Sixth Street Sundries

Emily Midgett

grandma's christmas tree

Fun With Felt: Feliz Navidad with Honey Bee Stamps!

Hi friends! Merry Christmas! I have a few more holiday felt projects to share with you using beautiful new dies from the Honey Bee Stamps Cozy Christmas release. I made so many felt gifts this year and enjoyed myself so much; I am contemplating giving myself some time to just sit and sew each week. It’s good to try new things, isn’t it? Especially when they’re so therapeutic and relaxing! While many companies make dies specifically for stitching with handy dandy little holes to make the stitching as foolproof as possible, I wanted to create these special gifts with some non-stitching dies. Let’s get started on the details for my projects!

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

For my first project, I thought that I would combine two of my favorite nostalgic memories from my childhood: my Grammy’s ceramic Christmas tree and my mom’s love of the song “Feliz Navidad.” I feel like every 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s kid had one of these ceramic trees in their family heirlooms, and my Grammy’s, while not pink like this felt tree, was absolutely iconic. The Grandma’s Christmas Tree die set from Honey Bee Stamps is an older set, but no less fabulous for it’s age. The details, the generous size, the coordinating embossing folders and stencils…. perfection! I used some pale pink felt to die cut the tree, then used the coordinating Grandma’s Christmas Tree embossing folder to run the image through my die cutting machine. Even though the embossed details didn’t stay on the springy felt, they were impressed deeply enough that I was able to use some coordinating pink embroidery floss to stitch some larger seed beads onto the edges of the different layers of the tree.

After I had added the beads, I adhered the colorful die cut felt lights with some felt glue, then used the same pale pink embroidery floss to add some stitched details in approximately the same spots as the embossed details. I adhered the tree to an 8″ embroidery hoop to which I had added some neutral linen material using more felt glue. For a greeting, I used the Great Greetings: Holiday dies, cutting the shadow layer from the “Feliz Navidad” sentiment from some hot pink felt, then cut the detail layer from some metallic iridescent silver felt. The metallic coating on the iridescent felt cuts these super detailed letters beautifully. I adhered the greeting beneath the tree with felt glue, then added some embroidered metallic red snowflakes and seed beads for some additional texture and shine!

For my second project, I used the absolutely spectacular Lovely Layers: Mini Holiday Florals to create a felted holiday wreath. I die cut the poinsettias, anemones, and foliage from a variety of red, peach, and teal felt, adhering the different layers of the flowers together using felt glue. Because there are so many layers on the anemone blooms, I did end up trimming some of the center out of the last couple of layers to keep the felt layers from becoming super thick. I think that’s one of my favorite things about felt: you can manipulate the felt a little to get the angles and images just perfect!

Once I had finished adhering the different layers together on the flowers, I decided to embellish the flower centers with some sparkling seed beads. I mixed two different shades of yellow on the center of the anemones, creating lots of interest and texture. Once I had finished embellishing my flowers, I die cut the beautifully intricate Merry & Bright die from some metallic charcoal felt. I adhered the sentiment in the center of a 6″ embroidery hoop, which I had filled with some glittering aqua fabric. To ensure that the glue spread evenly and cleanly, I flipped the embroidery hoop over and placed a glass weight in the center of the hoop, similar to how I weight paper adhered with liquid glue to ensure smooth drying.

After allowing a bit of dry time for the sentiment die cut, I flipped the hoop back over and began arranging my floral die cuts and foliage. I first placed the flowers and adhered them with the felt glue, then began arranging the foliage, tucking some beneath the flowers and arching others around the perimeter of the circular embroidery hoop. Finally, I added a few seed beads and sequins as well as a coordinating satin bow to the top of my hoop. The colors are a bit non-traditional, but I absolutely love how modern and fresh the coral, red, and aqua looks with the traditional floral Christmas imagery!

Well, that’s all for my projects today. These felt gifts have been such a joy to create, and I am looking forward to playing with textiles and embroidery even more after things calm down from the holidays! I hope that you and your loved ones had a restful, yummy holiday filled with lots of love and a few treats, including crafty ones! Thanks so much for stopping by today, and Merry Christmas!

Vintage Christmas Trees with Honeybee Stamps!

Hi there! I had the opportunity to play with some of the new Make It Merry goodies from my friends at Honeybee Stamps, and I have been on a Christmas Crafting Binge! (Official title!) Like most people, my grandmother had one of those beautiful vintage ceramic trees that came out at Christmas… white ceramic with beautiful colored lights. It wasn’t truly Christmas until Grammy got that tree out. Seeing the absolutely marvelous new Grandma’s Christmas Tree Dies, 3D Embossing Folder, and Layering Stencils took me right back to my Grammy’s basement, playing endless games of dress up and Trivial Pursuit with my cousins, waiting for the marvelous Christmas Eve meal and Christmas presents that awaited us upstairs! I created a pair of cards using these new goodies, so let’s get started with the details.

The Grandma’s Christmas Tree Dies, 3D Embossing Folder, and Layering Stencils work seamlessly together to create these beautifully textured die cuts. I found it easies to die cut the trees first, then run them through my die cut machine with the embossing folder to create that incredibly detailed dimension that you see in the projects above!

My first project is a shaped card. I began by folding a piece of minty green cardstock into an A2 sized panel, then used the solid tree die from the Grandma’s Christmas Tree Dies to cut a shaped card base, making sure to keep the fold of the card within the die cut itself. I also die cut a full size, separate tree die cut and ran it through my die cut machine with the 3D Embossing Folder. The top of the tree card is slightly shorter than the full tree, but the full size die cut will cover that up easily!

Using blending brushes, I blended two shades of coordinating green ink around the edges of the embossed tree die cut, blending the lighter ink further in towards the center of the die cut and keeping the darker just around the outside of the die cut to add some shadows. I also used the Coordinating Layering Stencils to add some shadows beneath each row of branches with the lighter shade of green ink. The amount of dimension that you can achieve with these stencils and the embossing folder is simply sublime. I adhered the finished die cut to the shaped card base.

For the greeting, I sat down with my Spellbinders Glimmer machine and hot foiled a ton of sentiments using the new Holiday Hot Foil Plate and Dies using several shades of metallic hot foil. For this project, I selected a matte champagne greeting on some white cardstock, then blended some of the light minty green ink over the top to create a custom colored sentiment die cut. The foil resists the ink, similar to embossing powder, so the champagne foil pops out from the minty green background so nicely!

After I had blended my greeting, I popped it up on the embossed and blended tree card front. I used several of the gems from the Make It Merry Gems set. I have discovered that the Honeybee Die Release Tool is perfect for removing the gems from their release paper and placing them on the card front. The gems also give you a little wiggle room for placement, because you can carefully remove them from the card front with the die release tool and place them elsewhere as long as you don’t immediately press them down! I am in love with this shaped card. It stands up so nicely and would look perfect on a mantel decorated for Christmas. It would be darling as a tag or ornament, as well!

My second card is reminiscent of my Grammy’s ceramic tree. My husband is a darling and searched high and low for a ceramic shop that would recreate my Grammy’s tree for my birthday a few years ago, so I have one that is almost identical to my Grammy’s tree in my craft room all year long. I was definitely using it as inspiration for this card! I began by die cutting the Grandma’s Christmas Tree die with the little slits for the lights (I love that you have the option for the plain tree die cut or the slits to add the lights/ornaments!) from some crisp white cardstock, then embossing it with the 3D Embossing Folder. I also die cut the lights and star for the top from some more white cardstock.

Using the lights on my tree for color inspiration, I colored the lights using my OLO markers. Because the little light bulbs are so tiny, a dark and light marker were plenty to give me some dimension on the bulbs. I added them to the tree using some tiny dots of liquid adhesive. I also added some glittery white “snow” around the edges of each row of branches. I love the festive, vintage feel this adds to the tree!

For the card base, I die cut the top layer of the Winter Prism cover plate set from some more white cardstock, then adhered it to an A2 panel of glittery white cardstock. I found this cardstock in my stash, but it’s completely white glitter-no iridescent shine at all, which coordinates perfectly with the glitter on the tree! I added a greeting heat embossed with silver embossing powder using the Inside: Holiday Sentiments and Coordinating Dies. I adhered the tree with some dimensional foam adhesive, then added the greeting with a double layer of foam tape to add extra height and drama. Those colorful lights pop so perfectly from that crisp white background!

Well, that’s all for these projects! I have a few more to share with you later this week… I was on a roll and couldn’t stop playing with the new Make It Merry goodies. If you love Christmas stamps and dies as much as I do, you will not want to miss these gorgeous new products. They’re spectacular! Thanks so much for reading today, and have a marvelous day!