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Sixth Street Sundries

Emily Midgett

big hugs

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!

Simon Says Stamp Kisses New Release!

Hi there! Tonight, Simon Says Stamp is releasing their latest product collection: Kisses! This new collection is full of fun products to create cards filled with love for the recipient. I used the new Painted Heart Wreath stamp to create two super-shiny, watercolored projects today, so let’s get started with the details!

Both of my projects today feature the Painted Heart Wreath. I began by stamping this beautiful new cling stamp using Contour Ink from Hero Arts onto a 6×6 panel of watercolor paper. This solid stamp stamps as one complete image, so in order to create a multicolored finished product, I did some watercoloring on the individual elements. The Contour Ink stamps in a very light gray, and it does not interfere with the colors of the watercoloring itself! Score! I used my Tombow Dual Brush markers to add lots of vibrant color to these individual images, scribbling color onto my glass work surface and picking it up with my damp paintbrush, then moving the color around on the solid images of the stamped panel. Once those had dried, I got out my handmade, super shiny, metallic watercolors from IUILE and added some sparkles over the top. I love the finished effect!

For my first card, I trimmed the Painted Heart Wreath panel that I watercolored down to mini-slimline size. The 6×6 panel was the perfect size for this mini-slimline card, and I even had leftovers!

I stamped one of the greetings from the From the Heart Messages stamp set using Platinum Sparkle embossing powder from WOW! Embossing. This glittery not-quite-silver-but-not-quite-gold worked beautifully with the sparkly watercolored elements. To add a touch of extra texture and sparkle to this relatively-simple card front, I added a few Milk Glass gems.

My second card uses some of the leftover pieces from my Painted Heart Wreath panel. There wasn’t quite enough left of the stamped pattern to use the full panel for a card, so I trimmed out a few of the elements using my sharp scissors to use them as sparkly accents!

Using the same shades of Tombow Dual Brush markers, I watercolored a vibrant-but-still-soft lilac ombré on some more watercolor paper. I die cut it out using the Big Hugs die from Simon Says Stamp, then, keeping the die cut within the negative space, I added some super sparkly watercolor over the top. The sparkles are very subtle, but they catch the light so beautifully, as you can see in the photo above. I die cut the same Big Hugs die twice more from some plain white cardstock scraps and layered all three die cuts together to create a dimensional die cut greeting.

Using the new Matte Champagne Foil cardstock from the Kisses release, I die cut the new Heart Chain die, reserving the full size negative hearts from the centers of the die cut. I adhered the Heart Chain with some liquid adhesive to the white A2 card base, then began arranging the sentiment die cut and watercolored, sparkling Painted Heart Wreath leftovers with foam adhesive. I added the heart die cuts from the Heart Chain die cut using foam adhesive, as well, which remind me of bubbles floating from the focal point. The final touch was to add a few more Milk Glass gems for a bit more texture and sparkle!

Well, that’s all for these projects! I hope you’ll check out the new Kisses release over at Simon Says Stamp. So many unique and fun new products that are full of beautiful images, poignant and clever sentiments, and creative dies. And be sure to come back later this week for the blog hop! Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!