Concord & 9th Guest Design

 Hi Folks! I couldn't be more excited to be guest designing with the wonderfully fabulous Concord & 9th this month! I had the good fortune of meeting Greg and Angie at Creativation (CHA) this year, and theirs was one of my favorite booths in the whole show. Towards the end of the show when you'd run into people you know, they typically would ask what the highlights of the show had been. Concord & 9th always came up, either by me or someone else. Their products are so fresh and current, their booth looked amazing with patio lights and a ton of wood they assembled into a wall, and they are the nicest people ever. I really felt a strong connection to Angie and Greg, so was naturally thrilled when they asked me to be a guest for their new release!

I'll share 5 posts over this next month, using all the goodies from their most recent release last week. Let's get started!

The Lucky stamp set and coordinating dies have many different combinations. Using both dies and the stamp, you can have FOUR different layers/colors for the word "lucky," making it easy to be the focus of the card. Here I've only used two pieces from the die, the charcoal background and the gold sparkle script. The mix 'n match options really saved me on this card. I originally just used the gold sparkle script, but with all the busy-ness of the stars below, and all the other words, it just didn't have enough weight to it. Adding the charcoal outline really helped make it stand on its own, and since I used a color that was similar to the background, it wasn't standing out too much. Just right.
 

I also wanted the word "stars" to stand out a little more since they are a feature of the card, so instead of using the stamp, I die cut the letters and made my own version of the word. Just wait until you see these alpha die cuts ... like the lucky dies, they each have their own outline!! Ack! I love that. The possibilities! You can see the die to the left of the card. This card couldn't handle any more busy-ness so I just used the inside of the letters. But, the double cut alpha dies are perfect for when you want to feature a word ... the equivalent of bolding a word.

The sentiments embossed in white are also included in the Lucky set. The sentiment in gold is from a fun set I'll feature later this month called You are Here. It's got a giant heart made from two roses, so clever. In the bottom corners of the card a few clusters of tiny stars are stamped with Galaxy Gold.

This star is included with the Lucky dies. It has an outline as well (are you seeing a theme in this release?!) so you really get three different looks ... inside, outside or both. Here I've just used the outside portion of the stars so I can tie gold thread around them and dangle them across the card. Love having movement on cards. 

I'll share a tip: when you are too lazy busy to pick out all the colors of cardstock that go together for a set of small dies, just cut them all out from white paper and use your markers to color the paper. So much easier!

To finish off the card I added some patterned paper to the inside. Like I always say, the inside is half the real estate of the card, so it might as well be pretty too! When it's time to send the card, I'll write the sentiment on pre-cut scrap pieces of paper I keep in a drawer for that purpose.

 

One more card. This is super simple, and thanks to some double-sided patterned paper is quite colorful. My goal with this card was to have a general curved shape on the bottom, having the sentiment also part of that curve. I die cut "lucky" once from black, and then ...

 

... once from the green as well. I didn't use the green word at all, just stuck that in my album of extra word dies, and only used the bottom, negative portion of the die to fill in the space below "lucky."

The green section also made a nice spot to stamp the rest of the sentiment on. This card would be a good candidate for mass-producing since there is not much time invested in it.

Finally, here are some pictures from the crazy-busy Concord & 9th booth at Creativation:

Love this picture! It has all my favorite companies ... Michele from CAS-ual Friday Stamps, Suzi and Catherine from Catherine Pooler Designs / Stamp Nation, Shay from Winnie & Walter, Greg and Angie from Concord & 9th, and then me. Fun, fun!!

Thanks so much for stopping by! I've got so many more projects to share this month!

-Kelly

The products featured in this post can be found through the following links. These are affiliate links, which simply means if you decide to make a purchase I will receive a small commission, at no additional cost to you, which helps me justify spending so much time and money on this wonderful hobby of ours to my hubby : )