Sixth Street Sundries

Emily Midgett

canvas bag

Golden Butterflies on Black with Simon Says Stamp!

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

Hi friends! I have a pair of bold butterfly beauties to share with you today. I received some fabulous Acrylic Markers from Altenew a few weeks ago, and I couldn’t wait to try them out on a black background with a bold image. I looked through my stash for some simple and bold images and locked onto the gorgeous Mix and Match Butterflies. This set has a wide variety of images, including butterflies and leaves, perfect for building scenes or for use with a single bold stamp. I used a combination of both of these styles to create a decorated canvas bag and coordinating greeting card. Let’s get started with the details!

*I have gathered links to all of the products used at the bottom of the post for your convenience, using affiliate links. Thank you for shopping with my links! I truly appreciate your support for my work!*

To begin, I used Simon Says Stamp’s White Pigment Ink to stamp images from Mix and Match Butterflies onto a black zippered canvas bag and in the center of a black A2 card front. The white pigment ink stands out beautifully on the black background and provides great contrast to begin my coloring.

I used the Altenew Acrylic Markers to add some color to targeted areas inside the butterfly images, keeping the colors consistent throughout each stamped butterfly. After I had colored all of the images, I used a gold paint pen to outline the painted images and add some luxurious gold shimmer. Such a fun way to customize a plain canvas pencil bag! Simpler images work better for this technique, creating almost a stained glass effect.

For the card, I kept things to a similar color palette, painting the butterfly sections with a single color of acrylic paint pent and adding shining gold details. The Simon Says Stamp So Very Black cardstock is super smooth and a perfect black, so the gold paint pen glides over the stamped lines beautifully and create such a luminous shine. It looks so luxurious to me!

After I had finished painting the butterfly, I used my trimmer to trim the edges of the black A2 card front and matted it in the center of an A2 gold foil card front, adding a shimmering gold frame around my butterfly. I heat embossed a greeting from the Mix and Match Butterflies set onto some more black cardstock using gold embossing powder, then die cut it with the coordinating die and popped it up beneath the colorful butterfly. Finally, I added a few sparkling Gold Pawsitively Dazzling Gems for added shine!

Well, that’s all for my projects today. I love creating coordinating gift sets like this, creating a unique gift and a matching card customized especially for the recipient. It’s fun to apply our papercrafting goodies to all types of projects! Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!

Fun with Felt-Gift Bag and Tag!

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

Hi friends! I am starting a new series here on my blog: Fun with Felt! Once a month, I am planning to share projects created using all of the gorgeous felt that I’ve acquired over the last few months. I have been practicing embroidery after long contemplation (the struggle is real on picking up new hobbies, friends. I seem to enjoy the supply-purchasing portion of the new hobby, but not actually implementing them!), and now my goal is to incorporate these new techniques and supplies into my stamping! I started out my crafting journey a long time ago as a general non-discriminatory crafter, creating everything from jewelry to home decor, then eventually found my way into cards, but after 11~ years of focusing on cardmaking, I am starting to get, well, bored. So to keep things interesting and fun, I am going to try new ways to integrate all of my hobbies and interests and hope that you won’t mind my sharing them here!

For Christmas, I received a large set of acrylic paint markers, and I’ve been itching to try them out. I have also been collecting small fabric items that I could customize with my stamping and felt supplies, including this canvas bag that I found while shopping, perfect for filling with treats or gifts. To customize the bag, I pulled some stamps and dies from my Simon Says Stamp bins that would work to create this little gift set, so let’s get started with the details!

*I have gathered links to all of the products used at the bottom of the post for your convenience, using affiliate links. Thank you for shopping with my links! I truly appreciate your support for my work!*

I love to take solid stamped images and customize them, typically using white pigment ink or no-line coloring ink to stamp them, then using either watercolors or colored pencils to add lots of details and definition to these solid images. The Talvera Vine cling stamp is a lovely neutral pattern, excellent for use as a backdrop for detailed floral images or as a focal point, as I’ve done here.

To create the pretty pattern on the canvas bag, I stamped the Talvera Vine cling stamp onto the inexpensive canvas bag, keeping everything in place with my MISTI. As you can see in the photo, perfect stamping was not necessary for this project and not very attainable due to the texture on the canvas bag; the end goal was to make sure that there was more of a “guide” for my paint markers to create the pattern! The magnets on the MISTI were very helpful in holding the bag in place and to ensure that my pattern was straight.

After stamping the image on the bag, I used a single deep green acrylic paint marker (the Altenew Acrylic Paint Markers are excellent and I have hopes that they will release more colors to the collection soon!) to color over the stamped images. This deep green had excellent coverage over the Charcoal Pawsitively Saturated Ink image. After I had colored all of the leaves and outlined the vines themselves, I added a few swipes of a champagne paint marker to create the vines on the leaves, adding a touch more definition and shape to the images. I also dotted some berries on the bare spots, creating a pretty, simple patterned bag that is neutral enough to work with lots of different floral additions!

I’ve really been enjoying creating projects that have a bit more “longevity” to them than typical cards; I have fears that the cards on which I work for hours will simply get tossed in the trash without a care as to how meticulously they were crafted, so I have been enjoying adding felt to my repertoire of mediums over the last few months. I created this decorative “tag” to add to my painted gift bag that can be repurposed as a tag on a backpack, purse, or even as a bookmark if one left off the gems! Because the Talvera Vine stamp is such a neutral botanical background, I thought it would look lovely with some vibrant flowers. I die cut the Large Rounded Tag die from some ivory felt, then created a few mauve and maroon blooms using the Aurora Blooms dies. I arranged the blooms and some foliage on the felt tag die cut, adhering everything with felt glue, then added some champagne glitter felt centers and Lilac Pawsitively Dazzling Gems for sparkle!

Well, that’s all for my projects today. I am so enjoying stepping outside of my papercrafting zone and creating projects that are a bit more long-lasting. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!

Sweet Sunflower Gift Set Using New Simon Says Stamp Sweet Wishes Release!

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

Hi friends! Have you checked out the Sweet Wishes Release from Simon Says Stamp yet? It is full of beautiful products perfect for tons of seasonal crafting, including your fall crafting! Now, I am of the generation that was fairly obsessed with sunflowers. Something happened during the early 90’s that meant that sunflowers were everywhere, and my mom even redecorated my room with a sunflower theme for my 8th or 9th birthday. I had sunflower border wallpaper, a woven sunflower throw, even a sunflower lampshade! I’ve always loved sunflowers, with their cheerful yellow petals contrasted with the deep black-brown centers. When I saw the new Autumn Sunflower die set, I immediately went to town creating some fun projects that are a little outside of my normal wheelhouse, including a sweet canvas bag decorated with some (very old) wool felt. Let’s get started with the details!

*I have linked all of the products used at the bottom of the post for your convenience using affiliate links. Thank you for shopping with my links! I truly appreciate your support for my work!*

Because I have been making so very many cards over the last year or so, I have recently found myself wanting to expand my crafty interests. I have always loved being crafty in a variety of ways, from baking and cake decorating to jewelry making and scrapbooking, and so when I came across some old rolls of felt, I knew that I wanted to put them to use to make something a bit more lasting than a simple greeting card that can easily be tossed away. I paired the new Autumn Sunflower die with some marvelous foliage dies from the Simon Says Stamp catalog to create these lovely autumnal arrangements made of both paper and felt!

To start my paper project, I began by die cutting the new Autumn Sunflower die set, as well as the Tuscan Olive Branch die and the Grand Corner Leaves die from plain white cardstock. I then used OLO markers to add some muted autumnal colors, using a variety of warm greens that closely matched my muted herb green cardstock, using the muted greens to help that lovely pastel yellow sunflower pop!

Before arranging my flower and foliage on my A7 card front, I first used a blending brush to blend some Kale Pawsitively Saturated Ink on the center of my herb green card front. I also splattered the background with some beautiful shimmering glitter watercolors, adding both texture and shine behind the floral arrangement. I used both foam adhesive squares and liquid adhesive to add the colored die cuts, then heat embossed a greeting from the new Sketched Leaves stamp set using Platinum Glitter embossing powder. I die cut the greeting with its’ coordinating die, popped it up with a double layer of foam adhesive to make it extra visible, then added a double twine bow and some new Gold Pawsitively Dazzling Gems for added sparkle. (Don’t sleep on those new neutral Pawsitively Dazzling Gems. They’re spectacular and work with so many different color palettes!)

For my second project, I used the exact same dies (the Autumn Sunflower dies, the Tuscan Olive Branch dies, and the Grand Corner Leaves dies) as on the card, this time cutting the images in some felt that I have had in my stash for forever. I used some gold embroidery thread to stitch the two layers of the flower center together, also adding some seed beads from my stash to add extra interest and shine to the flower. This was the first time I’ve ever really worked with fabric, and I am absolutely delighted with how it came out!

After I had die cut all of the components for the floral spray, I used Beacon fabric glue to add the images in a little floral spray on the corner of a plain canvas bag. The glue worked beautifully to add these felted images, and the ease of this process has my wheels turning for more projects along a similar vein. So many fun possibilities for projects that are more substantial and lasting than a card!

Well, that’s all for my projects today. I have so much more inspiration to share with you using the new Sweet Wishes Release from Simon Says Stamp, including two videos, so be sure to check back again soon. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!