Where Creativity Meets C9 Challenge!!

Good morning!! I hope you all have had a marvelous week. After a fantastically fun weekend last weekend at Junkie Fest 2016, I have spent this week's nap times playing in my craft room with some new goodies from Concord and 9th. This month is their one year anniversary, and I just fell head over heels for a few of their new sets. It just so happens that one of my good friends, the ridiculously talented rock star Ms. Jessica Frost-Ballas, has started a new challenge blog for Concord and 9th products called Where Creativity Meets C9. They're trying to finalize their Design Team, and I just had to put my new goodies to use for an entry! 

My projects today are a little outside of my normal comfort zone. Distress Inks, smooshing, splatters....  Hope you like them!!  My first card is something that I've had rolling about in my brain Since I first saw the sneaks for the new Happy Day set... A soft, vintage-y cake. I immediately broke out my antique gold embossing powder and got to work.   

I die cut and embossed the cake and banner images, then used my neglected Distress Markers to color the stunning cake. I used Tattered Rose, Dried Marigold, Milled Lavender, Victorian Velvet, and Worn Lipstick. Some were colored directly onto the watercolor paper, while some were colored on a clear block and picked up with my wet paintbrush. I added some Spectrum Noir shimmer to the large flowers and the banner, then covered them in Glossy Accents and set to work on the background.   

I initially had in my head that I wanted to blend a soft, peachy pink-ish background, but I didn't have Dried Marigold in an ink pad, just a marker, and so I had to improvise a little, and I'm really pleased with the way this turned out. I think the blended background would have been too bright. I simply used my Dried Marigold, Worn Lipstick, and Victorian Velvet markers, scribbled them on some acetate, and spritzed them liberally with water and Tsukineko shimmer spray.  Tip: when smooshing or even ink blending, try to choose three colors that would come near each other on the ROY G BIV spectrum, and make sure the middle color is related to both colors. So, in this case, I used a purple, a pink, and an orange. The pink blends nicely into both the orange and purple. I scribbled on the purple and orange far enough from each other that the pink could go between and not blend to make a muddy brown mess.    After my pretty, shimmery background was dry, I heat embossed some of the sparkle images using the same gold embossing powder,  as well as a few more sparkles in Delicata Gold. I popped up the banner and cake, then slid some toothpicks behind the banner to make it look as if the banner were popping out of the cake. Some sequins finished it off! You can't see it very well in the photos, but the shimmer on this card is fabulous!! Very festive and sparkly!     

This next project is one that I've had ruminating for awhile. I love this sentiment from the new live action Cinderella movie. It's definitely something I need to keep in mind more often... I want to watercolor this in a larger version and put it in my daughter's room (of course, that's if we ever sell our house. :eye roll:) I knew this sentiment would take up most of a standard A2 card front, so I cut a 4.5x7 in card base, and a 3.75x6.25 inch watercolor card stock panel. I heat embossed flowers and foliage from the Wildflower set using the same antique gold embossing powder. I was so in love with the color scheme from the cake card that I used it again on this one. I water colored all of the flowers and fussy cut them.   

Next came the background. I used the Upper and Lower script alphabets, along with a smaller type alpha from my stash, to create the sentiment. I embossed it into watercolor card stock, though, so I did have to go over the script words with my Versamark pen. After my heat embossing was finished, I scribbled some Dried Marigold, Worn Lipstick, and Victorian Velvet onto a clear block and water colored them over the sentiment. The last step was to mix some gold acrylic paint with water and do my first attempts at splattering! Jess so inspired me this past weekend that I had to try some splatters for myself. Next time I will be more patient and wait until my watercolor end background is dry. Some of the splatters spread out a bit, but c'est la vie. I added a few "dew drops" using Glossy Accents, but no sequins. There must be something wrong with me.    I hope you enjoyed these projects! I am so excited to have another challenge blog to watch and play along with! Now I'm off to go check out the other entries.... SO many talented crafters have entered! Have a fabulous day and a wonderful weekend, friends!!!