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Sixth Street Sundries

Emily Midgett

ink blending

Altenew May 2023 Marvelous Monthly Series Release Blog Hop + Giveaway ($300 in Total Prizes!)

Good morning, friends! The new May release for Altenew’s Marvelous Monthly series is here, and the new subscription products are just so beautiful! We’re hopping along to celebrate and inspire you today. You should have arrived here from Agnieszka, and your next stop is Virginia. You can also see the full hop list at the bottom of the post! We have some beautiful new stamps, dies, annnnnd… new colors in the Fresh Dye Ink line! Eeep! I have two projects to share with you today, so let’s get started with the details.

My first project features the luscious new Craft-A-Flower: Fragrant Peony. First, I began by die cutting the layers for the flower itself using the Craft-A-Flower: Fragrant Peony dies and plain white cardstock. Before I assembled the layers, I used a small blending tool to blend Rouge ink very lightly in the center of the peony, concentrating the color a bit more heavily towards the center of each layer and tapering off as I radiated out from the center of the flower, leaving the ends of the petals almost completely white. I also die cut the center of the flower from some bright yellow cardstock, toning it down by blending some Pumpkin Pie ink around the edges, which helps to highlight the beautiful texture embossed on the die cut.

Even when the peonies are crisp and pale and almost bleached, the foliage on the peony bushes remain a vibrant, verdant green, so I die cut my foliage dies from some deep, bottle green cardstock. Because I had two blooms, I wanted to make sure that I had an odd number of floral elements by cutting three different leaves. (An odd number of elements is more visually pleasing-an unwritten rule of design! I try to follow that rule when designing and adding embellishments.)

To allow my very lightly-colored peony blooms to stand out, I decided to keep my card base a bright, crisp white, adding some textural interest with white die cuts. I die cut two Leaf Frame Cover Dies from some white cardstock and layered them together to create a little extra height on my background, making the texture a bit more visible. I arranged my peony die cuts in a cluster and adhered them with foam adhesive, then nestled a “hugs” dimensional die cut greeting in amongst the foliage, cut three times from white cardstock using the Simple Greetings die set. The texture on this card is so fun, while still remaining that crisp, bright white!

My second project features the beautiful ink colors in the Red Sunset Crisp Dye Inks as the focal point. I began by blending an ombré gradient background using all four colors in the Red Sunset set, working from light to dark. I did blend two layers of ink to make sure that the blend was seamless and the colors were really saturated throughout the background.

Once I had my background completely blended and allowed a couple of minutes to dry, I used the Whimsical Bouquet embossing folder to add some beautiful 3D texture to the blended background. I also ran a white pigment ink pad over the top of the raised areas to help enhance the texture even further. The springy foam on the pigment ink pad combined with a light touch helps keep the white ink on only the raised areas. I also splattered some metallic watercolor from the Metallic Watercolor 14 Pan set to add some metallic texture to the background.

I didn’t want to pull attention too far from the vibrant background, so I kept the sentiment and accents simple. I die cut the Fine Frames Cover Die from some Brushed Rose Metallic Cardstock, then added two frames, one thick and one thin, on my blended card front. I also die cut a greeting using the Circled Greetings: Thanks die, cut from some glittery rose gold foam for extra dimension. Finally, I added a few opalescent gems for one last touch of texture!

Well, that’s all for my projects today, and 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 05/24/2023 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 05/26/2023.

*The winners of the $50 gift certificate will be chosen from comments left on the Altenew blog. 

~~Craft Your Life Project Kit updates~~

Please note: The Craft Your Life Project Kit will no longer be released to the public in the Altenew store, not like other subscription products. It will only be available via the Ultimate Subscription Plan or Craft Your Life Project Kit Monthly Subscription Plan.

If you find yourself loving the subscription products more and more each month, you can check out the Ultimate Subscription Plan, which automatically sends you *all* of the subscription products each month at an awesome discount! You can also subscribe to the individual subscription products to receive just the pieces that you want, but the discount isn’t quite as awesome as with the Ultimate Subscription Plan.

Here’s the full hop list:

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Thanks so much for stopping by today, and happy hopping!

Welcome Spring with Scrappy Tails Crafts!

Hi there! Today I have some inspiration using products from a new-to-me company: Scrappy Tails Crafts! I was very honored when the ladies at Scrappy Tails Crafts reached out and asked if I would like to play with some of their newer products. Their new release is filled with beautiful images of Birds and Butterflies, and I had such fun creating this pair of delicate, crisp cards with splashes of soft color. Let’s get started with the details!

If you’ve followed my blog for any length of time, you will know of my obsession with colorful, super saturated vibrant backgrounds. But sometimes, a girl just needs a little crisp white cardstock with some pops of color, you know? I kept both of these cards simple with some crisp white Hammermill cardstock, which is perfect for both foiling and for alcohol markers!

For my first card, I began by stamping one of the beautifully detailed images from the Birds and Blooms stamp set using alcohol marker-friendly ink. I love that this stamp is all one piece-no masking required to create this beautiful little scene! I used my alcohol markers to add lots of vibrant color to the image, creating a sweet blue birdhouse and adding some swipes of yellow to my birdie’s belly and tail feathers, to (hopefully) create a Pine Warbler. (I am definitely not an ornithologist!!) I used the coordinating die for the Birds and Blooms set to cut out the detailed image, as well as one of the sentiments from the set. I love when there are dies to coordinate with the sentiments in the stamp set, as well!

To ground my sweet little scene, I used the gorgeous, detailed frame from the Fancy Rose Oval die set, which I slightly offset on my A2 panel so that it would be falling off the edge of my card front. I reserved the solid center oval piece and very lightly blended a “sky” using some pale blue ink and a blending brush. The pale blue ink adds just enough color to differentiate the background from the rest of the crisp white card. I adhered the frame and its blended solid interior piece to a crisp white A2 card front using foam adhesive.

I adhered my die cut and colored birdhouse scene using a double layer of foam tape, to help it pop even further from the background and truly make it the focal point. I nestled the sentiment in amongst the cherry blossoms with some more foam tape, then added a few shining iridescent blue pearls for another element of texture on this crisp, colorful card that screams springtime!

My second card features some iridescent hot foiling, created using the gorgeous A2 Butterfly Hot Foil Frame + Coordinating Dies. I hot foiled the butterflies and frame onto some more crisp white Hammermill cardstock using some iridescent hot foil, which creates a beautiful rainbow effect. I die cut all of the images using the coordinating dies and set them aside.

Next, I perused my inks to find a few colors that I could use to create an “iridescent” background, selecting colors that would coordinate with the iridescent rainbow colors in my hot foiled pieces. I used Arctic, Dusty Blue, Passion Flower, and Peony inks from Hero Arts, lightly blending all around the edges of my solid A2 background panel, and I think the combo of these four inks picks up the iridescent colors in the foil beautifully!

I popped up the hot foiled frame around the edge of my blended background panel using foam adhesive, then added the butterflies and greeting, scattering the butterflies so that they fluttered in a visual cascade down the front of my card front, keeping the larger butterflies in the center of the card and tapering off in size towards the top and bottom. The final touch was to add a few iridescent gems for one last touch of sparkle!

Well, that’s all for my projects today! The new release from Scrappy Tails Crafts features so many beautiful butterfly and bird themed products… if you’re totally in springtime mode like me, you’re going to want to check it out! Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!

VIDEO: Monet-Inspired Loose Watercoloring with Pinkfresh Studio Premium Dye Ink Pads

Today, I am over on the Pinkfresh Studio YouTube channel sharing a project inspired by that most classic of fine art pieces: Monet’s Water Lilies! Using ink blending, some loose watercoloring, a little vellum, and lots of watercolor “blooms,” I have created this ethereal watercolored card using the Beautiful Blooms stamps and some Pinkfresh Studio Premium Dye ink pads! Check out the video below:

Or you can click HERE to watch in HD on YouTube.

I have always loved Monet’s Water Lilies painting, with it’s ethereal, dreamlike aesthetic, and so I attempted to channel that look with my loose watercoloring for today’s project. I began by doing some very simple blending on some watercolor paper using Candy Violet (for the lilies), Meadow (for the lilypads), and Blue Jay inks, then spritzing the blended panel with water and moving the color around with my wet paintbrush. The water-based dye inks will still move on the watercolor paper, giving you another option for use!

Once I had finished my blending, I set aside the panel to dry and then heat embossed one of the floral trio stamps from Beautiful Blooms onto some more watercolor paper using white embossing powder. After heat embossing, I covered the panel in clean, clear water in order to do some wet-on-wet watercoloring. I tapped out the three shades of ink used on my blended background panel onto my glass mat, then diluted them and dropped them onto my very wet panel of watercolor paper, paying very little attention to where they were supposed to go and spilling the colors over the edges of the images, which allows me to avoid the pesky white edge on the finished die cuts!

After my initial layer of diluted color had dried, I went back in with more concentrated color to enhance the colors of the individual images, again employing the wet-on-wet technique by wetting only the image that I wanted to enhance and dropping in the color, allowing the pigment to bloom on the wet watercolor paper. I die cut the finished images with the handy dandy one-piece coordinating die.

With my blooms complete, I turned my attention back to the background, now dry. The blended background colors were a bit more intense than I initially had envisioned, so to help soften the background, I placed a full size A2 panel of heavyweight vellum over the top, which immediately softened the colors and made the blending even more ethereal than before! I added an iridescent white shimmer die cut frame over the top, cut using the larger frame from the Art Deco Frame die. For the greeting, I searched my stash of hot foiled sentiments to find one that tucked into my watercolored bouquet nicely, finally settling on a sentiment created using the Wonderful Sentiments Hot Foil Plate and Coordinating Die set and the Solid Hot Foil Plate. I adhered everything over the top of the blended, vellum background with some foam tape, then added a few iridescent drops for some more sparkle!

Well, that’s all for my project today! Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!

Pinkfresh Studio May 2023 Challenge: Rainbows!

Hi there! The new challenge over at Pinkfresh Studio has begun, and this month it’s all about that timeless classic: Rainbows! ROY G BIV FTW! Primary colors aren’t really my favorite thing, however, so I took the theme of the challenge and adapted it to fit my own style with some rainbow pastel ink blending. Let’s get started with the details!

I began by ink blending Mint, Ocean Breeze, Soft Lilac, Sparkling Rose, and Passion Fruit inks on two A2 sized panels. I kept one panel intact and ran the other through my die cut machine with the Floral & Diamond Tiles Cover Plate. I layered the die cut blended panel over the top of the plain blended panel, keeping the colors in the same order to create subtle texture on the colorful background.

I wanted to keep the focus on the colorful background, so I white embossed the Happy For You image stamp onto some heavyweight vellum. I adore the delicate, lacy feel that the white embossing creates on the vellum! I used the handy dandy one piece die to cut the finished embossed images.

I also white embossed one of the lovely, larger greetings from Happy For You onto some white cardstock. I wanted to blend over the sentiment with the same colors as my background, so that the sentiment would blend in seamlessly with the rainbow gradient, so I determined the basic layout for my card and thus which inks to blend over my sentiment. Before die cutting, I used blending brushes to blend Ocean Breeze, Soft Lilac, and Sparkling Rose inks over the sentiment. Doing this before die cutting allows the blending to stay soft around the edges, rather than the color being more concentrated and intense around the die cut edges.

I adhered the blended die cut to a piece of iridescent white foil cardstock and cut around the edges to create a shadow around the die cut. The shiny foil adds a bit of textural difference from the colorful background and matte vellum, while the white edge helps to draw the eye to the sentiment. I added a strip of the same iridescent white foil cardstock to the blended card front for another level of texture. I then adhered the vellum floral images to the card front using clear dimensional adhesive and added the sentiment with a double layer of foam tape to help it pop even more. The final touch was to add some coordinating Iridescent Clear Drops. The iridescent coating on these drops accent the colors of the rainbow background beautifully!

Well, that’s all for my project today! You can check out all of the details for the Rainbow Challenge by clicking HERE. Each time you enter a project to the link list, you are entered for a chance to win a $50 shopping spree to the Pinkfresh Studio Store!

Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!

Hero Arts May 2023 My Monthly Hero Release Blog Hop + Giveaway!

Hi there! Hero Arts is releasing their newest collection today, and we are hopping along to celebrate! You should have arrived here from Channin Pelletier, and your next stop is Ilina Crouse. You can also start at the beginning of the hop at the Hero Arts Blog for the full hop list. This month, we are celebrating the carefree joy of childhood. Remember those long summer days where you didn’t come inside until it was dark outside? The ice cream truck rumbled through your neighborhood, bicycles were the fastest mode of transportation to your next adventure, and the skies were a fluorescent blue. Here’s a peek at the Classic My Monthly Hero kit:

And the Premium Kit, which contains everything in the Classic kit, plus a few fabulous extras:

The value of the individual items in these kits is well over double the cost! You can purchase the Classic kit for $36.99 or the Premium Kit for $49.99. We also have a huge variety of Add-On items that coordinate beautifully with the My Monthly Hero kits and themes! (You can always subscribe to be guaranteed a kit each month, because they sell out frequently and are not restocked!) I’ve created a colorful card with colors utterly reminiscent of summertime using the Classic kit, so let’s get started with the details!

I began my project by stamping the darling little bicycle and accessories using the Floral Palette Reactive Ink Cubes. I did add the streamers directly to the bicycle, and so ended up fussy cutting the bicycle, but the dies were used for all of the other elements. The Classic kit includes Frame Cuts to coordinate for all of the different images in the stamp set, including the two different bicycles and all of the accessories!

To create the background for my bicycle, I wanted to invoke that vibrant blue sky that you see in the deep summer, so I first blended Splash ink from the Sea Palette Reactive Ink cube set towards the top of my white panel. I added some Grape Slush ink from the Floral Palette to add a touch of color coordination with the purple bicycle and to deepen the vivid blue of the sky! I stamped several clouds with the Grape Slush ink, stamping a few of them full strength to make them vivid purple, and a few more stamped off once to create just the lightest shadow of a cloud on the blended background.

I stamped some grass at the base of the card front, then again on a scrap of cardstock and die cut it with the coordinating die. I arranged all of the elements on an A2 panel of the lovely pink glitter cardstock, which is also included in the Classic kit. I stamped a greeting from the Classic kit (this kit has some adorable sentiments included!) using the same gray ink used for the bicycle tires and trimmed it down to a sentiment strip. I added all of the elements using foam tape to add lots of dimension to my little summer scene!

My second project features a couple of the new add-on products: Kite Fancy Die and Color Layering Cloud Stencils. I love mixing and matching new goodies with older product, as well, so I pulled out the older Meadow Heroscape stamp set and a bunch of purple and green inks. I stamped the layers of the Meadow Heroscape using Moss, Pine, Amethyst, and Passion Flower inks.

To create the sky background, I used blending brushes to lightly blend Dusty Blue and Passion Flower inks towards the top of my card front. Using my dedicated Unicorn White blending brush, I blended some white clouds using one layer of the new Color Layering Clouds stencils. While the stencil was still in place, I spritzed some Iridescent White Shimmer mist, which helps the clouds pop even more!

After I had stamped and blended the background for my idyllic garden scene, I die cut a kite using the new Kite Fancy Die from some Passion Flower cardstock, lightly blending some Passion Flower ink around the edges. I also heat embossed a clever greeting from Dream Messages (that tiny gnome is very ambitious with his giant kite!) on some more Passion Flower cardstock. I popped up all of the die cuts and sentiment pieces using foam adhesive to add extra dimension to the card.

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

We will give away a $50 gift card, drawn from the comments left across the hop. Enter by Sunday, May 7th at 11:59pm Pacific, and the winner will be announced on the Hero Arts blog the following week.

Your next stop is Ilina Crouse. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and happy hopping!