Skip links

Sixth Street Sundries

Emily Midgett

snowflakes

Pinkfresh Studio August 2023 Holiday Stamp, Die, Stencil, and Hot Foil Release

Hi there! Today, Pinkfresh Studio is releasing their holiday collection, and boy is it a stunner! The August 2023 Release features so many beautiful sentiments, timeless holiday images, and elegant hot foil plates to create the most marvelous array of holiday cards! I have two wintry cards both featuring the new Large Snowflakes dies to share with you today, so let’s get started with the details!

I have quite the collection of snowflake dies in my stash of holiday cardmaking supplies. I can’t help it. Their elegance and intricate beauty entrance me. The new Large Snowflakes dies feature three different shapes in a small, medium, and large size, perfect for creating a variety of styles and projects. Both of my cards today also feature an icy color combination of Ocean Breeze, Aquamarine, and Slumber inks. I think these three colors create the loveliest frosty background for my shimmering snowflakes!

To start my first project, I blended Ocean Breeze, Aquamarine, and Slumber inks on a panel of white, A2 cardstock, blending super lightly at first, then gradually building up the layers to create a smooth transition between the colors. Once I had a blend that I liked, I ran the entire blended panel through my die cutting machine using the utterly gorgeous new Snowflakes Cover Plate die. The cutout and stitched details on this new cover plate are spectacular and so very unique!! Once I had die cut the blended panel, I spritzed some iridescent shimmer spray over the entire piece to add even more shimmer and sparkle.

I have a mild obsession with foiled/mirror cardstock. I have so many different styles and shades, because I am truly that picky when it comes to my color combinations. The colors have to be just right. Imagine my delight when I searched through my stash to find this beautiful shade of blue with a minty green iridescent coating (check it out HERE) that perfectly matched my icy, shimmery, ink blended background. I die cut as many snowflakes as I could from a 1/2 sheet of the cardstock, knowing that I would have plenty for another card. I also die cut an iridescent white mirror foil (say that three times fast!) frame using the Pinkfresh Studio Art Deco Frame die. I backed the blended, die cut background with a panel of coordinating blue cardstock, then popped up that shining frame around the outside edge with some foam adhesive.

After I had added my frame, it was time to arrange my snowflakes and add a sentiment! I heat embossed a greeting from the new Holiday Large Sentiments stamp set, which I heat embossed using some beautiful shimmery teal embossing powder on some heavyweight vellum cardstock. I die cut the finished sentiment using the coordinating die and placed it next to my frame, popping it up with some clear foam adhesive. I then tucked some of the medium and small foil Large Snowflakes dies around the sentiment and under the frame, finally adding some Aqua Glitter Drops for even more sparkle! I don’t think a holiday card, especially one with snowflakes, can ever have too much sparkle!

My second project is much simpler and utilizes the largest of the three Large Snowflakes dies. This largest die is so generously sized that it easily stands alone as a focal point for a card front! I began this card by masking off the edges of a white, A2 card front using painter’s tape. I then used blending brushes to blend Ocean Breeze, Aquamarine, and Slumber inks on the exposed area, creating a lovely monochromatic ombré down my card front. Once I’d finished blending and before removing the mask around the edges, I spritzed some more shimmer spray over the top of the ink blending to create a beautiful backdrop for my snowflake die cut. I removed the masking tape and was left with a crisp white frame around the edge of my shimmery, icy, blended background!

I felt like the background needed a bit of extra texture before adding my snowflake die cut, so I ran the blended panel through my die cut machine using the Sparkling Diamonds Cover Plate die. The “sparkles” at the apex of each diamond remind me of snowflakes, and I thought it worked perfectly with my icy card! To add a little extra height to my extra large Large Snowflakes die cut, I cut out two more from white cardstock and layered them together using liquid adhesive. This allowed me to add extra height without having to fuss with tiny pieces of foam adhesive! I adhered the snowflake to the center of the card front using liquid adhesive.

For the greeting, I used the new Basic Banners Christmas stamp set with the previously-released coordinating Basic Banners die. I heat embossed it in teal (if you don’t have teal embossing powder, you can always stamp the sentiment in your coordinating dye ink, then stamp again with embossing ink and cover with clear or pearlescent embssing powder! This won’t work on vellum, but it works beautifully on regular cardstock!), then die cut the sentiments with the handy-dandy one pass Basic Banners die. I now have a ton of leftover die cuts to use on futur projects! Hooray! I added it smack dab in the center of my snowflake with some foam adhesive, then added some more Aqua Glitter Drops at the tips of the snowflake for more sparkle.

Well, that’s all for my projects today! Now for some fun givewaway information:

We will be giving away the full release on the Pinkfresh blog & YouTube channel. 

Pinkfresh Studio will be giving away a total of TEN $25  gift cards along the hop. As per usual with blog hops – the winners will be selected from the comments.
Winners will be announced on August 30, 2023 on our GIVEAWAY PAGE. Please mention that they must check that page & claim their prize within 2 weeks.

Here’s the full hop list below:

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

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

Video: Adding Tons of Sparkle to your Holiday Cards!

Hi there! Today, I am over on the Pinkfresh Studio YouTube channel with this holiday card that has so much sparkle, you might need some sunglasses to look at it! Sparkle is one of my favorite ways to differentiate my holiday cards from the cards that I make the rest of the year. If you can’t add sparkle on Christmas cards, when can you add sparkle? It just makes them so terribly festive!! Here’s the video:

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

This entire card began when I was experimenting with the new-ish Snowflakes Hot Foil Plate. I love the look of hot foiling on vellum, but I get mixed results, and I read somewhere that you could heat emboss on Hero Arts’s acetate. I thought to myself “if you can heat emboss on it, can you hot foil on it?” I feared that it would melt and ruin my plate, but it was a risk I was willing to take… and just look at the result!! I am so in love with this new-to-me technique, and I can’t wait to apply it to other projects. I hot foiled the Snowflakes Hot Foil Plate on some acetate using Speckled Prism hot foil from Spellbinders, which creates a beautiful, iridescent effect, which is particularly striking on the clear acetate!

Once I had my snowflake acetate panel, I knew that I wanted to create a snowy scene with snowflakes in various sizes, so I heat embossed the Snowflakes Background stamp on some watercolor paper using White Satin Pearl embossing powder. I taped the panel down to my watercolor board, spritzed the entire panel with some clean water using a fingertip sprayer, then used Sennelier watercolors to add some diagonal color. I started with a few stripes of blue, blended that into some minty turquoise, then created a custom purple by mixing the same blue with some bright magenta. The already-damp watercolor paper helped the colors to meld together beautifully and seamlessly. I hit the very wet panel with my heat gun and added some Winsor & Newton Iridescent Medium along the blue areas to create a sparkly, wintry, almost Aurora Borealis effect on my background. Once that had dried, I added some Payne’s Grey around the edges, pulling the color out to a nice fade using a clean damp brush, which created a halo effect around my sparkly AB background.

While my panel was drying, I created a frame using some pure white glitter cardstock and the Stitched Rectangles Essentials Dies. I used some super strong tape to adhere my clear snowflake panel to the sparkling frame. Once my watercolor panel had dried, I used some thin foam squares to adhere the framed acetate panel to my watercolored piece. I love how the foiled snowflakes look as though they’re floating on the watercolored background!

For the greeting, I heat embossed two different sentiments from the Ornaments Stamp set onto some Spellbinders Waterfall cardstock using white embossing powder. I used the Ornaments Dies to die cut the cursive greeting, which I think makes it look so incredibly clean and polished. I die cut the solid halo piece from the Jeff Alpha dies from some more Waterfall cardstock, then die cut the detail layer using the same white glitter cardstock, adhering them together with liquid adhesive. I added them to the clear snowflake panel with small dots of liquid adhesive to keep everything nice and clean, orienting them in the bottom right corner to allow the hot foiled snowflakes and watercoloring to take center stage!

Well, that’s all for this project and video! I can’t wait to try this hot foil-on-acetate technique out on more projects, and I hope you’ll try it out too. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!

More Simon Says Stamp Cozy Hugs!

Hi there! I have a bit more inspiration using some of the new goodies from the Simon Says Stamp Cozy Hugs release, featuring one of my most favorite holiday themes: snowflakes! The beautiful new Glistening Snowflakes stamps are full of a variety of snowflakes, in tons of different sizes and arrangements, so you can create super simple and elegant cards with some heat embossing and colored cardstock, or you can go all in with sparkly embossing, ink blending, and die cuts! I, of course, had to go all in and create a festive wintry holiday card, perfect for a Christmas card or even a winter birthday! Let’s get started with the details.

I began by heat embossing many of the individual snowflakes and the snowflake “ornaments” from Glistening Snowflakes onto some heavyweight vellum using sparkly silver embossing powder. I die cut the embossed images using the coordinating dies (which are on reserve at the moment, but you can purchase with your regular order and they will be shipped as soon as they arrive at the warehouse!). I love the heat embossed snowflakes on the vellum; it creates such an ethereal look for the snowflakes, like they’re gently floating down your card front!

For the background, I started by blending Heather, Seafoam, and Morning inks on an A2 panel, then ran the blended panel through my die cut machine with the Filigree Snowflakes Embossing Folder. To help add a little bit of emphasis on the beautifully detailed snowflakes, I swiped the Hero Arts Dove White ink pad lightly over the top of the raised areas. I splattered some sparkly silver handmade watercolors on the blended panel, as well, to make it even frostier and more sparkly!

Because vellum can be tricky to neatly adhere to your card front, I decided to help “hide” some of the adhesive by adding a die cut frame, cut from some pearlescent lilac cardstock using the Nested Domed Arches dies. I popped it up on the card front using some Simon Says Stamp Foam Tape, then tucked the dangling snowflakes behind it. I also die cut a “snowy greetings” sentiment, cutting the outline layer from some pale ice blue cardstock and the detailed word layer from some Spellbinders Silver Glitter Foam. (I am slightly obsessed with these glitter foam sheets. They make adding dimension so incredibly quick and easy and come in a ton of different colors!) I popped the rest of the snowflakes using some clear foam tape, then added a smattering of Rock Candy Confetti from Trinity Stamps.

Well that’s all for my project today! The combination of different textures, snowflake sizes, sparkly silver splatters, and confetti helps make this card super festive and sparkly! I hope you enjoyed this wintry project. Christmas is coming, no mistake about that! Thanks so much for stopping by, and have a marvelous day!

More Pinkfresh Studio Holiday Inspiration!

Good morning! I know…. four posts in 24 hours? September is a busy month! I have some more inspiration using the new Snowflakes Hot Foil and dies from yesterday’s Pinkfresh Studio holiday release (check out the whole release HERE)! I shared this card over on Instagram for the Pinkfresh Studio Instagram Hop (you should check it out…there are a bunch of prizes up for grabs!), but I wanted to share the details of my card over here! I absolutely love classic, elegant holiday images like the new Snowflakes Hot Foil set. So many ways to customize this design! This card would be so pretty with holographic foil or even rose gold or pale blue, too. Let’s get started with the frosty goodness!

I began by hot foiling the Snowflakes Hot Foil plate several times on white cardstock using Matte Silver Foil from Spellbinders, as well as some vellum. I also used the leftover negative foil pieces with the Solid Hot Foil plate. I die cut the finished foiled pieces with the coordinating die, leaving one of the foiled pieces intact for the card base. (I love that it’s one piece so you can cut all four foiled snowflakes at once. Great for holiday mass production!) I love how elegant this monochromatic look is, but it would look equally beautiful with colorful metallic foil and colored cardstock!

I also die cut the new Joy Die from glittery white cardstock. I also heat embossed a greeting from the new Ornaments stamp set using silver embossing powder on some more white cardstock. I die cut a white Nested Hexagon frame to help ground the die cut images.

Finally, it was time to assemble all of the pieces. I used foam tape to adhere the frame and sentiment die cuts. Then, I arranged the snowflakes over and around the hexagonal frame, overlapping some of the solid hot foil die cuts with the vellum snowflakes, hiding the adhesive behind the solid die cuts. (Vellum can be tricky!) The final touch was a few Metallic Silver Pearls sprinkled throughout the card front.

Well, that’s all for my project today! The new Holiday Release is absolutely fabulous… so many different styles and types of products that are great for holiday card mass production. I hope you’ll check it out! And don’t forget to take a peek over on the Pinkfresh Instagram Hop… lots of great prizes available, including the entire release over on the PFS Instagram page! Thanks so much for stopping by, and have a marvelous day!

Tonic Studios Snowmies Stamp Club Blog Hop + Giveaway!

Hi there! I’m super excited to be helping my friend Maria Wills and the folks at Tonic Studios to introduce the October Stamp Club release; this month’s theme is Snowmies! We’re giving you lots of inspiration with a blog hop. You should have arrived here from Mindy Eggen, and your next stop is Michelle Short. You can also start back at the beginning at Maria’s blog. Here’s a peek at this month’s stamp, die, and stencil set:

The Snowmies kit is so cute, and the huge variety of dies (both coordinating and standalone) included with the kit make this super versatile, with so many options! I’ve used the stencil and standalone snowman dies as the main focal point for my project today, so let’s get started with the details.

I began by doing some ink blending on a white A2 card base using some pale blue and light lilac ink and some blending brushes. Then, I used some Moonstone Glimmer Paste from Tonic to add some shimmery, glittery snowflakes using the stencil included in the club kit to the lightly blended background. I’m in love with the subtle shimmer and texture that it adds to the background.

Next, I used the standalone individual dies to create a cheerful, cozily-dressed snowman. I die cut some sparkling snowflakes and the dressing for the holiday gifts from some glitter paper, as well. I adhered all of the pieces together and used some foam tape to add the die cuts to the card front.

For the greeting, I used one of the sweet sentiments included in the Snowmies kit, white embossed on some bright purple cardstock and adhered to the card front using more foam tape. Because snowflakes come in all shapes and sizes, I like to vary the sizes and textures when doing a snowy background, so in addition to the stenciled glittery snowflakes and the glitter snowflake die cuts, I added some iridescent white pearls on the card front to help complete the effect of snowfall and add just that extra touch of sparkle and shine.

Well, that’s all for my project today! To help celebrate the Snowmies release, Tonic is sponsoring a fun giveaway!

One lucky winner will win a £50/$50 Giftcard to Tonic Studios and the Snowmies bundle! To enter, comment on every blog in the hop by 11:59pm PST on November 3, 2021/ 7:59am GST on November 4, 2021. Winner will be announced on November 5, 2021 on IG and FB so make sure you’re following all of the Tonic Studios social media accounts!

Your next stop on the hop is Michelle Short. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and happy hopping!