Hope and a HOP

Hi friends!  It's the 5th of the month and that means it's time for a Diva Inspirations Hop!  I'm kicking off this shindig with a triple take on one of my favorite plain jane stamps... Hope Perches.  Be sure to hop around and leave a little love on all the Diva blogs listed below for a chance to win a $30 Gift Certificate to the Verve store!  All the details are over on the Verve Blog today.

I started my card trio with a clean, masculine concept. These Dear Lizzy leaf & feather stickers came in a recent Scarlet Lime Mixed Media Kit and I immediately knew I wanted to pair them with the Hope Perches stamp.  I loved the color scheme of the feathers in the package (yellow, kraft and aqua), so I chose to stick with that for my first card.  The sentiment is stamped directly onto a plain old ruled index card and distressed it a bit.  This is layered onto a woodgrain embossed piece of So Saffron with a bit of washi tape.  I added a hint of distressing to the edges, applied my leaf & feather sticker and mounted on a kraft card base.  Easy peasy.  Seriously a 5 minute card.

Next I  chose the kraft feather and since it had some pink details, I thought it would be perfect with the left over scrap of white cardstock I had from cleaning the hollyhock stencil I used on my Snowy Grace card.  (Mixed media has taught me to never throw away a cool looking scrap!)  So I stamped over the gelato background with the Hope Perches sentiment, then added a little interest with the polka dot background from Bountiful Backgrounds.  The ribbon treatment uses seam binding from the Truly Madly Deeply Ribbon Collection.  I simply tied a bow around the side of the panel, then tied another bow and glued it over the top.  I added a little center of glass glitter and a big pink pearl as an embellishment.  The leaf and feather sticker, some distressing and a bit more of that yummy glass glitter finished that card off.  This card took about 20 minutes, mainly because I couldn't figure out what to put in the center of the bow.  :)

For my final card I stamped more polka dots from Bountiful Backgrounds on white card stock.  I was excited to play in the new Mix-ability Challenge over on SCS, so for my matte finish I whitewashed over the background stamping with a mixture of tan acrylic paint and water.  Next I stamped the Hope Perches sentiment in Purely Pomegranate and embossed with clear embossing powder for a bit of shine.  I also shaded my yellow feather with Faber Castell pitt pens, then added detailing with Glossy Accents for my shiny medium.  I laid down some Tim Holtz tissue tape in the corners.  (This stuff doesn't stick very well, but I love it, so I just put a light coat of matte decou-page over it and sprinkled some dazzling diamonds on it for a hint of sparkle).  The little birdie is a wood veneer shape which I stamped with the same polka dot border then added a bit of twine below it for a nest.  I stamped the hope from the sentiment onto cotton tape then cut it out and stuck it below the birdie.  The background is embossed with the Post Card Texture Fades from Tim Holtz, which I sponged with Vintage Photo ink and distressed, then added a twine bow and a metal button. I have no idea how long this card took, because I kept getting interrupted, so it evolved over three different crafting sessions.  It was definitely the funnest to make though.  Exactly my style.  {grin}

Well, I hope you've enjoyed my little mini tour with the Hope Perches plain jane.  It's time to head on over to Betty's Blog for the next Verve-alicious stop on the hop.  Here's the official hop list...  Happy hopping!

1. Julee	8. Andrea
2. Betty	9. Charmaine
3. Jen	10. Janelle
4. Sankari	11. Laurie
5. Sony	12. Maureen
6. Susan	13. Teresa
7. Amber

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Enabler's Lists:

Woodgrain Card
Stamps: Hope Perches (Verve Stamps)
Paper: So Saffron, Crumb Cake (SU!), index card
Ink: Truffle (Mix'd Media Inx), So Saffron (SU!)
Accessories:  Leaf & feather detail stickers (Dear Lizzy), Woodgrain embossing folder (SU!), washi tape, Decou-Page (Americana)
 
Shabby Pink Card
Stamps: Hope Perches, Bountiful Backgrounds (Verve Stamps)
Paper: White
Ink: Gelato (Faber-Castell), Vintage Photo (Ranger)
Accessories:  Leaf & feather detail stickers (Dear Lizzy), Truly Madly Deeply Ribbon Collection (Verve Stamps), pink glass glitter (Melissa Frances), pink pearl, paper distresser

Birdie Post Card
Stamps: Hope Perches, Bountiful Backgrounds (Verve Stamps)
Paper: White, So Saffron (SU!)
Ink: Purely Pomegranate (SU!), Vintage Photo, Antique Linen (Ranger) Pitt pens (Faber-Castell), tan acrylic paint (Studio Claudine Hellmuth)
Accessories:  Leaf & feather detail stickers (Dear Lizzy), paper distresser, PostCard Texture Fades, Tissue Tape (Tim Holtz), Decou-page (Americana), Glossy Accents (Ranger), button (My Mind's Eye), wood veneer bird (Studio Calico), linen thread (TCP)), dazzling diamonds glitter (SU!), cotton tape