LOVE YOU

Hello there, friends!  I'm up on the Where Creativity Meets C9 blog today with a clean, masculine Valentine card idea!  I hope you'll hop over there and check out my card.  Here's a peek.

Enjoy!

Hello there, sweet friends!  It's time for a new challenge at Where Creativity Meets C9, and the theme this month is "Try Something New"!  The design team got to try out some brand spanking new Concord & 9th stamps and dies for this challenge, courtesy of the very generous Angie and Greg!

Today I'm using the new LOVE NOTES STAMP SET and LOVE NOTES ENVELOPE DIES!  I decided to make a gift card holder that will fit inside the envelope (the envelope is on the left in the picture below).

The new LOVE NOTES ENVELOPE DIES allow you to make an envelop with a finished size of 3" X 4 5/8".  You can then insert your "love note" inside (or gift card holder as I did).  Angie will have a detailed video on the Concord & 9th blog to explain how to assemble the envelopes, and give you all the measurements you need to make your envelopes and love notes!  They're very easy to put together!

FRONT OF ENVELOPE

BACK OF ENVELOPE

  

BACK OF ENVELOPE OPEN WITH GIFT CARD INSERT

I used several stamp sets to decorate my envelope.  The word enjoy, the hearts on the coffee cups, and the flourishes on either side of the coffee cups are all from the LOVE NOTES STAMP SET.  There are SO many wonderful stamps in this set and I'm sure some of the other DT members will be showing those today.  The coffee cups and the word "coffee" are from the COZY UP STAMP SET.  The tiny heart borders were made with the heart from the O CHRISTMAS TREE STAMP SET.  The notches that were cut on the back of the envelope and on the piece of card stock that holds the gift card were all done with a die that's included in the LOVE NOTES ENVELOPE DIES.

You don't have to use new products to play along, you can try a "new to you" technique if you like.  And as always the prizes are wonderful!  One winner will be invited to be a guest designer with us, and another winner will be chosen through random.org to win a $25.00 gift card to Concord & 9th!  You have until the 29th of January to enter.  Please pop over to the Where Creativity Meets C9 blog to see what the other design team members have created to inspire you, and don't forget to check us out on Instagram and Facebook!

Hello Lovely!

Hello, friends!  I'm up on the Where Creativity Meets C9 blog today with a card featuring 2 wonderful Concord & 9th stamp sets, LET'S CHAT and HELLO LOVELY!  I hope you'll hop over to the blog to see what I've created.  Here's a sneak peek:

Sending Hugs

Hello peeps, welcome to the December Where Creativity Meets C9 Challenge!  This month's theme is "WINTER"!  If you don't have any specific "winter" themed Concord & 9th stamps, no worries, the design team will be sharing some very creative ideas to help you out!

To start my card I did some ink blending with distress inks on white card stock (Tumbled Glass, Stormy Sky, and Faded Jeans), and then splattered the background with some water drops.  Next I created my snowman.  To do that I found 3 different sized circle stamps in 3 different Concord & 9th stamp sets.  For the biggest circle I used LET'S CHAT, for the medium circle I used the solid backside of the orange slice from HUGS, and for the smallest circle I used BIRDIE BANNERS.  I stamped the circles using white pigment ink and then I embossed with white embossing powder.  For the snowman's "arms", I used a stem stamp from WILDFLOWER.  It works perfectly for twig arms, don't you think? 

I stamped the sentiment from HUGS with black ink.  Next I stamped snowflakes from O CHRISTMAS TREE and embossed them with white embossing powder.  I ran my Versamark ink pad along the bottom of the panel and added some white embossing powder to make "snow".  I hand cut the snowman's hat and bow tie from card stock, those shapes are very easy to make!  I added some tiny enamel dots for his eyes and buttons, and finished the card with some red twine.

My card just goes to show you that you don't need to have specific winter themed stamps to create a wintery card!  I can't wait to see what you come up with for the challenge, I'm sure it will be GREAT!  One winner will be invited to be a guest designer with us, and another winner will be chosen through random.org to win a $25.00 gift card to Concord & 9th!  You have until the 29th of December to enter.  Please pop over to the Where Creativity Meets C9 blog to see what the other design team members have created to inspire you, and don't forget to check us out on Instagram and Facebook!

25 Days of Christmas Tags - Concord & 9th

Hello there!  Today I'm joining in with the 25 Days of Christmas Tags event using Concord & 9th products!

I made 2 tags today using the BAGS & TAGS DIES!  I love that you can adjust the length of your tags to accommodate the stamps and die cuts you plan to use, as I did for my 2 examples.

The bear holding the sign is tall, and I was able to cut my tag to fit it's size thanks to the BAGS & TAGS dies.  Pretty cool, huh? 

To make the tag above I used the O CHRISTMAS TREE stamp set.  I stamped the garland with red ink.  It's a small stamp, but very easy to repeat stamp it to make any kind of garland you like.  I stamped the ornaments with gray ink to make them look like they're hanging from the garland, and I colored them with Zig Clean Color watercolor markers.  I stamped the sentiment and stars with gray ink, and I sponged some gray ink around the edges of the tag.

I used the bear from the HUGS stamp set and stamped on Kraft card stock, embossed it with white embossing powder, and fussy cut.  I stamped "joy" on the bear's sign using the BANNER ALPHA BITS stamp set.  I added a few die cut sprigs of greenery that I cut using TAKE A BOUGH dies.  To finish this tag I added a few wood stars.

Be sure to comment on Tracey's blog on the 25 Days of Christmas Tags posts, there are LOTS of prizes being given away by the generous sponsors!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Hello there!  I'm up on the Where Creativity Meets C9 blog today with a card featuring the wonderful OH CHRISTMAS TREE stamp set from Concord & 9th!  Here's a peek of my card, hope you'll pop over to see the entire thing!

O Christmas Tree

Hello there, friends!  It's time for a brand new challenge at Where Creativity Meets C9!  This month our theme is SPARKLE and SHINE!  I do love me some sparkle and shine so this is going to be a fun one!!

When I was a little girl we always had a shiny silver tree at Christmas (they were very popular back in that era).  My card today brings back those shiny trees of years gone by!  I used Concord & 9th's O CHRISTMAS TREE stamp set and TAKE A BOUGH dies to make my sparkly card.  I stamped the trees with VersaMark ink on some Strathmore Bristol smooth paper and embossed with Silver Embossing Tinsel from Personal Stamp Exchange.  Next I used my Gansai Tambi watercolors, mixing #61 (cornflower blue), and #95 (silver), and added watercolor to the background between the trees.  The sparkle from the silver isn't showing up on my photo, but it looks so lovely in real life!

I stamped the sentiment from O CHRISTMAS TREE on a strip of vellum and embossed it with the Silver Embossing Tinsel powder.  I cut several branches using TAKE A BOUGH and white glitter card stock and arranged them under the sentiment and hanging from the silver twine at the top.  The card is finished with a few clear sequins.

I hope that you'll pull out your Concord & 9th stamps and dies and play along with us for this challenge.  One winner will be invited to be a guest designer with us, and another winner will be chosen through random.org to win a $25.00 gift card to Concord & 9th!  You have until the 29th of November to enter.   Please pop over to the Where Creativity Meets C9 blog to see what the other design team members have created to inspire you, and don't forget to check us out on Instagram and Facebook!

 

 

Grateful For You

 Hello, friends!  I'm up on the Where Creativity Meets C9 blog today with a card featuring GRATEFUL LEAF DIES, LACE LEAF STAMP SET, and GRATEFUL STAMP SET (discontinued but I know many of you own it!) from Concord & 9th!  Here's a little peek of my project, be sure to stop by Where Creativity Meets C9 to see the full card!

Life is better with you

Hello everyone!  It's the 9th of the month and that means it's time for a new challenge at Where Creativity Meets C9!!  I hope you all had a chance to play along with our first challenge.  There were SO many gorgeous, creative entries it was almost impossible to pick a winner.  I really believe that Concord & 9th fosters creativity with their innovative stamp designs, I know that I feel more creative when I'm working with their products, how about you?

Our challenge for October is "Watercolor".  You don't have to be a watercolor expert to participate in this challenge.  I'm only "so so" when it comes to watercolor and generally only use very basic techniques, as I did for my card today.

I started with a piece of Tim Holtz watercolor paper and stamped the TREE RING BACKGROUND STAMP using Gathered Twig Distress Ink.  After stamping I used a wet paint brush to move the ink and fill in the tree ring.  Next I added some water to the rest of the card and the did some very simple watercoloring using Tumbled Glass and Broken China Distress Inks.  I added some ink splatters too, I always find this camouflages any "mistakes" I feel I made when watercoloring, plus I happen to love the look ;)

I cut a bunch of leaves using the LAYERING LEAVES DIES and glued them to the tree ring.  I was going for a messy "nest" look here.  I die cut the 2 birds using BY YOUR SIDE BIRD DIE and placed them in the "nest".  The sentiment is from BY YOUR SIDE STAMP SET.  The sentiments in this set are some of my favorites from Concord & 9th.

I hope that you'll pull out your Concord & 9th stamps and dies and play along with us for this challenge.  One winner will be invited to be a guest designer with us, and another winner will be chosen through random.org to win a $25.00 gift card to Concord & 9th!  You have until the 29th of October to enter.   Please pop over to the Where Creativity Meets C9 blog to see what the other design team members have created to inspire you, and don't forget to check us out on Instagram and Facebook!

 

Give Thanks

Hello!  I'm up on the Where Creativity Meets C9 blog today with a post featuring the beautiful Concord & 9th GIVE THANKS stamp set!  I hope that you'll visit the blog and check out what I made, here's a sneak peek for you!

Celebrate Fall

Hello there, friends.  I'm so excited today because it's time for our first challenge at Where Creativity Meets C9, the Concord & 9th challenge blog!

The theme for our challenge this month is "celebration".  There are lots of directions you can take this theme; birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, babies, holidays, just to name a few.  My card celebrates something that I really look forward to every year, Fall!

To make my card I started by doing some watercoloring on a piece of Canson XL watercolor paper using Distress Inks (Mustard Seed, Carved Pumpkin, Ripe Persimmon, Barn Red, and Rusty Hinge).  Next, I took another piece of watercolor paper and die cut a bunch of the heart shaped leaves from Layering Leaves Dies in a random fashion.  I added lots of foam tape to the back of the die cut piece and placed it on top of the watercolor piece.  Next I added some paint splatters to my card.  I took some of the die cut leaves and placed them over some of the leaf openings, gluing them down with a little bit of Ranger Multi Matte Medium.  I love the intricate design of these beautiful leaf dies!

To make the sentiment I embossed the word "celebrate", from the Eat Cake & Celebrate Stamp Set, in gold on vellum.  I also used the Sophisticated Script Uppercase Stamp Set and Sophisticated Script Stamp Set to spell out the word "Fall".  I love designing with these beautiful script letters, it allows me to create any word I desire!  I added some gold embossing around the edges of the vellum by brushing the sentiment panel on my VersaMark ink pad and then dipping the edges in some gold embossing powder and heating it with my heat gun.  This is a great way to "frame" a sentiment and add a bit more emphasis to it.

I hope that you'll pull out your Concord & 9th stamps and dies and play along with us for our first challenge.  One winner will be invited to be a guest designer with us, and another winner will be chosen through random.org to win a $25.00 gift card to Concord & 9th!  You have until the 29th of September to enter.   Please pop over to the Where Creativity Meets C9 blog to see what the other design team members have created to inspire you, and don't forget to check us out on Instagram and Facebook!

Where Creativity Meets C9 Design Team!

I have some VERY exciting news to share with you today!  I've been invited to be on the design team for the new Concord & 9th challenge blog, Where Creativity Meets C9!  I think most of you know my love for all things Concord & 9th, so you can imagine how much this means to me!  I've been on cloud "9" since I got the email from Jessica Frost-Ballas, the creator of the challenge, inviting me to be on her team.  I really am humbled and honored to be part of such a talented, creative group of designers.

Be sure to stop by the Where Creativity Meets C9 blog and leave a comment for a chance to win a $25.00 gift certificate to Concord & 9th!  A winner will be randomly selected from the comments left on the new design team introduction posts.  And be sure to join us on Sept. 9th at 11:00 AM EST for our first challenge; I can't wait!!





   

Concord & 9th Birthday Bash Blog Hop!

Hello!  I'm so excited to be here today to help Concord & 9th celebrate their 1 year birthday!  Their stamp and die designs captured my heart from the moment I first discovered them!  The owner's, Angie and Greg, are kind, generous, and supportive, and I couldn't be happier that they've had so much success in their first year!

In addition to the blog hop there are giveaways, discounts, and lots of other fun happenings going on all this month at Concord & 9th, be sure to check it out HERE!  As if that weren't enough, they're generously giving away a $20.00 gift card to their store at each stop of the blog hop this month (details on that at the end of this post!)

Now on to my card!  I wanted to create a card that expressed my feelings about Concord & 9th, and this sentiment says it perfectly!

I do believe that for we card makers, beautiful, inspiring stamp designs enrich our lives, at least they do mine.  There's nothing quite like the butterflies I feel inside when I first lay eyes on a stamp set that makes my heart go pitter patter and inspires me to CREATE!

I adore the beautiful fonts Concord & 9th uses for their stamp sets, and this one happens to be my favorite!

To make my card I started with an ink blended background.  I didn't have the exact shade of blue card stock that I needed so I used my Blueprint Sketch Distress Ink and my ink blending tool to create it.  I stamped various flowers from one of my favorite Concord & 9th stamp sets, Wildflower, and embossed them with white embossing powder.  I colored the flowers using Zig Clean Color Real Brush watercolor markers.  I used some of the flower stamps, cutting the petals apart, to make the "leaves" for my card.  I stamped the sentiment, from By Your Side, using Versamark ink and heat embossed with white embossing powder.  I added lots of clear sequins from Pretty Pink Posh to finish my design.

Be sure to leave a comment below for your chance to win a $20.00 gift card to Concord & 9th!   You have until August 18th to leave your comment, when I'll be drawing a random winner.  

I want to thank Angie and Greg for inviting me to participate in their celebration, I wish Concord & 9th MANY more years of success!

The Challenge #71

Well hello there!  So happy you stopped by today!  We have an awesome new sketch for you try over at The Challenge this week.

When I saw the large circle of the sketch the first thing I thought of was the circle medallion from Concord & 9th's Crazy Awesome stamp set.  I started my card by selecting my patterned papers, they're from Stampin Up's English Garden collection, and I based my color choices for the medallion on the colors of the paper.  I stamped the medallion using Hero Arts Navy Shadow ink, and the word "awesome" using Wplus9 Gala Red.  I stamped the things on either side of the word "awesome" (what ARE those things called, I have no idea lol!?) using Scattered Straw distress ink.  I colored the word "crazy" and the circle around the medallion using a Copic marker.  I fussy cut the medallion and used some foam tape to attach it to my card. 

I hope you'll play along with us at The Challenge this week.  Be sure to stop by Lesley's blog to see the awesome cards the rest of the DT and our guests have created!

Concord & 9th April Guest Designer Take 3!

Hello!  I'm back for my 3rd and final appearance this month as a guest designer for Concord & 9th (sniff sniff).  It's been such a pleasure getting to use their wonderful products to inspire you (hope I succeeded in that)!  Today I have 2 cards to share with you featuring the Friend Like You Dies, and a bonus card using Flourish.

For this first card I created a wreath using the small flowers in Flourish.  I stamped the flowers using Wplus9 Little Piggy, Bo Peep, Falling Star, and Cockleshell inks.  I also stamped some of the little dots with black.   Next I centered the Friend Like You Die on my card and die cut.  I placed some PTI Plum Pudding card stock underneath the die cut to make the sentiment stand out.  I added a few sequins and some black and white baker's twine to finish my card.

This next card started off as a card that I was going to use for my Flourish appearance, but I dropped an ink pad on it at the bottom so I set it aside.  I really wanted to salvage the stamped piece because I love the vivid, tropical colors, so I ended up revisiting it and cutting the bottom of the floral panel at an angle, and cutting off my mistake :)  I should mention how I originally created the floral portion of the card.  I started by ink blending lots of yellow ink onto a piece of white card stock (honestly I can't remember now which yellow ink I used, oops!)  Then I proceeded to stamp the flowers and leaves over the yellow.  I wasn't sure if the color of the flowers and leaves would be affected/altered by the yellow underneath, but as you can see they weren't.  I used Wplus9 Little Piggy and Gala Red for the flowers, and Last Leaf for the leaves.  The smallest image is stamped with Ocean Drive ink.  I cut the sentiment using the Friend Like You die from some teal card stock.  I cut just the word "friend" from shiny gold card stock and inserted it into the die cut panel.  I also cut one of the bracket dies from Friend Like You with the gold card stock.  I wanted to add some kind of greenery cut from the gold card stock to my card but didn't have any greenery dies from Concord & 9th so I improvised and cut a few of the blooms from the Bouquet Die.  They kind of look like tropical greenery to me.  I hung them upside down from the top of my card and wound some gold thread around them.  I think this card has a really tropical feel to it, don't you?

This last card is the "bonus" card I mentioned above.  I created the watercolor panel when I was creating cards for my Flourish appearance, but I wasn't sure I liked it so I set it aside.  A couple of days ago I decided to finish the card by adding some patterned paper, a sentiment, and some gold thread.  When it was finished I was really pleased with it (funny how that works sometimes!)  To make this card I started with a piece of watercolor paper.  I used a faux watercolor technique where you ink up your stamp with distress ink, then lightly mist with water, then stamp.  It gives a watercolor look and is a good technique to use with sold stamps, which all of the stamps in Flourish are.  I also used some Tumbled Glass distress ink mixed with water to watercolor the background around the branch and flowers.  After the watercolor piece was dry I added some gold touches to a few spots by stamping with Versa Mark ink and embossing in gold.  When I decided to turn my watercolor piece into a card I cut the word "wonderful" from some gold glitter paper using the Wonderful Word Dies, and I stamped the word "you're" from Crazy Awesome in black.

I want to thank Angie and Greg for having me this month,  I enjoyed myself immensely, and I really hope I inspired you to pull out your stamps and inks and CREATE something of your own!  Thank you so much for stopping by, come back soon :)

 

 

Concord & 9th April Guest Designer Take 2

Hello there!  I'm back for my second post as a guest designer for Concord & 9th.  This time I'm using the wonderful new stamp set Crazy Awesome.  I have 2 very different cards to show you today!

My first card uses the large circular stamp image, which I stamped on black card stock and embossed with white embossing powder.  I chose the word "creative" to stamp on the banner, and I also embossed the little scissors in gold.  I certainly know plenty of "crazy creative" people I could send this card to :)  Next I fussy cut the image, including cutting the inner parts out.  I wanted as much of my background as possible to show through.  To make the background I used several different ink sprays in one of my favorite color combos, red/pink, orange and yellow.  I die cut the bottom of the panel using Concord & 9th's Bag's & Tags Dies.  I still have the 2 long dies (pinking edge and scallop edge) attached, so I decided to add the scallop edge piece to my card below the pinked edge, leaving a tiny bit of space between them.  To finish my card I added the word "you're" (also from Crazy Awesome), along with some gold and clear sequins. 

I wanted to use the large words from the stamp set to create a background and this is what I came up with.  I stamped the words "adorable" "kind" "creative" and "awesome" at an angle using Wplus9 inks.  These word were very easy to stamp and line up straight!  I cut the bottom of the card at an angle and added a black scallop edge.  I stamped the sentiment "you're just my type" on a black circle which I cut using the circle die from Bags & Tags, and embossed in white.  I finished my card with a few pink enamel dots and some black twine.

As you can see, Crazy Awesome is crazy versatile!

Thank you so much for stopping by today.  I'll be back next week for my last quest spot with Concord & 9th, hope you'll join me then :)