Sixth Street Sundries

Emily Midgett

pinkfresh challenge

Pinkfresh Studio Challenge for February 2023-Stripes and Plaid!

It’s a new month, so it’s time for a new Pinkfresh Studio challenge! This month, we’re focusing on plaid and stripes– some of my favorite patterns! I feel like stripes and plaid are both neutrals and the perfect companion to flowers, which we know are basically my favorite. I hadn’t had an opportunity to use the new Floral Outline Die yet, and it reminded me so much of crocheted lace on a baby blanket that I thought it would be perfect paired with some plaid stenciling! Let’s get started with the details.

I began by die cutting the Floral Outline Die from some of Spellbinders’s White Glitter Foam. I wanted extra dimension, and normally would have used multiple die cuts glued together. This die is so intricate, however, that I didn’t feel like poking the tiny pieces out from multiple die cuts. A couple of passes through my die cut machine with this foam and I have a sparkling, ready-made dimensional die cut!

To continue the crocheted baby blanket theme, I blended the Ballet Slipper, Apricot, and Lemon Whip inks with the Dainty Plaid layered stencil set. Sometimes I can be a bit heavy-handed with my ink blending (I can be a tad impatient; it’s a problem), so the blended plaid came out a bit brighter than I intended. It was easily fixed, however, by layering an A2 panel of vellum over the top, which immediately softened the colors! I adhered the glittery foam lace over the top of the vellum, then flipped it over and added tiny dots of adhesive on the back of the vellum, hiding them behind the solid spots of the foam die cut that I had already adhered. Soft, springy, and because the pink ink was softened so much by the vellum, basically gender-neutral!

For the greeting, I used a hot foiled Sentiment Suite: Hello die cut, which I had previously hot foiled on white cardstock using Champagne hot foil and die cut with the coordinating die. I also die cut the “baby” from some more white cardstock using the Jeff Alpha die set. I arranged the sentiment die cuts on the card front, adhering them with foam tape for extra dimension. Finally, I added some Peach Fuzz gems to the center of the larger flowers to add a bit more sparkle!

Well, that’s all for my project today! The Pinkfresh Studio February 2023 Challenge runs through Tuesday, February 28. The winner will be announced on March 4, 2023! Pinkfresh Studio is giving a $50 shopping spree to the winner, so it definitely can pay to participate. I hope you’ll check it out! Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!

City Sidewalks, Busy Sidewalks…

Hi there! Did you know that Pinkfresh Studio has a monthly challenge? At the start of each month, the folks at Pinkfresh Studio provide a great graphic with a challenge topic and color scheme to jumpstart your creativity. You can enter your projects for a chance to win a $50 shopping spree to the Pinkfresh Studio store! You can check out all of the details HERE. This month’s challenge prompt is the appropriately-timed Happy Holidays! I pulled out a bunch of the beautiful new holiday products from the October 2022 release along with Candy Apple, Sparkling Rose, Meadow, Evergreen, and Sky Blue inks to create this festive and colorful shaker card. Let’s get started with the details!

To start, I heat embossed the Holiday City View stamp on a panel of white cardsock using white pearl embossing powder. I used the coordinating stencils, blending brushes, and the Candy Apple, Sparkling Rose, Meadow, Evergreen, and Sky Blue inks to add lots of vivid color to the background. I love how graphic and versatile this background stamp is! It can absolutely be used outside of the holidays, maybe for a “congratulations on your new home” card or “welcome to the neighborhood”!

To add to the holiday feel of the color scheme, I used the Festive Leaves layering stencils with the Candy Apple, Sparkling Rose, and Meadow inks. I then cut the finished blended images out with the coordinating dies. I love these die cuts of simple holiday greenery! The simplicity of the images works beautifully with the equally-simple stenciled, color-blocked background.

To create my shaker card front, I die cut the Ornate Oval Frame from the center of a white A2 card front, reserving both the positive and negative pieces. I like to try to keep the cellophane packaging when I receive new stamp sets, and some old stamp packaging was the perfect backer for this flat shaker! I backed the full size negative-space A2 panel with this recycled cellophane, then nestled the die cut itself inside and adhered it with some strong tape. I added lots of fun sequins and snowflakes to the inside of the shaker and adhered it using more strong tape, not foam tape. The flat sequins still shake beautifully and it is so much easier to mail!

Once I had completed my shaker card front, I added a couple of hot foiled Brushed Sentiments: Holiday greeting die cuts, hot foiled with Champagne hot foil and die cut with the coordinating dies. I popped the greeting up with some thicker foam tape, then arranged the holiday greenery in a little swag around the sentiment and adhered them with a combination of thin foam tape and liquid adhesive to add lots of different layers of height. The final touch was to add a few Magenta Glitter Drops for one last touch of sparkle!

Well, that’s all for this project today! I hope you’ll take a peek at the Pinkfresh Studio Challenge. I have always found that challenges are such a great way to jumpstart your creativity, and can often open the floodgates for even more creative inspiration. I can’t believe we are only a couple of weeks away from Christmas… I’m not ready for the festive holiday fun to be over yet! Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!

Pinkfresh Studio Challenge August 2022-Beautiful Backgrounds!

Hi there! Each month, Pinkfresh Studio hosts a challenge with a different theme, providing everybody with the opportunity to link your projects inspired by the challenge for a chance to win a Pinkfresh Studio shopping spree! This month, the challenge is Beautiful Backgrounds, and Pinkfresh Studio has such a wide variety of options for creating gorgeous backgrounds: hot foil, cover plates, stamps, stencils. I have a cool, crisp project featuring some of the beautiful colors in the inspiration graphic and one of my favorite ways to add interest to the background of floral cards: Dotted Scallops! Let’s get started on the details for my card.

I began by stamping the Cosmos Bunch stamp set that I illustrated for Pinkfresh last year twice onto some alcohol marker-friendly cardstock using black pigment ink. I then covered the sticky ink with some white pearl embossing powder to create my favorite pearlescent charcoal embossing. I colored the images using OLO markers, coloring the foliage and small bunches of flowers around the larger Cosmos first, then using some very light lavender and gray markers with the “colorless” marker to add shadows to the large Cosmos images. I also colored around the edges very lightly with a super pale aqua marker, the combination of which I think helps to create contrast for the bright white Cosmos flowers. I cut the finished colored images with the coordinating dies.

For the background, I used the beautiful Dotted Scallops cover plate to create subtle texture on my white slimline card base. This die is originally formatted to fit an A2 card front, but I ran it through my die cut machine twice, shifting it the second time to cover the bottom portion of my slimline card front. The seam of the two die cuts was slightly visible, but I was able to cover it up later. To coordinate with the blue filler flowers, I added a couple of strips of coordinating blue cardstock, one thin glitter and one textured blue cardstock, die cut using the Slim Lacy Edgers die set.

For the greeting, I used the Sentiment Suite: Hello Hot Foil Plate and coordinating die. I hot foiled the greeting using some metallic graphite colored foil to coordinate with my pearlescent charcoal embossing. I added the floral die cuts with foam adhesive, making sure to partially cover the seam of the background, then added the foiled greeting using a double layer of foam tape, covering the remainder of the background seam. The final touch was to add a few Sky Blue jewels for one final pop of blue on the card front.

Well, that’s all for my project today! The Beautiful Background theme for this month covers so much ground, with so many beautiful options for interesting backgrounds from Pinkfresh Studio. I hope you’ll check out the challenge and enter a project! Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day.