The Buzz Day 4 Hop

Hi friends!  We're back at it with Day 4 of Verve's June New Release Blog Hops. I sure enjoyed hopping along yesterday and can't wait to see what the Divas have buzzing today.

I'm the first stop along today's hop, so settle in for some fun as we shine our sneaky spotlights on the new The Buzz set and coordinating The Buzz Die Set that will release this Friday! We're giving today's featured products away to a random commenter along today's hop, so be sure to leave a little shout out as you hop about!  :)

I have been the most excited about this set since I illustrated it. The past 6 months have been really hard on me, with only a few meager hours each week to work and the rest spent with twin toddlers. One day a while back, Mark came home and told me to just go upstairs while he took over twin duty. And so I did.  I illustrated the bee in this set during that hour and it was just the spark I needed to motivate myself to get back to the drawing board, so to speak.

For today's card I went mixed-media and made a Father's Day card for Mark.  The background is done by dropping some Bombay Dr. Ph. Martin's india inks on watercolor cardstock, spritzing with water and then letting it drip.  I added some strips of Tim Holtz tissue tape randomly for some interest, lightly coloring with some distress inks and a waterbrush.  Then I stamped a border from the Deco Borders set at the bottom.  The bees and honeycomb images are stamped on black with Versamark and then embossed in gold and cut with the coordinating The Buzz Die set.  I had to add two bees, one for each of our boys!  I splashed some more ink on a scrap of paper for my Happy Father's Day sentiment, then finished off with lots of distressed edges and a wood chip pennant that I colored with a black marks all pencil.

If you want to see these dies in action, I have a short rambling of a video (in which I use ENTIRELY too much washi tape!) over on the Verve Blog today with a tip about aligning dies that don't have alignment holes. None of our dies this release have alignment holes.  Many of them are open dies, so it's easy to see through to your stamped image to line up, but a couple have little or no border and this trick helps line them up beautifully!

Next up on the hop is the fabulous Stacey!

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! Check out the Verve Blog today for a little more about our new products, an introduction of our fabulous special guests, and all the prize info and deadlines!

1. Julee 7. Charmaine 2. Stacey 8. Andrea 3. Teresa 9. Christyne 4. Amber 10. Maureen 5. Laurie 11. Shantaie 6. Marisa

Enabler's List
Stamps: The Buzz, Deco Borders (releasing 6/19 from Verve Stamps)
Paper: basic black (SU!), watercolor distress cardstock (Tim Holtz)
Ink: black archival, spiced marmalade, wild honey distress (Ranger), VersaMark (Tsukineko), Tangerine and Yellow Bombay India Inks (Dr. Ph. Martins)
Accessories: The Buzz Die Set (releasing 6/19 from Verve), tissue tape (Tim Holtz), gold embossing powder (Judikins), wood veneer (Evalicious)