Verve New Release Blog Hop

Welcome to Verve's May New Release Spotlight Hop! It's been a while, but I'm so excited to say that there's something new in the Verve shop today!  To celebrate, the Divas are putting on a blog hop sharing our first looks at the new Butterfly Grace stamp set and coordinating Graceful Butterflies die set.

And since we love to share, we're hosting a little giveaway. Just leave a little shout out in the comments at each stop along the hop and you'll be in the prize drawing for the new Butterfly Grace stamp set and Graceful Butterflies die set. Deadline for commenting is Monday, May 15. Happy hopping!

Julee Charmaine Christyne Laurie Maureen Marisa Teresa

I'm just so happy to say it's release day! It's been a long stretch for me as my family has endured much sickness over this past winter. But during one of the lulls in between viruses, I sat down and designed this set centered on the theme of grace. Amazing Grace has always been one of my favorite hymns and lately I've been trying to teach my boys about grace. Not only the wonderful gift of God's grace, but how to be gracious and kind to ourselves and to others, ESPECIALLY when it's undeserved.  So thoughts of grace have been swirling around in my head as I look for opportunities to instill a gracious heart in my boys. And out of my heart, came this set.

My card today is done in the mixed-media style, the thing that seems to really get my creative soul going these days.  I started the background with distress oxide inks in spiced marmalade, worn lipstick and broken china.  Next I added a piece of Melange tissue wrap with collage podge.  I did a bit more distress ink smooshing and spritzing, then started adding some white back in by pouncing gesso on the piece with a q-tip.  I followed this with more q-tip pouncing in tumbled glass, spun sugar and spiced marmalade.  I wanted a feeling of movement to the card, so added more gesso with a jar lid in little concentric circles.

The amazing grace sentiment from Butterfly Grace is embossed in black onto a torn piece of background I had made at the same time with distress inks and tissue wrap.  The outline butterfly is stamped in black, then I filled it in with the solid butterfly, stamped with worn lipstick distress oxide ink.  I wanted to add a bit more white back into the design, so pounded lightly with some mono liquid glue and then sprinkled some Frantage shabby white embossing powder.  This was the very first card I made with this set and the dies hadn't arrived yet, so I fussy cut the butterfly and popped up next to the sentiment to finish things off.

Thanks so much for stopping by today! I hope you have a fabulous time hopping and would love to hear what you think of the set.  For another chance to win, be sure to check out the Verve Stamps page on Facebook.

Next up on the hop is the fabulous Charmaine.

Enabler's List
Stamps: Butterfly Grace (Verve Stamps)
Paper: white
Ink: broken china, spiced marmalade, worn lipstick distress oxide (Ranger), gesso, tumbled glass, spun sugar, spiced marmalade distress paint (Ranger), white gel pen
Accessories: Melange Tissue Wrap (Tim Holtz Ideaology), Frantage Shabby White embossing powder (Stampendous), washi tape, black embossing powder, q-tips, paper distresser, Collage Podge