Sixth Street Sundries

Emily Midgett

ombre stamping

Rainbow Splash Inks for Back-To-School!

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

Hi friends! I know that it’s a little late in the year for back-to-school cards, but the new Rainbow Splash inks had me in “rainbow mode” and I couldn’t stop myself from creating bunches of projects with rainbow themes. I have been having fun experimenting with ombré stamping and embossing over the top to create a suitable canvas for emboss/resist technique, and I wanted to try it out with this new rainbow of ink colors in the Rainbow Splash line. I have four young kids, and primary color rainbows are just a part of life. I thought the fabulous School Supplies background stamp would be a perfect candidate to try out the ombré emboss/resist technique with which I’ve been playing, and I created this super fun and colorful shaker card to celebrate the start of another school year! Let’s get started with the details.

This ombré emboss/resist technique is one with which I’ve been playing a lot lately. I started experimenting with this technique earlier this year, and each time I use it, I find it more and more magical! Using my MISTI, I stamped the School Supplies background stamp with Scarlet, Pumpkin, Canary, Lime, and Sea Rainbow Splash inks. To create a smooth transition between each ink color, I tap my stamp with the first ink color, then use a microfiber cloth or blending brush on the edge of the line of ink. This extra step helps to make the ink color fade away without creating a harsh line. I close the door to my MISTI, then wipe the ink away with the microfiber cloth and stamp the next ink color, this time tapping the top and bottom lines to create a smooth fade into the previous and following colors. I repeat this process with each color of ink until I have an ombré stamped image!

While the stamp and paper are still in place in my MISTI, I stamp the image again using sticky embossing ink and cover it with clear embossing powder. This clear embossing layer “seals” the stamped image, and I think it helps to smooth some of the ink lines that I didn’t get quite perfect, as well. The added embossing also helps to maintain the vibrance of the ink color, so that I can ink blend over the top in any color that I want! I also used this technique on a greeting from XL Student Greetings, using the same ink colors and technique as the background.

Once I had finished my rainbow stamping for the background and the sentiment, I used Blending Brushes to lightly blend the same shades of ink around the edge of the stamped card front, creating a lovely rainbow glow on my background. I created a thin white frame using my Fiskars trimmer, backing it with a panel of clear acetate and adding foam tape all around the edge to create a shaker card. I filled the shaker with a ton of coordinating rainbow sequins and star confetti from my stash. (I found my huge box of sequins that has been neglected in favor of gems lately, and have decided that I need to keep making shakers to put the sparkly sequins to use!!) I added the rainbow sentiment to the center of the shaker window, creating a super colorful and fun card, perfect for a student or a teacher!

Well, that’s all for my project today! I promise, I will be back to the regularly scheduled flowers soon, but the beautiful inks and colored cardstock from the Rainbow Splash collection have been so inspiring that I just couldn’t move on to anything else until I got my rainbow fill! Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!

Close To My Heart Slimline Celebration!

Hi there! Today, I have a special post featuring some fantastic goodies from Close To My Heart for National Stamping Month. The Slimline Celebration stamps and dies are a collection of amazing products that are specially designed and proportioned to create that super trendy slimline size. I have two vibrant cards for you today using the Slimline Sentiments stamps and Star Cluster die, with a few tricks on how to create an ombre sentiment and how to get the most out of your die cuts. Let’s get started with the details!

For today’s projects, I started with some ink blending using several of the vibrant inks in the Close To My Heart ink line. For the blue card, I started by taping off the edge of my white slimline card base (3.5″x8″), then, using blending brushes, blended Bluebird, Carolina, and Glacier inks in an ombré down the front. When I pulled off my washi tape from the edges, I was left with a crisp white frame around my colorful ombre background! The sunset card was created by blending Wild Berry, Papaya, and Sundance inks horizontally across my slimline card front, covering the entirety of the card. I love the bold, saturated color for both of these backgrounds!

My sunset card didn’t need much extra, and I wanted to showcase some of those gorgeous slimline dies from the Slimline Celebration kit. I die cut the Star Cluster die three times from plain white cardstock, then adhered them all together using liquid adhesive to create a dimensional die cut. I adhered it to the center of the blended card front. I love how the crisp white pops from the super saturated background!

For the greeting, I created a special ombré sentiment using one of the massive greetings from Slimline Sentiments. I placed my sentiment in my MISTI, along with a strip of white cardstock, then used the same Wild Berry, Papaya, and Sundance inks to create the ombre sentiment. I was able to blend the colors together smoothly by partially inking up my stamp with the first color (Wild Berry), then dabbing the edges of the inked area with a microfiber cloth to soften the ink line. I closed the lid of my MISTI, repeated the process to get good saturation of that first color, then moved to the Papya ink. I inked the center portion of the stamp with the Papaya ink, softening both the top and bottom edges of the inked area, stamped, and repeated for extra vibrant coverage. Finally, I repeated the process with the Sundance ink, which created the finished greeting in that beautiful pink-orange-yellow ombré. I popped the sentiment up using double layer of foam adhesive for lots of extra dimension. The final touch was to add a few of the crystals included in the

Slimline Celebration Cardmaking Workshop kit!

My second project features similar techniques. To create the sentiment, I used the same technique used for the sunset card, this time with Bluebird, Carolina, and Glacier inks. I kept the order of the inks the same on the greeting as I did for the ombré blended background to keep things cohesive. To help the greeting pop even more, I added a very thin mat of sparkling blue glitter paper. This little touch of sparkle helps to make that sentiment strip just pop on the card front!

When I was die cutting the three Star Cluster die cuts for the previous card, I had several intact stars left over from the cutouts in the center of the die cuts. I didn’t want those to go to waste, so I arranged them randomly on the blue blended card front, popping them up with foam tape to give them extra dimension. I love when you can get a two-fer from just a few die cuts! So much versatility. The final touch was to fill in any holes in the star cascade using some more of the gems from the Slimline Celebration Cardmaking Workshop kit. I love the little touch of sparkle the gems add to the card front!

Well, that’s all for my projects today! The Slimline Celebration collection and Slimline Celebration Cardmaking Workshop kit are such wonderful products. I’m so grateful to the folks at Close To My Heart for the opportunity to play with them! If you haven’t checked out Close To My Heart’s dye ink line, you’re missing out…. the colors are absolutely outstanding! Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!