Where Flowers Bloom on Sunny Days

Welcome to our Anni-VERVE-sary Spotlight Hops! Verve is celebrating four wonderful years with a HUGE release and today's the first day of spotlights!  Hop along with the Divas all week long as we share our first looks at a few of the new products releasing from Verve on Friday night! One lucky commenter along the hop will win today's featured sets and dies.  So be sure and leave a little love as you hop around the Divasphere!  Check the Verve Blog for prize details and deadlines.

Today the release team is joined by a few members of our Inspiration Team, plus our August Guest Divas... Marisa Ritzen and Sarah Gough.  Our spotlight for today is shining on a new set called Sunny Days, with its coordinating Leafy Sprigs Die Set and the Where Flowers Bloom Plain Jane.  I used all three on my card today and the layout is the Viva la Verve! August Week 2 sketch.

I know there's a lot of hopping to do, so hopefully I won't ramble too much.  I embossed a piece of vellum with the Square Lattice, then layered it over patterned paper and stitched them together with a sewing machine to achieve an aida cloth type of look.  I'd forgotten by this point that I intended to stamp the plain jane in the corner, or I might not have done the embossing.  But sometimes you just go with it, right?  So I stamped the sentiment in Archival black ink, then lightly filled in the missing parts with a permanent marker and dusted with a coat of clear embossing powder to make it stand out a bit.

The ribbon is scrunched Julee-style.  To achieve this look, I simply lay down a piece of tacky tape where I want the ribbon to go.  Then I squiggle Zip Dry glue over the area (because tacky tape alone doesn't seem to be strong enough to hold the shape for very long) and then just press my ribbon down as I like.  In this case, because the ribbon was so bulky, I went back and added a little zip dry behind each fold as well to keep things looking fine and dandy.  Then I finished off with a little Fray Check on the tail of the ribbon so there wouldn't be any frayed ends.  A bit of handstitching, some liquid pearls, some die cuts and I was done.

All righty.  That's all from me today... thanks so much for stopping by!  Be sure to check out what the rest of the Divas have to share today and leave a little comment love as you hop about for a chance to win!  Next up on the hop is ... Charmaine!

1. Julee 8. Marisa {Guest} 2. Charmaine 9. Laurie 3. Tosha 10. Maureen 4. Andrea 11. Amy 5. Teresa 12. Shannan 6. Jackie 13. Lynda 7. Sarah {Guest}

Enabler's List:
Stamps: Sunny Days, Where Flowers Bloom Plain Jane (Verve Stamps)
Paper: Victoria Gardens (Echo Park), Vellum, Black, Cream
Ink: Jet Black Archival, Antique Linen and Vintage Photo Distress (Ranger), Copic markers
Accessories: Leafy Sprigs Die (A Cut Above by VERVE), Square Lattice Texture Impressions folder, wide striped ribbon (SU!), black thread, paper piercer, black scrapper's floss (Karen Foster), Labels 10 Nestabilities (Spellbinders), Peacock Liquid Pearls (Ranger), Say it in pearls Go Green (Prima), sewing machine, paper distresser