Concord & 9th Color Buddy System

Erika L Hayes2 Comments

Well, I was fortunate and took the IN THE CLASSROOM: Color Edition over at Concord & 9th in March. It was fantastic! One of the best “online” classes” I have ever taken! It was very interactive and just a wonderful time. Also, very generous with prizes (never expected but was wowed and for the winners, it was a blessing, I am sure.)

While in that class, all the new colors were not yet available. In our kits, we received samples of all the colors in cardstock and a selection of the new inks in cubes. During the class, we played a few games, and one was color combos. Of course, with the new Swatch stamps and dies included in the kit it was a logical choice. (Swatchbook Combo).

There was a lot of love given to Dragon Fruit, Lemongrass, Juniper, and Tidepool. Makes sense as they are beautiful. However, I think there is an under-noticed color in this release and have found it to be a new staple in my crafting. In fact, it earned a spot on my desk. I already have an order for additional cardstock and a second ink pad — just in case. Let me introduce you to…

HARBOR

This is a perfect example of what I like to call “blending” color. Blending colors are those colors that help elevate the other colors. In this case, Harbor brings brightness to the color combo. Here it is in action

When I began creating, I had the more talked about “color buddy” Blueberry in place of the Harbor and found it to be a bit too dark for my liking. Even though it looked great when I picked it up, I needed to lighten the color combo. The way Greg and the C&9th Crew put together this color system they work no matter what. I ended up discovering Harbor for the incredible color it is!!! Here are two cards I made with the Harbor color combo.

If you are interested in replicating these cards, I will have a PDF in the resources tab available.

Have a fantastic day filled with plenty of creative opportunity!

Any questions? Go to our contact page.

Erika Hayes

Crafter her entire life Erika spends hours creating every day. She loves the crafting community and all the humans that are a part of expressing themselves in creative ways. She has been lucky enough to work in the industry as a concept designer and is a multiple-time published artist. Encouraging crafters to take part in education to better their craft is her passion.

Just a note! We are changing things up!

Erika L Hayes1 Comment

Dies: Concord & 9th, Ink: Simon Says Stamps Cardstock: I used scraps for the entire card.

I have been working on getting my plan together. It’s taking longer than expected, but such is life.

This blog has a new name! The Craft Dash. Long story short, this blog has always been a dream. I want a place to share ideas and education on crafting. I also know that I can make into a smaller business. I am (and have been) working hard to get some inventory for my Etsy shop which I hope to have uploaded soon and actually make this little dream a reality.

I often struggle with my “hobby” I invest HOURS and HOURS into creating and learning and just suffer I guess from feeling like I need a little more to be able to offer something to the world in this area. I’m no Jennifer McGuire but I do love not just the creating but the community of crafters drawn to paper arts. So, I started doing some real planning and will be adding much more content to my new blog — since I paid for the domain, I will for sure be working hard at making it a success.

I am still learning (there is a lot of reading going into how to do this right), but I am open to any suggestions! I hope you will keep checking in on this little venture, pray for it, send good vibes, share with others and if you have something you want to know more about, shoot me an email. You can contact me at ErikaHayes@thecraftdash.com or TheCraftDash@gmail.com.

Soon, I will have a monthly newsletter to email if anyone is interested, just again send me an email. I really appreciate my crafty family helping me to take The Craft Dash from a dream to a reality. LOOK for more coming soon

JANUARY *CCC *Christmas Card Challenge & Goal Report

Erika L Hayes5 Comments

Well, as the end of January makes its way toward us, I wanted to share the first 10 of the 120 Christmas Cards for 2023. I put the main product used for each card in the caption. If you see something and want to know what it is, just shoot me an email and I can most likely give you the product name or where I picked it up. I keep pretty good notes in my Color My Life App.

  • JAN 2023 – MFT Stamps
  • JAN 23 – Simon Says Stamps
  • JAN 2023 – Stampin’ Up!
  • JAN 2023 Simon Says Stamps
  • 2023 – My Favorite Things Stamps
  • JAN 2023 Cathy Z with Simon Says Stamps
  • 2023 – Pink & Main
  • JAN 2023 – Spellbinders
  • JAN 2023 – Stampin’ Up!
  • JAN 2023 – CC Designs with Silhouette Cameo 4

I hope that you find some kind of inspiration from these cards, and know I am excited to show what’s in the mix for February. It’s kinda fun to know you can get out your Christmas goodies and play all year long. I have a lot of great ideas and am really excited to use some of the products I got this year more than just for a month!

Some other fun cards that went out this month include some birthday and and a few anniversaries. Of course some of my encouragement cards are going out tomorrow or the next day.

I completed a class from Sandy Allnock. The pen & ink class I started and didn’t finish is now done! Upcoming classes I am signed up for include, The Altenew/Spellbinders class in February and in March the Concord & 9th class. I am very excited for both of these classes. I have also several classes I have in the wings.

Some of the stuff I learned in Sandy’s class was amazing. I don’t want to share the techniques as it wouldn’t be fair to give away her content. I can tell you she has a way of teaching that is fun. You don’t really feel like you can do it wrong, or that you aren’t good enough. She really did give some great ideas and I enjoyed the class a lot! If you are interested, you can follow this link to the class I took. (It is NOT an affiliate link, I get nothing for sharing this class). As of the timing of this post, the class is at a discounted price so….check it out!

Feburary has some fun stuff I’ve made for Valentine’s day I will not share just yet.

It started with a BANG! 2023

Erika L Hayes1 Comment
blue and red fireworks on the sky
Photo by Vlad Chețan on Pexels.com

HAPPY NEW YEAR (about 19 days late). If you don’t know, January is one of my busiest months at my day job. (boooo) This makes me more likely to ignore my other to-dos when it comes to the job I want to have. (Creating). Well, I finally have caught up and wanted to start January off right with a quick post to update the blog on my ideas and goals for this year. (Always good to put it out there in the universe so you have some accountability.

GOALS OF THE heART

What does 2023 hold for this artist? Well, many personal goals including being a better friend and more involved with people in my life and not hiding comfortably in my happy place (my room of art supplies). BUT I want to share three things I have decided to try my best to accomplish this year.

  1. I want to make 10 Christmas cards every month resulting in 120 at the end of the year. Whoo Hoo! I am off to a great start! I have 17 cards made as of today (I will post them every month) This being said, I am not going to be all super good at staging the cards. I mean I love how they look, but let’s face it there are only so many hours in a day so I will do my very best but I won’t promise.
  2. I will take one art-related class a month to build my skills. I have signed up for a few for the new year, but I also have several I have signed up for and not taken. (Darn sales get me every time)
  3. I plan to send out more cards! I know I make a lot but I just stink at sending them out. My goal is to get out my birthday, anniversary cards in time as well as sending 1-5 cards to people– well just because.
  4. Yes, I am going to do my very best to actually stop fighting myself and just film my video ideas. I think this fear of failing at this has literally made me frozen in fear. I want anything I put out there to be the very best, but the truth is unless I do it, it will not be any good at all. So if you need someone to encourage or pray for, this is the one for me. I have all the tools now and need to conquer this fear.
  5. I want to actually focus on my art more. I have an awesome BFF that gave me a wonderful book to practice watercolor every week for a year. The assignments are fun and I have started and am in good standing so here is to me finishing strong with more watercolor knowledge than I had 19 days ago.

How about you? Do you have any heART goals to share. Can I encourage you somehow?

I hope your 2023 is filled with greatness!

When your BFF is a cardist too!

Erika L Hayes1 Comment

It’s been a hot minute! I am working on some fun ideas but realized it’s been a while since I’ve posted to my blog.

My best friend is a cardist too! Which is amazing! We get to go to classes together and create together and that is really the best thing having that one person that GETS IT. We often text back and forth our completed or what I call mayday (those that are crashing and burning and need someone to help) cards because it’s nice to share with the person that gets it. She also gets all the other BFF stuff too! She is really one of my biggest supporters and encourager! I love her!

Anyway, when Christmas or Birthdays come around, it’s tough. I make her so many cards. However, once complete, I then decide they are not “Golda” worthy. I have stacks of cute cards, but I want them to be perfect for her. I also want them to be a “surprise”. I am so accustomed to sending a text with pictures of my card projects to her it kills me to make the one, then I can’t send it to her! UGH. This one was perfect for her. Simple but colorful. It fits her to a “T”. Well I waited to actually hand deliver her Christmas card this year because well, I had more fun with wax sealing my hand-delivered cards and was very happy when she finally got to see this project.

It is my Christmas blessing to be able to share my love of card making with her and know not only does she like getting my cards, but she really GETS them!

Here is a peek at the wax sealing of my hand-delivered cards. I got my monogram seal here and here is a great starter kit for wax sealing

Image gallery image

Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday to you all.

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