Sixth Street Sundries

Emily Midgett

mother's day card

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!

April Showers Bring May Flowers with Simon Says Stamp: Mother’s Day Gift Suite with Thankful Magnolia!

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

Hi friends! It’s officially May… I’m a little bit in shock at how quickly the year is flying by! I am not sad to see the end of April 2024; we had quite a lot of stressful events taking place last month, of which the biggest was my son breaking his leg. He’s on the mend, now, and we are coming up on some fun events in May that I am really excited about. The crazy weather has also leveled out a little, with lots of April showers bringing an abundance of May flowers! I thought that I would honor the beautiful blooms in the outside world by creating my own card-gardens for a new series for the month of May, using some of the floral stamps I’ve illustrated for Simon Says Stamp over the last few years. Some of the sets have been (sadly) discontinued, but there are still several of them that are available. Over the course of the month of May, I will be sharing inspiration using these stamp sets for the April Showers Bring May Flowers series. First up: Thankful Magnolia!

I love creating coordinating gift suites, and the large floral illustration from Thankful Magnolia is so substantial and detailed that I decided to use it for some framed watercolor artwork, a coordinating Mother’s Day card (with no coloring on it at all), and to adorn the front of one of Simon Says Stamp’s new Black Bubble Mailer envelopes. Coordinating project suites for the win!

For the framed artwork, I heat embossed the large magnolia image from Thankful Magnolia onto a panel of 4″ x 6″ Distress Watercolor Cardstock using Copper embossing powder. I then used Distress Ink Mini cubes in shades of Scattered Straw, Tattered Rose, Victorian Velvet, Bundled Sage, Hickory Smoke to watercolor the image, tapping the cubes on my watercolor palette and picking the color up with my damp paintbrush to apply it to the heat embossed image. To create a very pale magnolia image, I used some visual reverse psychology, painting the area around the main image the dark Hickory Smoke and Victorian Velvet to increase the contrast between the light magnolia and the dark backdrop. (I demonstrate this technique in THIS video.) After I had completed the watercoloring, I splattered some Altenew Titanium White Artists’ Gouache around the image for a bit of artsy flair!

Once my watercoloring had been completed, I placed the painting in an inexpensive frame from the dollar store and embellished it with a pretty white May Arts faux silk ribbon bow! An inexpensive, but heartfelt, gift that any mom would love to receive. I know my mom always loves receiving my artwork!

For the coordinating card, I heat embossed the large image from Thankful Magnolia onto some Hero Arts Vellum using Copper embossing powder. I wanted to create a card that coordinated with, but was not as involved as, the painting and the super smooth embossing on the vellum highlights the details of the image beautifully, even without any extra coloring! I die cut the image using the coordinating die; I love how detailed this die is, cutting out even the interior spaces on the image. So much easier than fussy cutting it.

For the card base, I blended some Victorian Velvet Distress Ink on the bottom left corner of a pale pink A2 card front, then added a shiny frame cut using the A2 Nesting Frames dies from Tonic Rose Platinum foil cardstock, which coordinates beautifully with the copper embossed floral image. I also heat embossed a sentiment from my Mother’s Day Dogwood stamp set using Rose Gold embossing powder on some deep magenta cardstock from my stash, which enhanced the coordinating Fancy Mother die cut, cut from the same magenta cardstock. I adhered the sentiment pieces to the vellum image with some liquid adhesive, then flipped it over and added my foam adhesive behind those solid die cuts. The last step was a few shimmering gems for extra sparkle!

My mom lives a couple of hours from me, and so I know that I will need to mail her gift to her, so I decided to embellish one of the new Black Bubble Mailer envelopes to coordinate with my gift suite. I created my own sticky label by adding some Simon Says Stamp Tear-rific Adhesive Sheets to the back of some thin pink paper (lightweight paper=flush against the envelope and less chance of damage during mailing). I die cut my sticker label using the Nested Ovals dies, then stamped a tone-on-tone Thankful Magnolia image using Victorian Velvet Distress Ink. I used a black pen to add the address (these are not our actual addresses, just for privacy reasons), but I probably would use a thicker black pen or marker to add the address if I were truly going to mail it. An embellished envelope is the perfect way to let the recipient know that the contents are extra special!

Well, that’s all for my projects today! I’m so excited to have an excuse to play with some of my older floral illustrations. I hope you don’t mind indulging me! Thanks so much for stopping by today, and happy May!

Simon Says Stamp Hello Gorgeous Release-Introducing Mother’s Day Tulips!

Hi there! I’m super excited to help Simon Says Stamp introduce their fantastic new Hello Gorgeous release for March 2022. This release features a huge variety of products, many Mother’s Day themed, as well as beautiful sentiments and lovely spring florals. I am also pleased as punch to introduce a new set that I’ve designed for Simon Says Stamp, called Mother’s Day Tulips! This large 6×8 stamp set features a large and beautiful tulip corner, sized to fit a slimline card front, but also could be adapted to fit other sizes as well! I have a few cards to share with you today, so let’s get started with the details!

My first project features my new Mother’s Day Tulips. I stamped the large image on a mini slimline card base using Hero Arts Intens-ified Black ink. I love the wide variety of colors that you can find with tulips, and I find the the deep purple tulips to be enchanting. I colored the image using Copic markers V09, V17, V15, V12, and V01 to add lots of intensity and shadows to the large images. I love coloring large images like this; the extra space allows you to really get down into the tiny areas and add lots of contrast and depth.

Once I had finished coloring the image, I blended some Blue Violet and Deep Purple inks around the edge opposite the floral arrangement using the new Flat Blending Brush. The blending brush does a beautiful job of blending these intense colors softly on the card base, leaving a halo around the flowers themselves and helping them to shine!

For the greeting, I used the new Reverse Foundations preprinted sentiment strips. I trimmed the sentiment down to three separate pieces using my trimmer, then popped them up on the colored panel using foam adhesive. The final touch was to add some shimmering purple gems for a touch of sparkle!

My next cards features the beautiful new Delicate Floral Frames stamps and dies. I contemplated going light and bright with these, but the pretty frames were just begging to be made into some chalkboard style projects! I stamped both of the frame images onto some Pitch Black cardstock using white pigment ink, then used Karin Decobrush Pigment markers to add some bright color to the black cardstock! Because these images are not terribly detailed, these opaque pigment markers made it super simple to add some quick pops of color to the images. This is the first time that I’ve tried this technique, and I absolutely love how they turned out.

To back this arched frame image from the Delicate Floral Frames stamps and dies, I die cut one of the beautiful new Detail Mandala Cover Plate dies from some more Pitch Black cardstock. The subtle pierced detail on this cover plate die is stunning; it’s surely going to become a staple in my craft room!

To accent the greenery on the arched frame, I die cut a few leaves from some Glossy Black cardstock using the new Olive Leaves dies. I popped up the frame with some foam tape, then added the shiny black leaves with some liquid adhesive. I added a greeting from the marvelous new All About Mom sentiment stamp and die set. I love the bold, chunky font on this set! These sentiments are large enough to make a really big impact on your card front. I added a few iridescent gems for a touch of sparkle.

My second card features the same technique, but places the die cuts on a plain black card front. I adhered the oval Delicate Floral Frames stamped and colored die cut to an A2 black card front using foam adhesive, then added more glossy black leaves behind the floral swag to add another element of texture to the card front.

I popped up the white embossed greeting from All About Mom. When I’m working with limited color palettes and tone-on-tone textures, I like to use tons of foam tape to add as much dimension and interest as possible, so these black and white projects have lots of height and variations in texture! I added a few more sparkling gems for an additional textural element as well as adding some sparkle.

Well, that’s all for my projects today! I hope you’ll check out the rest of the products from the Hello Gorgeous release. So many beautiful new pieces. I’m so excited that my Mother’s Day Tulips illustration is a part of it! Thanks so much for stopping by, and have a marvelous day!