Sixth Street Sundries

Emily Midgett

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Lavender Blue With Love Using New Simon Says Stamp!

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! I have another project to share with you using new goodies from the In My Heart release! (Click HERE to see the entire new release!) Simon Says Stamp came out with some beautiful stencils with this release, including the new Impressionistic Flower. This oversized flower image creates a beautiful focal point for a card with a small amount of effort. I paired it with some gorgeous blurple inks, creating this lavender blue bloom. Let’s get started with the details on my project!

To begin, I placed an A2 panel of white cardstock on my stencil station (a Simon Says Stamp Magnetic Glass Mat on which I have placed a Simon Says Stamp Craft Tacky Mat, which I keep set up and ready to go on my desk to make for quick stenciling!), then began blending the layers of the Impressionistic Flower stencil set using Pawsitively Saturated Inks in shades of Periwinkle, Crocus, Clematis, Galaxy. Once I had finished blending all of the layers, I used the coordinating die to die cut the finished image. I love that the coordinating die comes with a sentiment die, as well! More bang for your buck. I, unfortunately, dropped my detail sentiment die under my desk and have yet to locate it… I know my fellow crafters will know that feeling!

I wanted some delicate texture behind my bold floral image, so I placed another panel of white A2 cardstock on my stencil station and then placed the new Big Basketweave stencil over the top. I used a blending brush to lightly blend Periwinkle ink in the bottom left corner of my panel, gently fading out towards the opposite corner and top. I used some pretty metallic watercolors to splatter extra sparkle on the stenciled background, as well, creating some whimsical texture behind the whimsical flower.

After I had completed the background, I adhered the large stenciled floral die cut to the panel, offsetting it slightly and trimming off the overhang with my sharp scissors. I then die cut the previously-released With Love die, cutting the detail layer from some periwinkle foil cardstock from my stash and the shadow layer from vellum, adhering the two layers together with liquid adhesive. I added some foam adhesive behind the solid die cut and placed it over the floral die cut. I also die cut the new EZ Strips Mom using EZ Strips Banners, which die cuts a ton of sentiments in one fell swoop. I selected one and set the rest aside for a rainy day! I nestled the strip beneath the die cut sentiment, then added an Iridescent White Cord bow beneath it. Finally, I created a flower center with several Prism Pawsitively Dazzling Gems in all three sizes, then added a few in the blank spaces on the card background, adding lots of sparkle to my card!

Well, that’s all for my project today! I love a card created with simple stenciling, made more impactful with small details and textures. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!

Beautiful Friend with Lilacs and Bows using New Simon Says Stamp!

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! I am back with another new project featuring gorgeous products from the latest Simon Says Stamp release! (Check out the full Beautiful Moments release HERE!). The Beautiful Moments release is filled with extraordinarily lovely springtime products, from stamps and dies to stencils and embossing folders. Whenever I receive the new release, I always begin the creative process by pulling out products that are immediate favorites, and the new Flower Frame embossing folder was definitely in that first batch! My wedding flowers were blue hydrangeas and white roses, and this gorgeous floral frame absolutely reminded me of a lush bouquet of hydrangeas. Let’s get started with the details on my project!

To begin, I blended Pawsitively Saturated Ink Trio 33 (made up of Periwinkle, Clematis, and Crocus inks) in an ombré on a panel of white A2 cardstock. I blended first before embossing, because I wanted to ensure that the colors were smooth and evenly distributed throughout the entire panel, which would have been difficult if I had blended after embossing. The ink gets a bit more condensed in some areas on an embossed panel, so the order of blending and embossing is important! Once I had finished blending, I embossed the panel using the Flower Frame embossing folder, then placed my Simon Says Stamp White Pigment Ink Pad directly on the raised embossed areas and swiped, enhancing the beautifully detailed pattern of the embossed image.

After I had created the background, I did some die cutting. To further coordinate with the inked white blooms, I die cut the detail layer of the new Beautiful Friend die, as well as the Double Loop Bow, from some white specialty cardstock. When I have created a matte background like the blended and embossed floral frame, I like to make the die cut accents extra special with some shimmer and shine. I used white glitter cardstock for the sentiment die cut and iridescent white mirror cardstock for the pieces of the bow.

To enhance the generously-sized sentiment die cut, I used the EZ Strips Banners die to die cut one of the new Beautiful Friend EZ Strips sentiment panels, cutting a multitude of sentiments with one pass through my die cutting machine! I kept the card design relatively simple, popping up the die cut pieces on the embossed background with thin foam adhesive, finally adding some Opal Pawsitively Dazzling Gems for one last touch of sparkling white!

Well, that’s all for my project today. If you would like to see more inspiration using the Beautiful Moments release, Day 2 of the two-day blog hop is happening right now! Check out the Simon Says Stamp blog for all of the info. Not only is it filled with beautiful inspiration projects, there are prizes and freebies to be had, as well! You can check out my project from Day 1’s hop HERE. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!

Back in Stock: Sunflower Dreams at Simon Says Stamp!

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

Hi friends! I’m back today with some exciting news: my newest illustration, called Sunflower Dreams, is now back in stock at Simon Says Stamp! (Click HERE to see it!) I love creating background stamps, especially, because they can be used in so many different ways. You can use your favorite coloring medium to color them in exquisite detail, you can stamp them using colored ink with colored cardstock for a tone-on-tone patterned paper aesthetic, you can heat emboss, or you can selectively color and fussy cut, which was the technique that I used for today’s project! Let’s get started with the details on my card.

*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 stamped my 6×6 Sunflower Dreams background stamp on an A2 panel of white cardstock using Simon Says Stamp’s new Black Dye Ink. After I had allowed a bit of drying time, I used blending brushes to blend Pawsitively Saturated Inks in shades of Butter, Honey, Aster, Cocoa, and Field on the large central sunflower. I then used colored pencils to lightly enhance the shadows and depth of the simply-blended image, creating contrast and increasing the intensity of the shadowed areas, which helps to create a more dimensional look on the image. I used a black pigment pen to add some small dots to the flower’s center for some “seeds,” as well! Once I had finished coloring, I used some very sharp recoil scissors to fussy cut the image out, creating a standalone focal point from the background stamp.

Once I had finished coloring and cutting the image completely, I blended some Field ink along the edge of a deep green A2 card front, then used a paintbrush to splatter some Simon Says Stamp Splatter Medium White on the background. I mounted the finished fussy cut sunflower image on the colored panel using foam adhesive, butting the fussy cut image up against the appropriate corner of the card front so that the corners matched perfectly.

After I had completed the main imagery on the card front, I used the new EZ Strips Banners die to die cut the sentiments from the Reverse Birthday EZ Strips cards. These EZ Strips dies make it super simple to have many sentiments in a variety of shapes and styles at your fingertips to finish off your card lickety split! I paired two different sentiments for this happy card, popping them up with a double layer of thin foam adhesive squares, tucking them amongst the sunflower bouquet. The black sentiments help enhance the black lines of the blended image, and to follow the “rule of three,” I added one final black accent with a smattering of Black Pawsitively Dazzling Gems.

Well, that’s all for my project today! I hope you enjoyed seeing another way to use your large floral background stamps… it’s always good to have a fresh technique that you can pull out of your back pocket! Versatility is key in my book! Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!

Beautiful Buttercups with NEW STAMPtember Dies!

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

Hi friends! Happy STAMPtember! I have a dainty project to share with you today featuring some of the newest products from the substantial Simon Says Stamp STAMPtember Release that went live earlier this week. (Check out that entire release HERE!) I feel like we can never have enough sympathy and thinking of you cards, and the delicate blooms in the new Charming Flower Stem die set were just begging to be used to create a somber “here for you” card. Let’s get started on 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 my project, I die cut the new Charming Flower Stem twice from plain white cardstock. I then used OLO Markers to add delicate color to the blooms, selecting a very pale yellow and enhancing the highlights with my colorless blender marker. I used liquid adhesive to put the layered die cuts together after coloring, then used my sharp scissors to trim off the stems on one of the blooms to create a custom arrangement. It’s easy to customize these floral spray die cuts with a few snips of your scissors!

After I had finished coloring the florals, I die cut one of the spectacular new Lacy Point Frames dies. These nesting dies feature an intricate, feminine pattern around the edges that I thought worked beautifully with the delicate blooms! I die cut one of the frames from some deep navy blue cardstock, then mounted it in the center of a full-sized A2 panel of the same navy cardstock using thin foam adhesive squares. I love the subtle texture that these tone-on-tone die cuts create! I arranged the blooms in a trio on my card front, then added a glittering navy blue bow to the base of my bouquet, cut using Pinkfresh Studio Midnight Navy glitter cardstock and the new Pretty Bows 2.

For the greeting, I stamped the EZ Strips You Got This onto another panel of the same deep navy cardstock using Simon Says Stamp’s White Pigment Ink, then added White Satin Pearl embossing powder over the top to help enhance the contrast on those crisp stamped sentiments with that deep blue background. I used the new EZ Strips Banners die to cut out all of those sentiments in one fell swoop, leaving me a ton of greeting strips handy for a future project! What a time saver it would be to stamp these in a few neutral colors and die cut them to save for a rainy day! After tucking the sentiment amongst the ribbons of the bow with some more foam adhesive, I finally added some Opal Pawsitively Dazzling Gems to the corners of the lacy frame, adding one more touch of sparkle and shimmer to this somber card.

Well, that is all I have for this project! Stay tuned, because the super special STAMPtember collaborations begin shortly, and you won’t want to miss out on these limited edition, exclusive designs! Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!