Sixth Street Sundries

Emily Midgett

luxe glitter

New Simon Says Stamp Cheering For You Inspiration!

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

Hi friends! The new Cheering For You release is now live from Simon Says Stamp, and I have another project to share with you using some of the fabulous new goodies from this release! I have a mild obsession with the utterly luscious embossing folders that Simon Says Stamp does so beautifully, and the new Blossom Swag Embossing Folder is so exquisitely delicate that I knew it required special attention. I love the boldness of opaque coloring on a dark background, so I pulled out some dark chocolate cardstock and my Altenew Acrylic Markers and got to work. Let’s get started with the details!

To start, I embossed a panel of deep brown cardstock (so brown that it looks almost black, but I promise, it’s dark brown!) using the Blossom Swag Embossing Folder. After I had embossed those crisp, delicate details, I pulled out some pretty pastel markers from the Altenew Acrylic Markers set. If you’ve ever watched the show Outlander, you might remember one of the impeccably elegant gown that the main character, Claire, wore to Versailles: a stunning brown silk that had been painted with beautiful pink and yellow florals. I channeled that gown with my color selections, allowing those pretty pastel florals to pop from the deep brown backdrop. After adding the colorful markers, I used a white marker to add some highlights to the individual petals and leaf sections. The opacity of the Altenew Acrylic Markers make them perfect for use with intensely-colored cardstock; the colors are bright and crisp without having to work too hard, as you might with colored pencils. I’m hopeful that Altenew will offer more colors in the future!

After I had finished coloring the individual images with their appropriate pastel colors, I used a metallic blush marker to add some details to the image, dotting the centers of the flowers and the berries with this shimmery marker. I also used some handmade glitter watercolors to add highlights and sparkle to the edges of the petals and leaves. The acrylic paint on the fairly porous cardstock helps to create a bit of a barrier for the sparkly watercolors, allowing me to apply them without the paper disintegrating at all.

For the greeting, I heat embossed one of the sentiment strips from the new Cheering Stamp set using Platinum embossing powder on a leftover strip of the same deep chocolate cardstock, then die cut the coordinating sentiment die (you can purchase a bundle HERE) from champagne Luxe Glitter Classic cardstock. I adhered the sparkly detail layer to the vellum shadow layer, then adhered both pieces with some foam adhesive for added dimension. I tucked a twine bow near the sentiment pieces and added a few shimmering gems for added sparkle!

Well, that’s all for my project today. You can check out the entire Cheering For You release by clicking HERE. Be sure to stop by again tomorrow for Day 1 of the Simon Says Stamp Cheering For You blog hop! These blog hops are sure to pique your crafty interest, so I hope you will join us. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!

Fresh Daisies with Distress Watercoloring!

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

Hi friends! Sometimes a color combination is all my brain needs to start the wheels turning. I created some cotton candy watercolored cards in THIS post, and I loved the color combination so much that I just had to apply it to another project! I cannot get enough of the Fresh Daisies embossing folder. I used it on both of THESE cards using ink blending and alcohol marker coloring, but wanted to try doing some watercoloring with it as well. The gorgeous Distress color palette that I used earlier this week seemed to lend itself perfectly to these sweet daisies! Let’s get started with the details.

I began by running a slightly-larger-than-A2 panel of Arches Cold Press watercolor paper through my die cut machine using the Fresh Daisies Embossing Folder. I find that the texture and heavy weight of this watercolor paper is perfect for use with embossing folders! I made sure that the panel was a little larger than A2 size so that I could tape the entire panel to my watercoloring board. When saturating your watercolor panels with moisture, as I intended to do with this project, I find it very helpful to tape all of the edges of your panel to a watercolor board to help reduce warping.

Before I started adding details to the embossed images, I used Saltwater Taffy, Tattered Rose, Milled Lavender Broken China, and Speckled Egg Distress Inks to watercolor a cotton candy sky behind the flowers. I used plenty of clean water on my paintbrushes to make sure that the colors on the background were loose and ethereal.

Once my background was completely dry, I used Worn Lipstick, Saltwater Taffy, Tattered Rose, Milled Lavender, Broken China, Speckled Egg, Shabby Shutters, and Iced Spruce to watercolor the images no-line style! When watercoloring on these embossed panels, I approach each area as I would a typical no-line colored piece: keep the wet sections separate. If the wet sections touch, the colors will bleed together and ruin any definition on each image. After I had finished my watercoloring, I allowed the panel plenty of time to dry while still taped down to my board. Once it was bone dry, I splattered some sparkling metallic watercolors just on the bottom corner by the flowers. I think it looks like dewdrops settling on the flowers at sunrise!

After all of my watercoloring, I wanted a very simple greeting to allow the watercoloring to stay the star of the card. I die cut the Simply Thank You die from some champagne Luxe Glitter Classic cardstock, backing the detail layer with a vellum background layer to help it stand out from the colorful background. I popped up the greeting on the card front using clear foam adhesive, then added a few sparkling jewels for one last touch of sparkle!

Well, that’s all for my project today! If you haven’t tried watercoloring your embossing folders, I highly encourage you to give it a try. The effect is absolutely magical! Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!