Sixth Street Sundries

Emily Midgett

copic

Simon Says Stamp August 2025 Card Kit of the Month: Best-Teas!

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

Hi friends! I have a trio of cards to share with you today using goodies from the fabulous new Simon Says Stamp Card Kit of the Month for August 2025, called Best-Teas! In this kit, you will find the most marvelous assortment of coffee- and tea-themed products that coordinate beautifully together or with other goodies from your stash. You will receive essentially everything that you need to create tons of different projects, and the value of these card kits is always sensational. Here’s a peek at the contents of the kit, which you can find in more details HERE:

I always love the patterned paper included in these kits, especially, and find myself so inspired by the color palettes and themes that I end up using so much more patterned paper than I normally would on cards. (instead of hoarding it like I normally do!) Let’s get started with the details on my projects!

*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!*

My first project uses the stamp set included with the Best-Teas Card Kit of the Month, also called Best-Teas! This fabulous stamp set provides you with all of the goodies you could possibly need to create your favorite flavor of card, whether it’s tea, coffee, or pastry! I did some no-line coloring and then created a custom patterned panel using white pigment ink and several of the images form the Best-Teas stamp set. I began by stamping the coffee pot, cup, and some florals and greenery onto some white cardstock using no-line coloring ink, then used my Copic markers in shades of peach and green to add color to the images, adding some shine to the pottery with a white paint marker. I die cut the finished pieces with their coordinating dies.

To create my background panel, I stamped several images on a panel of the Sage cardstock included in the Best-Teas Card Kit of the Month using Simon Says Stamp White Pigment Ink. I started with the largest image, rotating both the cardstock and the stamp block to create the look of a continuous pattern. I used the coffee pot, cup, daisies, greenery sprig, and tiny heart in order of largest-smallest, filling in the gaps wherever there was a blank spot with the next smallest stamp set. Finally, I added some dots of a white paint pen to fill the pattern out completely.

After I had completed all of the stamped elements, I stamped the sentiment from Best-Teas using Lisa Horton Crafts Bronze Metallic Pigment Ink then used the coordinating die to cut the sentiment out. I trimmed a strip of Simon Says Stamp Ice Vellum paper and arranged my die cuts in the center of it, adhering each piece with a single or double layer of foam adhesive squares. To cleanly adhere the vellum to my stamped panel, I added small dots of liquid adhesive to the back of the vellum strip behind the solid die cuts to keep things clean. Finally, I added a few shimmering Gold Pawsitively Dazzling Gems for added sparkle!

These next two cards are made up using bits of the patterned paper and embellished with some perfectly simple Plentiful Petals die cuts! Super simple and quick to put together.

The most challenging part of cards like this is deciding which bits of patterned paper work nicely together, then coming up with a layout. I decided to create a bit of a collage for this first card with no real sentiment, just kind of a general card that would work nicely with a coffee shop gift card! I added some pretty pink blooms and shiny foil cardstock to make it extra special.

My second card uses one of the larger panels in the Carta Bella Coffee Shop patterned paper that comes with the kit. I trimmed it down and mounted it on a slightly larger rectangle of Sage colored cardstock, creating a coordinating green frame. This solid frame helps to keep the pattern around the edge of the central focal panel from competing with the subtle pink patterned paper covering the entirety of the A2 card front! I added a few more Plentiful Petals blooms to the corners of the focal point to accent the florals on the coffee cup and add a bit more texture to the card front.

Well, that’s all for my projects today! Mixing and matching patterned papers is such a fun way to spend an afternoon, but I just love the results. This kit is so full of amazing products and even more amazing value! The Simon Says Stamp Card Kits are such an incredible value; the value of the individual elements of each kit equals far more than the $44.99 price tag, so you’re getting incredible bang for your buck. If you are consistently interested in the Simon Says Stamp Card Kit of the Month, you can sign up HERE to become a subscriber for an even bigger discount on these carefully curated products. As always, Simon also makes each individual element of the kits available a la carte, so that you can pick and choose what you would like to purchase if buying the entire kit isn’t really your thing. Who can say no to such incredible value though, right?

Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!

Pumpkin to Talk About with Simon Says Stamp STAMPtember!

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

Hi friends! I have a project to share with you today that was one of my most favorites that I created for the Simon Says Stamp-brand STAMPtember release using the absolutely gorgeous Pumpkin to Talk About. This large background stamp is made up of pumpkin atop pumpkin, with beautiful details that work splendidly with or without intricate coloring! I decided to go all-in and color an entire A2 background doing some no-line Copic coloring, creating a field of pumpkins with a variety of shades of orange. I don’t know that my YO and O Copics have ever gotten such a workout! Let’s get started with the details.

I started my project by stamping the background image from the Pumpkin to Talk About onto a panel of white cardstock using Contour Ink, then used a large portion of the orange Copic markers in my collection to color the pumpkins different shades of orange. For the lightest pumpkins, I didn’t have quite the right shade of deeper sunrise orange marker to create good contrast without compromising the overall lightness of the pumpkin, so I pulled out some colored pencils and added some shading on the most deeply shadowed spots.

Because I had worked so hard on coloring the background of my card, I wanted to keep the greeting as simple as possible. I white heat embossed a sentiment from Pumpkin to Talk About onto some burnt orange cardstock and die cut it with the coordinating die. I also die cut a super delicate frame and shadow layer from Flaming Orange glitter cardstock and vellum. To add a little extra dimension on the sentiment, I used some thin foam dots to pop up the greeting die cut in the center of the vellum rectangle, then adhered the sentiment in the center of the colored card front.

To keep everything as simplistic and symmetrical as possible, I added two small Mandarin Pawsitively Dazzling Gems on either side of the sentiment. It adds a little bit of sparkle to accent the tone-on-tone greeting but still allows the colored background to be the star of the show!

Well, that’s all for my project today! If you’re wanting to do some shopping, Heidi has made it super easy to pick up some new goodies by offering FREE SHIPPING for any purchase over $25 for USA orders!

Or you can take $7.99 off of your shipping cost for international orders! Amazing, right?

Well, thanks so much for stopping by today, and happy STAMPtember!

Epic Embossing Folder Flowers with NEW Simon Says Stamp STAMPtember products!

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

Hi friends! I am back with another project featuring some of the goooorgeous new products from the Simon Says Stamp STAMPtember release! If you haven’t heard, STAMPtember is a month-long party in which we celebrate our collective love of stamping. There are limited edition collaboration sets released nearly every day of the month that feature our favorite brands, as well as tons of fun surprises sprinkled throughout the month! Today, I am featuring one of the utterly gorgeous embossing folders that was released as part of the Simon Says Stamp brand release for this month: Delicate Blooms. I absolutely love coloring embossing folders with coloring mediums, and the depth that you can achieve with alcohol markers on these super detailed embossing folders is absolutely incredible. Let’s get started with the details!

I began my project by embossing a panel of white cardstock using the new Delicate Blooms embossing folder. I selected some rich and vivid magenta and plum Copic markers, as well as some muted bottle green markers for the gorgeous foliage. I love the combination of the opulent purple-pink of the blooms paired with the gentle greens. I used some acrylic paint markers to add the flower centers; the opacity of the acrylic markers helps the flower centers to pop from the vibrant flowers. To further enhance the subtle area around the blooms and help the vivid flowers pop, I used a blending brush to blend Aspen Pawsitively Saturated Ink around the edges. This pale shade of muted green worked beautifully to subtly enhance the greenery of the bouquet and allow those blooms to take center stage!

The new STAMPtember release has several “extras” in it, including these new Reverse You sentiment strips. All of the sentiment strips from Simon Says Stamp are super handy to have in your craft room, simply because they make adding a sentiment so efficient and simple! I find it particularly fun to pair these toner-printed sheets with toner-reactive foil and run it through my Minc machine. For the sentiment for today’s project, I used DecoFoil Rose Quartz toner-reactive foil to create a lovely, subtly metallic coordinating sentiment strip to use in conjunction with the new Fancy You die.

To finish off the greeting, I die cut the detail layer of the new Fancy You die from some Rose Gold glitter cardstock and the shadow layer from vellum. I adhered the sentiment pieces to the finished card front with some thin foam adhesive squares. I tucked a twine bow beneath the greeting to add some extra texture and finished it off with some sparkling Lilac Pawsitively Dazzling Gems.

Well, that’s all for my project today! Don’t forget that each day at noon, Eastern time, a new, limited edition STAMPtember collaboration set will be released over on the Simon Says Stamp website. It’s a surprise each day as to which company is being featured that day, so be sure to set your alarm to remember to check out the website. It’s a good idea to act quickly on purchasing these limited edition collaboration sets, because once they’re gone, they’re gone!

To sweeten the deal, Heidi has offered a fabulous deal: spend over $25 and use code FRSHP to receive free USA shipping!!! Isn’t that amazing?! Free shipping makes it so much easier to shop, doesn’t it? Offer is valid for a limited time, so take advantage while you can! I have plans to use some of the new collaboration sets later throughout the month, but I’m just going to tell you right now, there are some absolutely darling sets this year… You won’t want to miss out!

Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!

Songs of the Season for March 2024: Marshmallow World!

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

Hi friends! I am back with this month’s installment of my Songs of the Season series, in which I use a holiday song as inspiration for a coordinating holiday card (or two!). This month, I used that classic “Marshmallow World” as my inspiration piece, drawing from the beautiful, somewhat whimsical, snowy imagery to create both a playful A2 card and a more elegant and serene slimline card using goodies from Simon Says Stamp’s vast collection of holiday stamps and dies. Let’s get started with the details!

This song has always immediately taken me back to my childhood, as this Johnny Mathis album was one that we would have on repeat while doing all of the Christmas activities, from wrapping presents to making cookies, and while listening to it for my projects today, I was struck by the difference in mood the two sections have. The song starts out playfully, with a cheerful walking bass line under the melody and discussing the whipped cream day, and then the overall feeling shifts to be a bit more dramatic as you move into the second “world is your snowball” section. I wanted to play on those two contrasting tonalities with my two projects today.

For both projects, I kept things as white as I could to conjure up the sparkling winter wonderland that the song conjures up for me, using lots of white cardstock and sparkling accents, with just a touch of color on the cute little critters to break up the monochromatic palette.

I started my first project by stamping a few of the images from the sweet Cocoa & Joy set, quite literally conjuring the “marshmallow” imagery with the cup of cocoa covered with whipped cream and marshmallows that the adorable little bear is holding! I stamped the images on Hammermill cardstock using Contour Ink, then used my Copic markers to do some no-line coloring with a warm gray, mint, and coral-red color palette, adding a few little details with a black fineline pen.

After I had colored and cut the images with their coordinating dies, I die cut the large Snowflake Frame die using white cardstock, then die cut the individual snowflakes from some sparkling silver glitter cardstock. I used some of Simon Says Stamp’s Very Very Low Tack Tape to mask the detailed snowflakes around the rectangular frame in the center so that I could splatter some “snowflakes” with silver glitter watercolors in the center of the die cut. I removed the mask, then added the silver glitter snowflakes with some liquid adhesive. I also used a silver sparkle pen to add some extra snowflakes on the background.

For the card base, I ran a panel of white cardstock through my die cut machine with the Fanciful Flakes Embossing Folder. I popped up the glittery snowflake die cut with foam squares, then added the sweet bear and mouse friends. A sentiment from Sentiment Strips Christmas Greetings finished the project off!

For my second project, I wanted to conjure that more somber shift in tonality from the second section of the song with a simple monochromatic shaker, adding some of the “evergreen trees” in the song with the Winter Village Dies. I started by trimming down a slimline card front, then trimming it even a little smaller by taking 1/8″ off of each side, making the final panel size 3 1/4″ x 8 1/4″. I centered the open shaped die from the Reliquary Snow Globe die set on this panel and die cut it, then eyeballed the center of each side, creating a line of snowglobe windows on my slimline card front. Before I backed the panels with acetate, I used a pencil to lightly mark the openings on my slimline card front so that I knew where to place my village elements. I backed the window panel with acetate and embellished the snowglobe bases with the bases and silver sparkle swirl die cuts.

I die cut the Winter Village Dies from some more white cardstock and arranged them on the areas that I marked with a pencil, adhering them with foam squares. Before adhering the frame windows, I added some snowflake sequins from my stash to create the shaker. For the greeting, I added a sentiment from the Sentiment Strips Christmas Greetings to create this sweet “marshmallow world” shaker card, made more special with a slimline size!

Well, that’s all for my projects today! I hope you are enjoying the Songs of the Season posts, even if it feels a little strange to see holiday projects this side of the Christmas season. I am enjoying stretching my creativity and putting products to use that I didn’t have a chance to play with during the Christmas season. Thanks so much for stopping by, and have a marvelous day!

Songs of the Season: February 2024- The Nutcracker!

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

Hi friends! I am back today with February’s installment of my Songs of the Season series: holiday cheer throughout the year inspired by the songs of the Christmas! I took my big kids to see a production of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker this past December, and as always, the music and the sumptuous costumes were incredibly inspiring. For this month’s project, I wanted to channel some of the imagery that we commonly associate with The Nutcracker outside of the ballerinas! My mind always conjures lots of pinks and purples and sweets when I think of The Nutcracker, especially thinking of the exotic costumes made to look like desserts and Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies. I tried to capture some of that imagery in my card with some pretty inks, Layering Peppermints Stencils, and the Sweet Tooth Bears stamps. Let’s get started with the details!

To start my card, I used the Layering Peppermints, pairing it with Bubblegum and Lilac Pawsitively Saturated Inks, all from Simon Says Stamp. I blended the larger solid layer using the Bubblegum ink, keeping the blending quite light to create a very subtle background. The Simon Says Stamp blending brushes are super fine and perfect for creating the soft, subtle blending I was after! After I’d blended the pattern on the entirety of the A2 card front, I blended more Bubblegum ink around the edges, lightly blending some Lilac ink on the very edges. After I’d finished blending, I splattered the entire panel with some super sparkly watercolors. I love the softly blended stencil background… it makes me think of bokeh, which I think is magical on it’s own!

While my background was drying, I stamped lots of the images from the Sweet Tooth Bears set using Intense Black ink, which is compatible with alcohol markers. The striped peppermint candies definitely put me in mind of the different candies represented visually in The Kingdom of Sweets during Act II, and so I wanted to pair them with a “sugarplum” color combination. I pulled out some Copic markers in different shades of pink and lavender, keeping all of the elements cohesive by sticking to these two different color ways for each stamped image. To keep my whipped cream looking “white” on my cup of hot chocolate, I added some pale gray shadows in the folds of the whipped cream and blended out the edges with my colorless blender marker, allowing the white of the Hammermill cardstock to be the main color while still adding shape and shadow to the otherwise-flat image.

After I had colored and die cut my images from the Sweet Tooth Bears set, I needed to create my greeting. I stamped the oversize “sweet” and coordinating sentiment strips using my MISTI, first stamping them with more Lilac ink, then while keeping the stamps in place, stamped the sentiments again over the top using embossing ink and sprinkled Hero Arts’s Iridescent Purple embossing powder over the top. The semi-sheer embossing powder adds the prettiest lavender sheen to the sentiments and really helps them to pop from the colorful background due to the textural interest! I arranged all of the different die cuts in a cluster on my stenciled background, adhering them with liquid and foam tape, adding some of the die cuts with a double layer of foam tape to help them pop even more and add extra depth. Finally, I added a few lavender gems for even more shimmer and shine. I always feel like you can’t add too much sparkle to a Christmas card!!

Well, that’s all for this month’s Songs of the Season post. The Nutcracker is a veritable gold mine of inspiration, so I am sure I will be plucking some inspiration from this classic for another card during this year’s series. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!