Sixth Street Sundries

Emily Midgett

holiday cheer

Christmas In July: Holiday Cheer with a Holiday Cardinal!

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

Hi friends! I am back with another post for my Christmas In July week here on my blog! As a St. Louis native, Cardinals have always held a special place in my heart, and the symbolism of cardinals representing visitors from heaven has always given me comfort. We have lots of cardinals in our yard, and it seems like when I am having a stressful day with my kiddos, a cardinal will appear in the window, reminding me of the immense patience that my grandparents showed my sister and me. I love the winter imagery of a vivid red cardinal amongst the beautiful snowy landscape, which is what I tried to create with this crisp white card, adding pops of holiday color with cherry and cranberry red. Let’s get started with the details!

I started my project by die cutting the cardinal from the Honeybee Stamps Lovely Layers Winter Birds using three different shades of red cardstock. These Lovely Layers die sets from Honeybee Stamps are super detailed and very simple to assemble, with incredible results! I also die cut the beautiful Corner Pine Frame from some white glitter cardstock to create the snowy branches for my cardinal. I die cut a few extra sprigs of pine using some iridescent white foil cardstock and the Pine Needle Trio die set. The combination of different types of white textured cardstock creates a lush pine bough for the bright crimson cardinal!

Once I had die cut all of the different foliage elements for my project, I ran a panel of A2 sized white cardstock through my die cutting machine using the Threaded Snowflakes embossing folder. The beautifully detailed snowflakes add marvelous texture behind the delicate pine die cuts. I adhered the glittery white Corner Pine Frame to the textured snowflake background using liquid adhesive. Before arranging the rest of the die cuts, I turned my attention to the sentiment.

For the greeting, I die cut the detail layer of the Fancy Holiday Cheer die set from some deep cranberry cardstock, then layered it on the shadow layer cut from vellum cardstock. I also trimmed down a pre-printed holiday sentiment (that I think may be discontinued, but THESE are similar!). I arranged all of the different die cuts and sentiment pieces on the white-on-white textured background, adhering them with a combination of liquid and foam adhesive for lots of different levels of height and dimension. I had some leftover die cut berries from THIS card, so I nestled some berry clusters amongst the pine boughs for some extra pops of red. Finally, I added a few Clear Pawsitively Dazzling Gems for extra sparkle. The sparkly, shiny white specialty cardstocks with the pops of bright, cheery red make for such a festive color palette!

Well, that’s all for my project today! I have a few more holiday projects up my sleeve to share with you, so be sure to come back again. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!

Ellen Hutson October 2021 Release-Pt 2!

Hi there! I’m back today with some more inspiration using a few of the new goodies from the Ellen Hutson Essentials By Ellen release. I seem to be gravitating towards simple color schemes lately, and these cards today are an homage to my love of chalkboard! Any time I see a beautiful, chunky sentiment, I immediately think “this needs to be a chalkboard.” I have two “ode to chalkboard” projects for you today, so let’s get started with the details! (Affiliate links used where possible. Thank you for your support!)

Both of my projects feature the new Sending Holiday Cheer sentiment stamp set. The typography in this set is marvelous; those chunky sentiments just make me so happy, and they make creating your card front so quick and easy!

For my first project, I began by white embossing the “may your days be merry and bright” sentiment (cannot get enough of that phrase for holiday cards!) from Sending Holiday Cheer onto some Pitch Black cardstock from Hero Arts. I wanted to make the sentiment cover a bit more of the card front, so I used my sharp scissors and fussy cut each line to create four separate sentiment lines.

I wanted some subtle texture for the backdrop of this pretty sentiment, so I die cut the Twirling Flurries die from some more Pitch Black cardstock. I used some Hero Arts Unicorn White Pigment Ink and a blending brush to blend some frosty, chalky ink around the edges. I love the way the white pigment ink highlights the subtle stitching in the beautiful background! I backed the die cut card front with some white cardstock to allow the tiny little die cut snowflakes to peek through, then used foam tape to adhere the sentiment for lots of dimension and texture on this card front. The final touch was to add some iridescent white gems for a bit of sparkle! The bright, crisp white embossing stands out so beautifully from the subtly textured black background.

My next project features the new Holiday Sprigs stamp set, as well as the Sending Holiday Cheer stamps. I again began by doing some white embossing on black cardstock using the “sending holiday cheer” stamp from Sending Holiday Cheer. I also embossed a big bunch of the botanical images from Holiday Sprigs stamp set, then die cut them with their coordinating dies.

I die cut one of my most favorite dies from the Essentials By Ellen line: Stitches Cover Plate from another panel of Pitch Black cardstock. I adhered the die cut flowers and sentiment using lots of foam adhesive and liquid adhesive to add plenty of dimension. The final touch was to add a few bright red gems. I adore a pop of red on a monochromatic card front! I think they look almost like holly berries.

Well, that’s all for my projects today! If you haven’t looked already, I hope you’ll check out the new Essentials By Ellen holiday release… there are so many fun new goodies available right now! Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!