EZ with CZ Part 2

I managed to finish of the card set from my big box with Cathy Zielske and Concord and 9th, but getting so frustrated with Briar Rose ink its a real dirty dark rose pink. I walked away from SU! inks as they too are dirty (lots of grey undertones), so it saddens me here's another dirty pink ink. I also seem to make mud using it with the Lemongrass. Looking in the class album on Facebook I am not alone in my efforts with these inks.

These are the 3 cards together:

I have no idea how Cathy gets her blending so light. I tried wiping off excess ink by swiping my cube on some scrap paper. Her tip that I shared yesterday did not work with my smaller blending brushes. I decided to just persevere and finish the class off  and will revisit the card kit when I have finished the box off and try other colour combos as I really love the class kit.

FYI this is what we received for this class kit:

• 4 ink cubes: Pebble, Juniper, Lemongrass and Briar Rose
• Set of coordinating coloured enamels dots
• On My Mind bundle : stamp set (really sentiments and additions to stamp on pots), 3 piece stencil and dies

Close up of the remaining 2 cards below, I love the Briar Rose card but still don't like how Briar Rose and Lemongrass inks blend to a brown i.e. "mud" when blended by me. If I'm honest I  also don't like the friend die cut in Pink Lemonade card stock and not sure why they introduced a new colour which to me doesn't really work that well with the ink colours. Maybe they didn't have enough Briar Rose (which is the base card) to provide us with more. I think in hindsight and I may still do it and add on top another die cut out friend from Briar Rose card, which I own. They also could have got us to make our card stock by ink blending a panel. I still don't like the "wonky" banner. The friend and the stamped banner sentiment are in the panel where we masked off the middle row to make some white space.

Last card and again I really hate my blending of that Briar Rose ink on the pots, it didn't lighten back like normal. I am hHappy though with the ink blending of Lemongrass ink onto Lemongrass cardstock and the Juniper ink onto Avocado (mid-green) and Juniper card stock. I love these wee dies and I do like the pun-ny sentiment.

I think the C9 class is normally one of my favourite classes in the big box and in the past I have loved how their inks blend which is why I invested in getting them ALL (plus the re-inkers) which is why I am so disappointed how this all turned out for me. I'm definitely revisiting this class and C9 have kindly provided us with other combos to try. Sharing Cathy's fun sneak peeks so you can see how fab her ink blending was as well.

✿ Karen ✿

EZ with CZ (again)

One of the classes I always look forward to in my big box is the Concord and 9th class with Cathy Zielske, she makes it EZ and fun. I was excited also when I saw my kit as I didn't really have a stencil and dies like we were going to be using so that is always a big plus.

We received 4 ink cubes from C9 but I decided after 2 big boxes and receiving 12 cubes already that I loved their ink and they filled in so many gaps in my ink collection that I bought the remaining colours. So now I have 4 extras. The colours we received this year were Briar Rose, Lemongrass, Juniper and Pebble; all new in 2023. They seem to be very kind and always give colours they have not given away before too which is very generous on their behalf.

Now the first card uses C9 ink, coordinating enamel dots, On my Mind stencil and stamp set (which is really just sentiments) and in case you're wondering the banner sentiments are supposed to be slightly wonky/organic. Personally I would have preferred mine straight but C9 normally are very innovative so it might be a sign of what is coming.

I followed along with how Cathy did her ink blending and I did not like my first attempt (the darker card with mud at the top). She really loaded her brush up with ink and then tapped most of it on paper before blending and I did that but even though I was trying to be light handed it was too much ink. She then said something that I hadn't really tried before and it worked. 

BIG TIP TIME: Use a bigger blending brush and hold the head with your thumb and index finger so you have better control and can get a much lighter touch. 

This was much easier and she was right, the 2nd try was so much better. I'm still not sure about the Briar Rose and Lemongrass blend it is still slightly dirty. Briar Rose has really stained my pink blending brush and it looks brown and the Lemongrass looks really dark on my yellow brush too, so guess they will be getting washed after this class. Cards below; the LHS is my first go holding the blending brush how I used too with my hand gripping the handle and my index finger on top (plus loading the brush up which I don't normally do) and the second go is on the RHS using the ink left in the brush and me holding the brush with my thumb and index finger as if it didn't have a handle.

Lighter card all by itself, this is a really easy card to whip up and I love the rows of pot plants.

✿ Karen ✿ 

EZ with CZ

Good morning sharing another fab class from my SCT Crop and Create event, Cathy Zielske always get the short straw and kicks of one of the days teaching us our Concord and 9th (C9) class. It is expected she is bra-less and no hard pants and now it is also expected she sings us a song too and she did not disappoint, she is a real crack up. As well as being a fab card maker or maybe the reason she is so fab is she is a graphic designer by trade and her cards always pack a wow.

This was one of the classes I was really looking forward too as the sneaks we had seen looked fab, there were a lot of postage stamp vibes going on - this was something I did not have anything like it in my stash. C9 are always generous and seem to give us 6 mini ink pads so I now have 12 in my collection, this year we got to play with four of their new colours that are being released April 10th in the States.

Again lots of stenciling happening "this is the year of the stencil" I thought the last 2 years were big but I think it is getting big biggerer! But what a lovely collection of cards with lots of things going on, even the totally stenciled card with the lighthouse and sun is on the big postage stamp die-cut with a wee flower die-cut in the corner. 

My stamping buddy for the weekend wanted to create a red lighthouse but I was happy to play with the new inks we were provided but someone in the FB group created their lighthouse with C9's Honeysuckle ink and I want a Honeysuckle lighthouse now!

The second card was easy as all the stamped flowers and leaves had already been stamped and die cut out as part of our prep work for the class. The glitter drops are added by me as my Butterscotch glitter drops from PFS matched the new colour Spiced Cedar beautifully. 

The stripe is created with the stencil and the 2 new inks Nectar and Spiced Cider but you really need a stamp positioner in fact a MISTI if you want to do this perfectly, I managed to sell Sarah my 2nd mini MISTI after this as she owned a Stamp-aratus but she could see how the wee MISTI is perfect for sentiments and small details like this. I only owned 2 minis as I mislaid my original and even though I own a full size one I love my mini MISTI so much I couldn't live without it. Funnily I only found the missing one as I was really tidying up my craft room so Sarah could craft in my space with me for the weekend.

The big postage die-cut has been trimmed to make our panel and the other wee detail is the watermark peeking out from under the flowers.

The last card we got to make lots of small wee stenciled backgrounds and then die-cut out as "stamps" and lots of details added ie wee stamped messages and wee die-cuts.

This was fun and yes it was EZ as CZ!!

Here's Cathy's sneak peek and I am happy I did her proud:

The wee inkpads we received, buttercup and parsley are part of their current range and the other 4 are coming for release April 10.

And the rest of the kit (plus not photographed we also received some matching cardstock for the card base and making flower die cuts).

#cropandcreatedelivered #SCTbigboxevent

✿ Karen ✿

Oh Hey (again)

I loved my Oh Hey stencils from Concord and 9th that I blogged about the other day and I thought they would be perfect for the latest challenge at Just Add Ink which is a colour combo: Tahitian Tide, Orchid Oasis and Polished Pink.

After making the card I think the title of my blog post should be:

Oh Hey you missed out on the coolest stencil ever! But guess what C9 just released a SENDING HUGS one which is identical to all intents and purposes except it says sending hugs, check it out HERE.

Or it could also say, Oh Hey the 70s are calling as this card with that colour combo has a real retro vibe to it.

Supply List:
Concord and 9th: Oh Hey Bundle (exclusive for SCT)

Stampin' Up!: Tahitian Tide ink, Orchid Oasis ink, Polished Pink ink and card stock, Magenta Madness enamel dots

Other: Blending brushes (TE), embossing buddy, Alabaster white EP (BM), Make Art Station (RNG)

Challenge: Just Add Ink #639

Well it's a very gloomy day, wet, raining and windy here but so far, so good Cyclone Gabrielle is not hitting us too hard in the Waikato. Hoping my fellow kiwis further North and East are faring well.

EDITED: My card received an honourable mention and these kind comments from the DT.

Here's what some of the design team had to say...

An awesome stencil and such a fun card.

Crisp-clean-bold & beautiful! Love that stencil in the challenge colours.

Fabulous layering and use of simple embellishments to offset the large sentiment.

✿ Karen ✿

EZCZ

My Concord and 9th class from the #sctccdfall 2022 was taught by the fabulous Cathy Zielske aka CZ Designs.

I zoomed through the class today as we had 4 fab stencils to make a big Oh Hey and then it had a matching die-cut, so we could pop it up. These cards were so Cathy  with great graphic design making the "triangle" for the embellishments, using enamel dots, die cut pieces to give a dry-embossed look and flowers.

They all look sensational and were quick and easy.

Concord and 9th were very generous with our kit swag; we received the 4 Oh Hey stencils, greeting stamps and wafer dies. Mini ink cubes in Grapefruit, Sorbet, Poppy, Aqua Sky, Oceanside and Midnight. Plus Dove, Aqua Sky and white cardstock and matching enamel dots.

The 3 cards together:

The first card  used all 4 stencils starting with Grapefruit >  Oceanside > Sorbet > Poppy inks. Grapefruit ink has been splattered on the card base too. A few white enamel dots for our "boop" moments.

A more masculine theme using all the blues and only 3 layers starting with Aqua Sky > Midnight > Oceanside.

The last card is my favourite with all the peach inks and I love the white flower accents. Again we only used 3 stencils starting with Grapefruit > Poppy > Sorbet. We have made our own sorbet card stock for the banner using a scrap of white card stock and the ink left on our bending brush.

Anyhow what cool cards I love them, they are so happy and bright. Cathy was fun and sang silly ditties to us so I'm looking forward to her next class at the Spring event which is now approximately 6 weeks away. I also now only have 3 more classes to go from this event which is great but also sad, so I am very pleased I have the Spring event to look forward too and if I am lucky a Crop and Create with Pinkfresh Studios in 2 weeks time but I fear that class kit is stuck with German customs.

#cropandcreatedelivered #SCTbigboxevent

✿ Karen ✿

I'm the Featured stamper at this week's Color Throwdown's challenge

And have they got a great inspirational photo this week, with the challenge to use purple, blush and sage.

I felt like I'd seen "that purple" before I was guessing Fresh Fig from SU! but now retired. 

My friend Sarah who has an awful lot of old (make that really old SU!) couldn't help me. So I have used my distress inks as I felt bundled sage was a nice sage green.

I used Concord & 9th Hello Lovely stamp set as it has 2nd stage stamping that wants you to be outside the lines. My first attempt I used Seedless Preserves, Tattered Rose and Bundled Sage. I swiped some Tattered Rose on a scrap of card stock to die cut out the "hello" to co-ordinate. The jewels are Peach Fuzz from Pinkfresh Studio.

I felt the Seedless Preserves was too strong as the Tattered Rose and Bundled Sage were not as vibrant colours so the card below is my 2nd attempt and is the card I would have entered the challenge with. This time I also added a bit of Dusty Concord on one flower and Milled Lavender in the background splotches. This time just black cardstock is popped into the hello.

And together:

Which one is your favourite?? I actually like them both, it's a pretty colour combo so hope you can join in with the crew at the Color Throwdown and have a go too!

Thanks for popping in.
✿ Karen ✿