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Sixth Street Sundries

Emily Midgett

flat shaker

Trinity Stamps Birthday Instagram Hop!

Hi there! I am so excited to be participating in the Trinity Stamps Birthday Instagram Hop over on Instagram. I have long loved Trinity’s exceptional collection of gems and baubles, and their stamps, dies, and hot foil plates are just as magical. I was so thrilled to be asked to participate today, and I created an incredibly festive shaker card using a ton of the new release goodies. Let’s get started on the details!

I have to celebrate Trinity’s birthday with a yummy cupcake!! I began by stamping the new Celebration Cupcake Stamp with no-line coloring ink. I colored it with an intense teal color combination using OLO Markers. I also added some sprinkles using a white gel pen! I die cut the vivid cupcake image using the Coordinating Dies. Using the same color scheme, I stamped, colored, and die cut the number 9 from the new Number Candles and Coordinating Dies. My niece will turn 9 later this year, so I am saving this card especially for her!

For the background, I used the Stars and Sprinkles 4 piece stencil set using a trio of beautiful deep teal inks from Simon Says Stamp that coordinated beautifully with the colors of my cupcake! I blended each stencil on a 3×6″ panel of white cardstock, then blended lightly around the edge with the two lightest colors to create a festive background! I used one of the new Mini-Slimline Flat Shaker Pouches with Moonlight Confetti and sealed it up with 1/4″ Rip and Stick Tape.

After I had sealed up the shaker, it was time to work on the sentiment. I die cut and stamped a greeting from the Simply Sentimental Birthday Stamps and Coordinating Dies, die cutting the detailed “birthday” from coordinating dark teal cardstock and adhering it to a vellum outline die cut. I added the cupcake and greeting pieces to the shaker card front with more 1/4″ Rip and Stick Tape. Lots of dimension and fun, festive elements on this project!

To celebrate their birthday, Trinity Stamps is holding a $100 gift certificate giveaway on their huge 2-day Instagram Hop, as well as more prizes on their YouTube channel. I am one of the many stops on the hop that is sure to be filled with lots of inspiration from this beautiful release, so I hope you will check it out!

(You must leave a comment on my Instagram post to be entered into the giveaway.)

Check out my Instagram HERE.

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

A Triple Birthday Card Suite with Simon Says Stamp!

Hi there! I have been trying to use more things in my stash that haven’t seen any love, and one of those sets was the Time To Party set from Simon Says Stamp. I love the graphic feel of this set; it has so many different elements that you can make a ton of different projects that all have that same graphic feel but with completely different layouts! I selected three different shades of ink and a smattering of other birthday-themed products from Simon Says Stamp’s collection and went to town creating three birthday cards with lots of cheerful colors and crisp white accents. Let’s get started with the details!

All three of my cards feature the same color combination created using inks from the Pawsitively Saturated ink line from Simon Says Stamo: Cheeky, Watermelon, and Orchid. Individually, these colors are quite unique themselves, but together I think they make such a pretty and interesting color palette!

For my first card, I stamped the birthday hat from Time To Party, stamping the first layer of the hat with Cheeky ink, then tapping my Watermelon pad around the edge of the same stamp lightly and dabbing it with my microfiber cloth to soften the edges a bit and stamping that layer, as well, to create a more dimensional look. I also stamped the polka dots and fluffy topper for the hat using Orchid ink. Once I had finished stamping the different elements for the hat, I die cut them using the coordinating dies.

For the background, I first lightly blended some Cheeky ink around the edges of a white A2 card base, then added some white Streamer Ribbons die cuts, adhering them with dots of liquid glue to create a simple, festive backdrop for my vibrant party hat. To create my sentiment, I blended some Orchid ink on a scrap of white cardstock, then die cut the Birthday On A Line die, once from the coordinating purple cardstock and twice from plain white cardstock, adhering them together to create a dimensional die cut sentiment. I stamped smaller greeting from the Time To Party set on a small rectangle of white cardstock, as well. I arranged the die cuts on my card front, making the greeting even more festive by popping that hat on top of it at a jaunty angle! Finally, I added a few iridescent white pearls for some shine.

My second card features more die cuts from Time To Party in the same colors. I stamped and die cut some balloons and a yummy cupcake using the Cheeky, Watermelon, and Orchid inks and die cut them with the coordinating dies. I also die cut a Balloon Background Die from white cardstock and layered it on a white A2 card front to create a slightly textured, but still simple, background that fit the festive theme of the card without detracting from the bright focal points.

I created a custom sentiment by stamping part of one of the greetings from Time To Party, then enhancing it with an iridescent white Birthday die cut. I popped up all of the different die cut elements using foam adhesive, then added a few iridescent white pearls for some sparkle.

My last card is one of those super fun flat shaker cards that are so popular and so fun to make! I stamped some custom patterned paper using the balloons and confetti stamps from Time To Party and Cheeky, Watermelon, and Orchid inks. I used some leftover stamp packaging to create a cellophane wrapper for my patterned panel, filling it with some tiny shimmering sequins. The cellophane bag is loose enough that the sequins shakes so easily and are so festive!!

I kept the sentiment simple to keep the focus on the fun shaker element, stamping two different sentiments from Time To Party and adding them to the front of the card at a playful angle using foam adhesive. I love how this one came out. It was super easy to make, too, and the shaker makes such an impact! Everybody loves a shaker, right?

Well, that’s all for my projects today! I am having so much fun pulling products that haven’t seen enough love from me and giving them so well-deserved attention. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!

Simon Says Stamp Hugs Release!

Hi there! My entire family has been accosted by some unpleasant germs, so this will be a fairly quick post, but I wanted to pop in and share one of the projects that I made for the Simon Says Stamp Hugs release! The month of December already has the distinction of being DieCember, so this release is almost like a little extra Christmas present. 😉 Let’s get started on my project!!

I wanted to let the beautiful Heart Panes Cover Plate Die be the star of the show, so I created a simple, super vibrant ink blended background using some vivid Valentine’s Day colors! I used Simon Says Stamp Paws-itively Saturated Peony, Cheeky, and Taffy inks with Simon Says Stamp Blending Brushes to blend this pretty background. After I’d finished blending the background, I spritzed it with some gold Mica Stain from Tim Holtz to add some shimmer to the background. It’s subtle in the photos (why is it so difficult to take photos of sparkle?), but it’s so lovely in real life!

To create my edge-to-edge shaker portion, I used some leftover cellophane packaging that I had from some product that I’d received. I trimmed the clear plastic to be slightly larger than my A2 card panel, notching it at the corners so that I could adhere it cleanly. I ran Altenew’s Ultra Sticky Tape along the edges on the back of the blended panel, then wrapped the cellophane around the card front and adhered 3/4 sides. I filled the resulting pocket with different kinds of flat sequins and confetti that coordinated nicely with my color scheme, then removed the release paper on the last segment of the shaker front and closed it up!

Over the top of my shaker front, I adhered the Heart Panes Cover Plate Die cut from some matte gold cardstock using Simon Says Stamp tape runner. (Using tape runner helps to keep glue from squishing out the sides!) I also placed the leftover solid heart die cut on the center of the Flowerful Medallion die to add some delicate, lacy details, then replaced it in the center of the heart die cut. I added a dimensional die cut “hugs” greeting, cut three times using the Basic Trio die and adhered together, as well as some foiled sentiment strips created using my Minc machine, gold foil, and the Sassy Love sentiment strips preprinted sentiments. It’s so difficult to photograph the shine from these foiled sentiments, but isn’t that so fun that you can foil these sentiment cards? One more way to keep things interesting!!

Well, that’s all for my project today. I have a couple more projects to share with you, but I am not feeling so great, so they will have to wait for another day! The new Hugs release is available even if my brain is not functioning the greatest (thanks germs!), so I hope you’ll take a peek. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!

January 2022 Hero Arts My Monthly Hero Blog Hop+Giveaway!

Hi there! Today, Hero Arts is releasing their first My Monthly Hero collection for the new year, and we are hopping along to give you lots of romantic Valentine’s inspiration! You should have arrived here from Debi Adams, and your next stop is Ilina Crouse. You can also start back at the beginning at the Hero Arts Blog. This month’s kit features a beautiful layering stamp set and dies, in addition to a gorgeous, super detailed cover plate die. Here’s a peek at the contents of the January 2022 kit:

This month’s kit includes : 6″ x 8″ Clear Stamp Set, 3 Coordinating Frame Cuts, 4.25″ x 5.5″ Fancy Cover Plate Die, 1 Key Fancy Die, 4 Ink Cubes (Key Lime Fizz, Taffy, Green Apple, Cup O’ Joe), and Red Iridescent Gems. So many beautiful products in this month’s kit, valued at over $80, but is available to you for $34.99! You can also subscribe to be guaranteed to receive these beautiful kits each month. I have a pair of projects using this month’s kit, so let’s get started with the details!

The beautiful fancy dies included in this month’s kit are so gorgeous that they can easily stand on their own, and I thought they’d be perfect to create some valentines for my big kiddos! I used some fancy glitter and foil cardstocks to really allow the details in the cover plate die to shine. I cut the fancy keyhole cover plate once from red glitter cardstock and once from shiny purple foil and backed it with some leftover stamp packaging to create a pocket for a shaker card. I adhered some coordinating Hero Hues colored cardstock on the back (Cherry for the red glitter card, Amethyst for the purple foil) and filled it with some coordinating sequins.

I heat embossed one of the darling greetings from the main kit onto some more coordinating Hero Hues cardstock using white embossing powder so that the sentiment would really pop. I also die cut two white keys using the fancy key die included in the kit.

I adhered the sentiments and the key die cut to the flat shaker card fronts using foam adhesive to help them stand out even more. I love the simplicity of the color schemes for both of these projects! I was going to try to do my favorite white-on-white, but I thought it would be more fun for Valentine’s Day for my minions to make things sparkly, shiny, and colorful.

My next project uses one of the sweet add-on sets: Flower Girls. The sweet images in this set are perfect for Valentine’s Day or just to send a sweet card to a friend or loved one! I began by stamping one of the little girls on some white, Copic-friendly cardstock using Intens-ified Black ink, then colored her in with my Copic markers, adding little black polka dots to her tights using a fine-tipped black pen. I cut the finished image out with the coordinating Flower Girls Frame Cuts.

I wanted to allow her bright raspberry colored frock to really pop from the card front, so I die cut a Paper Layering Floral Heart with Frame die cut from some more white cardstock. I offset the die cut to the right side of my card front, trimming off the edge with my sharp scissors. I adhered the white die cut to the white card base using foam tape to really allow those lovely details in the die cut to pop on the monochromatic background.

I stamped a greeting from Flower Girls on a strip of white cardstock, then trimmed around the sentiment using my sharp scissors to help keep things super delicate. (Isn’t that sentiment just precious?) I adhered the Flower Girls die cut and sentiment over the top of the heart die cut with some more foam tape, creating a double layer of foam tape in some spots and helping to create tons of dimension on this project!

Well, that’s all for my projects today. To celebrate this release, Hero Arts is hosting a giveaway!

Hero Arts will give away a $50 gift card, drawn from the comments left across the hop. Enter by Sunday, January 16th at 11:59pm Pacific, and the winner will be announced on the Hero Arts blog the following week.

Your next stop on the hop is Ilina Crouse. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and happy hopping!

Flat Shaker Card and Childhood Christmas Inspiration!

Hi there! I’m up on the Honey Bee Stamps blog today, and I have a bit more holiday inspiration for you! I have always loved the book Santa Mouse. It was one of my favorites as a child, and my kiddos love to read it at Christmas, too! As soon as I saw the Merry Little Mice stamp set, I knew that I needed to use it to create a Santa Mouse-themed card. The book is so sweet; a little mouse realizes that Santa might not receive any gifts himself, so he gives him the piece of cheese that he’s been saving for himself all year. So precious, and such a lovely lesson about the spirit of giving! I am loving these flat shaker cards right now, but I decided to change mine up just a tad to incorporate the darling Snow Globe Shaker dies. Let’s get started with the details!

I began by die cutting the components for the Snow Globe Shaker from some white cardstock. I backed the topper with some spare clear stamp packaging. You know, the kind that we normally throw away? I love how light and thin it is for shaker cards… makes the finished card feel so much less bulky! I stamped a tree from Merry Little Mice on the white snow globe base using Honey Bee Stamps’ No Line Coloring Ink and colored it using Copic markers. I also blended a little aqua blue ink around the edges using a blending tool, then added some snowflakes from Merry Little Mice to add some more interest to the background of my snow globe.

Next, I stamped several of the images (including some cheese wedges to create a little tower of cheese to put under the tree!) from Merry Little Mice on some white cardstock using Honey Bee Stamps’ No Line Coloring Ink. I colored the images using my Copic markers. I die cut the colored images using the coordinating Honey Cuts.

I added strong adhesive tape all around the window of my shaker and removed the release paper everywhere but at the bottom so that I could fill my shaker with sparkly glitter. Once my shaker was filled, I removed the final piece of release paper and sealed it up, then added my colored die cuts (including a teeter-tottery tower of cheese for Santa!) to the front using both liquid and foam adhesive for some extra dimension. Using the strong adhesive tape instead of foam tape makes the card nice and flat and much easier to mail. I added the darling greeting from Merry Christmouse that I stamped with teal pigment ink and embossed with white pearl embossing powder, then die cut using the coordinating Honey Cuts. Finally, I adhered the card front to a shaped card that I created by die cutting a top-folding A2 card using the base of the Snow Globe Shaker die set.

Well, that’s all for my project today! I hope you’ve enjoyed my little trip down memory lane! Santa Mouse is such a sweet book, and if you haven’t read it, I highly encourage you to find a copy. My kiddos always leave a piece of cheese for Santa Mouse when we leave out cookies for Santa, and I love the added magic it adds to Christmas Eve night! Thanks so much for reading, and have a marvelous day.