Sixth Street Sundries

Emily Midgett

olo markers

Stamptember + Colorado Craft Company!

Have you been following along with the fabulous Simon Says Stamp Stamptember collaboration releases? Throughout the month of September (can we just call September “Stamptember” from now on?), many of the stamp companies that we know and love collaborate with Simon Says Stamp to release unique, limited edition stamp sets to celebrate Stamptember! They are so highly anticipated… it’s not surprising that they’ve been selling out so quickly!! Tonight’s collaboration stamp set comes from one of my favorite companies: Colorado Craft Company! It’s a darling Anita Jeram design, featuring a large mouse on the hunt for some falling stars, as well as a variety of sizes of stars and some lovely, uplifting sentiments. I have a slimline project to share with you today, so let’s get started with the details!

I trimmed down a slimline card base (3.5″x8.5″) from some Copic-friendly white cardstock. I stamped the mouse on the bottom of the card base using Copic-friendly black ink, then stamped the stars in what is hopefully a relatively random pattern. I used OLO markers to add some subtle warm gray shadows to the mouse and colored the stars a lovely shade of muted gold.

After I’d finished coloring the images, I used Altenew’s Obsidian pigment ink and clear embossing powder to add the greeting from the CCC Stamptember set. The use of the pigment ink and embossing powder helps to create a darker, more crisp sentiment that stands out from the black outlines of the colored images themselves.

I added some subtle Simon Says Stamp Morning Pawsitively Saturated ink, blending lightly around the edge of the slimline card base just to add a little extra interest to the background. Finally, I used a Gold Nuvo Shimmer brush to add some subtle gold sparkle to the stars. This card would be super easy to mail, with just one layer! I love how large the Anita Jeram images are… they make quick work of a large card front!

Well, that’s all for my projects today! I know that it is very likely that this Colorado Craft Company Stamptember collaboration stamp set will sell out very quickly. (Last year’s CCC Stamptember set sold out within minutes) If you’re at all interested in this set, don’t hesitate! If you’ve missed out, don’t forget that there are many other Anita Jeram mice stamp sets at Simon Says Stamp that you can pick up, as well! You can check out all of the Colorado Craft Company sets HERE. I just published a blog post sharing some fun inspiration using some of the recent AJ sets, which you can check out HERE.

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

Pinkfresh Studio Challenge August 2022-Beautiful Backgrounds!

Hi there! Each month, Pinkfresh Studio hosts a challenge with a different theme, providing everybody with the opportunity to link your projects inspired by the challenge for a chance to win a Pinkfresh Studio shopping spree! This month, the challenge is Beautiful Backgrounds, and Pinkfresh Studio has such a wide variety of options for creating gorgeous backgrounds: hot foil, cover plates, stamps, stencils. I have a cool, crisp project featuring some of the beautiful colors in the inspiration graphic and one of my favorite ways to add interest to the background of floral cards: Dotted Scallops! Let’s get started on the details for my card.

I began by stamping the Cosmos Bunch stamp set that I illustrated for Pinkfresh last year twice onto some alcohol marker-friendly cardstock using black pigment ink. I then covered the sticky ink with some white pearl embossing powder to create my favorite pearlescent charcoal embossing. I colored the images using OLO markers, coloring the foliage and small bunches of flowers around the larger Cosmos first, then using some very light lavender and gray markers with the “colorless” marker to add shadows to the large Cosmos images. I also colored around the edges very lightly with a super pale aqua marker, the combination of which I think helps to create contrast for the bright white Cosmos flowers. I cut the finished colored images with the coordinating dies.

For the background, I used the beautiful Dotted Scallops cover plate to create subtle texture on my white slimline card base. This die is originally formatted to fit an A2 card front, but I ran it through my die cut machine twice, shifting it the second time to cover the bottom portion of my slimline card front. The seam of the two die cuts was slightly visible, but I was able to cover it up later. To coordinate with the blue filler flowers, I added a couple of strips of coordinating blue cardstock, one thin glitter and one textured blue cardstock, die cut using the Slim Lacy Edgers die set.

For the greeting, I used the Sentiment Suite: Hello Hot Foil Plate and coordinating die. I hot foiled the greeting using some metallic graphite colored foil to coordinate with my pearlescent charcoal embossing. I added the floral die cuts with foam adhesive, making sure to partially cover the seam of the background, then added the foiled greeting using a double layer of foam tape, covering the remainder of the background seam. The final touch was to add a few Sky Blue jewels for one final pop of blue on the card front.

Well, that’s all for my project today! The Beautiful Background theme for this month covers so much ground, with so many beautiful options for interesting backgrounds from Pinkfresh Studio. I hope you’ll check out the challenge and enter a project! Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day.

New Illustration and New Video with Crafty Meraki and OLO Markers!

Hi there! I’m super excited today to share this new project with you using OLO markers and a brand new illustration that I created for the Crafty Meraki 2nd Birthday Celebration: New Beginnings! I was so honored when Bindu from Crafty Meraki asked me to create a special illustration for the birthday celebration incorporating a butterfly, which was something new for me!

Here’s a video of how I created this colorful and crisp project:

Watch the video in HD on YouTube HERE.

I began by stamping the image from New Beginnings using Hero Arts Contour Ink on some Hammermill cardstock. (I had a tiny bit of black ink residue on the stamp from a previous stamping session, so the no line coloring ink ended up being a bit darker than normal, but it showed up on a video a little better that way, so I didn’t mind! Normally, the Contour ink is much more subtle.) I then used OLO markers to add lots of color to the images, keeping things vivid and intense with lots of beautiful purples, watermelon pink, and jade green. I added a few black accents using a Micron pen, making sure to add the black accents in multiple spots to keep things cohesive and consistent. Once I had finished coloring the image, I used sharp scissors to cut it out, but you could use the coordinating dies.

For the background, I die cut a stitched frame using the Frame-Worthy Slimline Die set from Crafty Meraki using some more white cardstock. The cardstock didn’t run the full length of the die, but that was not a problem because the bottom of the frame was going to be covered by the floral spray! I stamped a greeting from New Beginnings using black pigment ink, then covered it with clear embossing powder and heat embossed it, then fussy cut the sentiment with my sharp scissors.

Once I had completed all of the components, I popped them up on a slimline card base (3.5″x8.5″) using foam tape. I added a few Melanite Magic gems from Trinity stamps to add some extra sparkle. The iridescence on the gems picks up the pinks, purples, and greens from the coloring beautifully!

Well, that’s all for my project today! Head over to my Instagram to check out the Instagram Hop celebrating the 2nd Meraki-versary! The entire new release at Crafty Meraki is absolutely gorgeous (check it out HERE), so I hope you’ll check it out. So many beautiful new products!

And if you’re interested in the OLO Markers, you can check them out HERE. They’re marvelous tools to have in your craft room. You can also check out my color swatches HERE to see the full color range.

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