My love for Greg & Angie at Concord & 9th is like the world's worst kept secret.
These friends are the sweetest, smartest, and most creative people I know.
I saw first hand the abject terror they had striking out on their own three years ago - both of them concerned for the risk they were taking on behalf of their families, and they had many sleepless nights as their business was taking flight.
Not having to pay their mortgages, I wasn't concerned, because I knew they would have a huge hit on their hands, but I knew they were terrified.
It takes a lot of moxie to leave the safety of a job where someone else takes all the risk, and start taking those risks yourself, and I just admire everyone who does it.
To me, it seems like just yesterday that they opened the doors, but as a matter of fact, it was three years ago today, so I'm busting out the birthday cake for them. Three years of beautiful, beautiful stuff, an award winning booth at Creativation and my favorite "buy it all button" in all the land.
Their birthday release is out today and it's classic Concord & 9th. I gasped when I saw
the floral stamp set - be still my heart!
What's cool about this one is that it can be either arty, watercolor perfection, or ultra-modern and bold. I will show you what I mean.
First, I stamped it across a card front sized piece of
watercolor paper in
Fadeout Ink. Then I put on an audiobook and I used just three colors, about 7 degrees off primary, to paint this wonder.
Then I texted them and told them that what they ACTUALLY sell is moments of peace. Because that's what a little time with a book and some watercolors is.
Here's what it looks like. I used
Phthalo Turquoise,
Quinacridone Deep Gold and
Quinacridone Magenta. Or the C & D splits if you're following along from my
Daniel Smith split group. The sentiment is stamped in
Nocturne, which is the one true ink if you're stamping on rough watercolor paper.
| Grateful for Everything Stamps | Grateful Dies | Fadeout No Line coloring Detail Ink | Tsukineko VersaFine Clair NOCTURNE... | Fabriano Artistico 140 lb. Cold Press... | Heavy Base Weight Card Stock- White | Phthalo Turquoise | Quinacridone Magenta | Quinacridone Deep Gold | Daniel Smith Extra Fine Watercolors | Da Vinci Cosmotop Sable Mix F Brushes... | Escoda Versatil Brushes, Travel Round... | MISTI Stamping Tool | Lawn Fawn STAMP SHAMMY Cleaner LF1045 | Rotatrim Professional Series Cutter -... | Multipurpose Liquid Glue by Stampin' Up! | Nesting Porcelain Bowls - BLICK art... | My Favorite Watercolor Sketchbook | Absorber - Synthetic Cleaning Cloth | Mudder 10 Pack White Buffer Sanding... | Xyron ADHESIVE ERASER 23675 | Essentials by Ellen Storage... | Teflon Bone Folder - Ellen Hutson LLC | Tombow MONO MULTI Liquid Glue Two... | Ink Off Cloth |
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BUT WAIT. This Clark Kent of a stamp has another personality entirely.
They designed a layering element that fills in a background around the stamp - so if you don't have a few hours to paint, look what a wow of a card you can get with two shakes of the
MISTI lid! I stamped the flower in
Nocturne, arranged the background pieces around it, and stamped that in
Wild Dandelion. Wowza. The sequins are
these. This stamp also has
matching dies.
| Grateful for Everything Stamps | Grateful Dies | Tsukineko VersaFine Clair NOCTURNE... | GKD Color Companions Ink Pad- Wild... | Heavy Base Weight Card Stock- White | Like Magic Sequin Mix | Ranger .5 Oz. MINI MULTI MEDIUM MATTE... | Marvy Uchida JEWEL PICKER Tool 91GRC | MISTI Stamping Tool | Absorber - Synthetic Cleaning Cloth | Rotatrim Professional Series Cutter -... | Mudder 10 Pack White Buffer Sanding... | Xyron ADHESIVE ERASER 23675 | Essentials by Ellen Storage... | Teflon Bone Folder - Ellen Hutson LLC | Tombow MONO MULTI Liquid Glue Two... | Ink Off Cloth |
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I was still sort of hung up on the color scheme of the first card though, so I took the beautiful leaf die that coordinates with their from the new
Thankful Leaves Turnabout bundle and cut it out (with
the outline die as well) from watercolor paper. I smooshed the whole thing down onto a piece of Press 'n Seal and then removed the outline portion. Then it took less than a minute to spray the inside pieces with water and drop
Pthalo Turquoise and
Quinacridone Deep Gold onto them. I let those dry, glued the outline onto a
Desert Storm card base, and then glued the pieces back in. I used the sentiment from the
So Happy For You bundle, and added
my favorite, color shifting sequins.
| Thankful Leaves Bundle | Thankful Leaves Dies | Floral Hoop Dies | So Happy For You Stamps | Fabriano Artistico 140 lb. Cold Press... | Phthalo Turquoise | Quinacridone Deep Gold | Daniel Smith Extra Fine Watercolors | Da Vinci Cosmotop Sable Mix F Brushes... | Escoda Versatil Brushes, Travel Round... | Nesting Porcelain Bowls - BLICK art... | Neenah Environment 100 LB SMOOTH... | MISTI Stamping Tool | Absorber - Synthetic Cleaning Cloth | Rotatrim Professional Series Cutter -... | Mudder 10 Pack White Buffer Sanding... | Xyron ADHESIVE ERASER 23675 | Essentials by Ellen Storage... | Teflon Bone Folder - Ellen Hutson LLC | Tombow MONO MULTI Liquid Glue Two... | Ink Off Cloth | Stewart Superior Memories India Ink... | Lawn Fawn STAMP SHAMMY Cleaner LF1045 | Multipurpose Liquid Glue by Stampin' Up! | My Favorite Watercolor Sketchbook |
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I can't leave without my own birthday wishes for these sweet friends.
For birthday cards, I like to keep them simple, because I do actually mail out a lot of birthday cards, and I don't like to send the same card to multiple people, so I use simpler techniques and try to blog a lot of them so I can say hey to my friends on their special day.
For this one, I lined up the cake sections from the
Top It Off bundle on my
MISTI and stamped them in
embossing ink, and embossed them with
Icicle embossing powder. Then I arranged three of the sentiments from
Enjoy it All between the layers of cake, and
the sentiment from the bundle below it.
| Top it Off Bundle | Top it Off Dies | Enjoy It All BUNDLE - Concord & 9th | Juicy Clear Embossing & Watermark Ink | Tsukineko VersaFine Clair NOCTURNE... | Brutus Monroe ICICLE Ultra Fine... | Ranger US HEAT IT CRAFT TOOL United... | Heavy Base Weight Card Stock- White | MISTI Stamping Tool | Absorber - Synthetic Cleaning Cloth | Rotatrim Professional Series Cutter -... | Mudder 10 Pack White Buffer Sanding... | Xyron ADHESIVE ERASER 23675 | Essentials by Ellen Storage... | Teflon Bone Folder - Ellen Hutson LLC | Tombow MONO MULTI Liquid Glue Two... | Ink Off Cloth |
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As usual - the full release is available as a bundle, which is my favorite way to shop with them #fullsetsyndrome. You can see everything here:
| Thankful Leaves Turnabout | Thankful Leaves Dies | Grateful for Everything Stamps | Grateful Dies | Top it Off Stamps | Top it Off Dies | So Happy For You Stamps | Floral Hoop Dies | Shiplap Sentiments |
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So happy birthday sweet Greg & Angie -I'll see you next week!
Loveyameanitbye.
Great projects, Lydia! I already purchased this set- it is magnificent! I love seeing the 3 love colors that you have used to paint this. Gives me hope that I might be able to use Daniel Smiths someday if I can do it with just a few.
ReplyDeleteI love your cards. Beautiful colors.
ReplyDeleteI had already placed my order with Concord & 9th this morning, but had skipped the Grateful For Everything set because I already have so many floral stamps. But after seeing how beautiful you painted it, I just have to go back and get it. I love that we have another high quality stamp and die company with such unique designs. I also love that it is so close to me that I get my orders extremely quickly. Thanks for sharing your gifts and talents, and for your birthday shout-out to Concord & 9th.
ReplyDeleteThe blues that you used really blend nicely together. I really like the card with the white flower in the center of the yellow strip.
ReplyDelete