Gracious Words

Hi friends!  It's finally Friday and time for the final June Viva la Verve sketch.  Be sure to link up your cards before Thursday, July 2 to be entered in our $100 Verve voucher prize drawing!  This week's hostess is the lovely Amber Hight with a fun layered sketch.

I hadn't had a chance to use the Proverbs 16:24 plain jane, so I decided it would be fun to use the honeycomb stamp from The Buzz as my four circles.  I stamped them in hello honey ink and then cut with the coordinating The Buzz Die Set.  (Sorry, the dies sold out quickly, but there are more on the way in a few weeks.)  I love this verse because it is so true.  I can't even count the number of times kind, gracious words have changed my day and lifted my spirits.  I'm the kind of person that still rehashes conversations from when I was 12 in my head, so I know firsthand how powerful the spoken word can be.  I try my best to think before I speak and endeavor to make my words full of grace and kindness.  This stamp is a great reminder of that.

To play on the word theme, I decided to use some dsp from the First Edition pack, lightly scraping it with gesso, then sponging scattered straw and fossilized amber distress inks over a hexagon stencil to do the background.  I did the same technique on another square and stamped the Proverbs 16:24 verse in Archival Black ink.  I cut a black frame using two pinking circles dies for the underlying circle, then added several small bee stamps from The Buzz to both the background and the sentiment panel and colored with a marker and a white gel pen.

I wanted that busy feeling of buzzing around the beehive, so I added some enamel dots here and there, then finished off with the big bee from The Buzz stamped onto the dbook paper, then cut with the coordinating die.  Lots of distressed edges lend a shabby feel and the finished card size is 5.5" square.

Thanks so much for stopping by today!  I hope you have a wonderful start to the weekend.  It's supposed to be the start of a heat wave around here with temperatures in the 108-109 range this weekend.  I'm thinking we'll be spending some time in our subdivision pool with the boys!  {grin}

Viva la Verve June Week 4 Sketch

Enabler's List
Stamps: The Buzz, Proverbs 16:24 (Verve Stamps)
Paper: First Edition DSP, hello honey, basic black (SU!), cream (Neenah)
Ink: hello honey (SU!), black archival, fossilized amber, vintage photo, gathered twigs distress (Ranger), white gel pen
Accessories: The Buzz Die Set (A Cut Above by VERVE), enamel dots, pinking circles nestabilities (Spellbinders), honeycomb stencil (Tim Holtz), gesso