Sixth Street Sundries

Emily Midgett

thankful magnolia

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!

Adding Acetate to Kick Your Flowers Up A Notch!

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

Hi there! Jennifer McGuire is just full of excellent ideas, isn’t she? I feel lucky to have such a talented friend! (She gives amazing hugs!) We all get inspiration from her so frequently, and I find her use of acetate to create unique card fronts to be so intriguing and unique! This project is kind of a piggyback on my card from earlier this week, in which I used black A7 Thin Frames die to accent my floral background. Today, I’m using an acetate background to create a super special wedding card, adding some more A7 Thin Frames to help ground the flower on the acetate so that it’s not floating in midair. Let’s get started with the details!

It is such a thrill to me to see how many stamp sets I’ve illustrated over the last few years; I never dreamed that I would be able to use my own drawings to create cards when I started this journey 14 years ago, but I don’t think that I have words to describe what it means to me when I see artists whom I admire so much using my illustrations. Debby Hughes is one such artist; I’ve admired her work for nearly as long as I’ve been stamping, and she painted my Thankful Magnolia image so splendidly… I audibly gasped when I saw it. She was so good as to send that treasure to me, and I have had her card sitting on my desk as an inspiration. I finally made/found the time to do my own watercolored version of the Thankful Magnolia for today’s card! It’s a double whammy of inspiration from those cardmakers whom I admire the most!

To start, I stamped the Thankful Magnolia on some Arches Cold Press Watercolor Paper using Hero Arts’s Contour Ink. I then did some watercolor mixing and matching to create this peach melba magnolia. (I don’t believe that’s really a thing, but how perfect is that description for this peach and raspberry magnolia?) After I’d finished watercoloring the image, I die cut it with the coordinating die. I knew that I wanted to have a peach background to highlight the peachy undertones on the flower, so I selected my peach cardstock from my stash and outline the edge of the die cut with the coordinating Copic marker to keep the color palette seamless.

Once I had finished coloring my main floral image, I cut down a panel of peach cardstock to 7×5.5 inches. I used my Altenew Scoring Board to score 1/2″ in from the edge, creating a 5×7 card with a tiny flap along the long side. I used some super strong double sided tape to adhere a 5″x7″ panel of acetate to the thin flap, creating an A7 card with a transparent front! To accent the peachy magnolia, I die cut the A7 Thin Frames using some Metallic Rose Gold foil cardstock from Simon Says Stamp. I keep my Thin Frames dies together as they arrived in the package; this allows me to have a huge variety of sizes in two different widths with one pass through my die cut machine! I added one thicker frame closer to the edge and a thinner one more towards the center. This addition of the frames adds a little interest to the clear background as well as a bit of sturdiness to the acetate.

For the greeting, I die cut the So Happy For You Both die from another piece of Metallic Rose Gold foil cardstock (isn’t that shade of metallic blush divine?) and backed it with the outline layer cut from vellum. I popped the magnolia up with some foam tape, then popped up the greeting with some clear dimensional adhesive. The vellum behind the foil sentiment allows the greeting to pop a bit from the background while still keeping the overall feeling of lightness on the finished card! Finally, I added a few peachy iridescent gems for one last bit of sparkle.

Well, that’s all for my project today! I am so excited about how this first acetate card came out… I can’t wait to try it on another project! Thanks so much for stopping by, and have a marvelous day!

Simon Says Stamp Happy and Joyful Release- FOUR New Stamp Sets!

Hi friends! I am utterly thrilled tonight to share that I have not one, but four new stamp sets that I designed being released in Simon Says Stamp’s new Happy and Joyful release for April 2022! We are still pretty chilly and not terribly green here (weird for mid-April), so I’m coloring up a garden full of flowers with these new stamps: Thankful Magnolia, Just A Note Pansy, Celebrate Rose Corner, and Lisianthus!

In the video below, I share some tips on how to get incredible dimension using Thankful Magnolia. I discuss how I achieve depth and shadow using the new OLO markers, as well as how to make intentional choices with my cardmaking. You can watch below or on YouTube by clicking here.

For those who can’t watch the video, here’s a brief summary of how I created this card:

I began by stamping the huge magnolia image from Thankful Magnolia onto some white cardstock using Intens-ified Black Ink from Hero Arts. I then used the new OLO markers (which you can read more about here-the special introductory pricing is still available until 4/24!) to add lots of beautiful depth and dimension to this gigantic flower. And when I say gigantic, I mean gigantic haha-this is a 5×7 card! I designed the image so that you could use the entirety of it on an A7 card, or just have a corner peeking out on an A2 card, or you could orient it so that just the foliage and the filler flowers create a wreath around the outside of the card front. But above all, as with all of my illustrations, I wanted a large bloom that was a blast to color.

Once I had finished coloring and die cutting the Thankful Magnolia (love love love that there is a coordinating die to go with this massive bouquet!), I used the Tin Tile stencil with some Merlot ink to create a textured background for the magnolia. You can see in the video how I manipulated the stencil to be able to extend it beyond the typical 6×6 to fit almost the entirety of the 5×7 card front. I added a greeting from Thankful Magnolia stamped with black pigment ink and heat embossed with pearlescent charcoal embossing powder. A few plum gems added some more sparkle and texture.

My second card features the new Just A Note Pansy stamps. I heat embossed this pretty swag of pansies using silver embossing powder on some Fabriano Artistico watercolor paper, then used Tombow markers to add tons of vibrant pinks and purples, working from the outer edges towards the center, rather than my usual work from the center out. I die cut the finished flowers with the coordinating die.

Next, I die cut the new A2 Marquee dies from some coordinating pink cardstock, then backed the die cut with some sparkling silver glitter cardstock to help coordinate with the silver embossing powder. I love that little sparkle peeking out around the edge of the rectangular die cut!

For the greeting, I silver embossed a few of the coordinating greeting stamps from Just A Note Pansy onto some more bright pink cardstock, then die cut and trimmed them. I added the marquee die cut to a coordinating pink A2 card base using foam tape, then added the watercolored pansies and greetings with even more foam tape. (So much height on this one!) I finished it off with some pink gems for sparkle!

My next card features my new Celebrate Rose Corner stamps. I used these in a bit of a non-traditional way to create this chalkboard card. This is one of my favorite ways to use super detailed images; adding some subtle white shading to the white embossed images is relatively quick and creates a neat impact on the overall card. I white embossed the Celebrate Rose Corner onto some black cardstock using white embossing powder, then added some white highlights to the flowers only using a white pencil. Such a neat effect!

For the greeting, I embossed the new XL Stacked Greetings using white embossing powder on the same black cardstock. I used the new Paws-itively Everything T-square to add a white pencil frame around the edge of a black slimline card base. I also blended a bit of white pigment ink on the one edge and splattered it with a bit of white gouache to add some extra texture and touches of white. I popped up the sentiment and the rose bouquet die cut using foam tape, then added some white iridescent pearls for some sparkle and shine.

My final card was a labor of love, for sure. I used my new Lisianthus stamps and dies with the Caran D’Ache Luminance pencils to create this super saturated and brilliantly purple card! I began by stamping the Lisianthus image onto some pale lavender cardstock using no-line coloring ink, then used the colored pencils to add lots of intense color to the image. Colored pencils are always a bit time consuming, but I am so pleased with the result! I die cut the finished image using the coordinating die.

Next, I stamped the new Soft Plaid Background stamp using some Deep Purple ink onto some more pale lavender cardstock. I used a blending brush to lightly blend the same Deep Purple ink around the edges of the plaid card base to create a kind of vignette for the background of my flowers. I love the tone-on-tone look with all of the different layers of purple!

Once my card base was complete, I adhered the flowers to the card front using foam adhesive. I white heat embossed a greeting from Lisianthus onto some strips of the same pale lavender cardstock, then popped them up wtih some more foam tape. Finally, I added a few pale purple gems for some sparkle.

Whew! Have you made it this far? That was a long one! I am so very excited to be sharing all of these new products and the projects that I created with them… such a thrill to see my illustrations come to life! I hope you’ll take a peek at the entire Happy and Joyful release-so many fun new products!

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