April Verve Spotlight Hops Day 1

Hi friends! I'm so happy to finally be kicking off a new stamp release blog hop today! We've got three new sets and coordinating dies to share with you over the next few days leading up to our new release on April 10. I hope you'll hop along with us for a fresh dose of inspiration and a chance to win some shiny new Verve!

I'm the first stop on today's April New Release Spotlight Hops, so if you didn't hop here from somewhere along the hop, you're in the perfect place to jump right in! All of the stamps and dies you'll be seeing over the next few days will be available in the Verve shop on Tuesday, April 10.

Today the Divas and our special guest, Michele Greenwood, (hop on over to the Verve Blog today to read her little mini interview) are featuring the new Risen Savior  set. If you've been following my blog lately, you've seen a few sneaks of this set in action already. I decided to release it when it came in without much fanfare so those who wanted to get a copy before Easter could. Now our release is finally here and we can give it the shoutout it deserves!

I just love egg wreaths and each year just can't wait for St. Patrick's Day to be done so I can hang mine on my door! I have all sorts of plans for these sweet speckled eggs and that old rugged cross image! This has been a super fun set to design with and I've found myself humming hymns all day long as I've worked on this release!

My card for today features the Risen Savior set and a word die that's in the Lifted Hope die set that we'll be spotlighting in a couple days.  I had this vision in my head of this bright, glowing light coming from the empty tomb, so started with a mixed media background of yellows with shimmerz products and some stencils.

Next I stamped the cross in brown on a stitched rectangle die cut and added the leafy sprigs in green on either side and colored in a little dirt.  I then set the die cut back inside the stencil and sponged yellow ink around the inside.

The speckled eggs are stamped in brown and then colored with Copics and fussy cut to add a little interest to the card. I just love these eggs and I'm sure you'll be seeing a lot of them on future creations! For the hope banner, I die cut the hope word die from white cardstock and some cardboard packaging. Then I sponged yellow inks onto the white cardstock and layered the two pieces together with a smidge of an offset, to set it off.  I layered this onto a strip of vellum, sponged with distress inks and added it to my card.

That's all for me, next on the hop is our super duper fabulous Guest Diva, Michele!

Check out the Verve Blog post today for the full hop list, prize details, a mini interview with Michele, and a little more on this fun new set.

Want to win some shiny new Verve? We'll be picking a random commenter on one of the hop spots below to win today's featured products! So be sure to leave a little comment on all the blogs below to increase your chances!

Day 1 Hop List 1. Julee 5. Marisa 2. Michele (Guest) 6. Maureen 3. Betty 7. Teresa 4. Charmaine

Enabler's List
Stamps: Risen Savior (Verve Stamps)
Paper: white (Neenah), vellum, cardboard packaging
Ink: glorious day, egg noggin' (Shimmerz), squeezed lemonade, scattered straw, antique linen, wild honey, gathered twigs distress inks (Ranger), Coffee archival (Ranger), forest glades (Altenew)
Accessories: Lifted Hope die set (A Cut Above by VERVE), stitched rectangles dies, layering stencils (Tim Holtz)