Sixth Street Sundries

Emily Midgett

no line coloring

Advent Calendar Extravaganza with Taheerah Atchia

Advent Calendar Extravaganza is -the- festive event of the season! This ‘hop with a twist’ was dreamed up by Taheerah Atchia and features surprise destinations each day! Joining in the fun with Taheerah are ONE HUNDRED special guests – each serving up some fantastic Christmas inspiration! Just like an Advent Calendar, you’ll never know where you’re going to be visiting next until you ‘open the door’!

And that’s not all! With 25 *amazing* sponsors taking part as guests as well, your crafty wish list is bound to get a boost with a chance to win a prize EVERY SINGLE DAY!!

Join in the fun every day at taheerah-atchia.com to see what special surprises await behind the door!

Today, I am completely thrilled to be taking part in this special event using one of my absolute favorite companies: Concord and 9th! I am having a love affair with this beautiful Ornamental(C9|SSS|EH) stamp set… There are SO many fun techniques that you can do with the stamp and die set. You can see more of my projects with it here and here.

Today, I have chosen to work with just the stamps from the Ornamental set(C9|SSS|EH) to do some no-line coloring and create a chalkboard look. Chalkboard is one of my absolute favorite techniques, because it is so timeless, and no-line coloring helps me pretend that I have far more drawing abilities than I actually do. 😉  I started with an A2 panel of black card stock, then stamped both the main floral ornament image as well as the “merry and bright” calligraphy from Ornamental (C9|SSS|EH) using Simon Says Stamp White Pigment ink.

Once the image was dry, I used my Prismacolor (AZ|DB|SSS) pencils to color all of the little bits and pieces in. (You can see a video on my process for colored pencils on colored card stock here.) A quick recap on my technique: to maintain the vibrance of the colored pencil on the colored card stock, I first color the entirety of the image using white Prismacolor pencil, then color over the white using the colored Prismacolors and blend with the blender pencil. After coloring all of the floral images, I used the same white pencil to color over the top of the white pigment inked greeting, making it look almost exactly like a chalkboard.

After I had finished coloring everything, I used my T-square to add a frame around the edges with my white pencil.  The final little detail was to add a small, white velvet bow at the top of the “ornament” just to add a bit of texture to this flat card, but you could definitely omit that to make it completely flat for mailing.

It’s not a party without a prize – and with prizes every day there are several chances to win! Today’s prize is generously supplied by Concord and 9th, so you’ll definitely want to win! Simply leave a comment on this post – then head back to taheerah-atchia.com and leave a comment there too! You must leave a comment on Taheerah’s blog as well as mine in order to be eligible to win! Don’t forget to grab the other surprise destinations from Taheerah’s blog and head over to them to leave comments there as well to improve your odds even more! You have until 23:59 EST on 31st December 2017 to enter.

Don’t forget Advent Calendar Extravaganza runs from 1st-25th December inclusive so make sure you visit taheerah-atchia.com every day for fabulous inspiration and amazing prizes every single time! Merry Christmas!

Honey Bee Stamps- World Kindness Day!

Good morning! Today is World Kindness Day. Isn’t that a fantastic “day” to celebrate? Much better (and by better, I mean worth celebrating) than some of the silly ones that have been floating about recently…. Anyway, the Honey Bee Stamps design team is here with some “kindness” inspiration for you!

For my project, I wanted to create a wintry scene focusing on a chilly little birdie that someone gave a nice warm hat and scarf. 🙂 To start, I blended some blue inks on an A2 panel of Bristol card stock. (Bristol gives you lighter blend, because the ink just kinda sits on top instead of completely saturating the card stock!) Next, I used the fabulous Outdoor Scene Builder stencils and some Nuvo Mousse in Pure Platinum to add some pretty birch trees to the backdrop.

After I had created the backdrop, I die cut some snowy hills using the new Hill Border dies from both silver glitter and white card stock and popped them up using dimensional foam adhesive.

For the sweet little birdie, I wanted to tell the “story” that some kind soul had given him some warmth on this cold day with a warm hat and scarf. I started by using the coordinating dies from Snowbirds to die cut the little guy from plain white card stock, then, because I wanted to do some no-line coloring, used very pale gray ink to stamp the bird. I colored him using my Prismacolor pencils. No-line coloring is fairly easy with colored pencils; you don’t have to worry about ink bleeding with pencils like you do with watercolors! 😉 I also added some snowflakes from Snowbirds to the backdrop, stamping some of them full strength, others stamped off once.

The final step was to add the greeting from Honey Bee’s beautiful Kindness stamp and the coordinating die set. I die cut the kindness from superfine black glitter paper, then adhered it to the card front and stamped the coordinating greeting.

Well, I hope this project and our blog hop will inspire you to do something kind today! The world always needs kindness, and now more than ever in this sometimes-terrifying world in which we live.

Now, for some fun extras to celebrate this lovely holiday! Melissa is giving away 4 $25 gift certificates to the Honey Bee Stamps store (check the blog for all of the details), and the fantastic Kindness stamp and die set are on sale 25% off! Be sure to go get your own set quickly. It’s such a versatile, lovely set!

Have a marvelous day!

For the love of colored pencils….

Good morning! I have a penciled card to share today made entirely of products from a new company… like less than a year old new. I always love finding new companies to, ahem, add to my collection! The Stamp Market. They have some really lovely floral stamps, as well as some gorgeous sentiment sets and an absolutely stunning marble background stamp that I can’t wait to try out. For my card today, I thought I would do some no-line pencil coloring with one of their newest sets: Feeling Floral.

I started by stamping the large floral image from Feeling Floral once onto some masking paper, then cutting it out. I stamped it again on some wine-colored card stock using white pigment ink, then covered it with the mask and stamped a few more blooms and some foliage.

After stamping, I began coloring. I’ve been loving wine, mauve, and gray lately, so I couldn’t resist coloring these beautiful blooms in some pretty shades of mauve, and I thought I’d do something a little different with the leaves and color them a silvery gray. I used the pencil technique demonstrated in this video with my Prismacolor pencils and blender pencil.

After I finished coloring, I die cut the large You three times from white card stock and once from silver foil card stock and layered them all together with liquid adhesive. Next, I white heat embossed the coordinating sentiment from the You sentiment set tucked into the flower bundle. I finally added a few Moonshine sequins to the front to add a bit more texture to this fairly flat card.

Isn’t it amazing how much depth you can get with colored pencils? They’re definitely becoming one of my new favorite mediums. I hope you’ve enjoyed this project from this fabulous new company! I can’t wait to dig in even more… I might have purchased a few more sets recently! Teehee.

Hope you have a fabulous Wednesday!

Merry Christmas in flowers and pencils

Good morning! It’s October. Holy moly, has this year gone by fast! The speed with which this year has moved has made me forget that Christmas is less than 3 months away, and I need to get a-crackin’ on some holiday cards. I have purchased some absolutely beautiful holiday stamps recently, so I will be getting busy with those ASAP. First up, however, is the absolutely stunning Christmas Rose set from Wplus9. These bouquet clusters just beg to be colored with pencils, and I was more than happy to oblige.


I started by stamping the main floral image from Christmas Rose onto some Toned Gray paper using white pigment ink in order to do a little no-line coloring. I then colored the beautiful hellebore and poinsettia blooms in shades of pink and purple using my Prismacolor pencils. Anytime I color on paper that isn’t white, I use the technique that I demonstrate in this video. Basically, I start by laying down a layer of white pencil, then add my colored pencil over the top of the white, then blend it all with my blender pencil. The layer of white pencil beneath the color really helps the colored pencil to pop off of the page.

After coloring the image, I die cut the “merry christmas” from the Wplus9 Christmas Tag die set from some white linen card stock, which I then covered in some Spectrum Noir Shimmer Pen. (Can’t really see it in the photo, but the letters are SO sparkly.) I trimmed a small section away from the bottom of the penciled panel to create a peek-a-boo panel with some shimmery magenta cardstock behind it. I popped up the penciled panel using dimensional foam adhesive, then added a few sequins on the whole piece to add a bit more sparkle.

Well, there’s one holiday card down! I have maybe 7 already in my stash, so I reeeeeeally need to get cracking haha! How’s your holiday card stash?

Have a fabulous day, friends!

Ellen Hutson Pinsights Challenge!

Hi there! I’m back again today (I know, two non-design team posts in one week! I’m shocked!) with an entry for the Ellen Hutson Pin Sights Challenge! Their challenge graphic this month is so pretty:

Those Design Seeds color palettes are just a font of inspiration for me. {Insert all of the heart eye emojis.} I particularly loved the green and pink combination… I don’t use the combo that much as the focal point of my projects, and there’s something so deliciously shabby chic about pink and green when paired together, so I decided to make an antique hydrangea using one of my favorite Ellen Hutson sets: Mondo Hydrangea.

I colored the lovely hydrangea using my no-line pencil technique that I shared in this video. I started by stamping the hydrangea onto some pale spring green card stock using white ink. I then colored the flowers using my Prismacolor pencils using Deco Peach, Blush Pink, Pink, Carmine Red, and to add shadows, Chestnut. (The 150 pack of Prismacolor pencils is at Dick Blick and Amazon for an amazing price!)

After I had finished coloring the flower, I silver heat embossed the sentiment from Mondo Hydrangea. I trimmed down the sides a bit, then matted the pencil panel with some pale pink card stock. On the card base, I used a coordinating green ink to stamp the individual leaf and flowers in the Mondo Hydrangea set to add some interest to the background. I tied a thin twine bow around the pink and green layers, then added some foam adhesive and popped up my colored panel on my card base.

Not going to lie: colored pencils are not the quickest coloring medium in the world. I could have done this project in about half the time (or maybe even less than that) had I worked with my watercolors. BUT! This card is going to be sent to someone very special to me, so I wanted to add some extra love and care to it, and I think the pencils definitely helped accomplish that.

Hope you’re having a marvelous week! I will be back tomorrow with the Where Creativity Meets C9 team’s final Feature Friday post for Concord and 9th’s anniversary month!