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Sixth Street Sundries

Emily Midgett

simon says stamp

Simon Says Stamp All the Joy Release Blog Hop- Day 1!

Hi friends! I am so excited to be a stop on today’s All the Joy blog hop-Day 1. You should have arrived here from Debby Hughes, and your next stop is Keisha Charles. You can find the full hop list here on the Simon Says Stamp Blog. The new All the Joy release is full of absolutely stunning products, including three stamp sets featuring some of my new holiday illustrations: Holiday Blossoms (which I’ve used for today’s project), Festive Bouquets (which you can see in action HERE), and Joyful Anemone (which you can check out in THIS post). I could easily buy my weight in holiday stamps and dies each year, so creating these new illustrations was truly a dream come true for me. I love flowers, and I love Christmas and the crafting that goes with it, so the combination is sublime to me! Let’s get started with the details on my project.

When illustrating these new images, I wanted to create images that were detailed enough that you didn’t have to color them if you were not inclined to do so while also being large enough that you could have a total blast coloring them! I used OLO markers for my previous two projects, and so I thought I’d switch things up a little by doing some no-line watercoloring for today’s project. I stamped my poinsettia image from Holiday Blossoms onto some Arches cold press watercolor paper using Contour Ink.

I have recently rediscovered how much I adore watercoloring with Distress Inks. By nature, they react beautifully with water and come in such a huge variety of super saturated colors. I pulled out my Distress Cubes and selected a bunch of holiday-appropriate colors: Bundled Sage, Lucky Clover, Festive Berries, Aged Mahogany, and Gathered Twigs. After taping down my watercolor panel to my watercolor board, I tapped the ink cubes onto a palette and used a damp paintbrush to pick up the color. As with regular pan paints, you can easily dilute the color with a bit of water, and the Distress Inks move exceptionally well on watercolor cardstock, making them a dream to use for images like this one, with both large, open areas and small, detailed areas!

After I’d finished watercoloring the image and allowed it to dry while still taped down (which helps to reduce warping), I pulled out a Gold Karin Star Sparks glitter gel pen and added some sparkling veins to the poinsettia. I also used the Simon Says Stamp 6″ T-Square to add a sparkly golden frame around the edge of my card front. I love adding simple frames like this to an intricately-colored image; it adds just the right highlight to your card front without adding any extra bulk and also draws your eye to the focal point. To keep the sentiment simple, I die cut the detail layer of the new All the Joy die from some Matte Gold cardstock and backed it with a heavyweight vellum outline layer. Finally, a few shimmering sequins added just a touch of glam and luxury!

Well, that’s all for my project today! (I have tons more inspiration using the new All the Joy release coming, so be sure to subscribe if you would like to see more holiday content!!) Now for some fun giveaway information:

To celebrate their new release, Simon Says Stamp is giving away a $25 coupon to every stop on the hop, selected from the blog comment section. Winners will be chosen and posted on the Simon Says Stamp blog on Wednesday the 8th of November. Winners can email Simon Says Stamp to claim their prize!!

Simon Says Stamp is also offering a Free Gift With Purchase! Simply search ssst221647 in the search box, add to cart with the rest of your selections, then enter code STAR at checkout to receive the beautiful Holy Stars Stencil for free!

That’s all for me today! Your next stop is Keisha Charles. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and happy hopping!

Festive Bouquets in Technicolor!

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

Hi friends! The utterly amazing new All the Joy release from Simon Says Stamp is live and I have so many cards to share with you. I was incredibly inspired with nearly everything in this release, but I was so excited to work with my newest stamp designs that I want to share those with you first! Last night, I shared a project using my new Joyful Anemone background stamp, and today I have a pair of technicolor projects using one of the bouquet images from the Festive Bouquets stamp set. This stamp set comes with two different floral arrangements using some traditional and non-traditional holiday florals, as well as a ton of different sentiments. (Did you see that the coordinating die set cuts out the sentiments as well as the large floral bouquets? SO awesome!)

When I was at my crafty retreat a few weeks ago, I stamped and colored these two floral bouquets from Festive Bouquets using my OLO Markers, drawing the vivid color palette from Shiny Brite vintage ornaments, featuring candy apple red anemones, deep royal purple hellebores, cotton candy pink berries, and three different shades of vivid green foliage. The colorful slimline bokeh background from THIS post actually was originally created to use these two floral bouquets, but I couldn’t quite get the arrangement right, so I decided to use that background for a different project and instead create two different coordinating cards, each with that same vibrant color palette!

To coordinate perfectly with the super colorful floral bouquets, I searched amongst my Pawsitively Saturated ink collection and pulled Sprout, Lucky, Ocean, Amethyst, Sweets, Cherry inks. For this first card, I wanted to create an intensely colorful blended background to accent the beautiful colors in the bouquet, so I blended the colors in ROYGBIV order down the front of my A2 card front using blending brushes. I am so in love with how this turned out and am just itching to use the color scheme on another project!!

To accent the floral corner and draw the eye towards the greeting, I die cut some white glitter A2 Thin Frames dies, two of which I layered on a slightly larger piece of vellum. The vellum allows the colors of the background to still be somewhat visible without adding bulk or any additional color to the card. I placed the colorful bouquet in the corner of the die cut rectangles, accenting the arrangement with some iridescent white foil die cuts created using the Forest Border Frame die. You know how those white edges on the die cuts bother me, but the white accents (frame, leaf die cuts) help to counter act that visual annoyance. I stamped and embossed some greeting pieces from the Festive Bouquets using Obsidian pigment ink and clear embossing powder, then popped them up using some foam tape. The final touch was to add a few super sparkly iridescent gems!

My second project uses the same ink colors, this time using the residual ink left over on the ink blending brushes to create this super soft, almost glowing background for my colorful floral arrangement! I simply blended the Sprout, Lucky, Ocean, Amethyst, Sweets, and Cherry ink that was left over on my blending brushes from the previous project. I tried to keep the colors that would blend nicely together near each other so as not to create a muddy mess (think of your color theory). After I had finished blending the background, I spritzed some Iridescent White Shimmer Spray from Hero Arts over the new Stylized Mandala Stencil. It’s difficult to capture the subtle sparkle in photos, but it looks so lovely in real life!

I arranged the floral bouquet and some more iridescent white die cuts from the Forest Border Frame die over the top of the blended and stenciled background, popping the bouquet up with some foam adhesive for extra dimension. I stamped and heat embossed some more greetings from the Festive Bouquets set using Obsidian pigment ink and clear embossing powder, then cut them out with the coordinating dies. (I absolutely love the sentiment dies included in these new sets… they make the finished card look so polished and neat!) A few more iridescent gems finished it off!!

Well, that’s all for today’s projects. I am working my way through the huge pile of cards that I created for this release, so stay tuned, because I have tons more to share with you! Be sure to come back tomorrow for Day 1 of the All the Joy blog hop. We will have prizes and other fun stuff, along with a veritable smorgasbord of inspiration to jumpstart your crafting!! Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!


Simon Says Stamp All the Joy Release + New Illustrations!!

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

Hi friends! Tonight is release night for Simon Says Stamp’s new All the Joy collection, and it’s an utterly amazing release filled with so many holiday crafting goodies that you’re going to want the whole darn release! I am extra excited for and proud of this release, because three of the new sets feature my illustrations. Some of them you might have seen in my coloring panel sets, and now you can have them in stamp form!! The new Festive Bouquets, Holiday Blossoms, and Joyful Anemone sets all feature illustrations of which I am super proud. It’s such a surreal feeling to be using my own drawings for holiday cards! I am so darn excited about these, and this Joyful Anemone background is probably one of my most favorite illustrations that I’ve ever done. Ever since I discovered jewel-bright red anemones with black centers, I’ve always thought that they were such a dramatic addition to a holiday bouquet, and this background stamp pays homage to them. Let’s get started with the details!

I recently was at a weekend crafting retreat with some wonderful friends, and all I brought with me were a bunch of coloring mediums and my new stamps for this release. I began by stamping the Joyful Anemone background stamp onto some white Hammermill cardstock using alcohol marker-friendly black ink. I then used my OLO markers to add lots of vivid color to the image in shades of traditional red and green. I am in love with how vibrant and yet still traditional this colored background is!

To add some sparkle to the card front, I die cut the All of Us Script die once from Dazzling Diamond glitter cardstock (which now comes in full size 8.5×11″ sheets!) and twice more from white cardstock scraps, adhering all three die cuts together using liquid adhesive to create a dimensional die cut sentiment. The incredible vibrancy of the colored background lets the die cut shine (literally, ha). I love the idea of a card being from “all of us,” because my house has 6 people in it and sometimes you just want one card to speak for everyone. Easy peasy!

To accent the die cut greeting, I trimmed out one of the greetings from the CZ Designs Sentiment Strips Christmas sentiment cards. I trimmed down the colored panel a little and matted it on a piece of black cardstock, allowing the black frame to peek out from all sides. I adhered the dimensional die cut sentiment with some liquid adhesive, then popped up the sentiment strip with some foam tape. For textural interest, I added a sparkling silver twine bow and scattered a few white pearls! Simple, but elegant and so vivid.

I can’t wait to try more techniques with this stamp set! I tried to make the Joyful Anemone background stamp detailed enough that you could certainly use it as a standalone image without it feeling too bare, but also make the images large enough that they’re fun to color. The entire All the Joy release is now live, and you can check it out HERE. (Trust me, you will want to take a look. SO many amazing new products.) Be sure to check back here tomorrow and Thursday for even more inspiration using lots of new products from the release! Thanks so much for stopping by today, and happy release day!

Boo and Some EEK!

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

Hi friends! While I was working with the autumnal color palette on the project in THIS post, I was inspired to make a Halloween card using some cute Halloween goodies from Simon Says Stamp. I don’t really do “scary” Halloween, because the world is scary enough, but cute kitties and pumpkins are definitely okay with me, and a kitty with a witch hat is just about as cute as it gets!! I added in some red and pale peach to the more traditional Halloween color palette to create this unique ombré background. Let’s get started with the details!

To start, I used blending brushes to blend Rainbow Splash Scarlet, Pawsitively Saturated Pucker, Rainbow Splash Pumpkin, and Pawsitively Saturated Peachy ink down the front of a white A2 card front. (I actually created two panels, intended to do some tone-on-tone die cut layers, but ended up saving the second blended panel for an upcoming project!) I love how this ombré background positively glows with color, but it’s definitely a unique color palette for a Halloween card! I die cut the Halloween Stack die from the bottom right corner, reserving the center of the die cut pieces. I added some orange glitter cardstock behind the negative die cut space and added centers of the die cut letters back to their proper spot with some liquid adhesive.

Next, I die cut the Spooky Cat die from some black Pawsitively Velvet Luxury Cardstock, cutting the details and hat from some black and orange glitter papers. Nothing says “cute kitty witch” like a glittery black witch hat! I also die cut some pumpkins and leaves using the Lovely Layers Fall Bounty from Honey Bee Stamps and colorful cardstock, blending around the edges with the same shades of ink used for the background.

I arranged the die cuts in a cluster on the blended background, using foam and liquid adhesive to add extra dimension and interest. Finally, I added some Topaz Twinkle gems from Trinity Stamps for one more bit of sparkle!

Well, that’s all for my project today! It turned quite cold in time for Halloween, so it will be a chilly evening taking all of my kiddos trick-or-treating. We have Bumblebee the Transformer, one of the witches from Hocus Pocus, a knight, and a prince to escort around. I hope it’s warmer where you are!! Thanks so much for stopping by today, and Happy Halloween!

Autumnal Thinking of You with Simon Says Stamp!

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

Hi friends! It’s finally the weekend, and I am so happy about that! We are in the complete throes of autumn here, with incredibly beautiful autumnal foliage making it a feast for the eyes every time I look or go outside! I am reading Anne of Green Gables with my big kids, and we just read the line “I’m so glad that I live in a world where there are Octobers.” It’s so true! It took a while for our trees to start impressing the world with their colors, but the oranges, yellows, peaches, reds, and magentas are finally here. Nature is surely showing off! This card is an embodiment of the view outside, filled with colorful foliage and a bit of sparkle and shine. Let’s get started with the details!

I began by creating a vivid ink blended base panel using Concord & 9th Cayenne, Pawsitively Saturated Blush and Cheeky, and Rainbow Splash Buttercream inks. (Side note- Rainbow Splash Buttercream ink is my new favorite color. It blends so beautifully with such a huge variety of colors, and is a little bit of a chameleon, changing the tone a bit with different color pairings. You should check it out of you haven’t yet!) The Buttercream ink worked beautifully as the lightest shade of my red and peach autumn ombré background.

Next, I heat embossed the new Autumn Leaf stamp from the Season of Wonder release onto some vellum with some sparkling metallic embossing powder. I fussy cut the image with my sharp scissors so that I could pop it up with some foam adhesive on my blended background. I also die cut some coordinating colorful foliage using the Etched Berry Branch and Ornamental Fine Leaves dies, using colored cardstock for the fine leaves and Tonic’s Purple Rain cardstock for the berry branch.

To coordinate with the warm, iridescent purple foil foliage die cuts, I die cut the detail layer of the Fancy Thinking of You die from some super dark maroon cardstock and backed it with a peachy outline layer. I popped the sentiment up on my huge glittery vellum leaf image using foam adhesive, then arranged the foliage die cuts to be peeking out from behind the sentiment. Don’t be afraid to cut your leaf die cuts apart; by doing so, you allow yourself the freedom to create fuller, more lush bouquets (or leaf clusters, in this case). After I had arranged all of my foliage pieces, I added some Topaz Twinkle gems for one last bit of sparkle!

Well, that’s all for my project today! The leaves will probably be blown away this weekend, as we are expecting a cold front (just in time for trick-or-treating on Halloween… darn it!), so I am going to enjoy the beautiful views while they last. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!