Sixth Street Sundries

Emily Midgett

fancy large happy birthday

Holographic Happy Birthday with Simon Says Stamp!

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

Hi friends! I am back today using some of the fun foil transfer cards from the Simon Says Stamp  Cheering For You release! I love that Simon is coming out with these cards that you can use with your laminator or Minc machine. These toner foil cards have such a low storage footprint and can be customized to work with your color palette so easily! I used two different sets of these foil transfer cards for my project today, creating a fun clear birthday card with lots of sparkle and shine. Let’s get started with the details!

To start my card, I heated up my Minc machine to do some foiling with the new Starry Sky Foil Transfer Cards and Birthday Wishes Sentiment Strips. To use these toner foil cards, I find that I get the best results when I allow my Minc to heat up for quite a long time; the light turns green very quickly, but if you allow the machine to continue to heat for at least 15-20 minutes after that, the foil adheres to the toner cards very smoothly. It is also important to note that the type of foil that you are using is extremely important. Hot foil rolls like those from Spellbinders or Crafter’s Companion are specifically made for hot foiling plates, NOT for toner. I know it can be a little confusing to figure out which kind to use for which purpose! I like to use Thermoweb DecoFoil, Cheerfoil from Pink & Main, and Picket Fence Studio Toner Foil Rolls with my Minc machine. (Be sure to check each of these brands out if you’re interested in toner foiling; the array of available colors is absolutely amazing!!!)

After hot foiling the background and sentiment pieces using iridescent toner foil, I began die cutting the focal point on my shiny, celestial birthday card. I die cut the Balloon Assortment dies from some of Altenew’s Dazzling Diamonds glitter cardstock. This die set is great because it gives you multiple balloon shapes and sizes to mix and match as you like! I also die cut the large-scale and fabulous Fancy Happy Birthday die, cutting the detail layer from Pitch Black cardstock and the shadow from vellum. I also die cut a few Streamer Ribbons from some iridescent white foil cardstock that I found in my stash… so much sparkle and shine on this card!

After creating all of the components for the card, it was time to assemble it. I trimmed the starry foiled background panel down and adhered it in the center of one of the new clear acetate card base from Simon Says Stamp, as well as a plain white panel of the same size for the interior, leaving a space to write a message! I adhered the sentiment die cuts and balloons using adhesive foam squares, tucking the streamers in the corner with some liquid adhesive. I also added some balloon “strings” with a Sharpie. Finally, I added one last touch of sparkle (because you can never have enough sparkle!) with a smattering of Clear Pawsitively Dazzling Gems.

I absolutely love how impactful this card is with the shining foil elements and the clear card base… I think it is so unique and incredibly festive, perfect for a special birthday card! If you’ve never used acetate card bases before, I encourage you to try it out… they’re great fun. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!

Tropical Ink Swiped Embossing Folders with Simon Says Stamp!

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

Hi friends! I am back with some more inspiration using some fabulous floral embossing folders from Simon Says Stamp (which just so happen to be on sale and in stock!), this time using a tropical, neon color scheme. I tend to shy away from neon as a general rule, which I have previously theorized is an overcorrection from the wardrobe of my youth in the early 1990’s, but I was inspired by a Hawaiian shirt that I saw in a sale ad this week and thought how fun it would be to apply the same color palette with the embossing folder + ink swiping craze that has taken over the crafting world! I pulled out my favorite “neon” inks from Simon Says Stamp: Rainbow Splash Canary, Lime, and Princess ink, as well as the vivid turquoise of the Pawsitively Saturated Ink Ocean. Let’s get started with the details!

In case you somehow are unfamiliar with the ink swiped embossing folder craze, here’s a brief rundown: emboss your cardstock with your embossing folder as normal, then flip the cardstock over so that the image is pressed down rather than raised up (debossed rather than embossed). Then, using blending brushes, add varying colors to the individual images to add interest to the debossed areas. The trend began by swiping a black pigment ink pad over the raised solid areas, but I found that the intense colors and squishy foam pad from the Pawsitively Saturated Ink line work splendidly! The trick is to select a swiping color that is dark enough to cover your ink blending in case some blending spilled over the edges of the images.

For my first project, I used the sadly-neglected Alstromeria Bunch embossing folder with coordinating die. I didn’t use the coordinating die for this project, but the details that you can achieve with the die and embossing folder combination is just spectacular! I used small blending brushes to blend Rainbow Splash Canary, Lime, and Princess ink over these tropical lily flowers. Once I had blended the colors on the flowers, I swiped the Pawsitively Saturated Ink Ocean over the raised areas.

Full disclosure: I did not have quite enough pressure on my embossing folder in my die cut machine, so the 3D embossed image did not end up as crisp as I would have liked. I am in the process of replacing my machine, which will hopefully rectify that issue. But, because the impression was not as deep, it caused my ink swiping to get in spots that I didn’t want it to, so rather than throw the entire panel away, I chose to add some extra steps to make it look a little more “artistic”… at least that’s what I’m calling it. I trimmed the panel down, added some Ocean ink blending around the edges, splattered the entire panel with some iridescent blue glitter watercolors, added some glittery fuchsia and lime watercolor accents to the individual images to help cover up some of the unwanted teal ink. It’s all about making it work to your advantage!

After I had finished “fixing” my embossed background, I mounted it on a slightly larger panel of holographic Luxe Glitter Cardstock from Simon Says Stamp. The iridescence of the glitter cardstock coordinated beautifully with the iridescent glitter watercolor splatters! I mounted that on a full-size A2 panel of Rainbow Splash Princess cardstock, creating a pretty, coordinating pink frame around the edges of my colorful debossed background. To help further camouflage some of my background, I die cut the detailed layer of the large Fancy Happy Birthday die from some holographic silver mirror cardstock and added it to a vellum die cut shadow layer. I popped up the die cut sentiment with foam squares, then added a white-on-pink embossed greeting from Birthday Basics.

For my second card, I used the same neon-ish color palette, this time pairing it with the beautiful Branching Flowers embossing folder, which I think looks very similar to a hibiscus or even a plumeria! I used the same technique described above, using small blending brushes to blend Rainbow Splash Canary, Lime, and Princess ink over these tropical lily flowers. Once I had blended the colors on the flowers, I swiped the Pawsitively Saturated Ink Ocean over the raised areas. This debossed panel had better definition than the first, so the deep teal ink did not get into the blended debossed areas nearly as much. I did add some more ink blending around the edges and some metallic glitter watercolor splatters and accents as I did with the first project, just because I think they’re so pretty! I added a very thin strip of the holographic silver mirror cardstock to the bottom of the panel, then added a thicker strip of Rainbow Splash Princess cardstock to the bottom so that it was peeking out from behind the debossed panel.

For the greeting, I die cut the It’s Your Birthday die from some more holographic silver mirror cardstock and the Let’s Party die from some more Rainbow Splash Princess cardstock. I popped both die cuts up on the card front with thin strips of foam adhesive, then added a few sparkling yellow gems for added textural interest and shine!

Well, that’s all for my projects today. I am having such fun playing with embossing folders lately; embossing folders and stencils definitely are some of the unsung heroes of the craft room, packing so much punch with so little effort and bonus: they’re super cost effective! Just a quick reminder that the Simon Says Stamp brand Embossing Folders are on sale until Monday, May 27 at 11:59 Eastern. Add code EFLDR at checkout to take 25% off of your embossing folder purchase! Simply click HERE to see all of the embossing folders. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!

No Line Coloring with New Hey Sweetie Stamps from Simon Says Stamp!

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

Hi friends! I have some super sweet inspiration to share with you today to start your April!! This week happens to be both my mom’s birthday and my little boys’ fourth birthday, so I wanted to create some birthday inspiration using the new Hey Sweetie from the Simon Says Stamp Be Bold release. I love pairing whimsical images with my attempt at realistic no-line coloring, challenging myself to add as much shadows and shape as I can to the images. For my cards today, I challenged myself to do some no-line OLO marker coloring and some no-line Distress Ink watercoloring to create two festive projects. Let’s get started with the details!

My first card is a unique one for me, featuring a shaped card created with the new Hey Sweetie stamps and dies. I started by stamping the large milkshake image onto some Hammermill white cardstock using Contour Ink, then used my OLO markers to add lots of vivid color to the image. I tried to pay special attention to the direction from which the light was coming, adding extra dark shadows on the right hand side, implying that the light was coming from the left side.

After I had finished coloring my milkshake and a cherry to go on top, I used the coordinating dies from Hey Sweetie to die cut the images. I wanted to create a shaped card, so I created a card base that was slightly smaller than the milkshake image and placed my die so that the folded edge of the card was contained within the die and ran it through my die cut machine. This created a shaped card base upon which I could adhere my colored die cut.

After I had created my shaped card base, I adhered my colorful die cut to the front of the card with some Tear-rific Tape. I stamped a sentiment from Hey Sweetie onto some more white cardstock using black pigment ink, then embossed it with clear embossing powder to make the greeting super crisp. I die cut the sentiment, then popped it up on the card with some foam squares. Finally, I added a few Rainbow Splash Drops to create little bubbles of condensation on the glass!

For my second project, I did some no-line watercoloring using Distress Inks with the sweet cupcake from Hey Sweetie. I began by stamping the cupcake on Distress Watercolor Cardstock using Scattered Straw ink. To watercolor the image, I used Distress Inks in shades of Speckled Egg, Tattered Rose, Victorian Velvet, and Scattered Straw. Distress Inks make great watercolors, because they’re water reactive and blend beautifully together, so you can create all kinds of custom shades outside of the gorgeous rainbow of colors in the Distress line! I mixed and matched these four shades to create lots of dimension on this cupcake image, then used some opaque glitter watercolors from my stash to make an extra special bow around the cupcake base.

For the card base, I die cut the Box and Ribbon Gift Card Holder die from some plain white cardstock. This die is amazing; you can use the base with the large bow die as I did in THIS post, but you can also use it on it’s own to embellish with whatever stamps and dies you choose! I used my scoring board to get a really crisp fold line, then added some ink blending on the front of the card. I first lightly blended some Tattered Rose ink on its own, then used the Twinkle Stars stencil to blend some Victorian Velvet stars and splattered some more glittery watercolors over the blended and stenciled area. I love the magical effect the combination of the blending, stenciling, and splatters creates, especially for a birthday card!! Who doesn’t want a bit of magic on their birthday, right?

After I had finished with my card base, I die cut the Fancy Happy Birthday die from some of Simon Says Stamp’s Rose Gold Metallic cardstock. I popped up the die cut cupcake and sentiment with some foam adhesive, then added a few Lilac Pawsitively Dazzling Gems for a bit of added sparkle!

Well, that’s all for my projects today, projects honoring my mom’s and my little twin boys’ birthdays this week. Side note: I can’t believe that my little guys are turning four. It seems like a lifetime ago that they were the teeniest little peanuts all snuggled into me, and now they’re big boys (literally… they’re both 95th-plus percentile for height!) who go to school, make friends, practice their writing, sweetly sing “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star,” play together and separately, give the most precious hugs, and use their imaginations so beautifully. The days are long sometimes, but the years are oh, so short. We were going to take them on their first “little boy only” trip to the zoo tomorrow, but I think the weather has other plans for us, unfortunately. Hopefully next week!

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