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Sixth Street Sundries

Emily Midgett

simon says stamp

Hot Foiled Shaker Window with Simon Says Stamp!

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

Acetate is having a moment on my blog lately, right? I am loving the different ways that acetate can be incorporated into my cardmaking, especially when paired with hot foil! Last week, I shared a project in THIS POST using Hero Arts’s Acetate, which also happens to be hot foil-friendly… total game changer. For today’s project, I have a peachy shaker card using lots of goodies from Simon Says Stamp! Let’s get started with the details.

To start, I hot foiled the Intricate Rose and Blooms Bouquet image from Simon Says Stamp onto some Acetate using Satin Rose Gold foil from Spellbinders. After hot foiling, I placed the coordinating die (I love that the set has both the hot foil plate and the die included in the set!) in the center of an A2 Nectar card front. I oriented the hot foil image so that it nestled behind the window in the correct spot, then adhered the hot foiled acetate panel to the back of the die cut window panel using super strong double sided tape. I also blended Nectar ink from Concord and 9th around the edges of another A2 panel of Nectar cardstock to add a little interest behind the foil window.

To embellish the blank areas on the card front, I die cut the super detailed Daisies and Leaves die from some glittery rose gold cardstock. I adhered these super intricate die cuts in the corners of the card front using the Micro Dot Adhesive from Simon Says Stamp, which made adding them a much quicker process than if I had used liquid glue! I adhered the die cut in one corner, then trimmed the excess off and oriented it on the other corner. It adds some extra sparkle and interest to the fairly plain card front!

To assemble my card, I filled my shaker card with a mixture of sequins and confetti (in coordinating colors, of course) from Studio Katia. For the greeting, I heat embossed a couple of sentiments from the Friend Greetings stamp set from Simon Says Stamp onto some super pale peach cardstock using Rose Gold embossing powder and adhered it using more double sided tape.

I love how this project turned out…. It’s monochromatic but with lots of fun metallic accents to keep things interesting! Well, that’s all for me today. Thanks so much for stopping by, and have a marvelous day!

Adding Acetate to Kick Your Flowers Up A Notch!

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

Hi there! Jennifer McGuire is just full of excellent ideas, isn’t she? I feel lucky to have such a talented friend! (She gives amazing hugs!) We all get inspiration from her so frequently, and I find her use of acetate to create unique card fronts to be so intriguing and unique! This project is kind of a piggyback on my card from earlier this week, in which I used black A7 Thin Frames die to accent my floral background. Today, I’m using an acetate background to create a super special wedding card, adding some more A7 Thin Frames to help ground the flower on the acetate so that it’s not floating in midair. Let’s get started with the details!

It is such a thrill to me to see how many stamp sets I’ve illustrated over the last few years; I never dreamed that I would be able to use my own drawings to create cards when I started this journey 14 years ago, but I don’t think that I have words to describe what it means to me when I see artists whom I admire so much using my illustrations. Debby Hughes is one such artist; I’ve admired her work for nearly as long as I’ve been stamping, and she painted my Thankful Magnolia image so splendidly… I audibly gasped when I saw it. She was so good as to send that treasure to me, and I have had her card sitting on my desk as an inspiration. I finally made/found the time to do my own watercolored version of the Thankful Magnolia for today’s card! It’s a double whammy of inspiration from those cardmakers whom I admire the most!

To start, I stamped the Thankful Magnolia on some Arches Cold Press Watercolor Paper using Hero Arts’s Contour Ink. I then did some watercolor mixing and matching to create this peach melba magnolia. (I don’t believe that’s really a thing, but how perfect is that description for this peach and raspberry magnolia?) After I’d finished watercoloring the image, I die cut it with the coordinating die. I knew that I wanted to have a peach background to highlight the peachy undertones on the flower, so I selected my peach cardstock from my stash and outline the edge of the die cut with the coordinating Copic marker to keep the color palette seamless.

Once I had finished coloring my main floral image, I cut down a panel of peach cardstock to 7×5.5 inches. I used my Altenew Scoring Board to score 1/2″ in from the edge, creating a 5×7 card with a tiny flap along the long side. I used some super strong double sided tape to adhere a 5″x7″ panel of acetate to the thin flap, creating an A7 card with a transparent front! To accent the peachy magnolia, I die cut the A7 Thin Frames using some Metallic Rose Gold foil cardstock from Simon Says Stamp. I keep my Thin Frames dies together as they arrived in the package; this allows me to have a huge variety of sizes in two different widths with one pass through my die cut machine! I added one thicker frame closer to the edge and a thinner one more towards the center. This addition of the frames adds a little interest to the clear background as well as a bit of sturdiness to the acetate.

For the greeting, I die cut the So Happy For You Both die from another piece of Metallic Rose Gold foil cardstock (isn’t that shade of metallic blush divine?) and backed it with the outline layer cut from vellum. I popped the magnolia up with some foam tape, then popped up the greeting with some clear dimensional adhesive. The vellum behind the foil sentiment allows the greeting to pop a bit from the background while still keeping the overall feeling of lightness on the finished card! Finally, I added a few peachy iridescent gems for one last bit of sparkle.

Well, that’s all for my project today! I am so excited about how this first acetate card came out… I can’t wait to try it on another project! Thanks so much for stopping by, and have a marvelous day!

Shoot For the Stars!

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

My blog is basically an homage to my favorite flowers, with the occasional critter or beach theme thrown in for good measure. However, I find myself needing encouragement cards for my kiddos occasionally, and so for today’s project I created this vibrant blended “galaxy” background to work perfectly with the beautiful calligraphy Shoot for the Stars die cut from Simon Says Stamp. Sometimes, a single die can be the jumping off point for an entire card! Let’s get started with the details.

I began by blending Galaxy, Amethyst, and Lilac inks on a panel of white cardstock, creating a super vibrant background that looks almost like the northern lights or the Milky Way is running through the middle of it. To add the twinkling stars, I splattered the background with some metallic silver watercolor, adding a few larger freehand stars to create a variety of sizes.

While my splattered panel was drying, I die cut the Shoot for the Stars twice, once from Simon Says Stamp Luxe Glitter Classic cardstock, creating a crazy sparkly die cut sentiment. I adhered the two die cut pieces together with liquid adhesive, making this super delicate greeting a bit more sturdy as well as adding a bit of height to my greeting to help it further stand out from the colorful background. I also trimmed down a greeting from the Yay You sentiment card set. I lightly blended some Lilac ink on the sentiment strip to keep the colors coordinated for the entire card.

Before adhering my sentiment pieces, I wanted to add another element of shine and sparkle to th card front, so I trimmed down the blended panel slightly and nestled it into the upper left corner of an A2 panel of Simon Says Stamp’s Mirror Ball cardstock. This cardstock is super shiny and such a neat textural addition; it practically screams “outer space” to me! I adhered the sentiment pieces with liquid and foam adhesive, finally adding one last textural element with some iridescent silver gems. Having multiple sizes of “stars” adds interest to the background!

Well, that’s all for today’s project! I think that this card could be an encouragement card or even a graduation card. Thanks so much for stopping by, and have a marvelous day!

Accenting Focal Points with Thin Frames!

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

I have really been trying hard to use stamps in my stash to which I haven’t given much love, especially stamps that I have illustrated. This enormous Beautiful Bouquet stamp that I illustrated for Simon Says Stamp early last year has not seen enough love from me, and I am determined to change that! I get so much inspiration for bouquet arrangements and color combinations from the wedding florists that I follow on Instagram, and one of my favorite things about coloring a bouquet like this is that the overall look can change completely depending on the color selections that you make! I created a completely different aesthetic on THIS card by using brighter colors, but today I wanted to focus on some more muted shades of lilac and periwinkle, with a “white” rose. I also pulled out one of my favorite unsung heroes from my die collection: A7 Thin Frames dies. Let’s get started with the details.

I began by stamping the ginormous bouquet from Beautiful Bouquet onto a 5″x7″ panel of Hammermill cardstock using black pigment ink, then clear embossing over the top. Normally, I would use alcohol marker-friendly dye ink, but I wanted those lines to be super stark and black, and the clear embossing powder over the top really defines the crisp black lines and makes them pop.

I colored the images using my OLO markers in shades of periwinkle and lilac for the large anemone and hydrangea blooms, then used some grayish purple markers with my Zero marker to create the “white” rose. I simply concentrated the light purple and almost-transparent gray markers towards the center of the flower to create shadows, then softened the edges with the Zero marker to allow the shadows to fade to the white of the cardstock.

After I had finished coloring the images, I used a blending brush to very lightly blend Heather ink around the edges of my card, creating the softest of halos around my vividly colored image. I recently added the A7 Thin Frames dies to my stash. I find myself reaching for the A2 Thin Frames constantly, so I added the and the Circle Thin Frames to my stash. The thin frames are the perfect clean accent for your focal point, whether it is a large floral like this, critters, or a more graphic background. They are an investment up front, but I find them totally invaluable on so many styles of card!! The addition of a thin frame around the edge of your focal point creates such an incredibly clean and polished look; I use it constantly. I die cut the A7 Thin Frames dies from some Pitch Black cardstock, further accenting the crisp lines of the black embossed lines of the floral image.

For the greeting, I kept things simple with a dimensional black Big Hugs die. I die cut the Big Hugs die three times from more Pitch Black cardstock and adhered them together using liquid adhesive. I adhered the dimensional die cut to the center of the lower third of my card. The black sentiment, black frame, and black lines of the image tick the boxes to complete the “rule of three” for the embellishments! The final touch was to add some sparkling gems for a bit of sparkle!

Well, that’s all for my project today. If you haven’t checked out the Thin Frames dies at Simon Says Stamp, you’re missing out! They’re a staple at my craft desk, for sure. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!

No-Line Coloring with 3D Embossing Folders!

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

Hi there! Today, I have some inspiration to share with you using the beautiful Floral Harmony 3D Embossing Folder from Simon Says Stamp. This gorgeous floral embossing folder also comes with coordinating dies to create even more dimension and texture on your card front. Don’t underestimate embossing folders; they’re having a renaissance right now and I am totally here for it. They’re so inexpensive and make such an impact. I have watercolored 3D Embossing Folders before, but I’ve never tried alcohol markers on an embossing folder until this week. Let me tell you, I think I might have found a new favorite technique!

I began by running a panel of white Hammermill cardstock with the Floral Harmony 3D Embossing Folder through my die cut machine. I also die cut the three large floral images from another panel of white cardstock, then placed them in the correct spot on the embossing folder and ran it through my machine again. The result is perfectly embossed individual die cuts that you can use in conjunction with the full embossed image or you can use the floral die cuts on their own. I definitely have plans to use them by themselves in a future project!

I pulled out probably half of my RV and V Copic markers (lol) and colored these blooms in the prettiest shades of plum, magenta, and bubble gum pink. The extra texture from the embossed portions enhances the intense, vivid colors so beautifully, I think!! I kept the emphasis on the flowers themselves, adding only some super pale gray shadows to the leaves, softening the lines with my colorless blender marker, which unfortunately did not pick up very well on the photos. I popped up the floral die cuts with some foam tape for even more dimension.

To accent the florals, while also keeping that crisp white background, I die cut a glittery white frame using the A2 Thin Frames dies from Simon Says Stamp. I adhered the frame around the edge with some liquid adhesive. Next, I die cut the “hugs” greeting from the Basic Trio die set, once from Eggplant cardstock and twice from white cardstock, adhering all three together using liquid adhesive to create a dimensional die cut greeting. I popped up the greeting with some more foam tape for even more dimension, then added a few Opal gems from Spellbinders for some more sparkle and texture.

Well, that’s all for my project today! I highly encourage you to check out the Embossing Folder section at Simon Says Stamp. Embossing folders can be used with so many different techniques and add such an incredible impact to your card without adding bulk or too much expense. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!