Sixth Street Sundries

Emily Midgett

lush leaves

Bluebird of Happiness with New Simon Says Stamp!

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

Hi friends! I am bursting with inspiration to share with you using products from the brand new Simon Says Stamp Moments in Time release that went live last week! We celebrated over the weekend with a blog hop (which you can check out HERE) with tons of inspiration, prizes, and a freebie, and today I am back with a sweet little bluebird of happiness created using some new and some old goodies from Simon Says Stamp and some good old fashioned white cardstock and ink. 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!*

Ink blending is such a user-friendly way to add custom colors to your white card stock, proving that you don’t have to be an expert colorist or have all of the coloring mediums (ahem, not that I have ALL of the coloring mediums, just a lot of them, ha!) to create beautifully detailed and vibrant cards! This card was created entirely with white cardstock and colorful inks! I began by die cutting the Dainty Floral Vine, Layered Birdie, and Lush Leaves dies from white cardstock, then took advantage of the super tacky surface of the Simon Says Stamp Craft Tacky Mat to hold my die cuts securely while I did some detailed ink blending on each individual die cut piece. I used Pawsitively Saturated Inks in shades of Violet, Iris, Dusk, Pine, and Honey with the coordinating Simon Says Stamp blending brushes to add gorgeous color to the die cuts, creating a custom bluebird by mixing the purple inks with Dusk ink. Once all of the blending had been completed, I assembled each die cut with liquid adhesive.

For the background, I first lightly blended some Violet Pawsitively Saturated Ink in the center of my white A2 card front, then placed the Delicate Lattice Stencil over the top of the blended area and lightly blended Iris ink over the top to create a subtly patterned background with a hint of a blurple glow. I arranged all of the die cuts on the stenciled background, tucking the birdie amongst the blooms and foliage and adhering the die cuts with a combination of liquid and foam adhesive in both thin and thick depths, creating tons of dimension on this card front!

After I had created the majority of the card front, I used the new Banner Greetings product suite to create this pretty and simplistic sentiment die cut, stamping the banner and sentiment with Simon Says Stamp Nocturne Pigment Ink and adding white satin pearl embossing powder over the top to create a pearlescent gunmetal embossed sentiment. I used the coordinating stencils to add some beautiful color to the banner with some residual blurple ink left over on my blending brush, then tucked the die cut beneath the birdie with some foam adhesive. For some sparkle, I added tiny Gunmetal Pawsitively Dazzling Gems to the center of each flower and to the birdie’s eye, then finished the card off with a Simon Says Stamp Silver Cord bow!

Well, that’s all for my project today! This was definitely one of my more involved projects, but sometimes all of that attention to detail and meticulous die cut placement really pays off. If you haven’t tried creating custom colors with your stamping inks and blending brushes, I highly encourage you to try it out. It’s such fun to see plain white die cuts come to life! Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!

Floral Flashback Week: Mother’s Day Dogwood with Simon Says Stamp!

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

Hi friends! I am back with another installment of this week’s Floral Flashback, this time focusing on another older set: Mother’s Day Dogwood! This set features two different arrangements featuring dogwood flowers, one in a detailed heart arrangement with lots of foliage and accent flowers, and another, simpler dogwood branch. I decided to go to town stamping and coloring that dogwood branch to create another A7-sized card, this time using one of the fabulous Clear Acetate Card Bases from Simon Says Stamp. Let’s get started with 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!*

I am lucky enough to have two dogwood trees in my front yard: one that has bright magenta blooms and another with snowy white blooms kissed by the faintest hint of blush. It was those white blooms that inspired today’s project. I began by stamping the dogwood branch from Mother’s Day Dogwood onto some white cardstock using Simon Says Stamp Rainbow Splash Black Ink. I then used very pale blush OLO markers to color the centers of each bloom, softening the edge of the colored areas with the Zero marker so that the blush faded gently into white. To do a little “reverse psychology” with those almost-colorless blooms, I colored the foliage with vivid spring green, the contrast of which helps to make the super pale blooms stand out that much more! I die cut the blooms with their coordinating die.

After I had die cut all of the blooming branches, I also die cut some Lush Leaves dies from a slightly deeper shade of green. I love filling out stamped and colors bouquets with solid die cut leaves; it creates such a lush and vibrant bouquet and makes it easy to create a large floral focal point! I adhered the bouquet of dogwoods on the exterior corner of a Simon Says Stamp A7 Clear Acetate Card Base using foam adhesive, staggering them a bit to create a full bouquet, then filling in the swag with the Lush Leaves die cuts. After I had adhered all of the floral die cuts, I added a vivid green 4×6 panel of cardstock, keeping the liquid adhesive behind the solid die cuts. This creates a visual frame for my card front while also allowing me to put a sentiment on both the outside and the inside of the card!

For the greeting, I paired one of the poignant sentiment from Mother’s Day Dogwoods with the Simply Thank You die. When I was designing this set, I wanted to make sure that I had plenty of meaningful greeting options, because “Happy Mother’s Day” just doesn’t cut it on it’s own! I die cut the Thank You from Simon Says Stamp Glossy Black cardstock and backed it with a vellum shadow, then stamped the sentiment using Nocturne pigment ink and clear embossed over the top using that same darker green cardstock for contrast. I popped the sentiments up on the card front with foam adhesive, tucking them amongst the flowers and leaves. I added a few Peachy Pawsitively Dazzling Gems for a bit of added sparkle.

For the interior greeting, I used the dogwood branch stamp from Mother’s Day Dogwood to adorn the corners of the 4×6 panel of white cardstock, stamping them in pale gray ink to create a “watermark” effect. I stamped the two individual sentiment stamps using black ink so that they would pop, leaving plenty of room for a handwritten note below!

Well, that’s all for my project today. I hope you’re enjoying this walk down memory lane with me as I reengage with some of my older illustrations! I know that I am loving it! Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!

Extra Large Blue Ombré with New Simon Says Stamp Celebrate!

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

Hi friends! I am back today with an extra large project featuring some extra large dies from Simon Says Stamp’s new Celebrate release. If you’ve followed my blog for any length of time, you will most likely have seen me use frames on my cards. I think die cut frames are the most perfect back drop upon which you can build a floral bouquet. They’re also marvelous for scene-building; I find building scenes with critters and such rather intimidating, lacking much imagination for creating tableaus for the stamped creatures, and so minimizing the amount of space that I have to cover by containing my scene within a frame helps to make that process infinitely simpler. I love the nested frame dies that Simon Says Stamp has recently released, first in A2 Nesting size and most recently in A7 Nesting size. I created this mammoth card with lots and lots of floral and foliage dies to create a beautiful bouquet backed by a textured frame. Let’s get started with the details!

I started my project by trimming down a panel of A7 Hammermill cardstock, then used a blending brush to blend the new Pawsitively Saturated Ink Trio 25 in a vibrant ombré down the front of the card. I tend to do at least two layers of color whenever I am blending an ombré background like this to ensure that the individual colors blend smoothly into each other.

I knew that I wanted to create an ethereal, textured background featuring the new Floating Flowers Embossing Folder and the new A7 Nesting Frames dies. I die cut the A7 Nesting Frames from some super sparkly navy blue glitter paper, then ran a panel of silver pearl vellum through my die cutting machine with the Floating Flowers Embossing Folder. I selected one of the sparkly frames and trimmed the vellum down to be proportionally similar to the frame, allowing it to be slightly larger than the frame. I adhered the frame in the center of the blended card, hiding the adhesive on the back of the solid frame die cut so that it did not mar the sheer pearlescent vellum.

To adorn my frame and textured background, I die cut the Etched Peony Blossom, Blossom Vine, Lady’s Mantle, and Lush Leaves die from Hammermill cardstock, then used OLO Markers to add color to the individual die cuts, keeping the colors nice and cool to complement the vibrant blue ombré background. For the “white” peony, I used a pale BV marker to add some shadows, then used the colorless Zero marker to blend out the harsh edges. This method adds just a hint of shadow to the individual petals, creating some contrast between the shadowed areas and the white petals.

For the greeting, I heat embossed some of the sentiments from Splendid Sentiments onto deep navy blue cardstock using white embossing powder and trimmed them down with my trimmer. I also die cut the Splendid die from some more navy blue glitter paper, tucking the sentiment pieces amongst my floral bouquet. A smattering of sparkling

finished the project off!

Well, that’s all for my project today! I love creating super sized projects like this. It’s fun to get out of the A2 box sometimes, right? Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!

Orange Ombré Shaker with Simon Says Stamp + SALE!

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

Hi friends! I have a fairly gender-neutral card to share with you today featuring several different goodies from the latest Simon Says Stamp Be Bold release. I am always on the lookout for a way to incorporate my typical style into a more masculine or gender-neutral project, because I know that I am not the only one who struggles with minimizing the flowers on my cards!! I had created several ombré ink blended panels using the new Pawsitively Saturated Ink Trio 28, using a couple of them for projects in THIS post. I had a leftover ombré frame, so I thought that I would put it to use with a shaker card instead of tossing it, which happened to make a perfect gender-neutral card. Let’s get started with the details!

To start, I used blending brushes to smoothly blend Ink Trio 28 down a panel of A2 white cardstock. I die cut the center using a die from the Nested Domed Arches dies, leaving a warm sunset window. I backed the window panel with vellum to create a semi-transparent window for my shaker. I added a seal of foam adhesive strips around the back side of the opening using the 3D Foam Strips from Simon Says Stamp, then filled the shaker with the new Terracotta Confetti. I backed the window with a panel of deep orange cardstock, the contrast of which allowed the sparkly confetti to shine through the vellum window.

The graphic boldness of the shaker frame and color combination inspired me to add some contrast with some simple botanical accents, so I die cut the new Lush Leaves die twice from some metallic brown foil cardstock. The matte blended background paired with the matte vellum contrasts beautifully with the shining foil die cuts. I am always on the lookout for fun specialty papers whenever I am shopping; you never know when you might need just the right shade of cardstock to perfectly match your color palette!

After I had added the leaf die cuts, I heat embossed two sentiment stamps from the new Happy Combos onto some more deep orange cardstock using Brass embossing powder. I think this sunset color palette is just right for a retirement card… the symbolism of being retired and watching the sun set is perfect! I used the coordinating dies to die cut the embossed pieces, then popped them up over the top of the foil leaf die cuts using foam squares for extra dimension.

Well, that’s all for this project today! I so enjoyed putting all of the different components for this project together. Orange is not a color that is usually within my mind’s eye, but I was so inspired by the new Pawsitively Saturated Ink Trio 28 and really leaned into it. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!

P.S.- Simon Says Stamp is having a springtime sale!!

Take $10 off your order of $75 or more with code TNBKS. Happy shopping!