me of Rifle Paper Company, and with all of the different sprigs and foliage available, the combinations and possibilities for layouts are truly endless. I knew that they would work perfectly for my fashion-inspired project. I die cut the flowers themselves from a few different shades of pink, lavender, and purple cardstocks that I found in my stash, then die cut all of the foliage pieces from that gorgeous rosy copper brushed foil from the Floral Elegance foil paper pad.

Once I had die cut all of the different pieces, I began layering and assembling them. For detailed die cut assembly like this, I find two tools to be invaluable: needle-nose reverse tweezers for holding and placing the die cuts exactly where I want them, and the MISTI Precision Glue Press. (Both of these items are out of stock at the moment after the big in-person shopping event last weekend, but you can sign up to receive an email when they do come back in stock! I promise they’re worth the wait!) Sometimes my hands can be a little shaky, if I’ve waited a bit too long to eat or if I’ve, ahem, had a tad too much coffee, and these two items allow me to get precision placement with fiddly die cuts.

After I had assembled all of the different die cuts to create these vibrant layered flowers, I began arranging them on a pale lavender A2 card front, trying to keep in mind the “rule of three” for each individual color. I adhered the flowers with dimensional foam adhesive and the foliage with liquid adhesive, creating varied heights throughout the card front.

To keep things simple on this card made of only die cuts, I cut the detail layer of the Fancy Thanks die from some brown glitter cardstock. I popped it up amongst the florals with a double layer of foam tape to give it a little extra height. Finally, I added a few sparkly gems to the flower centers for a little extra shimmer!

I am so happy with how this card came out. I love building a pretty floral background, and it is such fun coming up with unique color combinations. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!

Last Gasps of Summer with Lisianthus and an Autumnal Color Palette!

Hi friends! I have had the distinct pleasure of illustrating several stamp sets for Simon Says Stamp, and the Lisianthus stamp set is one of my absolute favorites. These fluffy blooms look like a cross between a rose and a peony, two of the prettiest flowers in existence (in my opinion, anyway!). I’d never seen any in real life, just in photos, and was always enchanted with them. A few weeks ago, my husband very sweetly brought me a bouquet of these gorgeous blooms from a local grower, and my obsession was renewed!! I immediately set out to create an end-of-summer-beginning-of-fall card with a more autumnal color palette, featuring deep magenta and vivid plum as the two main colors. As frequently happens in my craft room, I ended up with enough components to make two separate projects, but I’m not complaining! Let’s get started with the details!

When I started stamping the Lisianthus stamp, I stamped a background pattern on a piece of 5×7 cardstock as well as a separate Lisianthus on a separate piece of cardstock, intending to color all of the images and use them on one card. That ended up looking a bit too busy for my taste, so I created two different cards!

For my first project, I stamped a background pattern on a panel of 5×7 Hammermill cardstock using Intense Black ink from Hero Arts. I then colored the images using Copic markers in a vivacious magenta, lovely jade green, and delicate lavender color palette. I used a very dark maroon and black Copic to color the background, as well, and I just love the subtleties of the maroon and black blending into each other! The warm maroon makes the black a little less stark and, in my opinion, more autumnal! I trimmed the panel down slightly and matted with an ever-so-slightly larger panel of Dragonfruit cardstock from Concord & 9th.

To create a shiny frame around my meticulously-colored blooms, I trimmed down a panel of Tonic Purple Rain cardstock to 5×7, then mounted the colored panel with it’s vivid pink mat in the center. I added a simple, pale celery green die cut Fancy Thinking of You, cut twice and adhered together to create a dimensional die cut greeting. A few coordinating pale celery green gems finished everything off and added some sparkle!

The second project makes use of the standalone Lisianthus that I colored with the intention of adding it to the colored panel, but decided that it would do better as a focal point on a separate project. After I had finished coloring the image and cut it out with the coordinating die, I used the RV99 marker to color around the edge of the die cut. I knew I wanted to have a deep maroon background, and taking away that white edge makes the vivid and bold color palette that much more impactful! I trimmed down an A2 panel of some more Purple Rain cardstock and ran it through my die cutting machine using Simon Says Stamp’s Leaf Tumble embossing folder. If you haven’t tried embossing folders with metallic or mirror cardstock, this is your sign to do it… the results are absolutely exceptional.

I mounted my vivid pink Lisianthus die cut floral spray on the embossed mirror card front using foam adhesive. I then die cut the Fancy Thanks die from some more of that lovely celery green cardstock that complements the jade green eucalyptus leaves so beautifully. Again, I cut the die cut sentiment twice from the pale green cardstock and adhered them together to create a bit of extra height for the greeting to allow it to stand out even more from the bold background. Finally, I added a few more green gems for sparkle!

Well, that’s all for my projects today! I am getting these last few gasps of bright, summery colors in now, because fall and winter crafting will be full of muted tones, traditional red and green, metallics, and icy pastels, and I am so ready for it! Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!

Altenew June 2022 Fine & Dandy Collection Release Blog Hop + Giveaway ($300 in total prizes)

Hi there! Altenew is hopping along today to introduce their gorgeous new Fine and Dandy collection! You should have arrived here from Linda Westfall, and your next stop is Nenette S. Madero. You can also start back at the beginning at the Altenew Blog in case you get lost! The new Fine and Dandy collection is full of stunning new hot foil plates, versatile dies, and beautiful embossing folders. I have four projects to share with you today, so let’s get started with the details!

Each of my four projects features a similar color scheme to make them a cohesive set: pink-y metallics, crisp white, and lots of beautiful, muted peony pink. It’s tone-on-tone with a twist!

This first project features the beautiful new Delightful Flowers Hot Foil Plate, which I used with some heavyweight vellum and rose gold hot foil. I love how subtle the foil looks on this vellum cardstock; this would also be a fun technique to use with the “stained glass” coloring technique by coloring with alcohol markers on the back of the hot foiled panel!

To allow the hot foiled floral image to be the star of the show, I used the new Fine Rings Hot Foil Plate set with the Coordinating Dies to create a background for my die cut greeting. I added a simple “hugs” greeting from the Simple Greetings die set, cut from some brand new Brushed Copper Metallic Cardstock! These new metallic cardstocks are absolutely gorgeous and perfect for intricate die cuts. They cut so smoothly. I added a few shiny metallic rose gold gems for some more shine.

My second card features the beautiful Delightful Flowers Hot Foil Plate, this time hot foiled onto some Watercolor Paper, again using rose gold foil. The smooth surface of the watercolor paper makes it ideal for hot foiling this intricate image. I watercolored the flowers and foliage using the Artists’ 24 Pan Watercolor Set in shades of coral and flamingo pink, with some olive green foliage.

For the greeting, I die cut the Fancy Thanks die from some more of the new Brushed Copper Metallic Cardstock. I added a circular frame created with the Fine Rings hot foil plate and die combo. I mounted both the foiled frame and the die cut sentiment to the watercolored panel using foam adhesive for extra height and dimension, then added a few iridescent coral gems to add more sparkle.

My next card starts with a white-on-white Garden Trellis cover plate die cut background. It was the perfect neutral-but-lightly-textured background for some Itty Bitty Branches die cuts, cut from some more muted peony and jade green cardstocks.

I paired a solid hot foil plate with the Fine Rings hot foil plates and dies to create this iridescent gold foiled frame. I arranged the solid botanical die cuts on one edge of the circular foiled die cut, then added a white Circled Greetings: Thanks die cut over the top, adhering all of it with foam adhesive to make sure that the focal points popped from the white textured background. The final touch was to add a few iridescent white pearls to bring out the iridescent quality of the foil.

My last card pays one final tribute to the monochromatic-with-a-twist color scheme from all of our projects today! I began by die cutting a partial Floral Lace die from some plain white cardstock. I also die cut a new Labels and Tags 1 die cut from some heavyweight vellum.

I arranged the vellum tag on an A2 peony pink cardstock base to determine placement, then before adhering the vellum, I adhered the lacy white die cut over the top of the vellum die cut. I flipped over the two die cuts (now adhered together to create one die cut) and hid small dots of adhesive on the back, essentially hiding the adhesive behind the solid die cut to prevent it from marring my translucent vellum die cut. I added a Circled Hugs greeting, cut from once some Brushed Rose Metallic Cardstock and once from white cardstock, then adhered together to give it a little extra height. Finally, I added one more touch of white and shine with some iridescent white pearls.

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

$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 06/27/2022 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 06/29/2022.

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