Sixth Street Sundries

Emily Midgett

watercoloring

Distress Watercolored Balloons + Last Days of the Distress Ink Sale!

This post was sponsored by Simon Says Stamp. Thanks, Simon!

Hi friends! I am back today with another project featuring some pretty new stamps from the Simon Says Stamp Sunny Vibes release, this time with a softer watercolored look for a festive birthday card! I really enjoy using Distress Inks for watercoloring, and as an extra fun bonus, all Distress Inks, Reinkers, and Oxide Inks are on sale for the entire month of June to celebrate 20 Years of Distress! I did some soft watercoloring in some of my favorite colors to create this festive birthday card. Let’s get started with the details!

I started my project by heat embossing the new Festive Balloons stamp set onto some Distress Watercolor Cardstock three separate times using Iridescent Lavender embossing powder. After embossing, I taped down the watercolor panel to my watercolor board to minimize warping, then did some wet-on-wet watercoloring with Distress Inks in shades of Picked Raspberry, Kitsch Flamingo, Wilted Violet, and Blueprint Sketch. To do this, I thoroughly wet my watercolor cardstock with clean water and a large paintbrush, then tap the mini ink pads onto my ceramic watercolor palette (you can just use a plate or glass mat if that’s what you have!) and dilute the colors with water. This dilution creates softer versions of the concentrated colors. I dropped the different diluted colors directly on the wet embossed panel somewhat randomly, allowing the colors to bloom into one another and meld to create lovely color transitions.

I heated my panel with my heat gun for a few seconds to make sure that the entire panel was dry, then used concentrated versions of the same watercolors to add some extra details to the embossed balloon images. I die cut the finished images with the coordinating dies. I also taped down another panel of the Distress Watercolor Cardstock to my watercolor board and used those same colors and wet-on-wet technique to create an ethereal background that matched my bunches of balloons. Once it was dry, I splattered the background with some sparkly watercolors, then trimmed it slightly and added strips of satin purple foil cardstock and white glitter cardstock on the right side to add a little bit of interest to the background.

After creating my card front, I die cut the detail layer of the new Birthday Wishes from some more white glitter cardstock, then added the shadow layer with vellum. I popped up the balloon clusters on the watercolored, splattered background with some foam adhesive, then added the greeting with a double layer of foam adhesive to help it pop from the background. Finally, I added a smattering of coordinating Summer Blooms sequins for extra sparkle! Such a fun and festive birthday card, easily customized for a more masculine color palette.

Well, that’s all for my project today!

Click HERE to see everything included in the sale, then add code DSTR20 at checkout to save 20% on everything in this category until 11:59 ET on 6/30/24!

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

Altenew 6th Anniversary Blog Hop+Giveaway!

Hi friends! Today, I have the pleasure of taking part in Altenew’s 6th Anniversary blog hop celebration! You should have arrived here from Lilith Eeckels, and your next stop is Kathy Racoosin. Altenew has long been one of my favorite companies. I have a mild obsession with flowers, and Altenew’s flower stamps are absolutely phenomenal, whether they are multi-layered solid stamps or outline drawings perfect for coloring! I can honestly say that I feel like Altenew’s flowers have really helped to hone my coloring skills in many different mediums, and for that I will always be an Altenew fan! I have a project today using some of my favorite stamps from Altenew, so let’s get started with the details!

I began by stamping several blooms from Poppy Garden and Wild Flora stamp sets onto some of Altenew’s new watercolor paper using some fadeout ink. (Love how smooth and crisp this watercolor paper is!) I then used my Daniel Smith watercolors to watercolor the images in a colorful palette of pink, yellow, and purple.

After I’d die cut the watercolored flowers using their coordinating dies, I used some washi tape to mask off the edge of the A9 card base. I used blending brushes to blend Hydrangea, Magenta, and Sunkissed inks in a sunset ombre down the front of the card.

I arranged the flowers in a pretty bouquet down one side of the blended card base, then used Press’n’Seal to pick up the arrangement so as to be able to add adhesive without having to completely redo my carefully arranged bouquet. I added a greeting from Poppy Garden stamped on some strips of cardstock using Obsidian Black ink. The final touch was a few shiny gold sequins!

Now, we have SO many fun giveaways for you to celebrate Altenew’s 6th Anniversary!

Altenew is giving away a $50 gift certificate to 6 lucky winners and one Altenew Academy class to 10 lucky winners. There are also 14 awesome companies/crafty friends who are celebrating with us, and they are offering the following prizes:

Be sure to leave comments by 4/12/2020 for a chance to win one of 37 prizes! To make the hop more exciting, start your comment with “Hi from (city or country where you’re from)!”. 37 winners will be chosen at random from the comments left on any of the blogs listed below and will be announced on the Altenew Card Blog on 4/18/2020.

Here’s the full hop list in case you get lost:

Altenew Blog
Jennifer McGuire
Erum Tasneem
Debby Hughes
Lydia Evans
My Sweet Petunia
Svitlana Shayevich
Nicole Picadura
Kelly Griglione
CiLi in Papers
Lilith Eeckels
Emily Midgett
Kathy Racoosin
May Sukyong Park
Kelly Latevola
Soraya Maes
Teri Wilson
Hussena Calcuttawala

Pinkfresh Studios June Washi and Stamp Release Blog Hop!

Hi there! Welcome to your next stop on the Pinkfresh Studio Stamp and Washi Tape release for June 2019! Pinkfresh is releasing some fantastic new products today, including some absolutely gorgeous new stamps and beautiful coordinating washi tapes (that will make your crafting so quick and easy, you’ll be able to churn out bunches of cards lickety split!). You should have arrived here from Erum Tasneem’s blog, and your next stop is Elsie Robinson’s blog! I have two projects for you today using both the Eucalyptus washi tapes and the new Eucalyptus stamps, so let’s get started with the details!

I have really enjoyed creating little mini card “sets” recently, using the same color scheme to create a cohesive pair of cards using multiple stamps and dies. I normally have lots (and lots and lots) of pink and/or purple on my cards, so I thought I would switch things up a bit and just use a soothing color combination of greens, creams, and pewter for my projects today.

For my first project, I used the new Eucalyptus Fantasy washi tape to create some super easy and beautiful die cuts. I began by unrolling and adhering the washi tape to some plain white card stock, then die cutting the large swag out using the coordinating die. I die cut a few more fronds of greenery using the individual dies in the coordinating die set, as well. I also used my Daniel Smith watercolors to do a light wash on a panel of watercolor card stock using very diluted Deep Sap Green and Undersea Green.

Next, I used the Pretty Frames 2 dies to die cut a warm gray frame and adhered it to the watercolored panel using liquid adhesive. I then die cut a label from the Essentials: Basic Labels die set using some heavyweight vellum and heat embossed a greeting from Eucalyptus Fantasy using Platinum embossing powder. I adhered the greenery and sentiment to the framed watercolor panel using foam adhesive, hiding the adhesive for the vellum behind the washi tape die cuts. The final touch was a few gems to add some sparkle to this fairly somber card front.

For my second project today, I wanted to create another muted-but-elegant project using the Eucalyptus Fantasy stamps. I began by embossing the full eucalyptus wreath on some watercolor card stock using white pearl embossing powder, then using the same two shades of Daniel Smith watercolors, did some wet-on-wet watercoloring. I started by saturating my embossed watercolor paper with clean water, then used very diluted shades of Deep Sap Green and Undersea Green to add some light color to my wreath, and after it had dried, went back in with some more concentrated watercolor to add some simple shading and details.

Next, I die cut the Thank You from the Essentials Classic Words die set using some dark green card stock, adhering it in the center of my watercolored wreath. I used another warm gray die cut frame from Pretty Frames 2 dies, adhering it with foam tape for added dimension. The last step was to add a few more gems for sparkle!

Well, that’s all for my projects today! Now, we have some fun giveaways and promotions for you!

Pinkfresh Studio will be giving away the full June Washi release on the Pinkfresh blog and on the Instagram feed (@pinkfreshstudio).

In addition, each stop on the hop will be giving away a $25 gift card. As per usual with blog hops – the winners will be picked from the comments.
The winners will be announced on Monday, July 1st on our GIVEAWAY PAGE. All winners must check that page & claim their prize within 2 weeks.

Shopping promo: We will also be offering free/discounted shipping from June 24-30th on orders $50+. You must use the code JUNWASHISHIP50. Shipping is free in the USA, and $5.50 off for our International friends.

Your next stop is Elsie Robinson’s blog! Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Spellbinders Zenspired Holidays Inspiration!

Good morning! After an invigorating weekend away with some dear friends, I am back today with a new blog post using some lovely new holiday goodies from Spellbinders! I was lucky enough to play with the new Christmas Sentiments and Dangling Ornaments stamp sets from the Zenspirations collection by Spellbinders. Let’s get started with the details!

I started by heat embossing the ornaments from the Dangling Ornaments stamp set onto some Arches cold press watercolor paper using Brass embossing powder. I like the richer tones of the Brass when compared to plain gold… just adds a little extra depth to the color scheme. I then used the Hero Arts Liquid Watercolors in shades of Pine, Strawberry, Deep Ocean Liquid Watercolors to color each of the ornaments in a super traditional color scheme. The ornament stamps reminded me very much of those beautiful vintage ornaments that my great-grandmother had on her Christmas tree, and I couldn’t resist painting them with those bright, primary colors.

For the background, I used Mowed Lawn, Barn Door, and Blueprint Sketch Distress Oxide inks to create a background that reminds me of old, ceramic, multi-colored Christmas lights. I diluted a dab of the new Hero Arts Bronze Glimmer Paints with a bit of water, then splattered it onto the blended background. I fussy cut the watercolored ornaments, then adhered them to the blended card front using dimensional adhesive. I heat embossed the greeting from  Christmas Sentiments onto a strip of vellum, then folded the edges over the bottom of the card front to “hide” the strips of adhesive. 

I mounted the whole front panel on an A2 card base.

Well, that’s all for me today! I hope you will check out the entire Zenspirations collection from Spellbinders. There are some really beautiful stamps and dies in the collection… and they’re so fun to paint! I think they’d be great blended or with alcohol inks, too. Thanks so much for dropping by, and have a marvelous day!