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Sixth Street Sundries

Emily Midgett

OLO markers

Monochromatic Flowers with the OLO Marker Colors of the Month!

Good morning, friends! I love when my friends at OLO Marker give me an excuse to play with their wonderful markers. They launched a new monthly series earlier this year: Colors of the Month! Each month, they will offer a special bundle of colors that work nicely together, giving you an opportunity to try the colors out and build up your collection. This month’s colors are RV0.1, R5.5, and R5.7. I took this opportunity to do some coloring with the Butterfly Ranunculus stamp set that I illustrated for Simon Says Stamp, building up the different layers of color to create a bright pink bloom with maroon foliage. Let’s get started on the details of my project!

With the OLO Markers, I find that they layer beautifully, allowing for more versatility and greater variety of color with fewer markers. One swipe of the marker lays down a light layer of color, while adding subsequent layers over the top adds more intensity and vibrancy to the colored image. I also used the tip-to-tip method to do some subtle blending of the colors. I put these techniques to use to create these monochromatic blooms!

I began by stamping my Butterfly Ranunculus images onto some Hammermill cardstock using Contour Ink from Hero Arts. This Hammermill+Contour Ink combination is my favorite for doing no-line coloring with the OLO Markers. After I finished stamping the images, I used the Colors of the Month to add lots of vibrant pink and maroon to the images. I used only the R5.5 and R5.7 markers for the leaves, saturating the color on the shadowed areas with multiple layers of color and keeping the highlights as light as possible with only one swipe of the R5.5 marker. Layering the colors in this way helps to maintain the contrast of the shadows vs. highlights, while also allowing me to use a minimal amount of markers!

For the large bloom, I used all three of the markers from the Color of the Month, working the first couple of layers using the tip-to-tip method of coloring, where I touch the tip of the lighter marker to the tip of the darker marker. As I touch the lighter marker to the paper, the darker ink that has been added to the tip slowly fades away, creating a smooth blend, much more subtle than if I had added the darker marker directly to the paper and blended it out with the lighter marker. Again, I kept the highlights as light as possible by swiping my marker over them only once, allowing for as minimal saturation as possible. Once I had added my first layer of color, I went back in with the two darker markers to add darker shadows to the areas tucked behind the top petals. For the really shadowed areas, I put the markers directly to the paper, but for the petals more towards the front, I used the tip-to-tip method to allow for a more subtle blend.

I die cut the finished colored blooms with the coordinating dies, then, to accent the monochromatic colored blooms, I die cut the Privet Branch dies from some chocolate brown glitter cardstock and cut them up so that I could tuck them here and there. This chocolate brown glitter cardstock beautifully accented the greeting, a hot foiled “birthday wishes” using the Posh Birthday Wishes hot foil plate and die from Memory Box and some shiny Espresso Bean foil from Spellbinders.

For the background, I used the absolutely beautiful new-to-me Vintage Labels die set from Honey Bee Stamps. I die cut the largest label from some more Hammermill cardstock (I love the unique shape of these label dies!) and used one of the smaller labels to cut out the center of the die to create the frame shape. For the card front base, I used the stunning Winter Gems cover plate die, also from Honey Bee Stamps. This cover plate isn’t technically a die, as it doesn’t cut anything out; rather it debosses a beautiful pattern into the cardstock, creating a gorgeous and subtle texture that looks divine behind basically anything. I popped up the white frame and colored flowers and glittering foliage die cuts with foam adhesive, then added the foiled greeting with a double layer of foam adhesive to create extra height and allow it to stand out a bit. The final step was to add a few shiny rose gold Espresso jewels!

Well, that’s all for the details on this project. I love that you can create such incredible highlights and dimension with so few OLO markers depending on how many layers of color you add to your project! If you wanted to try the OLO markers, simply click my link HERE! I am so excited to see what next month’s Color of the Month is over at OLO. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!

Using Foil Leftovers with Spellbinders Solid Shaped Hot Foil!

Hi there! Today, I have a couple of projects for you using some beautiful new products from Spellbinders’s November Release. I will admit, sometimes the amount of waste that can be created with this hobby hurts my heart thinking of how quickly my trash can (and subsequently, the landfill) can be filled. It helps to alleviate my guilt a tiny bit when I am able to get double duty from products, like using tiny scraps of colored cardstock for those tiny layering dies, saving the interior die cuts from die cut frames, and…. using a solid hot foil plate with my hot foil scraps! Spellbinders has released several super useful shaped solid hot foil plates, which are great on their own, but also work so beautifully with your foil scraps to get double duty and make that little scrap of plastic waste from your original hot foiled piece go an extra step further! I have two cards to share with you today, using the original hot foiled image and the negative. Let’s get started with the details!

The main focal points for my projects today started with some Champagne Hot Foil and the Glimmering Just For You hot foil plate and die. (I love that this hot foil plate comes with the coordinating die-makes things so easy!) I hot foiled that beautiful floral swag from Glimmering Just For You onto some Hammermill white cardstock. I find that detailed images hot foil superbly on this super smooth cardstock, and it also works a treat with your OLO markers!

After hot foiling this beautiful peony swag from the Glimmering Just For You set and die cutting it using the coordinating die, I used several pinks and some lime green OLO markers (use my link to receive 10% off your OLO marker order!) to add lots of vibrant color to the image. The combination of the vibrant marker coloring and the super shiny hot foil make this such a striking image!

The size of the peony image worked beautifully for a mini-slimline card, so I used the Mini Slimline Precision Layering dies to create a super thin and delicate frame. I used the rubber embossing mat from the Universal Plate System with the Dazzling Diamonds Hot Foil Plate to add some beautiful texture to the interior die cut. I popped both the frame and the embossed center piece up on a mini-slimline (3.5″x6″) card front using some thin foam tape.

For the greeting, I wanted something simple and classy so that the focus was entirely on that vibrant floral swag, so I die cut the large sentiment (which appears to be discontinued, but you can still find it HERE at Simon Says Stamp) once from some glittery white cardstock and twice from some plain white cardstock to add extra stability. I adhered the floral swag with a double layer of foam tape for extra height and added the dimensional die cut greeting, finally adding a few iridescsent white gems for one last touch of sparkle!

For this second card, I paired the leftover floral panel from the Glimmering Just For You project with the Glimmer Essential Solid Heart to do some “reverse foiling.” I placed the heart in the center of my white A2 card front, and when I pulled back the hot foil piece I was left with this beautiful patterned heart!

I decided to continue with the bright bubblegum pink-and-champagne color scheme, so I paired the Sealed Bouquet dies with Fruit Punch, Pink Sand, and Fern cardstocks with some pops of super hot pink for the berries (one of those tiny cardstock scraps I mentioned earlier to get extra mileage from my colored cardstock and reduce waste!). I adhered them all together using tiny dots of liquid adhesive. I recently purchased the Spellbinders Reverse Tweezers, and I have to say… I’m in love. They are so handy for assembling tiny die cuts like these! I am going to purchase another pair as soon as I’m done writing this post just so that I have a backup!

I arranged the flowers into a Valentine’s Day bouquet, wrapping the stems with some champagne colored twine and tying a fat bow. I adhered the bouquet to the card front with foam adhesive, allowing the shiny patterned-foil heart to peek out from behind, then added another white glitter greeting from the Notecard Sentiments die set. A trio of sparkling iridescent white gems helped to finish it off!

Well, that’s all for my projects today! The November release is full of beautiful new products-including that Pastel Satin variety pack of hot foil rolls. I hope you’ll go take a peek! And if you’re still shopping for Cyber Monday, those deals end at midnight tonight, so don’t miss out. 😉 Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!

Rainbow Holiday with Hero Arts!

Are you team colored lights or team white lights? I can’t decide! Have you noticed that the new colored LED Christmas lights just don’t provide quite the exact glow of the holiday lights from when you were a kid? I think it’s the addition of the neon lilac color instead of the light pink lights! I’ve been on the hunt for the energy efficient LED lights in the same color palette as the incandescent lights from when I was younger, because while I adore the elegance of white Christmas lights, there’s just something so nostalgic about colored lights. I’ve bought so many strands of colored lights hoping that they’d be just the right colors (cue your surprise that I’d be sensitive to colors, haha!), but I haven’t found just the right ones yet. Darn it!

If you’ve seen my blog much this season, you will know by now that I love non-traditional holiday color palettes, but this card that I created for the Hero Arts Winter 2022 catalog is as traditional as it comes! The sweet little Holiday Peg Dolls from the Hero Arts Holiday 2022 Catalog were so cute that I couldn’t resist coloring them up! You might have seen this card in the Hero Arts Catalog, but I thought I’d share the details here.

I began by stamping the Santa, Elf, and Christmas tree images from the Holiday Peg Dolls stamp set using Intens-ified Black ink onto some alcohol ink-friendly white cardstock. I used my OLO markers to add lots of vibrant color to the images, keeping the colors fairly traditional and adding lots of color to the lights on the Christmas tree. I also die cut the Christmas Lights Border Fancy Die from some more white cardstock and used the same marker shades that I used on the Christmas tree to add cheerful color to the Christmas lights. I left the wires white so that they would provide a bit of texture to the white A2 card front.

For the greeting, I used the Christmas Words Fancy Die to die cut the “Christmas” twice from white cardstock and once from silver glitter cardstock, adhering all of the die cuts together using Precision Glue to create a dimensional die cut greeting. I also stamped a sentiment strip from Holiday Peg Dolls. I arranged the peg dolls and tree in a little cluster, grounding them on the cluster of sentiment components. I find that using the sentiments as the “ground” for my cluster of cute scene-building images is a great way to make that scarily-large blank space on my card front a little less intimidating for this scene-building novice!

Well, that’s all for my project today! I am sad to think that there are only a few more weeks of holiday crafting left. It’s hard to find time to do holiday crafting throughout the year when there are so many other beautiful non-holiday stamp sets to work with throughout the year! Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!

VIDEO: Creating Dimensional Die Cuts with OLO Markers and Honey Bee Stamps Make It Merry + Giveaway!

Hi friends! I am excited to be taking part in the Honey Bee Stamps Make It Merry YouTube Hop today, sharing some more inspiration using some of the stunning new holiday products from the Make It Merry release. Here’s the video:

You can watch the video HERE on YouTube!

I love these super vibrant and color saturated cards with absolutely no white in sight for Christmas these days… Today’s card is an homage to plum and teal! In case you can’t watch the video, here’s how I created my card!

I began by die cutting all of the layers from the new Lovely Layers: Poinsettia from some plain white cardstock. I then used my OLO markers to add some jewel bright coloring to the die cut layers. This was super easy, because the impressed score lines on each layer tell you exactly which layer will be visible when the poinsettia flower is assembled, so you don’t have to color each petal for every single layer-just the petals that are visible on that layer! I also colored the foliage and twig for the berry sprig from Lovely Layers Winter Greenery using the OLO markers, and die cut a few glittery spruce boughs from some aqua glitter cardstock.

To ground my floral bouquet, I die cut a Stacking Art Deco Label from some Spellbinders Blue Spruce cardstock. I ran the die cut shape through my die cut machine again using the Winter Gems A2 Cover Plate die. This super unique and gorgeous die doesn’t actually cut anything; rather, it impresses a debossed pattern on the cardstock, creating a beautiful textured design. To help bring this design even further forward, I did a bit of light ink blending around the edge of the die cut with some Tidal Pool ink from Pinkfresh Studio. This helps to subtly enhance the texture without adding any extra colors to my monochromatic card! I also die cut a coordinating frame from some more Blue Spruce cardstock and popped it up on the solid die cut using foam adhesive.

I adhered my framed die cut piece to an A2 Blue Spruce card front using some strong adhesive tape, then added the colorful die cut poinsettia and foliage using lots of foam tape. For the greeting, I added a hot foiled sentiment from the Foil Script Holiday Hot Foil set, which I hot foiled onto some more Blue Spruce cardstock using some pewter satin foil from Spellbinders. (I absolutely love that foil/cardstock combination! Will definitely be using that again.) I popped that up with a double layer of foam tape, then added some baubles from the Winter Wonder Gem Stickers from Honey Bee Stamps.

Well that’s all for my project today! You can see more inspiration using the Make It Merry release HERE and HERE. Now for some fun giveaway information!

Honey Bee Stamps is giving away two $50 shopping sprees to the Honey Bee Stamps store! To enter the giveaway, you MUST follow the instructions in the description on the YouTube videos. Click HERE to go to my video and get linked up to the video hop! (Please note: comments left here on my blog will not be entered into the giveaway. You must comment on the YouTube videos to be entered into the drawing.)

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

Movie Inspiration with Colorado Craft Company + Anita Jeram!

Hi there! With summer coming to an end, I have realized how many cards I made over the last few weeks that I have just been too tired to blog at the end of the day. Colorado Craft Company has had some really beautiful Anita Jeram releases over the last couple of months, and I was excited to get the chance to play with them! I have two cards using the Time of My Life stamps and coordinating dies, and another using the more recently-released Magic Time and Fairy Godmother stamps. Let’s get started with the details!

This first card features the darling Dirty Dancing-inspired dancing kitties from Time of My Life. In my head, anytime I’m drawing a “couple,” they always have the coloring of my husband and I, even in feline form. (haha!) I stamped the dancing duo onto some white cardstock using alcohol-friendly black ink, then used OLO markers to color the images. (Patrick Swayze had reddish hair, didn’t he? Maybe I’m making that up 😉 ) I used the coordinating dies to cut out the finished images.

For the background, I wanted to create a subtle, but still magical, backdrop, so I used the Layered Confetti stencils from Simon Says Stamp. I began by lightly blending Heather, Tidepool, and Bubblegum Pawsitively Saturated inks around just the edges of my white A2 card base, then layered the stencils over the top of that subtle blending. The finished product looks like a romantic bokeh effect. It reminds me of 16 Candles or Pretty In Pink or another classic 80’s movie that culminates at a high school dance haha!

I adhered the dancing kitties on my blended card front using foam adhesive, then stamped some sentiments from the Time of My Life set on some strips of white cardstock. I popped them up on the card front with some more foam adhesive. I can’t wait to give this card to my ginger husband!!

For my second project, I did some no-line coloring using the recently-released Magic Time and Fairy Godmother stamps. I began by stamping a little scene on my card front using Contour Ink from Hero Arts. I again used my OLO markers to do some no-line coloring with these sweet mice! I couldn’t resist giving Cinderella a blue dress, and these shades of muted silvery blue were perfect for my pale gray mouse. I kept the rest of the colors muted, as well, giving the fairy godmother a cocoa brown and pink dress, and that pumpkin…. those shades blended together like butter, and I love how simultaneously bright and vibrant but still somewhat muted they are! I blended some Morning Pawsitively Saturated ink around the top, just to add a hint of color to the background.

The details on the dresses were covered up with the marker coloring, so I used handmade metallic watercolors from IUILE to add sparkling details to the dresses, the fairy godmother’s wand, and the little shower of sparkles from Cinderella’s transformation from servant to princess. I was afraid that the watercolor would warp the white cardstock, but it didn’t affect it at all! I just love the incredible sparkle this adds to the cards; watching them in real life is breathtaking!

Finally, I added a sentiment from the Fairy Godmother, which I heat embossed on a strip of Glacier cardstock from Spellbinders. It was the perfect shade of pale blue to coordinate with Cinderella’s dress and the ink blended background!

Well, that’s all for these projects today! I hope you’ll check out the Anita Jeram line from Colorado Craft Company. So many darling stamps that fit so many occasions! They are whimsical, but still maintain an element of elegance. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!