Hi friends! Happy Thursday! This is a very happy day as we’re celebrating the fantastic Concord & 9th on their first Birthday! Please give a big Simon welcome back to Angie, who is our special guest today! Big kudos to Angie the entire team at Concord & 9th for their consistent gorgeous designs and inspiration! We are HUGE fans, and wish them lots and lots of continued success and accolades! Please be sure to wish them a Happy Birthday in social media with the hashtag #C9BirthdayBash. Read on and enjoy!

August is Concord & 9th’s birthday month, with August 9th being one year since our very first product launch, so of course we had to create a birthday stamp set. We love the current trend of layered cakes (frosted or not) with large floral toppers. The cake in the Happy Days stamp set is about 3 3/4″ tall by 3 1/8″ wide after it’s stamped and die cut – that does not include the banner. It fills up a standard card size perfectly! This set is definitely intended for those with a passion for coloring! There are fun sentiments like MAKE A WISH and HAPPY BIRTHDAY. You can use the little numbers or even stamp out THE BIG FIVE-OH, and so on.

We didn’t want this to be a birthday set only, so we included sentiments such as MR & MRS and HAPPILY EVER AFTER for weddings, CONGRATULATIONS for a bridal/baby shower, and even IT’S YOUR DAY TO SPARKLE for special events like graduation. The banner piece is also versatile. You can stamp greetings inside of it by bending them slightly. It works as a topper, or flip it over and it runs under the cake plate with the same angles. There is a stick (or straight line) in the stamp set that acts as the banner poles, a candlestick, poles for the little individual flag or the stick to a fun sparkler! The coordinating die, Happy Day dies, has a large cake piece, banner, the words HAPPY and DAY that can be used on their own or together. The words are separate so you can use the negative piece stacked or in a straight line. There is also a flower die shape. This doesn’t cut anything specific in the stamp set, but it works well to die cut, curl the petals, and add to the top/bottom of the cake for dimension.

Did you notice the background of this card? It’s our new Barnwood Background stamp set. This set is photopolymer and sized at 5×6. Perfect for card sizes. It looks great stamped portrait or landscape too! We love the rustic feel this background provides. It’s a perfect backdrop for this beautiful cake!

Now on to how we made the card…

Step 1: Using the Concord & 9th Happy Days stamp set, stamp the large cake on to watercolor paper with black ink. Sprinkle with clear embossing powder and heat set. This will ensure no bleeding while watercoloring the image. Plus, it gives is a nice sheen. Line up the cake die from Happy Days dies and run through your Big Shot.

Step 2: Die cut the banner out of watercolor paper using your Big Shot. Stamp the long banner piece from Happy Days stamp set with black ink. Slightly bend HAPPILY EVER AFTER to fit inside the banner, and stamp in black ink. Sprinkle with clear embossing powder and heat set.

Step 3: Use Zig markers and an aqua/water brush to color in the banner and cake. Have fun with this part! Coloring is therapy after all!

Step 4: Use the MISTI to stamp the Barnwood Background on to your card base. The beauty of the MISTI is you can stamp it again if the first image doesn’t pop enough. Stamp the straight line image, or banner poles on to the card base using black ink. Adhere the cake using foam tape for dimension, and glue dots for the banner.

We hope you’ll like these new products as much as we do! We cannot wait to see what you create with them! We also want to publicly thank Simon Says Stamp for supporting Concord & 9th, and being amazing people to work with!

SUPPLIES:*

*Stay tuned! New release available on Aug. 9th!

Concord & 9th Barnwood Background stamp

Concord & 9th Happy Days stamp set

Concord & 9th Happy Days dies

Thanks so much for reading today, and thanks to Angie for being our special guest!

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