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Sixth Street Sundries

Emily Midgett

A Triple Birthday Card Suite with Simon Says Stamp!

Hi there! I have been trying to use more things in my stash that haven’t seen any love, and one of those sets was the Time To Party set from Simon Says Stamp. I love the graphic feel of this set; it has so many different elements that you can make a ton of different projects that all have that same graphic feel but with completely different layouts! I selected three different shades of ink and a smattering of other birthday-themed products from Simon Says Stamp’s collection and went to town creating three birthday cards with lots of cheerful colors and crisp white accents. Let’s get started with the details!

All three of my cards feature the same color combination created using inks from the Pawsitively Saturated ink line from Simon Says Stamo: Cheeky, Watermelon, and Orchid. Individually, these colors are quite unique themselves, but together I think they make such a pretty and interesting color palette!

For my first card, I stamped the birthday hat from Time To Party, stamping the first layer of the hat with Cheeky ink, then tapping my Watermelon pad around the edge of the same stamp lightly and dabbing it with my microfiber cloth to soften the edges a bit and stamping that layer, as well, to create a more dimensional look. I also stamped the polka dots and fluffy topper for the hat using Orchid ink. Once I had finished stamping the different elements for the hat, I die cut them using the coordinating dies.

For the background, I first lightly blended some Cheeky ink around the edges of a white A2 card base, then added some white Streamer Ribbons die cuts, adhering them with dots of liquid glue to create a simple, festive backdrop for my vibrant party hat. To create my sentiment, I blended some Orchid ink on a scrap of white cardstock, then die cut the Birthday On A Line die, once from the coordinating purple cardstock and twice from plain white cardstock, adhering them together to create a dimensional die cut sentiment. I stamped smaller greeting from the Time To Party set on a small rectangle of white cardstock, as well. I arranged the die cuts on my card front, making the greeting even more festive by popping that hat on top of it at a jaunty angle! Finally, I added a few iridescent white pearls for some shine.

My second card features more die cuts from Time To Party in the same colors. I stamped and die cut some balloons and a yummy cupcake using the Cheeky, Watermelon, and Orchid inks and die cut them with the coordinating dies. I also die cut a Balloon Background Die from white cardstock and layered it on a white A2 card front to create a slightly textured, but still simple, background that fit the festive theme of the card without detracting from the bright focal points.

I created a custom sentiment by stamping part of one of the greetings from Time To Party, then enhancing it with an iridescent white Birthday die cut. I popped up all of the different die cut elements using foam adhesive, then added a few iridescent white pearls for some sparkle.

My last card is one of those super fun flat shaker cards that are so popular and so fun to make! I stamped some custom patterned paper using the balloons and confetti stamps from Time To Party and Cheeky, Watermelon, and Orchid inks. I used some leftover stamp packaging to create a cellophane wrapper for my patterned panel, filling it with some tiny shimmering sequins. The cellophane bag is loose enough that the sequins shakes so easily and are so festive!!

I kept the sentiment simple to keep the focus on the fun shaker element, stamping two different sentiments from Time To Party and adding them to the front of the card at a playful angle using foam adhesive. I love how this one came out. It was super easy to make, too, and the shaker makes such an impact! Everybody loves a shaker, right?

Well, that’s all for my projects today! I am having so much fun pulling products that haven’t seen enough love from me and giving them so well-deserved attention. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!

Altenew June 2023 Stamps, Dies, Stencils, and More Release Blog Hop + Giveaway ($300 in Total Prizes!)Altenew

Hi there! Today, we are hopping along to celebrate Altenew’s June 2023 Stamp & Die Release! You should have arrived here from Agnieszka Malyszek, and your next stop is Virginia Lu. You can also start at the beginning at the Altenew Blog. This month, we’re traveling to Morocco with products inspired by the shapes, sights, and architecture of that exotic land!

While the inspiration for this month’s release came from a country known for its intense colors, smells, sights, and sounds, I chose to take a more delicate route with my projects, creating lots of layers of white-on-white with pops of muted mauve and peach florals.

My first card features a frame created using the negative space created with one of the new Ornate Nesting Dies, which feature an incredibly unique shape that takes the elegance factor up a notch! I cut the shape from the center of an A2 card front, reserving the die cut itself for another project. To create texture behind the framed window, I ran another A2 panel of white cardstock through my die cutting machine using the Cupped Blossoms 3D Embossing Folder, which added some lovely texture and foliage to my crisp white panel.

To accent my simple framed window, I die cut several of the new Plum Blossoms dies from some muted mauve and peach cardstock, as well as some lovely sea green foliage and arranged them in a swag around the edges of my die cut window. I added some sparkling stamens cut using Bronzite glitter paper from the Golden Sunrise Glitter Paper pack. I heat embossed Elegant Sayings in a coordinating shade of Rose Gold embossing powder, die cutting the larger script sentiment. I popped up all of these individual elements with foam tape. With sympathy cards, I find that sometimes less is more, so keeping the color palette simple keeps the overall tone of the card from being too much.

Now, what to do with the leftovers from the die cut window created with our Ornate Nesting Dies? Use it on another card, naturally! I popped the crisp white die cut up on an A2 card base using foam adhesive, then arranged some (also leftover!) Plum Blossoms die cuts around the top in an elegant swag.

For the greeting, I die cut the “thank you” from the Encouraging Sentiments die set three times from more white cardstock. When working with tone-on-tone, it’s important to make sure that there are lots of different heights and textural elements to keep things from being visually boring. I adhered the dimensional die cut greeting in the center of the Ornate Nesting Die die cut using liquid adhesive. The extra height helps make the white die cut more visible on the white background!

Well, that’s all for my projects today-now for some fun giveaway information!

$300 in total prizes! To celebrate this release, Altenew is giving away a $100 gift certificate to 1 lucky winner and a $20 gift certificate to 10 winners! Please leave a comment on the Altenew Card Blog and/or each designer’s blog post on the blog hop list below by 06/08/2023 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 06/10/2023.

*The winners of the $100 gift certificate will be chosen from comments left on the Altenew blog. 

Here’s the full hop list:

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Thanks so much for stopping by today, and happy hopping!

OLO Marker Artists’ Picks!

Hi there! Today, I wanted to share with you some interesting (and exciting) news: I have curated a collection of markers for OLO Markers! I have been working with the OLO markers for a little over a year, and I find them to be extremely user-friendly, not to mention vibrant, with super smooth blending. I have no trouble recommending them to both novices and experienced colorists alike! For the Emily’s Picks Color Collection, I selected a wide variety of colors that create a large spectrum of color values, from light to dark, with a color palette that is especially perfect for working with florals!

Each color family that I’ve selected is meant to allow you freedom to blend in gradients from super dark to super light, so that you can achieve great depth of shadow and lightness of highlight. I primarily work with florals, and these are the color families for which I find myself reaching the most! I tried to select a color family from each area of the rainbow so that you would have plenty of colors to choose from just with this one marker collection.

For the illustration above, I used four of the color families from the Emily’s Picks Color Collection. You’ll notice the great depth of color in the largest peony; this was colored using the RK-RG.7-R5.7-R5.5 family. I find that adding touches of black or gray to your large images helps to increase the drama and add incredible depth of shadow; OLO markers have RK (which is red-black) and BK (blue-black), both of which are included in my collection and are perfect for adding extra dimension and depth to your projects when added into the appropriate color family.

There are also quite a few very light markers, which are perfect for using to “glaze” your other color families to create completely custom colors. (You can check out a project that I created using OLO glazing HERE) You can see in the detail photo above the incredible range of colors that you can achieve with these Emily’s Picks markers-and this is only four of the seven color families in the collection!

If you were contemplating purchasing OLO markers, this collection would be a great starter pack! The folks at OLO have also given me a 10% discount code for use with my collection. Simply input code emilycolorpicks at checkout for the Emily’s Picks Color Collection to receive the discount!

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

OLO Marker Colors of the Month + Honey Bee Stamps!

Hi there! Each month, OLO Markers comes out with a trio of colors that you can purchase (or use the markers that you already have) to participate in their Color of the Month Challenge! These Color of the Month markers (which you can check out HERE) are always three different colors that, when blended together or used separately, help to expand your blending trios and create a new perspective on your markers!! I found the May 2023 Colors of the Month markers to be extremely inspiring; they were colors that I would not normally have used together, certainly not for coloring, but I thought the blue, turquoise, and lime green were so modern, chic, and fresh that I started creating with them and couldn’t stop! I have been carefully collecting different products from Honey Bee Stamps over the last several months and was inspired to pull a bunch of them out to create a quartet of cards using this fun color combination. Let’s get started with the details!

I began by pulling coordinating ink and cardstock colors that would match the May 2023 Colors of the Month. I grabbed Limeade, Teal Cave, and Desert Night inks from Altenew, as well as Teal Topaz and Peridot cardstocks from Spellbinders and Nautical cardstock from Hero Arts.

For my first project, I used the absolutely beautiful Lovely Layers: Spring Greenery standalone dies from Honey Bee Stamps with the May 2023 Colors of the Month. I die cut the images from plain white cardstock, then used only the May 2023 Colors of the Month to add color to the images. Being limited to only the three markers meant that I had to get creative in order to create multiple colors that still worked with the images themselves. I did some “glazing” to create custom colors, laying down one solid layer of color, then adding another color over the top to create a completely unique color. I also was able to increase the intensity of the colors by adding multiple layers of the same color (as I did on the sprigs of lavender). I used all three colors on the larger eucalyptus leaves, laying down the blue in the center of each leaf, blending out with the aqua, then glazing the entire leaf with the lime green marker. The only additional marker that I used was the zero marker from OLO, which I used to add highlights and to lessen the intensity of some of the colors, as well as add tiny dots of white on the Queen Anne’s Lace flowers. I was amazed and really pleased at the variety of colors that I was able to create using just four markers that I would never have normally put together!

After I’d finished coloring the images, I die cut the largest detail frame from the breathtaking Spring Vine Layering using Nautical cardstock, backing it with Teal Topaz cardstock to coordinate with the turquoise tones in the coloring. I die cut a Sentiment Frames frame from some matte silver foil cardstock, which I adhered with foam tape for extra dimension, then arranged my colored floral die cuts around the frame, adhering them with both liquid and foam adhesive for lots of different dimension and height. I added a greeting from the Best of Everything stamp set, heat embossed in silver on navy cardstock and die cut with the coordinating die. Finally, I added a few gems for some sparkle!

For my second card, I blended the three shades of ink (Limeade, Teal Cave, and Desert Night) to create a crazy vivid background. After I blended the three colors together on a panel of plain white A2 cardstock, I ran the entire thing through my die cut machine using the Clover Petals embossing folder from Honey Bee Stamps and spritzed it with some iridescent shimmer spray to enhance the pattern even further.

I die cut the Lovely Layers: Anemone, cutting the flower layers from white cardstock and the foliage from two different shades of green cardstock. I swiped the lime green marker from May 2023 Colors of the Month in the center of each layer of the white flower, smoothing the edges with the zero marker to create just the lightest hint of lime green in the center of the anemone. I die cut some leaves in coordinating shades of bright green.

To create the frame around which I could build my bouquet, I used the Layering Vintage Labels die to create this uniquely-shaped frame, cutting it from Nautical cardstock to coordinate with the navy blending on the background and adhering it with some foam adhesive to give it extra height and help it pop from the background. I arranged the flowers and foliage in a bouquet around the edge of the frame and added a greeting created with the Foil Script: Wishes hot foil plate and die, creating the reverse sentiment using the leftover foil with a solid hot foil plate. The final touch was to add a few bits of bling in a coordinating shade of iridescent lime green!

For my next card, I paired the three ink shades (Limeade, Teal Cave, and Desert Night) that coordinate beautifully with the OLO Colors of the Month with the Folk Art Daisy layering stencil set. I use blending brushes to blend the layers, keeping the flowers that lovely shade of pale lime green, with turquoise leaves and deep navy accents. I trimmed the stenciled panel down and matted with an ever-so-slightly larger panel of navy cardstock, creating a very thin navy blue frame around the edge. I popped these two layers up on a Peridot cardstock card front.

For the greeting, I stamped one of the sentiment strips and a large scale sentiment from Big Time Kindness using the Desert Night ink, then die cut it with the coordinating die. To help the greeting stand out from the busy patterned background, I die cut one of the Stacking Art Deco Label dies from some vellum, slightly offsetting it to the right. I used dimensional foam adhesive to adhere the sentiments to the vellum piece, then hid my liquid adhesive behind these solid die cuts so as not to mar the semi-transparent vellum. Finally, I added a few iridescent gems for some sparkle!

My last card is an homage to the beauty of the Spring Vines Layering Frame die set. I cut the different layers from Teal Topaz, Peridot, and Nautical cardstock, layering them together in a striking combination, using foam adhesive for the largest interior label layer and liquid adhesive for the remaining layers.

I also heat embossed a simple but poignant greeting from the Best of Everything stamp set, heat embossed in silver on some more navy cardstock and die cut with the coordinating die. I used one last layer of foam adhesive to add the sentiment, giving it a little bit of extra height amongst all of the die cut layers. Finally, I added some gems to the four corners for a tiny bit of sparkle!

Well, have you made it this far? That was a lot of cards for one post! I got rolling with that beautiful color ocmbination from OLO and just couldn’t stop! I love when something simple brings on such a flood of inspiration. You can check out more information about the May 2023 Colors of the Month challenge by clicking on the link. Thanks so much for reading today, and have a marvelous day!

More Pinkfresh Studio Inspiration for the May 2023 Instagram Hop!

Good morning! Pinkfresh Studio is hosting an Instagram hop to help celebrate their new release (which you can check out HERE), and I thought I’d share the details of my project here on my blog! You can check out all of the hop stops and giveaway information on the Pinkfresh Studio Instagram. I absolutely love the level of detail on the die for the new Pretty Blossoms coordinating die, which works with both the Pretty Blossoms stamp or Pretty Blossoms hot foil plate. I am working with the Pretty Blossoms hot foil plate today to create a monochromatic stenciled card, so let’s get started with the details!

I began my project by hot foiling the Pretty Blossoms hot foil plate onto some lovely medium aqua cardstock using Prism hot foil from Spellbinders. It creates a lovely, subtle, iridescent pattern on the aqua cardstock that is difficult to pick up in a photo but looks beautiful in real life! I used the coordinating Pretty Blossoms stencils to blend Tidal Pond, Mermaid Cove, Aquamarine, and Ocean Breeze inks using Pinkfresh Studio’s 1/2″ Blending Brushes.

After I’d finished blending my monochromatic aqua peonies, I created a flat shaker card front. I trimmed down an A2 panel of darker turquoise cardstock, blending Tidal Pond around the edges to intensify the color a bit. I trimmed down a spare bit of acetate packaging from some stamps and wrapped it around my card front, adhering three of the four sides with super sticky double-sided tape, leaving the release paper on the fourth side so that I could fill my shaker card. I used some coordinating aqua sequins to fill my shaker and sealed it up, then adhered my die cut floral background panel using plenty of foam adhesive for lots of dimension.

For the greeting, I used my MISTI to stamp the “Enjoy Today” sentiment from Delicate Foliage using Tidal Pond ink, then keeping the stamp in place, stamped once more directly over the top using embossing ink. I enhanced the sentiment with some glittery aqua embossing powder, made darker by the first dark teal stamped layer. After heat embossing, I cut it out using the coordinating sentiment die. I mounted the sentiment die cut on a piece of vellum, cut using one of the Essentials: Fancy Labels dies. I used a bit of clear foam adhesive to add the vellum piece to my blended card front. The final touch was a coordinating blue twine bow for a bit of added texture!

Well, that’s all for my project today! You can check out the full hop list over on the Pinkfresh Studio Instagram page, as well as enter to win the entire release!! Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!