Sixth Street Sundries

Emily Midgett

don't flurry be happy

Icy Arthur Snowman Card with New Simon Says Stamp!

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

Hi friends! I have a sweet and icy card to share with you today based on a card that I made a loooong time ago using my Cricut (how’s that for a throwback?), with a shabby chic snowman and a peaceful aqua background. I found that card recently, because I liked it so much that I didn’t end up sending it out, ha, and as soon as I saw Arthur the Snowman from the Festive Fun release, I knew that I wanted to recreate it with a few little twists to update it and make it more my current style. Let’s get started with the details on my project!

*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 began my card by die cutting Arthur the Snowman from some pearlescent white cardstock. I love using specialty cardstock with things like snowmen and snowflakes, because I think it increases the magical icy feel and just as a general rule makes the card more luxurious and upscale. I die cut his hat and scarf from some plain white cardstock and used my OLO markers to color the images in a pale shade of icy blue. I also used OLO markers to color the details on his eyes and nose and added some Black Pawsitively Dazzling Gems for his coal buttons.

For the background, I used the beautiful snowflake images from the older Don’t Flurry, Be Happy stamp set, stamping them on the top right side of my Sea Glass card front using Simon Says Stamp White Pigment ink. I also used a blending brush dedicated solely for use with white pigment ink, to blend around the edges near the stamped snowflakes. I think the combination of stamped snowflakes and frosted edges make it look almost like a blizzard! In order to ground my snowman, I trimmed some strips of white pearl and white glitter cardstock and adhered them to my stamped and blended card front, then added Arthur over the top with some foam adhesive squares. For some added sparkle and shine, I used some sparkling white glitter paper to die cut a few tiny snowflakes using the Snow Flurries dies. I adhered them to the card front with liquid adhesive, then added some Clear Pawsitively Dazzling Gems in the centers and a smattering around the background.

To create the greeting, I die cut the Scripty Peace die from some more white glitter cardstock, enhancing it with some sentiment strips from Holiday Messages, which I heat embossed in white on the same Sea Glass cardstock. I nestled the Peace sentiment die cut next to Arthur, then added the sentiment strips beneath, tucking them in the corner of the sentiment and Arther’s tummy. The different textures of the pearlescent white snowman and the sparkling white glitter sentiment keep the limited color palette from becoming boring and keeps the two white pieces from blending into each other.

Well, that’s all for my project today! I love having the opportunity to reimagine an older project that I loved using some new techniques and products. Inspiration is everywhere! Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!

Songs of the Season, January 2024: There’s No Place Like Home for the Holidays!

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

Hi friends! I’m back with this month’s installment of Songs of the Season- holiday cheer throughout the year, inspired by the songs of Christmas! Music was such a huge part of my life for so long that it seems appropriate for me to combine my past with my present. I am not ashamed to say that I have my Christmas decorations still up; we will be taking them down this weekend, but I couldn’t resist leaving the glow and festiveness of the lights up for just a couple more weeks after Christmas. This month’s song is a classic: There’s No Place like Home for the Holidays by Perry Como. Listen to it below:

The song reminds me of Christmas at my Grammy and Papa’s house as a child; my uncles and their families all lived in different parts of the country, but each Christmas, they would pack up and descend on our hometown to spend the Christmas holidays with us. It never truly felt like Christmas until they arrived, and as an adult, I still yearn for that kind of gathering, though we are all scattered all over the globe.

“Oh, there’s no place like home for the holidays,
’cause no matter how far away you roam,
if you want to be happy in a million ways
For the holidays, you can’t beat home sweet home.”

I suppose it is now my husband’s and my job to create that sense of family for our little ones, and I strive to create those kinds of precious memories for our kiddos!

“Tiny houses” are more than just a building trend; they are everywhere in the stamping world, too! Simon Says Stamp has a few different sets that feature some adorable houses, and today I created snowy little villages using different techniques to create t both a simple A2 card and a more involved A7 card. Today’s projects feature two different holiday house sets from Simon Says Stamp: Home For Christmas and Cozy Christmas. The Home For Christmas set features simple layered stamps that would be great for mass production, while the Cozy Christmas Set features outline images that are perfect for coloring both as simple images with black lines as well as the no-line watercoloring that I’ve chosen to do today. I kept both projects to a simple, festive, modern color scheme with cherry red, mint, and coral, with plenty of sparkle and shine added in for festive measure.

For my first, somewhat simpler card, I used the Home For Christmas set with bunches of Pawsitively Saturated Inks: Fawn, Cozy, Spring, Dublin, Watermelon, and Blush, stamping each layer in just the right spot by using my MISTI. I also stamped a couple of greetings from the set using the dark gray ink to keep things a bit lighter than if I’d chosen to use stark black ink. I die cut each image using the coordinating dies, fussy cutting the curved sentiment with my sharp scissors.

For the background, I wanted to create a bit of a snowglobe illusion, so I stamped the circular snowflake image from Don’t Flurry Be Happy onto my white card front using embossing ink and white satin pearl embossing powder. The shine from the pearlescent embossing powder helps the embossed image stand out just enough from the white background so as to add some subtle texture and pattern behind my little neighborhood. I arranged my cluster of houses and holiday decor on my card front, popping them up with foam adhesive. For some snowy sparkle, I used white glitter with the Hero Arts Sparkle Lacquer pen. I love the shimmering texture this adds to the card without adding tons of bulk!

For my second card, I wanted to create a vintage feel with some no-line watercolored images, so I stamped several of the images from the beautiful Cozy Christmas Set onto watercolor paper using Contour Ink. I then pulled lots of different Distress Ink cubes to finalize my color palette: Festive Berries, Worn Lipstick, Saltwater Taffy, Scattered Straw, Pine Needles, Salvaged Patina, Pumice Stone, Hickory Smoke. Watercoloring with Distress Inks is such fun; the incredible vibrance and super easy blending make them really easy to use for both beginning watercolorists and experienced watercolorists alike. I simply tap my ink pads on a ceramic palette or plastic plate (your glass craft mat would work, as well!) and pick up the color with my damp paintbrush as I would from pan paints! The color moves beautifully on the paper and reacts so well with water, making it ideal for no-line coloring.

(Also, just FYI-Simon Says Stamp is celebrating 20 Years of Distress with a contest over on Instagram. You can check out all of the details HERE. There is a $500 gift card giveaway *every month*!!! Don’t miss out!)

After I had finished watercoloring my images, I turned my attention to the card base. I wanted to keep things super simple so that my vibrant neighborhood was the star of the show, so I selected a gold foil frame cut using the A7 Thin Frames, making the canvas for my scene a bit smaller and less intimidating. Before I adhered the frame, I masked off the edges on three of the sides of my A7 card front and blended some Concord and 9th Aqua Sky ink using a blending brush. I removed the masking tape around the edges, adhered my gold frame, and popped up the houses in a row using foam squares.

I popped up a greeting from the Inside Christmas Greetings which I embossed using Iridescent Gold embossing powder from Hero Arts, tucking it neatly behind the little car with it’s Christmas tree. To add a little extra sparkle, I added some white glitter to the watercolored snow using a Hero Arts Sparkle Lacquer pen and embellished the ornaments and gifts with some Star Sparks Decogel pen.

I absolutely adore how this card turned out!! The A7 canvas helps to keep the houses from feeling too crowded, and the intricate watercoloring makes such an impact.

Well, that’s all for my projects for this month’s installment of Songs of the Season. If you want some more holiday inspiration, check out my friend Jenn’s Get Cracking on Christmas challenge! I love having any excuse to keep my Christmas craft supplies out all year long! Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!

Sweet Snowy Birds and Punny Sentiments!

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

Hi friends! We have another snow day for my kiddos today, so I am snatching a few moments while my kiddos are occupied to share a pair of cards with a completely appropriate theme for the current weather outside! I used to shy away from the more “cutesy” critter illustrations, but after seeing Debby Hughes’s masterful coloring on things I would previously have not considered to work well with my coloring style, I decided that I could still apply my own preferred coloring techniques and mediums no matter the illustrative style! I love these sweet birds from Simon Says Stamp’s Season’s Tweetings; we have a cardinal pair that live in the trees outside of my house, and it never fails to cheer me when I hear their precious little cheeps. I paired the Season’s Tweetings set with my colored pencils and some Kraft cardstock to create these unique winter projects. Let’s get started with the details!

I love the look of colored pencil on colored cardstock, and pencil images pop so magnificently on Kraft cardstock. I find that I forget about Kraft cardstock in favor of the rainbow of vivid colorful cardstock in my stash, but when I use it I am always astonished at how much I like the finished look! I recently found a wintry card that I made a long time ago using colored pencils on Kraft with crisp white snowflakes created with white pigment ink, and thought how darling it would be recreated with these sweet birds from Season’s Tweetings. I also wanted to show that these birds don’t have to just be used for Christmas cards, as well!

For my first card, I stamped the cardinal from Season’s Tweetings onto Kraft cardstock using white pigment ink and used colored pencils to color him in, creating the vibrant ruby red feathers that are such a welcome sight in the bleak winter landscape and adding a vivid turquoise scarf to protect him from the chill. I die cut the finished bird with the coordinating die and began work on my background.

White pigment ink shows up so beautifully on Kraft cardstock, so I created a wintry backdrop for my bright feathered friend using the Layering Snowflakes Stencil and white pigment ink. I have a blending brush dedicated just to white pigment ink, which is great to have in your toolbox for several different techniques. I blended the snowflakes, then used the blending brush to blend more white pigment ink around the edges of the card to create the feel of a frosted windowpane. To top it off, I splattered the background with some white gouache, as well, adding further texture.

After I had created the background, I heat embossed a couple of sentiments from Don’t Flurry Be Happy onto some vellum using white embossing powder. I used sharp scissors to fussy cut the greetings, then used foam squares to adhere the cardinal and clear dimensional adhesive to adhere the greetings on my snowy card front. To accent the die cuts, I cut the individual snowflakes from the Snowflake Frame die set from plain white cardstock and tucked them in around the cardinal and greeting. I love how the white cardstock pops on the Kraft background! Finally, I scattered a few white gems for one more addition of texture.

For my second card, I colored a sweet bluebird from Season’s Tweetings on more Kraft cardstock using colored pencils. I stamped him first using white pigment ink, then used the pencils to add vibrant jewel-bright colors to make him pop from the brown background. I find that white pigment ink is my favorite for use with colored pencils on colored cardstock; it doesn’t quite absorb fully into the cardstock, but becomes part of the pencil layer, allowing a super smooth image with crisp edges. After I’d finished coloring, I used the coordinating die to cut my little birdie out.

For the background, rather than create an all-over pattern, I decided to create a small highlighted area in the center of my Kraft card front, first by blending white pigment ink in the center of the card, then stamping snowflakes from Season’s Tweetings with white pigment ink. I also added a few snowy dots amongst the stamped snowflakes with a white gel pen. I find that adding different gradients of white can be a great way to add extra interest and texture to a snowy background. I popped up the bird and a white embossed sentiment strip, also from Don’t Flurry Be Happy, using foam squares, then tucked a few more white die cut snowflakes around the main focal point. Don’t you just love how that bright blue bird just pops off of the background??

Well, that’s all for my projects today! I hope this will inspire you to take a second look at stamp sets that you didn’t think would vibe with your personal style, because taking stamp sets and fitting them into my own vision and aesthetic is one of the best things about this hobby. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!