Sixth Street Sundries

Emily Midgett

watercolor

Rediscovering an Old Love-Watercoloring with Distress Inks!

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

I’ve been working hard at making a lot of cards lately. So much so, that I am experimenting with different mediums…. basically, just playing and having fun! I will let you in on a secret: I started my love/obsession with watercolor by tapping Distress Inks onto an acrylic block and painting with them. As my style and skills have evolved, so too have my array of mediums, working instead with more traditional “artist” mediums like Daniel Smith, Holbein, and Schmincke watercolor pans or Caran D’Ache and Polychromos colored pencils. However, in my recent organizational endeavors in my craft room, I rediscovered my stash of Distress Ink cubes and couldn’t wait to put them to use watercoloring. The color palette for the Distress Inks are so much more muted and subtle in comparison to my normal bright and vibrant colors that I thought it would be a great way to stretch my color sensibilities! I paired the Distress Inks with the Blissful Bouquet stamp set that I illustrated for Simon Says Stamp to create this elegant wedding card. Let’s get started with the details!

The traditional Distress Inks are quite different from the Distress Oxide inks; the traditional inks are water-based, translucent inks and are marvelous for both inky techniques and watercoloring, while the Oxide inks are opaque pigment inks, great for doing blending techniques. You can watercolor with the Oxide inks, but the effect is quite different. I will share some inspiration using Oxide inks for watercoloring at a later date!

I began by stamping all of the blooms and foliage from Blissful Bouquet onto some Arches Cold Press Watercolor paper using Intens-ified Black ink, which is waterproof and perfect for watercoloring. I then used Tattered Rose, Victorian Velvet, Milled Lavender, Dusty Concord, Aged Mahogany, Iced Spruce, Bundled Sage, and Pine Needles Distress Inks to watercolor the images. I simply tapped the colors out onto my ceramic palette, then picked them up as normal with my damp paintbrush and applied them to the stamped images, pulling the color out to a smooth fade with a clean, damp paintbrush.

Once I had the initial layer of color laid down, I went back two and three times with deeper, more concentrated colors to enhance shadows and depth on the images. After I had die cut all of the finished watercolored flowers, I used a black alcohol marker around the edge to create even more drama and keep the die cuts as clean as possible on my planned black background. I am so in love with the muted color palette that the combination of these inks created!!

For the card base, I trimmed down a panel of crisp Pitch Black cardstock to 3.5″ x 8.5″, creating a full-size slimline card front. I splattered the background with some handmade metallic glitter watercolors in coordinating shades to add some artistic interest to the background. When the splatters were dry, I arranged the flowers to create some lovely floral corners on opposing corners of the card front, using Press’n’Seal to pick them up in the desired arrangement and adding foam adhesive to the backs. The additional step of adding the black marker around the edges was totally worth it to keep the drama to the maximum on this intense card front!

I thought these large flowers screamed wedding or bridal shower, so I pulled out some wedding-themed stamps and dies for the greeting! I die cut the large Happily Ever After die cut twice, once from some of Simon Says Stamp’s Metallic Rose Gold cardstock, and once from some more black cardstock, layering them together to add a bit more stability to this super intricate die cut. I also heat embossed a tiny greeting from the Happily A Lifetime stamp set. I arranged the sentiment pieces on the slimline card front, finally adding a few Melanite Magic gems for even more sparkle and drama.

Well, that’s all for my project today! If you haven’t tried using your Distress Inks as watercolors before, I hope you will give it a try. It’s such a thrill to rediscover mediums and bring them new life. Thanks so much for stopping by today, 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!

New Release: Simon Says Stamp Holiday Sparkle!

Hi there! Simon Says Stamp is releasing a whole slew of marvelous new holiday products tonight for their Holiday Sparkle release! You can check out the entire release HERE. Sooo many gorgeous new holiday goodies, both secular and religious, winter and holiday-specific. Something for everyone!! I have an icy holiday card to share with you tonight, so let’s get started with the details!

Die-cut-and-emboss combos are allll the rage right now, and Simon Says Stamp has some absolutely stunning additions to that product category, including the new Pine Landscape folder/die combo! Watercoloring these beautiful three dimensional embossing folders is one of my most favorite ways to use them, so I couldn’t resist adding some color to this beautiful, snowy landscape.

I began by trimming down two pieces of Fabriano Artistico Cold Press watercolor paper to A2 size. I then die cut one section of one panel using the die from the Pine Landscape folder/die combo. The key to these die/folder combos is to do your die cutting first, then run your die cut through your machine with the embossing folder. It’s super simple to line up and stays in place nicely, though you can use a piece of washi tape to hold it if you’re worried about the die cut shifting. I wanted to offset the trees in the background of my die cut, so I made sure to check my placement on the full size panel of watercolor paper so that the embossed and die cut trees in the front were slightly shifted from the embossed trees in the background.

Once I had both sets of embossed trees finished, I taped my panels down to my watercolor board and used my Daniel Smith watercolor paints to add beautiful greens and blues to the images. This technique is similar to no-line watercolor, in that you have to keep your wet sections separate in order to maintain the integrity of the individual images (or in this case, branches). Once the paint had dried completely, I splattered the background with some shimmering white watercolor to create subtle, sparkling snowfall. I also used Fresh Snowfall Nuvo Glitter Accents to add some sparkling snow to the tips of the branches on the trees. The entire effect is so realistic… all it needs is a tiny sledder going down the slope between the trees!

To frame my trees and ground them a bit, I die cut one of the large arches from some white cardstock using the Simon Says Stamp Nested Domed Arches dies, reserving the die cut and keeping the negative A2 sized frame. I also die cut the Simon Says Stamp Season’s Greetings die twice from white cardstock and once from white glitter cardstock that I had in my stash that was simply sparkling white-no iridescence or color of any kind on the glitter! I adhered all of the die cuts together using liquid adhesive to create a dimensional die cut. I popped up the arched frame using foam tape over the top of the full embossed and watercolored A2 panel and added the die cut trees in the front of the frame using more foam tape. Finally, I added my dimensional die cut greeting using more liquid adhesive. The curve of the die cut sentiment matches the curve of the arched frame so beautifully!

Well, that’s all for my project today! I have a few more projects to share with you, so I hope you’ll come back soon. You can check out the entire Holiday Sparkle release HERE. Thanks so much for reading, and have a marvelous day!

Simon Says Stamp STAMPtember with Pinkfresh Studio!

Hi there! STAMPtember continues, tonight featuring a collaboration with Pinkfresh Studio! This particular set, called Just Start, is extra exciting for me to work with, because I happened to have illustrated these floral images. This peony-ranunculus-berry cluster was designed to work in the corners of a slimline card, but I have two different cards with two different layouts using the same stamps. Let’s get started with the details!

For my first card, I used both clusters from Just Start in the way that I had originally intended when I illustrated them: tucked up in the corners of a slimline (or mini slimline, in this case) card. I stamped them using Intens-ified Black ink from Hero Arts onto some Copic-friendly white cardstock. I have been entranced with bright tangerine and burnt orange lately, so I did my favorite “fiesta” color combination with bright orange peonies and burnt orange ranunculus, accented by intense magenta berries and deep green foliage. I fussy cut the finished images, but there is a stamp+die bundle available, too!

For the background, I wanted to keep things relatively simple to keep the focus on the flowers, so I die cut a gold glitter frame using the Mini Slimline Scalloped Rectangle die. I backed it with a panel of white cardstock that I had die cut using the Dotted Scallops cover plate die to add some extra texture. I popped this panel and frame up on a white mini slimline card front using foam adhesive.

Next, I added the colored floral images to the corners, trimming off the small areas that spilled over the sides. I adhered them using a double layer of foam tape so that they had extra height and would really pop off the page beautifully. I added a greeting from the beautiful Brushed Sentiments Hot Foil Plate and coordinating dies, which I hot foiled using Matte Gold foil from Spellbinders. I also added a sentiment strip, heat embossed with a greeting from Just Start. The final touch was to add a few shining hot pink gems!

My second card features both of the stamps included in Just Start, as well, but this time I did a little simple masking to create one large floral cluster. I began by stamping the largest image slightly off center of my A2 Fabriano Artistico Hot Press card base using Contour Ink from Hero Arts. Using some Post-It tape, I masked off the bottom of the large flower cluster and stamped the smaller cluster, as well, creating a large floral swag that covered a large portion of the card front.

I taped down the panel to my watercolor board to minimize warping, then watercolored the finished stamped image using Karin Brushmarkers. I kept the colors intense and feminine, working with a couple of different shades of pink, purple, and coral. Karin markers work well with the Fabriano Artistico paper, and I find that I get great results with them when I use plenty of water to help keep the color moving around. If I don’t use enough water, then the color sinks into the paper and creates harsh lines. I also like to work with a ceramic palette; I scribble some color on the palette, then pick it up with my damp paintbrush. When I’m adding really intense shadows, I will put the marker itself to the paper, but very sparingly, as a little of this pigment tends to go a long way. I added lots of layers of color to get tons of depth and intensity to this floral swag.

Once I’d finished my watercoloring, I die cut the Bold Thanks die from Simon Says Stamp three times from Hero Arts’s Eggplant cardstock, adhering all three together using liquid adhesive to create a dimensional die cut. I added this die cut to the card front, then added a few purple gems for the tiniest bit of sparkle.

Well, that’s all for my projects today! The Stamptember collaboration sets frequently sell out quickly, so if you’re at all interested in Just Start, don’t wait too long to purchase! The STAMPtember sets are limited edition, so you won’t see them again once they sell out. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and happy STAMPtember!

Altenew Paint A Flower Sunflower+Woodless Watercolor Pencils Blog Hop+Giveaway!

Hi there! Today, I’m excited to be taking part in the Altenew Paint A Flower Sunflower blog hop. You should have arrived here from Lilith Eeckels and your next stop is Norine Borys. Each month, Altenew releases a new floral stamp set perfect for coloring (you can subscribe here for a discounted rate each month!), and this month the focus is on that autumnal favorite: sunflowers! We are pairing Paint A Flower: Sunflower with Altenew’s new Woodless Watercolor Pencils.

In case you thought your watercoloring collection couldn’t get any better, think again. Create stunning watercolor effects with our Woodless Watercolor Pencils! 

This set includes a wide range of beautiful, vibrant colors, and each pencil comes pre-sharpened and ready to use. You can either apply the color onto paper and blend with a wet brush, or pick it up with the brush directly from the pencil. The pigment dissolves smoothly, leaving no marks on the paper, and the colors can be easily mixed and layered for various effects.

This set contains 24 pencils that come in 24 unique colors.

I have a cheerful project to share with you today, so let’s get started with the details!

I began by stamping the sunflower image several times from the new Paint A Flower: Sunflower using Altenew’s Obsidian pigment ink onto Altenew’s Watercolor Paper. I then used the super pigmented new Woodless Watercolor Pencils to add color to the images, first laying down the color in varying degrees of intensity, then using my damp paintbrush to pull the color out and create a smooth blend. These pencils are so fun to play with! Super bright and pigmented, and I was able to easily layer and add lots of depth to this project using the pencil-to-paper method.

I colored the entire sunflower panel with the watercolor pencils, then trimmed the panel down slightly and matted it on some black cardstock. I stamped another set of flowers, offset to the side of the watercolor paper, and watercolored them, then used my super sharp scissors to fussy cut the images.

To soften the background pattern of the full watercolored panel, I added a slightly smaller panel of vellum to the card front, then adhered my fussy cut sunflowers to the front of it with liquid adhesive. I also white embossed a greeting from Paint A Flower: Sunflower on a strip of black cardstock, adhering it to the vellum. I added my foam adhesive on the back of the vellum panel by hiding it behind the die cut and sentiment strip.

Well, that’s all for my project today! A few bits of information for you before we get to the giveaway:

~The arrival of the Woodless Watercolor Pencils has been slightly delayed, but should be back in stock by November 11, 2020. If you sign up to be notified by email (as shown in the graphic) you will get the first crack at purchasing these beautiful new art supplies!

~Altenew is offering a special discounted bundle featuring the new Paint A Flower Sunflower outline set and the Woodless Watercolor Pencils.

To celebrate this release, Altenew is giving away a $30 gift certificate to 2 lucky winners! Please leave a comment on the Altenew Card Blog by 10/28/2020 for a chance to win. We’ll also draw a winner to receive a $15 gift certificate from the comments left on each designer’s blog on the blog hop list below. All winners will be announced on the Altenew Winners Page on 10/30/2020. The more comments you leave, the more chances you have to win!

Well, that’s all for my project today! Your next stop on the hop is Norine Borys, or you can start back at the beginning at the Altenew Card Blog if you got lost! Thanks so much for stopping by today, and happy hopping!