Sixth Street Sundries

Emily Midgett

distress oxide

New Simon Says Stamp In My Heart Release Now Available + New Illustration!

This post was sponsored by Simon Says Stamp. Thanks, Simon! *I have gathered links to all of the products used at the bottom of the post for your convenience, using affiliate links at no extra cost to you. Thank you for shopping with my links! I truly appreciate your support for my work!*

Hello friends! The new Simon Says Stamp In My Heart release is now live and ready to spark your creativity! (Click HERE to see the entire new release!) These springtime releases are filled with all kinds of things that I love: flowers, butterflies, textures, poignant sentiments… but I am especially excited when one of these releases features a new stamp set that I’ve designed. My new Wild Rose stamp set (click HERE to see the whole set!) features two large bouquets of wild roses with clusters of eucalyptus and some dainty filler flowers to create lush nosegays of blooms! I love creating large bouquets that you can use as a focal point to practice coloring or that you can use as simple stamped images to create a pretty background. For today’s project, I used the larger bouquet to create an A7 watercolored panel. Let’s get started on the details for my project!

To begin, I placed the larger bouquet from Wild Rose in the corner of a 4.75″ x 6.75″ panel of hot press watercolor paper (hot press=smooth surface) inside my MISTI, then stamped the image using Simon Says Stamp Intense Black Ink, which works nicely with water media, then rotated the panel inside my MISTI 180* so that the opposite corners had switched and stamped the image again. This leaves me with two large bouquets in opposite corners! After I had stamped the images and given them a few minutes to dry completely, I used Distress Oxide inks to watercolor the images. Did you know that you can watercolor with Oxide inks the same way that you can with regular Distress Inks? Simply tap the inkpad onto your palette or glass mat, then pick up the color with your damp paintbrush and apply it to your watercolor paper! The Oxide inks create a slightly opaque, almost velvety effect on your watercolor paper.

After I had finished watercoloring the images, I used my Simon Says Stamp T-Square and a black pen to add a frame around my florals, which I think helps make the panel look more polished and intentional! I added some opaque gold gel pen to the stamens of the open flowers and splattered some Simon Says Stamp Pawsitively Perfect Black Splatter Medium on the panel as well, highlighting the crisp black stamped lines of the stamped images. I typically like to use floral stamps with no-line coloring ink, but wanted to do something a bit simpler for this project (no-line watercolor can be somewhat fussy) and so decided to lean in to the black lines by adding multiple black accents to make the black lines pop!

To complete the card, I mounted the watercolor panel to a full sized A7 panel of So Very Black cardstock using Tear-rifically Tacky Tape, which helps to minimize any warping that might occur during watercoloring. For the greeting, I die cut the new Reverse Friendship XL EZ sentiment cards with the new XL EZ Strips Rounded Rectangles, selected one, and mounted it in the center of the watercolored panel with some thin foam adhesive squares. Finally, I added two more touches of textured black accents with some Black Pawsitively Dazzling Gems and a black twine bow tucked beneath the sentiment strip!

Well, that’s all for my project today! The new In My Heart release (click HERE to see the entire new release!) has so many marvelous products and truly inspired tons of creativity for me. I can’t wait to share the other projects that I’ve created with you! Thanks so much for stopping by today, and don’t forget to come back for the blog hops tomorrow and Saturday! Have a marvelous day!

Simon Says Stamp April 2026 Card Kit of the Month: A Little Artsy!

This post was sponsored by Simon Says Stamp. Thanks, Simon! *I have gathered links to all of the products used at the bottom of the post for your convenience, using affiliate links at no extra cost to you. Thank you for shopping with my links! I truly appreciate your support for my work!*

Hi friends! The fabulous new April 2026 Card Kit of the Month is now available for preorder, and it’s SO gorgeous! We’re giving you a few extra days to take a peek at this month’s kit by going live today, March 10, 2026, so that you have plenty of time to peruse the inspiration and the kit contents. These kits are always jam-packed with goodies and value, but this one is truly amazing. Stamps, stencils, patterned papers, rub ons, cardstock… and an (amazingly awesome) Distress Oxide cube quartet!! Like how incredible, right? Here’s a sneak peek at this month’s kit:

The contents of this KIT retail individually for over $80, but you can purchase the kit for only $44.99! Such a great value. You can save even more by becoming a kit subscriber (click HERE to see the subscription details!). If you love receiving this type of curated kit filled to the brim with goodies to make your cardmaking even more simplified and enjoyable, you definitely want to hit that subscribe button!

I’ve only had time to create one project with this earlier release date, but this kit is so filled with products that I have a bunch more ideas ruminating. So many ideas, so little time! Let’s get started on the details for this project.

The April 2026 Card Kit of the Month features a gorgeous, mixed media-aesthetic stamp set, along with beautiful patterned papers with a variety of color palettes and patterns, as well as some gorgeous Audrey Blue cardstock. This Simon Says Stamp-exclusive color is one of my absolute favorites, and it worked so beautifully with the pink and red Oxide Ink Minis that I received with my kit. I started by setting up an A2 panel of Audrey Blue cardstock on my stencil station (a glass mat with the Craft Tacky Mat on top, which I leave set up all the time to make stenciling super quick and easy!) and placed the Petal Lattice 6×6 stencil add-on over the top of my cardstock. I then used blending brushes to blend my two favorite Oxide pinks: Spun Sugar and Picked Raspberry. The opaque nature of the Oxide inks means that they pop beautifully from the vibrant turquoise cardstock. Isn’t that look just marvelous?!

Continuing on the background, I used the same two inks to stamp some of the stamps from the A Little Artsy stamp set included with the kit, using my MISTI to create some two-toned stamped butterfly and corner adornment images. I also splattered some iridescent watercolor as well as the Salvaged Patina Distress Paint included in the kit all over the background panel. I love the colorful, textured look that all of these steps create!

Once I had created the background, I used Simon Says Stamp White Pigment Ink to stamp the sentiment, daisy, and smaller butterfly image from A Little Artsy onto some more Audrey Blue cardstock, then covered it with Hero Arts Iridescent Blue embossing powder to create exquisite shimmer and iridescence on the images. I then placed the embossed images on my stencil station and used the coordinating stencils, included with the kit, to blend more of the Spun Sugar and Picked Raspberry Oxide inks on the flower and butterfly. The colors pop so perfectly from that bright blue cardstock!

To help ground the individual images on my textured background, I trimmed a thick strip of one of the patterned papers in that same vibrant magenta included with the kit, then flagged the end with my sharp scissors. I arranged the embossed and cut images atop the flagged cardstock strip, then popped all of the images up using foam tape in multiple heights to create lots of visual interest on the card. For a final touch, I added some sparkling Prism Pawsitively Dazzling Gems and a Simon Says Stamp Iridescent White Cord bow for additional sparkle and texture!

Well, that’s all for my project today.

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. Options galore! Who can say no to such incredible value though, right?

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

Simon Says Stamp STAMPtember Tim Holtz Collaboration: Festive Holidays!

Hi friends! Exciting STAMPtember news hot off the presses: the perennially amazing Tim Holtz has partnered with Simon Says Stamp to not only release exceptional STAMPtember collaboration goodies, but they are part of the kit that will be used in an exclusive Tim Holtz STAMPtember workshop! Click HERE to see all of the details!

If you are new to STAMPtember from Simon Says Stamp, throughout the month of September, Simon Says Stamp will have exclusive collaborations with some of our favorite stamping companies, releasing a limited edition stamp set designed in collaboration with a different company nearly every day! (Click HERE to see the Collaboration Sets page, and be sure to bookmark it!) 

I have created several projects using these gorgeous new Festive Holidays products, so let’s get started with a quick rundown on each!

For my first projects, I decided to create a watercolored card and coordinating tag set using the new Festive Watercolor images, Festive Tags, Festive Words, and Festive Sentiments from the kit with some of my favorite Distress Ink pinks: Tattered Rose, Saltwater Taffy, and Worn Lipstick.

I stamped the floral images from Festive Watercolor onto some Tim Holtz Distress Watercolor Paper using Distress Tattered Rose. I then tapped Tattered Rose, Saltwater Taffy, and Worn Lipstick out onto my glass craft mat and picked up the color with my damp paintbrush, taking advantage of the water-based inks to create several beautiful watercolored blooms. I also stamped the greenery with Shabby Shutters, enhancing the images with some shadows painted on with Rustic Wildnerness Distress Ink. After I had finished painting, I die cut each image with it’s coordinating die.

I created a background with one of my new favorite techniques: ink swiping! I simply swiped the same pink Distress Inks on a panel of white cardstock, using a circular motion to blend the colors seamlessly. I splattered the background with gold shimmer watercolors as a nod to the mixed media king himself, then arranged all of the die cuts in a bouquet with foam adhesive, adding a gold and vellum die cut “Joy” greeting from the new Festive Words dies. I added some shimmering gems and topped everything off with a coordinating blush twine bow!

Using Tattered Rose Distress Ink as my main color, I created a coordinating gift tag, this time using gold embossing powder to add some truly luxurious gold shimmer to the project. I die cut a Festive Tags die from some Simon Says Stamp 120 lb Ultra Thick Card Stock, then swiped my Tattered Rose ink pad directly on the die cut tag, enhancing the gorgeous debossed lines around the edges of the die cut with a gold paint pen to create an elegant gilded frame around the edges. I splattered some more gold glitter watercolors on the delicate pink tag.

To adorn the pretty pink tag, I stamped some flowers and foliage using embossing ink, then added some gold embossing powder. Once I had melted the embossing powder, I die cut the finished images, and to add a little color, I swiped the Tattered Rose ink directly on the die cuts. Due to the resistant nature of the embossing, the color adhered to the white edges of the die cuts, creating solid, colorful images. I repeated the process with a couple of the sentiment stamps from the Festive Words, swiping Saltwater Taffy over the finished die cut. A glittery die cut hole reinforcer and some beautiful pink twine finished the tag off!

I couldn’t resist some gorgeous decor with the large scale images and Festive Words, so I die cut the gorgeous Peace word die from some Tim Holtz Metallic Kraft Stock, backing it with the die cut shadow cut from some pearlescent vellum. To create some fabulous, icy inspiration, I used Speckled Egg, Weathered Wood, and Broken China Distress Oxide Inks (so vibrant, but also so soft and velvety stamped on white cardstock!) to create a gorgeous floral background.

I also stamped some individual images from Festive Watercolor using the same ink colors, die cutting the images with their coordinating dies. I splattered the background with some sparkling watercolors (more hat tip to Tim the Mixed Media Master!), then arranged the die cuts on the 4×6 panel. I adhered the 4×6 panel to an inexpensive little easel frame that I purchased at the dollar store. Such a great way to create some pretty home decor using lots of the supplies that you already have! Finally, I added a few coordinating pearls, as well as twine and velvet bows.

One last project using the Festive Watercolor set! I customized this tiny wooden birdhouse that I found at my local dollar store, first by painting the entire birdhouse with some crisp white chalk paint. To make it pretty, I used some metallic pigment ink to stamp the images all over the birdhouse; the pigment ink stamps beautifully on the chalk paint. Stamping isn’t just for paper!!

I used some acrylic paints to enhance the stamped Festive Watercolor images, painting directly over the floral stamped images with metallic rose gold acrylic paint and some muted sage green for the foliage. I am obsessed with how beautifully this turned out!

Once my painted birdhouse had completely dried, I used a palette knife to add some chunky texture paste “snow drifts”, sprinkling the new Tim Holtz Chunky Rock Candy Glitter on the wet texture paste. I also applied some Collage Medium around the edges of the texture paste, adding some of the Fine Rock Candy Glitter, creating icy snow drifts and encrusting this pretty bird house with sparkling, icy glitter.

If you haven’t seen the LIVE, (click HERE to see!) Tim Holtz has shared a ton of different pieces of inspiration using the images that I used above. There is an unbelievable kit available filled with every single stamp and die set, as well as tons of other goodies, that is going to be used during the upcoming Technique Class on 9/28/25, shared on YouTube. The stamps and dies are going to also be available individually if you would prefer one or the other, and I’ll have them linked below, but the value of the kit (priced at $99.99) is more than two times than the purchase price. Incredible, incredible value!!!

However, just like all STAMPtember collaboration sets…. it’s limited edition. Don’t wait. Seriously… don’t wait. This is going to sell out ASAP.

Thanks so much for stopping by today, and happy STAMPtember!!

Honey Bee Stamps Summer Stems Release!

Hi there! I’m super excited to share some projects using the Summer Stems release from Honey Bee Stamps! I have a new stamp set debuting with this release, as well, so I’m doubly excited. I have three projects to share with you today, so let’s get started with the details!

My first project is inspired by the beautiful summer evenings that I used to enjoy as a child. I always loved playing outside in my grandparents’ backyard at dusk, watching the fireflies and watching everything grow dimmer and darker until it was time to go inside. (Mosquito bites didn’t plague me as much back then, ha!) I began by masking off the very edges of a panel of white A2 cardstock, then used Blueprint Sketch, Broken China, and Speckled Egg Distress Oxide inks to blend a pretty ombré sky. That color combo is so dreamy… it reminds me of the early evening sky, but also could easily be used for a Caribbean sea!

I wanted to create some flowers silhouetted against the early evening sky, so I used some Post-It notes to mask off the bottom portion of the blended background, then I stamped several blooms from the new Wildflowers stamp set using black pigment ink. I didn’t pay much attention to whether the images overlapped, because once I’d finished stamping, I used black gouache to paint each image solid black. The matte gouache worked beautifully over the top of the Oxide blended background! I removed the mask and stamped a greeting from the new My Favorite Flower stamp set.

I trimmed an extremely thin strip of black cardstock and added it over the “seam” where the flowers were sprouting up, to help separate the garden from the sentiment area. Finally, I splattered some Interference Green Perfect Pearls mixed with water over the top of the flowers and sky, the subtle glow and shimmer giving the impression of the fireflies I used to chase in my youth! Who knew a card design could conjure so many memories, right?

My second card is a bit more traditional, with clean and crisp white background and colorful florals created with the new Lovely Layers: Coneflowers. I began with three different shades of purple cardstock, die cutting each layer (according to the graphic that you can find on the product page), and adhering them with both liquid and dimensional foam adhesive for lots of texture and dimension! The new Reverse Tweezers were super handy during the assembly process for these layered die cuts; getting my fingers out of the way helped me to see things so much more clearly! I also die cut some leaves from a pretty jewel-green cardstock, then blended some dark green ink around the edges to add a bit of extra dimension.

Next, I stamped a greeting from the new Miss You Big Time stamp set using Evergreen Ink from Concord and 9th, then die cut it using the coordinating Honey Cuts. I created a trellis by die cutting a partial piece of white cardstock using the Garden Lattice cover plate and adhering it to the blank white cardstock base.

I adhered all of the die cut pieces using foam adhesive for lots of dimension on the white, textured background. I love how the subtle trellis adds just a touch of texture to the plain background… the perfect foil for those vivid flowers and sentiment!

My final card features my newest stamp collaboration with Honey Bee Stamps- Framed: Anemones. This stamp set is based on one of my illustrations from the first Framed Florals coloring panel set. I stamped the image using Honey Bee’s No-Line Coloring Ink, then colored it using my Copic markers.

I used my T-square to outline the frame using a black pen, since my pale gray no-line coloring frame didn’t really show up very well. I also added some details to the stamens of the anemone centers using the same black pen.

Finally, I added a greeting from Framed: Anemones, stamped using black ink and die cut using the coordinating Honey Cuts. I popped it up on the card front using some more dimensional adhesive to help it stand out a bit!

Well, that’s all for my projects today. I hope you will check out the new Summer Stems release… so many incredibly gorgeous new stamp sets, with a huge variety of styles represented. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!

Baby spam+Honey Bee Stamps!

Hi friends! It’s been a bit, hasn’t it? I have a good excuse, promise. Make that two good excuses! Meet Ben and Sam!

My (second set of) twins were born a bit earlier than expected at the beginning of April. You might know this if you follow me on Instagram (I’m @eamidgett), but if you don’t follow social media, you might not have seen these little guys yet. I had a couple of people reach out to ask where I went (thank you for caring <3), so I thought I’d pop on here and share my littlest fellas!

Because of their unexpectedly early arrival, I wasn’t able to share my projects for the Honey Bee Stamps Bee-day release! I collaborated on two different stamp sets for this release: In Full Bloom and Farm Fresh Flowers.

In Full Bloom

Farm Fresh Flowers

I have a few projects to share with you using these new sets (and some of the other goodies from the latest Honey Bee release, as well!). I won’t go into super huge detail, though, as my little guys are about to wake up from their naps! If you have specific questions about a project, please feel free to email me or leave a comment, and I will do my best to answer!

For this first project, I put the floral frame from In Full Bloom to use with the coordinating interior polygon die to create a pretty flowered shaker card. I colored the flowers with Copic markers in shades of pink, magenta, and coral! A bit of coral ink blending on the card base behind the shaker window added a pretty background for the sentiment.

My second project uses In Full Bloom again, this time pairing it with the new Polygon Thin Frames and some no-line pencil coloring. I stamped the main image from In Full Bloom on some black cardstock using white pigment ink, then coloring it using Caran D’ache Luminance pencils, adding a white die cut sentiment and and Polygon Thin Frame, popping it up on a black card base for some tone-on-tone with a pop of color!

My next project uses the new Farm Fresh Flowers. I heat embossed the super detailed spring bouquet and pitcher onto some watercolor paper, then watercolored the image using Karin markers in pretty shades of peach, coral, pink, and emerald green. I mounted it on a background that I’d stamped using the new Buffalo Plaid clear background stamp, finishing it off with a sentiment and some gems.

Next, I wanted to share some projects using some of the other darling new (non-floral, ha!) products from the birthday release! This project features Safari Babies, which I no-line watercolored using Distress Oxide inks for a super soft, almost storybook feel. I heat embossed the greeting from the Safari Babies stamp set, die cutting the images wit their coordinating Honey Cuts. I blended some white pigment ink on a blue card base using the Clouds stencils, adding a grass border and a few sparkling heart die cuts.

For my next project, I used the new Balloon Alphabet dies and Happy Beeday stamps to create a sweet birthday card. I die cut letters for “celebrate” from some dark gold cardstock, as well as a vellum polygon and celebration bear. I mounted all of the die cuts on a panel of patterned paper from the Spring Fling paper pad.

For my final project, I used the darling stamps and dies from the Happy Beeday to create a sweet birthday party scene, stamping several elements and adding color with Copic markers, then die cutting with the coordinating Honey Cuts. I added a greeting using the new Birthday stamps and Honey Cuts.

Well, that’s all for my projects! I am so sorry it took so long for me to share these… it’s been a busy few months! Honey Bee has a new release coming soon, so I will hopefully be back to share some of those projects very soon! Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day! Stay healthy, friends!