Sixth Street Sundries

Emily Midgett

vitamin sea

Simon Says Stamp Be Creative Blog Hop-Day 2!

Hi friends! I’m super excited to be a part of the Simon Says Stamp Be Creative Blog Hop on Day 2! You can check out Day 1 HERE. You should have arrived here from Heather Ruwe, and your next stop is Lea Lawson. You can also head back to the Simon Says Stamp Blog to see the full hop list. This month’s Be Creative release is full of a huge variety of fun new products, and I have two projects to share with you featuring the new goodies, so let’s get started with the details.

My first card features a clean and simple design created with the new Vitamin Sea stamp set (I have a more involved card that I shared earlier this week HERE on my blog). I stamped the mermaid lounging on a rock from Vitamin Sea using some Intens-ified Black ink from Hero Arts, then used my Copic markers to add color to the images. I used the coordinating dies to cut the images out, trimming off the water around the rock to simplify the look.

I wanted to create a window behind my pensive mermaid with a colorful sky background, so I die cut a circle from an A2 sized card panel using the Thin Frames dies. On a second piece of A2 cardstock, I lined up the two panels and then used a pencil to lightly trace the window opening so that I would know where to do do my ink blending. I then used blending brushes with the Horizon stencil to blend Taffy, Iris, and Galaxy inks and create a luscious sunset background. I used some of the bird stamps in the Vitamin Sea stamp set to add some flying birds onto the cloudy background. I then adhered the A2 circle frame with some foam tape and the thin frame (left over from die cutting the large frame) with some liquid adhesive.

I popped up the mermaid with a double layer of foam tape to help her pop from the background, then stamped a greeting from Vitamin Sea using black ink and used the coordinating dies to cut it out, popping it up with another double layer of foam tape. I love the extra dimension that the foam tape adds to the different layers! Keeps this relatively simple card from looking boring, in my opinion.

My second card is an homage to Lisa Frank! Remember the Lisa Frank trapper keepers, pencils, notebooks, stickers, etc that we were obsessed with as kids? Well, I couldn’t resist using the Animal Print stencils with several of my favorite Paws-itively Saturated inks to create a fun, colorful Lisa Frank-inspired background to go with the new Simply Fabulous sentiment die! I started by blending Rose, Amethyst, Iris, Cadette, and Lucky inks on the diagonal on an A2 panel of cardstock.

Next, I placed the blended panel in the center of the new Stamp & Stencil Mat and used the sticky area around the mat on the edges of the panel to place the Animal Print stencil and keep it perfectly in place while I blended black ink over the top of the stencil, creating my rainbow leopard print background! Having the adhesive all the way around the edge kept my stencil nice and snug against my blended background, helping to create a super crisp stenciled background!

I used black glitter foam from Spellbinders to die cut the outline background from the new Simply Fabulous die, then die cut the detail layer from some silver holographic cardstock. The foam base layer helps to add a bit of height to the sentiment without any extra effort! I added some sentiment strips from the previously-released Spring in my Step, heat embossed in silver on some thin strips of black cardstock. Before I adhered the sentiment pieces, I die cut a black frame using the A2 Thin Frames and adhered it in the corner of the blended card front with liquid adhesive at a jaunty angle. I adhered the sentiment pieces with liquid and foam adhesive, then added a few iridescent gems that matched the rainbow feel of the card!

Well, that’s all for my projects for today! Now, to celebrate the Be Creative release, Simon Says Stamp is giving away a $25 shopping spree to one commenter on each of the hop stops! Simply leave a comment on each hop stop, then check the winners announcement on February 22 to claim your prize.

Simon Says Stamp is also offering a super cute freebie with purchase! Simply enter code ART4U at checkout to receive the Handcrafted With Love stamp set for free.

Your next stop on the hop is Lea Lawson. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and happy hopping!

Simon Says Stamp Be Creative Release-February 2023!

Hi there! Simon Says Stamp released some super cute new stamps and dies today for their Be Creative release, and I have a sweet watercolored mermaid shaker card using the new Vitamin Sea stamp set! I dug out my Tombow Dual Brush markers to create this super colorful watercolored underwater scene. Let’s get started with the details!

I began by stamping lots of the images from Vitamin Sea onto some Arches Hot Press watercolor paper using Altenew’s Obsidian Black pigment ink, then clear embossing over the top. You could just stamp with your favorite waterproof black ink, but I prefer the crispness and intensity of the clear embossing over the top of the black lines. It helps keep them super defined!

I used my Tombow Dual Brush markers to add lots of vibrant color to the images. I couldn’t resist making an Ariel with her fiery red hair! When working with watercolor markers, I tend to use a combination of techniques to get the color to the paper, sometimes scribbling the color out onto my work surface, then picking it up with a damp paintbrush, which creates a more diluted and pastel version, and sometimes putting the marker directly to the paper itself, creating much more intense and vibrant colors. For the watery background, I scribbled the blue, aqua, and purple markers onto my glass mat, then picked each of them up with my wet paintbrush and dropped them onto the background to create a mottled, watery backdrop for my underwater scene. For the images themselves, I used both techniques, sometimes mixing colors on my glass mat to create custom colors, sometimes putting the markers directly to the paper to create super vibrant watercoloring that was true to the marker color.

Once I had finished adding lots of color to my scene, I went back in with a clean, wet paintbrush to lift some of the color from the background. I created small circles with my wet paintbrush, dried it off, then used the “thirsty brush” technique to pull the color off, effectively bleaching the area of color. To add some iridescent shimmer to the bubbles, I tapped some Interference Green Perfect Pearls onto my glass mat and added water to create super sparkly, iridescent “paint,” which I added to the bleached bubbles. It’s hard to capture the shimmer in the photos, but it’s so pretty! Once I had finished watercoloring, I added a greeting to the watercolored panel with some more black pigment ink and clear embossing powder.

To make this as festive a birthday card as possible, I wanted to create a shaker! I used my trimmer to cut a frame from some shiny, almost holographic white cardstock, which I backed with a piece of scrap stamp packaging. (Love getting extra use out of something that would just go in the trash!) I filled the shaker with some Spring Showers sequins, which look like more bubbles to me!

Well, that’s all for my project today! I have a couple more projects to share with you using the new goodies from this release, which I will share later this week. In the meantime, you can check out the new Be Creative release HERE. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!