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Sixth Street Sundries

Emily Midgett

simply spring

Altenew 8th Anniversary Blog Hop Day 3 + Giveaway (over $2,000 in Total Prizes)

Good morning! We’re hopping along again today to celebrate the Altenew Anniversary. You should have arrived here from Michelle’s Cards & Stamps, and your next stop is Michelle Short. You can also start back at the beginning at the Altenew Blog. How long have you loved Altenew’s innovative and utterly gorgeous products? Well, I have loved them almost since the very beginning of their journey eight years ago, which is what we’re celebrating this week! Altenew is turning 8, and it’s so exciting to see how much they’ve grown, introducing new lines of supplies and coloring mediums, to the stunning 3D embossing folders that have breathed new life into an older tool, to the marvelous monthly kits and subscriptions featuring unique and beautiful new flowers to enjoy each month, to the incredible floral stamps and dies that we come to expect from Altenew at each release. I am so proud to have been part of the Altenew Card Design Team since January 2021, and it’s such a joy to work with these beautiful products. Here are a few of my favorite projects from the past year:

2021 was an unbelievable year in the industry, and Altenew’s new releases each month did not disappoint! Such beautiful new kits, subscriptions, and innovative products!

You know how some people love mac’n’cheese or mashed potatoes when they’re stressed or just need a warm hug in the form of some gooey, cheesy comfort food? Well, watercoloring is my crafty “comfort food.” I always can turn to watercoloring when I’m feeling low or stressed, and the floral stamps from Altenew have provided countless hours of watercolored “comfort food” for my psyche. Paired with their beautiful Artists’ 24 Pan Watercolors, it turns stress into pleasure. For today’s project, I created a pair of mini-slimline cards using one watercolored floral image from Simply Spring. Let’s get started with the details!

I began by heat embossing the massive image from Simply Spring onto some watercolor paper with gold embossing powder. I then used the Artists’ 24 Pan Watercolors to add lots of color to this beautiful floral arrangement. I am trying to do more color mixing to create completely custom colors from within the 24 shades included in the watercolor palette, and I love the slightly muted color palette that I was able to create with these incredibly vibrant shades. Once the image had completely dried, I splattered some gold metallic watercolor on the entirety of the image using a couple of shades of metallic watercolor from the Metallic Watercolor 14 Pan set. I die cut the entire image when it had dried completely, then ruthlessly cut the image right down the center using my trimmer.

Because I had cut the image down the center, I was able to create two cards using the two halves! I cut down two white mini slimline card bases (3.5″x6″), then die cut a Nesting Slim Labels die cut from some heavyweight vellum. After approximately arranging my florals and where I wanted them and determining the placement for my sentiment and vellum label, I trimmed the vellum die cut in half.

I blended some Strawberry ink on both card bases behind where I wanted the floral pieces to land, then splattered them with some more metallic watercolor. While the watercolor was drying, I die cut a couple of greetings from Simple Greetings using some matte gold foil cardstock. I find this matte gold foil complements the gold embossing and golden metallic splatters quite nicely. I also die cut a few sparkling gold glitter sprigs cut using the Branches and Berries die set.

Once I had die cut all of the components, I began to assemble the various die cut pieces on the card fronts. I used lots of Instant Dimension Foam Tape to adhered the floral die cuts, while adhering the glittering sprigs using liquid adhesive for lots of dimension.

I adhered the matte gold die cut greetings to the two halves of the vellum labels, then added those to the card fronts, hiding the clear foam adhesive behind the solid die cut words. The final step was to add one more touch of metallic gold with some matte gold pearls. I love the mixture of different forms of gold on these cards-shiny gold embossing powder, matte gold sentiments and pearls, shimmery gold metallic watercolors, and sparkling gold glitter paper. The different gold elements really add a level of richness and luxury to the cards!

Well, that’s all for my projects today. To celebrate their 8th anniversary, Altenew has compiled some utterly incredible prizes to give away during the blog hop!

Over $2,000 in total prizes! Altenew is giving away a $80 Gift Certificate to 5 lucky winners and one Altenew Academy Online Class($8.95 value) to 15 lucky winners. There are also 26 awesome companies/crafty friends who are celebrating with us, and they are offering the following prizes:

Your next stop on the hop is Michelle Short. Thanks so very much for stopping by today, and happy hopping! Happy Anniversary to Altenew, and may these first eight years be the start of a very long and creative presence within our industry! I can’t wait to see what incredible products you bring to us this year!

Altenew Exotic Garden Stamps/Dies/Stencils/Embossing Folders Collection Release Blog Hop + Giveaway

Hi there! Today, we are celebrating Altenew’s Exotic Garden stamp and die release with a blog hop! You should have arrived here from Vicky Papaioannou, and your next stop is Carol Hintermeier. I have two super girly and super pink projects featuring some gorgeous new floral layering stencils and a gigantic, stunning floral bouquet stamp, so let’s get started with the details!

These layering stencils are all the rage right now, and I am totally here for it. I love how much dimension you can get from these layering stencils; plus, there are so many fun ink combinations and techniques that you can do with them! The new Bitterroot Layering Stencil and coordinating die set are so, so fun and so beautiful. I love that you can create the bouquet with foliage or the individual flowers, and I’ve shown both on my first project.

I began by blending the Bitterroot Layering Stencil and coordinating die set using a wide variety of inks (the color guide on the back of the packaging is so helpful in making color choices!) on some plain white cardstock. I used eight different colors to achieve these die cuts: Cosmic Berry, Razzleberry, Rubellite, Pinkalicious, Pink Diamond, Plum, Galactic Storm, and Teal Cave! So much fun and so much dimension! I die cut the finished stenciled flowers using the coordinating dies.

For the greeting, I die cut the Mega Hope from some Cosmic Berry cardstock (included in the Rose Petal Gradient Cardstock set) and heat embossed a greeting from Mega Greetings 4 on a strip of the same Cosmic Berry cardstock using white embossing powder. I arranged all of the die cuts and sentiment pieces on a white card front (to make those pretty pinks really pop!) and adhered them with the Instant Dimension Foam Tape. I added a few pink gems for some sparkle and to fill in some bare spots.

My second project features the absolutely stunning new Simply Spring stamp set. (There is also a coordinating die, which is going to be super fun to play with, as well!) Because this image is just totally massive, I decided to make a slimline card with the partial bouquet as the focal point of the card. I began by stamping the image on a slimline cardstock panel using Obsidian Black Ink, then clear embossing over the sticky pigment ink. This technique is great for people who are not as comfortable with watercoloring, because the heat embossing helps to kind of contain the color and keep the colors from bleeding into each other.

I used Rubellite, Purple Wine, Persian Blue, Fresh Lemon, Emerald, and Dusk Watercolor Brush Marker Refills, Altenew’s Round Paintbrushes, and lots of water to paint the image. I began by taping down the paper to my watercolor board, then wetting the watercolor cardstock thoroughly and dropping very diluted color all over the image. In spite of the embossed wells to help keep the colors crisp, I wanted all of the colors to kind of bleed together to create an ethereal look and help add some interest and colorful variation to the flowers themselves. Once my base layer of pale color had dried, I began adding more concentrated color to the blooms and foliage.

Once my watercolor had dried, I removed the panel from my watercolor board and trimmed it down slightly, then matted it on a full size slimline panel of black cardstock. I added a greeting from Simply Spring that I’d heat embossed on a smaller rectangle of black cardstock, which I popped up with some more Instant Dimension Foam Tape. Following the “rule of threes,” I decided to add one more black accent with some black gems scattered down the card front.

Well, that’s all for my projects today! Now, as always, Altenew has some awesome giveaways to celebrate their latest release:

$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 05/10/2021 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 05/12/2021.

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