Sixth Street Sundries

Emily Midgett

winter gems

Monochromatic Flowers with the OLO Marker Colors of the Month!

Good morning, friends! I love when my friends at OLO Marker give me an excuse to play with their wonderful markers. They launched a new monthly series earlier this year: Colors of the Month! Each month, they will offer a special bundle of colors that work nicely together, giving you an opportunity to try the colors out and build up your collection. This month’s colors are RV0.1, R5.5, and R5.7. I took this opportunity to do some coloring with the Butterfly Ranunculus stamp set that I illustrated for Simon Says Stamp, building up the different layers of color to create a bright pink bloom with maroon foliage. Let’s get started on the details of my project!

With the OLO Markers, I find that they layer beautifully, allowing for more versatility and greater variety of color with fewer markers. One swipe of the marker lays down a light layer of color, while adding subsequent layers over the top adds more intensity and vibrancy to the colored image. I also used the tip-to-tip method to do some subtle blending of the colors. I put these techniques to use to create these monochromatic blooms!

I began by stamping my Butterfly Ranunculus images onto some Hammermill cardstock using Contour Ink from Hero Arts. This Hammermill+Contour Ink combination is my favorite for doing no-line coloring with the OLO Markers. After I finished stamping the images, I used the Colors of the Month to add lots of vibrant pink and maroon to the images. I used only the R5.5 and R5.7 markers for the leaves, saturating the color on the shadowed areas with multiple layers of color and keeping the highlights as light as possible with only one swipe of the R5.5 marker. Layering the colors in this way helps to maintain the contrast of the shadows vs. highlights, while also allowing me to use a minimal amount of markers!

For the large bloom, I used all three of the markers from the Color of the Month, working the first couple of layers using the tip-to-tip method of coloring, where I touch the tip of the lighter marker to the tip of the darker marker. As I touch the lighter marker to the paper, the darker ink that has been added to the tip slowly fades away, creating a smooth blend, much more subtle than if I had added the darker marker directly to the paper and blended it out with the lighter marker. Again, I kept the highlights as light as possible by swiping my marker over them only once, allowing for as minimal saturation as possible. Once I had added my first layer of color, I went back in with the two darker markers to add darker shadows to the areas tucked behind the top petals. For the really shadowed areas, I put the markers directly to the paper, but for the petals more towards the front, I used the tip-to-tip method to allow for a more subtle blend.

I die cut the finished colored blooms with the coordinating dies, then, to accent the monochromatic colored blooms, I die cut the Privet Branch dies from some chocolate brown glitter cardstock and cut them up so that I could tuck them here and there. This chocolate brown glitter cardstock beautifully accented the greeting, a hot foiled “birthday wishes” using the Posh Birthday Wishes hot foil plate and die from Memory Box and some shiny Espresso Bean foil from Spellbinders.

For the background, I used the absolutely beautiful new-to-me Vintage Labels die set from Honey Bee Stamps. I die cut the largest label from some more Hammermill cardstock (I love the unique shape of these label dies!) and used one of the smaller labels to cut out the center of the die to create the frame shape. For the card front base, I used the stunning Winter Gems cover plate die, also from Honey Bee Stamps. This cover plate isn’t technically a die, as it doesn’t cut anything out; rather it debosses a beautiful pattern into the cardstock, creating a gorgeous and subtle texture that looks divine behind basically anything. I popped up the white frame and colored flowers and glittering foliage die cuts with foam adhesive, then added the foiled greeting with a double layer of foam adhesive to create extra height and allow it to stand out a bit. The final step was to add a few shiny rose gold Espresso jewels!

Well, that’s all for the details on this project. I love that you can create such incredible highlights and dimension with so few OLO markers depending on how many layers of color you add to your project! If you wanted to try the OLO markers, simply click my link HERE! I am so excited to see what next month’s Color of the Month is over at OLO. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!

VIDEO: Creating Dimensional Die Cuts with OLO Markers and Honey Bee Stamps Make It Merry + Giveaway!

Hi friends! I am excited to be taking part in the Honey Bee Stamps Make It Merry YouTube Hop today, sharing some more inspiration using some of the stunning new holiday products from the Make It Merry release. Here’s the video:

You can watch the video HERE on YouTube!

I love these super vibrant and color saturated cards with absolutely no white in sight for Christmas these days… Today’s card is an homage to plum and teal! In case you can’t watch the video, here’s how I created my card!

I began by die cutting all of the layers from the new Lovely Layers: Poinsettia from some plain white cardstock. I then used my OLO markers to add some jewel bright coloring to the die cut layers. This was super easy, because the impressed score lines on each layer tell you exactly which layer will be visible when the poinsettia flower is assembled, so you don’t have to color each petal for every single layer-just the petals that are visible on that layer! I also colored the foliage and twig for the berry sprig from Lovely Layers Winter Greenery using the OLO markers, and die cut a few glittery spruce boughs from some aqua glitter cardstock.

To ground my floral bouquet, I die cut a Stacking Art Deco Label from some Spellbinders Blue Spruce cardstock. I ran the die cut shape through my die cut machine again using the Winter Gems A2 Cover Plate die. This super unique and gorgeous die doesn’t actually cut anything; rather, it impresses a debossed pattern on the cardstock, creating a beautiful textured design. To help bring this design even further forward, I did a bit of light ink blending around the edge of the die cut with some Tidal Pool ink from Pinkfresh Studio. This helps to subtly enhance the texture without adding any extra colors to my monochromatic card! I also die cut a coordinating frame from some more Blue Spruce cardstock and popped it up on the solid die cut using foam adhesive.

I adhered my framed die cut piece to an A2 Blue Spruce card front using some strong adhesive tape, then added the colorful die cut poinsettia and foliage using lots of foam tape. For the greeting, I added a hot foiled sentiment from the Foil Script Holiday Hot Foil set, which I hot foiled onto some more Blue Spruce cardstock using some pewter satin foil from Spellbinders. (I absolutely love that foil/cardstock combination! Will definitely be using that again.) I popped that up with a double layer of foam tape, then added some baubles from the Winter Wonder Gem Stickers from Honey Bee Stamps.

Well that’s all for my project today! You can see more inspiration using the Make It Merry release HERE and HERE. Now for some fun giveaway information!

Honey Bee Stamps is giving away two $50 shopping sprees to the Honey Bee Stamps store! To enter the giveaway, you MUST follow the instructions in the description on the YouTube videos. Click HERE to go to my video and get linked up to the video hop! (Please note: comments left here on my blog will not be entered into the giveaway. You must comment on the YouTube videos to be entered into the drawing.)

Thanks so much for stopping by today, and happy video hopping!

Non-Traditional Holiday Colors with New Honey Bee Stamps Make It Merry!

Hi there! I’m back again today with another pair of projects featuring some of the beautiful new products from the Honey Bee Stamps Make It Merry release! While my projects yesterday felt fairly traditional, today’s projects change up the color schemes a bit, with lots of neutrals, metallics, and a pop of muted pink. I love traditional color schemes for holiday cards, but I love unique holiday color palettes just as much. The beautiful new products lend themselves so well to both!

I have two projects today, both of which feature the gorgeous Lovely Layers Winter Greenery to help accent the focal points on the cards. I also used more greetings from the Foil Script: Holiday Hot Foil Plate and Dies. I like to sit down with my foil machine and foil lots of greetings in different shades of foil and on different colors of cardstock so that I have tons of options when I start creating. Let’s get started with the details!

For my first card, I started by creating the finch from the sweet little birds in the Lovely Layers Winter Birds Honey Cuts set. I kept the colors traditional, with creamy and crisp white, grays, and black. It was super simple to put together! I also matched the shades of gray to the warm gray foil that I used for the greeting, foiled using the Foil Script: Holiday Hot Foil Plate and Dies, the Pinkfresh Studio Solid Hot Foil Plate, and some matte pewter foil. I used those two elements as the basis for the rest of my color scheme!

Because I wanted to create a little scene with the fairly large Bird House A2 Card Base Honey Cuts, I cut a 5×7 card front from some plain white cardstock, then masked the edges to create a 1″ white frame around the edge. This 4×6 inch opening created the perfect space for the Nordic Winter Stencil. Using a blending brush, I blended some medium gray ink over the stencil to create the subtle pattern, then removed the stencil and lightly blended around the edge of the opening with the same shade of gray to create a framed area to ground the rest of my images. I find that creating a smaller blended area as a focal point on my card fronts helps to keep the large clean card front from being intimidating when building a scene!

I created a little bird house using similar colors from the Bird House A2 Card Base Honey Cuts, adding a little pop of pale blush pink to the scallops on the roof. I die cut a few elements from the Lovely Layers Winter Greenery, with super dark green pine boughs and some muted melon pink berries. The foliage is the perfect spot to rest my little bird! I adhered the bird house using foam adhesive, then arranged my foliage and berries beneath it, finally nestling my little finch on top and adhering with another layer of foam adhesive to create lots of height and dimension.

I popped up the greeting from the Foil Script: Holiday Hot Foil Plate and Dies and added a heat embossed sentiment strip using a greeting from Bitty Buzzwords: Holiday, both with a double layer of foam tape. Finally, I accented the project with a few sparkling Winter Wonder Gem Stickers! Lots of dimension in this card. Definitely saving this for a super special friend!

My second project uses the same blush pink cardstock that I used in the first project as an accent, but this time it’s the focal point! I had creating some greetings using the Foil Script: Holiday Hot Foil Plate and Dies on this blush pink cardstock using some matte rose gold foil and decided to use that as my starting point for the color scheme for this card.

I die cut the layers from the Lovely Layers: Anemone from the blush cardstock, then used some slightly darker pink ink to lightly blend around the edges and add a bit of extra dimension to the die cuts. I adhered them all together, adding a black and gray center, using liquid adheisve. I also die cut several elements from the Lovely Layers Winter Greenery in a few shades of deep green, as well as some more of the muted melon colored berries, the shade of which coordinated beautifully with the ink on the edge of the anemone.

For the card base, I ran the Winter Gems Cover Plate through my die cut machine with some crisp white cardstock. I love the subtle texture that this cover plate adds to the background; I can’t wait to try this plate with hot foil! I adhered a glittery rose gold frame cut from the Sentiment Frames Honey Cuts die set in the bottom corner of the debossed card front, then arranged my holiday flora in a swag, adhering the components with liquid and dimensional foam adhesive for tons of dimension. I added the foiled blush and gold greeting with a double layer of foam tape, then finished the project with a few iridescent hunter green gems from the Make It Merry Sticker Gem set.

Well, that’s all for these projects. These non-traditional color schemes are some of my favorites, but the images themselves are undeniably holiday! Thanks so much for reading today, and have a marvelous day!