Sixth Street Sundries

Emily Midgett

gorgeous hydrangea

Blended Hydrangeas with Simon Says Stamp!

This post was sponsored by Simon Says Stamp. Thanks, Simon! *I have gathered links to all of the products used at the bottom of the post for your convenience, using affiliate links at no extra cost to you. Thank you for shopping with my links! I truly appreciate your support for my work!*

Hi friends! I have another hydrangea project for you today, this time without the stencils! The details that stencils can provide on embossed images is incredible, but sometimes I don’t want the details to be quite so crisp and clean, preferring instead to have the details a bit more fluid and ethereal. The Gorgeous Hydrangea embossing folder and die set allows you to create those exquisite details with or without stencils, depending on your method of coloring. In THIS post, I used the embossing folder alone with the stencils, but for today’s project, I thought I would showcase the beauty in the detailed die cut alone. Let’s get started with the details on my project!

To begin, I die cut the large floral image from the Gorgeous Hydrangea folder/die set using white cardstock, then placed the die cut in the appropriate spot inside the embossing folder and ran it through my die cutting machine. Once I had the blossoms ready for color, I blended Pawsitively Saturated Inks in shades of Guava, Periwinkle, and Iris on the die cut using Shading Brushes, making sure to spread the colors out throughout the bloom as an homage to the gorgeous hydrangeas from my trip to the East Coast as a child. The color palette reminds me of cotton candy or a Bubbleberry Sno-Cone! Once I had completed the blending, I added some pink shimmery watercolor to each bloom for a touch of sparkle.

Once I had completed the large hydrangea bloom, I knew I needed to add some greenery. I die cut one of my favorite foliage die sets, called Abundant Leaves, from white cardstock, then used a Shading Brush to add Juniper ink to the leaves, tapering the color off at the edges of each leaf. I also knew that I wanted a frame upon which I could build my bouquet and frame my sentiment, so I die cut the medium Petal Point Frames from some more white cardstock. I adhered the frame on a white A2 card front using foam adhesive, allowing the frame’s edge to spill off of the left side and trimming it with my sharp scissors. I arranged the blended hydrangea over the top and tucked the foliage behind it, adhering everything with foam adhesive.

After I had completed the bouquet, I embossed a greeting from the Sunshine & Smiles stamp set, using silver embossing powder and die cutting it with it’s coordinating die. I tucked the sentiment in the bouquet with some more foam adhesive, finishing everything off with some Opal Pawsitively Dazzling Gems at the center of each blossom!

Well, that’s all for me today! I think that detail that is captured with the embossed die cut is absolutely scrumptious. It’s so fun to watch it come to life with some gorgeous ink colors and sparkles! Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!

Glowing Hydrangeas with New Simon Says Stamp!

This post was sponsored by Simon Says Stamp. Thanks, Simon! *I have gathered links to all of the products used at the bottom of the post for your convenience, using affiliate links at no extra cost to you. Thank you for shopping with my links! I truly appreciate your support for my work!*

Hi friends! Do you love hydrangeas as much as I do? I first saw them when my Grammy and Papa took my mom, my sister, and me on a trip from the land of corn to the Outer Banks, traveling off the beaten path to check out the scenery. We have white “snowballs” here, but the lush, vibrant colors and enormous balls of blooms that are the East Coast hydrangeas are something for which my eyeballs were unprepared. I fell so in love with them that we primarily used deep blue hydrangeas for our wedding floral arrangements 15+ years later, and now have (unsuccessfully) tried to grow them in our front yard. The new Gorgeous Hydrangea embossing folder, die, and stencil suite from the Simon Says Stamp Every Happiness release (click HERE to check out the entire release!) immediately was calling my name! I created not one, but two different projects with this plethora of crafty options, and today’s project features the embossing folder and layering stencils. Let’s get started with the details!

To begin, I ran an A2 panel of white cardstock through my die cutting machine using the marvelous new Gorgeous Hydrangea folder. The details on this massive bloom are exquisite, but the coordinating Gorgeous Hydrangea Stencils help those details jump off of your project so beautifully! I used Shading Brushes to blend Pawsitively Saturated Inks in shades of Guava, Periwinkle, Iris, Juniper, overlapping some of the colors multiple times to create that ethereal multicolored hydrangea “glow” that so enchanted me as a child.

After I had finished blending the stenciled images, I used the same shades of ink to blend around the outside of my card front, allowing those colors to illuminate not only the flower, but the scenery around it. Once I had finished blending the entirety of the card front, I dotted a silver paint pen in the individual flower centers and added some beautifully sparkling watercolor splatters around the edges.

For the greeting, I kept things simple using the Timeless Thanks die set, cutting the detail layer from some dazzling iridescent pink cardstock and backing it with a vellum die cut shadow layer. I popped those layers up with thin foam adhesive, floating the sentiment over the flower but still allowing those lovely details to shine through. I added a pale blue velvet bow around the stem and some Opal Pawsitively Dazzling Gems for a bit more sparkle!

Well, that’s all for my project today! I am just so in love with how this turned out…. it reminds me of a gorgeous OBX sunset. A little ink blending and some gorgeous floral texture does some marvelous work, don’t you think? Thank so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!