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Sixth Street Sundries

Emily Midgett

watercolor

Ellen Hutson May Essentials By Ellen Release!

Good morning! I have a special post today… helping to officially introduce the new Essentials By Ellen release for May!! We have some fantastic, versatile pieces to show you, as well as a new addition to the ever-popular Mondo floral line!! My first card features the brand new Mondo Sakura and dies, as well as the new Totally Random Sayings and the new Block Words Dies.

I started by die cutting and heat embossing the Sakura Blossom image onto some watercolor paper using silver sparkle embossing powder, then used my Daniel Smith watercolors to add color. I also die cut a couple of leaves from the Mondo Peony and added color to them. I cut the Sakura blossom in half so that I could create a floral frame on my card front. I also stamped a greeting from Totally Random Sayings onto some magenta card stock using the same silver sparkle embossing powder and die cut “friend” from Block Words. I adhered all of the die cuts and greeting elements to a bubble gum colored card base with dimensional adhesive. The final touch was a few jewels from Pretty Pink Posh.

For my second project, I wanted to put to use the lovely gingham block included in the Plaid Maker set. I stamped it once on an A2 card base using pale gray ink in the center to use to ground my little deer scene. (I used the Essentials By Ellen Oh Deer stamp set, not realizing that it will be retiring soon! I’ve linked a few other similar stamp sets that could also be used in its place.) I stamped my deer using Copic-friendly black ink, then added some subtle gray shading. I stamped and die cut a few little foliage branches to create a little wreath behind my deer. This background technique would be perfect for a baby card!

For the greeting, I die cut three of the Hello dies from Block Words from white card stock and layered them together to create a dimensional die cut. I also added the rest of the greeting from Oh Deer in black.

Well, that’s all for me today! I hope you’re as in love with these beautiful new products as I am…. especially that new Mondo Sakura set… divine! All of the new products are now available for purchase in the Ellen Hutson store, so happy shopping!! 🙂 Have a marvelous Sunday!


Honey Bee Stamps Birthday Blog Hop, Day 2!

Good morning! Today is the second day of the huge blog hop to help celebrate Honey Bee Stamps turning 3!! We’ve had some marvelous guests to help us celebrate, and today we have even more inspiration for you using the massive amount of beautiful stamps and dies that are now available for purchase! You should have arrived here from Carol Hintermeier and your next stop is Galina Fillipenko. (Or you can start here if you want to begin at the beginning!) I have two projects to show you today, so let’s get started with the details! Be sure to read all the way to the bottom, because there might be some giveaway information that you won’t want to miss! 😉

First up: My Tribe. I recently spent a crafty weekend with some utterly fantastic crafters (including Honey Bee’s owner and artist, Melissa Hewitt! How lucky am I!?), and this stamp set describes that group SO perfectly. It’s like kismet to be able to use this stamp set two days after that wonderful meeting of the minds. I know that little teepee is just precious, but I was particularly enamored of the dreamcatcher included in the stamp set.  I wanted to create a dreamy, ethereal feel for this project, so I started by creating my background using the “smoosh” technique with Distress Oxides. Basically, I tapped some Oxide Inks onto my craft mat, spritzed them with water and gold shimmer spritz, then pressed my watercolor paper down onto the color. I dried it with my heat tool and repeated the process a few more times (because the Oxides layer so beautifully without becoming a muddy mess!).

While my background was drying, I used the My Tribe dies to cut some shapes from vellum, then heat embossed them using Platinum embossing powder, along with a greeting from the My Tribe stamp set. I arranged them all on my now-dried card base and adhered them with a combination of dimensional and liquid adhesive. The final touch was to add some of the beautiful Cupcake jewels for some sparkle.

For my next project, I couldn’t resist using those stunning Spring Blossoms again, this time with some no-line watercoloring. I purchased some Tombow markers this past weekend…. how have I never tried these before?! I used them to watercolor these beautiful blooms, and let me say… I’m in looooove. I started by doing some stamping and masking using Spring Blossoms to create a pretty corner bouquet on some Arches Cold Press watercolor paper using very pale gray ink. I then used Tombow markers to do some watercoloring. SO pretty. I think these might replace my Zig markers. (Gasp!)

After I had finished watercoloring my pretty flowers, I stamped Small Gang onto some heavy weight vellum using Versamark and Platinum embossing powder. I trimmed the vellum panel down, then adhered it to my watercolored panel using tiny dots of adhesive.

Well, that’s all for me today! Here’s the full hop list:

Amy Rysavy
Bibiana Cameron
Brenda Noelke
Carol Hintermeier
Emily Midgett  <— you are here
Galina Filippenko 
Ilda Dias 
Kaja Vezensek
Kelly Latevola
Kelley & Emily K.
Melissa Bickford 
Nichol Spohr 

Now, for some seriously important information: the GIVEAWAY DETAILS! Honeybee is generously giving away two $50 shopping sprees to the Honey Bee Stamps store, as well as four winners for the Bee Organized Prize Packs! All you need to do to be entered is leave some love on each stop on the hop. Easy peasy!  Winners will be announced here on May 5, 2018. Thanks for stopping by today, and enjoy the rest of the fabulous inspiration on the hop!


2018 Autism Awareness Hop!

Good morning! Today, I have the pleasure of taking part in a fantastic blog hop: Autism Awareness Blog Hop. So very many families have a loved one who has been diagnosed as being on the spectrum; I myself have two family members on the spectrum. I am so honored that Veronica Zalis asked me to be a part of this blog hop today, and it’s in honor of those family members that I created this card! In honor of this worthy cause, Taylored Expressions has created a very special stamp set called Look With Your Heart, containing beautiful encouragement sentiments. Taylored Expressions also is committed to donating 25% of the proceeds from the sales of this set during the month of April to the Autism Society.

The hope for this blog hop is to bring awareness and a bit of compassion to those families affected by this diagnosis. My cousin (who is like a sister to me) has a son six months younger than my own children, and watching her joys and struggles with her son has been such an eye-opening experience for me. The parents of children with autism are truly superheroes. It’s one of those situations that you will never truly understand unless you have walked in their shoes, and they deserve every ounce of compassion and love that we can muster.

While the sentiments in this beautiful Look With Your Heart stamp set are all incredible and so poignant, one of the sentiments particularly spoke to me: “Every child is a different kind of flower, and all together make a beautiful garden.” Each child is their own person. Each child has their own value, their own contribution to society. They all are capable of making us better people, and together we can make the world a better place for them.

I started by stamping the beautiful Floral Trimmings stamp from Studio Katia and silver heat embossing it on some watercolor paper. I then placed strips of washi tape on the embossed panel and watercolored it using the same technique that I demonstrated in this video. Stripes and florals are super chic this spring, so I wanted to bring that trend in to this card. I wanted pretty pastel blue florals, so I used Daniel Smith’s French Ultramarine.

After peeling off my washi masking tape stripes, I worked on watercoloring the florals. I used a variety of colors of Daniel Smith watercolor tubes (helping to bring home my chosen sentiment with lots of different flowers ;)), including Quinacridone Pink, New Gamboge, Alizarin Crimson, and Hooker’s Green. (I’ll link them all below!) I stamped the same floral image from Floral Trimmings on a piece of scrap watercolor paper, then watercolored just a portion of it and fussy cut it to have an extra little floral element.

Once my watercoloring was complete, I turned to the greeting. I stamped the lovely sentiment from the Taylored Expressions Look With Your Heart stamp set onto some heavyweight vellum and heat embossed it using silver embossing powder. I then scored it and folded the edge over the edge of my floral panel and hid the adhesive on the back of the card. (You have to be sneaky with vellum or else that ugly adhesive shows right through!) I used the other fussy cut floral piece to hide some more adhesive in the corner of the vellum sentiment panel. Isn’t that sentiment just stunning?

I hid some more adhesive behind some Sparkling Clear sequins, then added a thin strip of silver glitter paper on the edge of the card front for a little sparkle.

Well, that’s all for my project today! I hope you’ll check out all of the different sponsors for this hop… there are some absolutely incredible prizes from some absolutely incredible and generous sponsors (including some of my absolute favorite companies… Ellen Hutson, Hero Arts, and Honeybee Stamps). There is a wealth of inspiration and encouragement to be found along this hop, and I hope you will check out each stop!

Jennifer Ingle (Instagram)
 Vera Yates

There is also an opportunity for you to create your own Autism-themed project and link it up to the InLinkz for an additional chance to win one of these fabulous prizes!

Thank you so much for stopping by and for your support! I hope this hop inspires everybody to be kind! The world sure could use it! Have a marvelous day. 🙂

My Monthly Hero March 2018 Blog Hop+Giveaway!

If you’re looking for my Reverse Confetti Countdown post, please click here. 

Good morning again!! You should have arrived here from the crazy talented Yana Smakula’s blog. Today’s the day! The March My Monthly Hero is finally available for purchase! The Creative Team has been tantalizing you with projects for the last several days…. isn’t this kit just fantastic? Truly a must-have. (And I don’t say that lightly!) These kits frequently sell out in the first twenty-four hours, so if you’re even a little on the fence, err on the side of caution and purchase yours ASAP!

This kit is chock full of fabulous basics perfect for a beginning stamper or an experienced crafter:

Kit Contents:
6″ x 8″ Clear Stamp Set
4 Fancy Word Dies
7 Fancy Shape Dies
4 8.5″ x 5.5″ Sheets Basic Kraft Cardstock (80 lb cover)
4 8.5″ x 5.5″ Sheets Basic White Cardstock (80 lb cover)
4 8.5″ x 5.5″ Sheets Basic Black Cardstock (80 lb cover)
Sparkly Sequins 1.5 oz
Silver Sparkle Embossing Powder 0.5 oz
Unicorn White Ink Cube

Kit Value: The value of the kit is $70, but it is sold at $34.99. Fabulous value, right? Those word dies alone are worth it, in my view! Plus all of the other fabulous extras you get…. icing on the cake!

I used several of the main elements of the kit in my Countdown post yesterday, which you can see here, and today I’ve combined some of the main kit pieces with some of the add ons along with some older Hero Arts sets. I love when new and old pieces can work together seamlessly! I created a baby card duet for today’s Blog Hop using the add-on Alphabet Window Fancy Die. Any time I see anything “alphabet” it immediately makes me think…. kids… baby…. baby card! Let’s get started with the details!

One of my favorite ways to use detailed cover plate dies like the Alphabet Window Fancy Die is to create a subtly textured white-on-white background. For this first project, I started by die cutting the Alphabet Window Fancy Die from plain white card stock and mounting it on an A2 card base. I stamped the darling little elephant (and several other critters) from Fun in the Rain onto some watercolor paper using sticky black ink, then heat embossed it in clear and cut it out with the coordinating Frame Cuts.  I watercolored my critters using the Zig Clean Color markers and a damp paintbrush.

For the greeting, I die cut one of the flagged banners from the included dies in the main kit and stamped a sentiment from the older Little One stamp set in black. I also cut a gorgeous scripty “hello” die from some black card stock. I adhered the hello die cut with dimensional adhesive, then added the elephant using dimensional foam adhesive. I snipped off the end of the flagged die cut and nestled it beneath the elephant. The last little touch was to add a few Blue Ombre sequins to help the blue umbrella pop even more.

For this next project, I used the same Fun in the Rain stamp set to color a little duckie family (side note- as a mom of twins, I always love finding/seeing baby cards that are geared towards families with multiples. This little duck family is just perfect for a baby shower card for a family getting ready to welcome multiples! Also, my baby shower theme was “Make Way for Ducklings” and this card would have been perfect haha!) I repeated the process for the card base, die cutting the new  Alphabet Window Fancy Die from white card stock and adhering it to a white card base. Next, I stamped the sweet Winnie The Pooh sentiment from Little One onto a rectangle of card stock and matted it with black card stock. I adhered both the greeting and the little duck family using dimensional adhesive.

Well, that’s all for me today! I hope you have gotten some inspiration from my projects! I think the March My Monthly Hero kit is going to be an awesome addition to your stamp collection. Remember, these are limited edition kits, so if you are waffling about whether to buy it or not, just go ahead and get it in case it sells out! Once they’re gone, they’re gone! You can also subscribe to ensure that you will receive your My Monthly Hero kit.

You also have the opportunity to win a kit from Hero Arts! All you have to do to be entered in the giveaway is leave a comment on the blog hop stops. One random winner will be selected from amongst the comments on ALL blogs, so the more comments you leave, the more chances you have to win your own kit! The giveaway closes on March 11th at 11:59 pm, and the winner will be announced the next day. (Hero Arts is so awesome that if you’ve already purchased your kit, they will reimburse you for your purchase if you are the random winner!) Your next stop is the fabulous Wanda Guess. Here’s the full blog lineup:

The Hero Arts Blog
Jennifer McGuire
Yana Smakula
Emily Midgett<—- you are here
Wanda Guess
Janette Kausen
Ilina Crouse
Lydia Fiedler
Jessica Frost-Ballas
Michelle Short
Laurie Willison
Jana Millen
Clare Prezzia
May Park
Amy Tsuruta
Libby Hickson

Have a marvelous day, friends! Thanks for stopping by!



Get To Know the Ellen Hutson Design Team Blog Hop!


Good morning! Even as a seasoned cardmaker, I enjoy enjoy learning tips & tricks from other crafters. My favorite tip/trick is to use artwork and fashion found on Pinterest as inspiration for my cards. You can find some really beautiful and unique color combinations, layouts, and technique ideas from fashion and artwork photos on Pinterest. I get a lot of help on floral layouts from looking at wedding bouquets and floral patterned clothes on Pinterest.

Today, the new Ellen Hutson Design Team is having a special blog hop to help introduce all of the new team members! We were supposed to use our “favorite-” medium, stamp set, colors, etc. I combined several of those to create this pretty watercolored card!

For my project today, I chose to create a no-line (almost) one layer card using some of my absolute favorite Essentials By Ellen products and Distress Inks for watercolors. I started by cutting a mask from the Mondo Hydrangea stamp set for the main flower, then stamping that same image again on some Arches watercolor paper using very pale gray ink. I placed the mask over the hydrangea, then stamped the leaves from Mondo Hydrangea and some of the smaller blooms and foliage from Mondo Peony using the same light gray ink. The nice thing about no-line coloring is that, even if your masking isn’t perfect and you get some overlapping lines (ahem, don’t look closely at my foliage in this next photo), you can still fudge it because those lines are mostly covered up by the coloring.

To watercolor the flowers, I chose to use a looser style of watercoloring, not quite so detailed as I normally would have done with my Daniel Smith or my Zigs… Distress Inks are a different animal when it comes to blending and shading, so you have to adjust accordingly. 🙂 I will list the different inks individually at the bottom of the post, but the main colors are Picked Raspberry, Wilted Violet, Salty Ocean, and Lucky Clover. I simply tapped them onto a piece of laminated card stock and picked the ink up with my paintbrush. For the shadows, I added in deeper shades of the same colors on the second layer for the shading, occasionally adding in some Pumice Stone to my color mixture to create shadows and depth.

The key with no-line watercolor is to work in sections that are not right next to each other. Watercolor a petal or two, then move to a completely different area. This helps to avoid the colors bleeding into each other, which also has the unpleasant effect of losing your crisp edges, and thus making your project a muddy mess. 🙂 After I had finished coloring all of the flowers, I allowed plenty of drying time before adding my halo of Wilted Violet around the edge of my bouquet. I added a few splatters with a flick of my paintbrush and added a few Nuvo Drops in Carnation Pink to help round out the bouquet and add some texture.

I trimmed down the edges to mount it on a royal purple mat and added a sentiment from Altenew’s Just Because stamp set heat embossed in white on navy blue card stock and popped up with dimensional adhesive. And that’s all for that project! Very loose watercoloring, but those bright Distress Ink colors really make those flowers pop off the page!

In the spirit of getting to know the new Ellen Hutson Design Team, here is a little info about me that you might not know:
~Coffee or tea? Depends on the time of day and the temperature outside. 😉 Coffee in the morning, tea in the afternoon. Sometimes iced, sometimes hot…. But I am an equal opportunity caffeinator.
~How did you come up with your blog name? Our first house was on Sixth Street. When I started blogging, I intended to blog about many different types of crafts, including scrapbooking, party decor, cardmaking, home decor, etc, so Sixth Street Sundries seemed perfect. Plus, I like alliteration haha.
~Tell us one silly/random/interesting tidbit about yourself! I have a master’s degree in vocal performance and have performed as the soprano soloist for Faure’s Requiem at The Kennedy Center in Washington, DC! I am also pretty tall, 5’10″… which makes my last name even funnier!

Well, that’s all for me today! If you’ve never been to my blog before, I hope you have enjoyed getting to know me a little bit. I’m so happy you’re here! And for old friends, welcome back! This year is going to be fantastic, I think! Here are links the rest of my esteemed Design Team compatriots:

Ardyth Percy-Robb
Carissa Wiley 
Carly Tee Minner
Carolyn Peeler
Elena Roussakis
Emily Midgett
Heather Campbell
Julia Stainton
Julie Ebersole
Justine Hovey
Kelly Griglione 
Kittie Caracciolo
Laurel Beard
Lisa Adametz
Lisa Spangler
Lydia Evans
Michele Ferguson
Sandy Allnock
Sharon Harnist
Therese Calvird