April Verve Spotlight Hops Day 4

Hi friends! It's RELEASE DAY 😊 and we have a very special final day of hopping to share with you! We've combined our release hop with the kickoff to our April Diva Inspirations challenge. The theme this month is yellow, so get ready for a little handmade sunshine coming your way!  And don't forget to leave a little comment love for the Divas as you hop about, because today's prize is for the entire April release!  Woohoo!

I'm the first stop on the Day 4 April New Release Spotlight Hop & Diva Inspirations challenge, so if you didn't arrive here from another hop spot you're in the perfect place to jump right in! All of the stamps and dies you've been seeing are available in the shop right now!  Go ahead, check them out.... I'll wait! If you missed our earlier hops, you can click here for my Day One,  Day Two and Day Three posts.  Deadline for our blog hop prize drawing is April 15.

Today's featured focus is designer's choice combined with our April inspiration, so you might just sneak a peek at a whole bunch of must-haves! Check out all the challenge details on the Verve blog today, then play along for a chance to win in our monthly challenge drawing! We hope you'll play along with us!

Now, if you hadn't noticed from my cards lately, I love me some sunny yellow! Especially when it seems like spring just wants to elude us! I'm all about creating my own sunshine, so I'm willing spring to come and stay with our Welcome Spring Sale this month! 😁 When you're done hopping, be sure to hit the Verve shop to check out the sale and the new products. All of our new releases are 15% off. Or double your savings by purchasing the Buy it All Bundle at a 30% discount.

I have two cards to share today. The first card started with the cross from Risen Savior and the inspiration color of yellow. I knew I wanted it behind this sentiment, so cut an oval die to fit, then stamped the cross and the sentiment. I then put the die back over the die cut to sponge some squeezed lemonade around the edges and finished off with an air art tool with a brown marker for a few ink splatters.

Next I moved on to the background. I added a thin layer of gesso to watercolor paper, then painted on some dylusions paint with a baby wipe.  I added some squeezed lemonade distress oxide to the mix and then let things dry.  The yellow had become a bit brighter than I wanted, so I scraped some heavy gesso in places, then used a script stencil to apply some light paste to the background.  I love how it turned out.



From there I went to work on the scalloped piece, attaching the larger scallop border die cut from the Lacey Trim Duo die set to a rose red rectangle panel and then covering with some pretty paper from the Eastertime collection by Authentique.  I covered the seam with a few layers of baker's twine, tied in a bow, then accented with a paper flower.

For my second card, I kept with the mixed media style, having fun with light paste, gesso, stencils and texture paste to create the tag. Next I stamped a flower from the previously released Bloom Brighter set twice, colored with Copics and cut with the coordinating Blooming die set.  I added the leaves, also cut with the same die set and then stamped the thinking of  you sentiment from Sentimental Wishes onto a Lacey Frames die cut circle.  To finish the tag section, I added a flourish die cut, some glitter to the center of the flowers and a wrinkled seam binding bow a the top.

For the rest of the card, I used a doily, a piece of smoky slate to tie in the other grays in the card and a card base embossed with the chicken wire embossing folder. My final touches were a couple rounded corners and the two border dies from the Lacey Trim Duo die set layered on top of the card for a fun, elegant edge.

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

Want to win some shiny new Verve? Today's prize is a BIG one. We'll be picking a random commenter on one of the hop spots below to win our ENTIRE new release! The April 2018 Release Collection includes Risen Savior, Hope Lifts, Sentimental Wishes, and the Lifted Hope, Lacey Frames and Lacey Trim Duo die sets. So be sure to leave a little comment on all the blogs below to increase your chances! Comment deadline for the blog hop prize drawing is April 15.

DAY 4 Hop List 1. Julee 5. Laurie 2. Michele (Guest) 6. Marisa 3. Betty 7. Maureen 4. Charmaine 8. Teresa

Enabler's List
He Lives card
Stamps: Risen Savior (Verve Stamps)
Paper: Eastertime (Authentique), rose red, crumb cake (SU!), white (Neenah), watercolor distress paper (Tim Holtz)
Ink: pure sunshine, lemon zest dylusions paint (Ranger), squeezed lemonade, black archival, scattered straw (Ranger)
Accessories: Lacey Trim Duo die set (A Cut Above by VERVE), oval dies, bakers twine, script stencil, paper flower, light paste (Prima), gesso

Thinking of You card
Stamps: Sentimental Wishes, Bloom Brighter  (Verve Stamps)
Paper: smoky slate (SU!), white (Neenah), tag (Paper Accents)
Ink: pure graphite, forest glades (Altenew), Dragonfly blue color bloom spray (Prima), white india ink (Bombay), Copic markers

Accessories: Lacey Frames Die Set, Lacey Trim Duo Die Set, Blooming die set (A Cut Above by VERVE), flourish die (Recollections), doily, chicken wire embossing folder, dot stencil, light paste, gesso, glitter glue, seam binding, corner rounder

Every Little Moment and Seasons Givings Winner

Hi friends! Thanks to all of you who left comments over the past week on my Seasons Givings blog hop post. It's been so fun to read your favorite books, movies and tv shows of 2017 and I've added a ton of books to my reading list for the coming year. Thanks! I'm announcing the winner for my two giveaways below, but first I'll ahare the card I made for today.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, hubby and I celebrated out 20th anniversary just before Christmas. It's always a crazy time with the holidays so close, so I decided to make his card earlier in the year and save it.  But you know what? I still can't find the card! Ack. I remember putting it in a "safe" place so I wouldn't lose it, but after two weeks of searching, I'm admitting defeat. And wondering just how "safe" the card needed to be!  LOL

So I decided to make him a new card with some of the goodies I got on the shopping spree he took me on. The sentiment is from the Bloom Brighter set. Mark took a bunch of time off for Christmas and we were even able to have 4 entire days where the kids were in school and we could hang out together. It was so nice having uninterrupted moments of coffee and conversation, so this sentiment was the perfect choice for my card.

I love this Welcome Home line of papers and picked a few to coordinate and then stamped the sentiment on a stitched circle die cut and matted with a lacey circle die cut.  I added a scallop border die to one of the panels to repeat this pattern, then picked out some coordinating ephemera, a little toothpick flag, some twine and teeny rhinestones to finish things off.

Okay... now on with the winnner's announcement...

Giveaway #1: Box of papercrafting goodies

Laurie

Giveaway #2:  $50 Gift certificate to Verve

Rebecca Yahrling

Congrats Laurie and Rebecca! I've emailed both of you, but if you don't receive it for some reason, feel free to email me at contests@vervestamps.com.  Thanks!

Some of you had asked about my favorites for 2017, so here they are...

Books

I love to read, but haven't made it a priority the past few years. In 2017, my favorite book was Fool's Fate by Robin Hobb. It was the ending of a trilogy that was the continuing story of several other trilogies she had written and woven together in a seemlessly beautiful way. It was bittersweet and hopeful and I'm sad to see these characters I have loved since I first picked up one of her books 15 years ago end their journey. On Audible, I really enjoyed listenening to the Birthright series by Gabrielle Zevin. Think of a world where chocolate is outlawed and there's an underground mafia supplying chocolate to the world. It's YA and light, but still entertaining. And although I've never read anything else by Nora Roberts, Year One called out to me in December and I devoured it.  I love a good apocalyptic outbreak story and am looking forward to the next installment in the series.

Television

For TV, in 2017 we discovered Travelers and Helix on Netflix and binge watched both series. So excited that Season 2 of Travelers just arrived on Netflix. We watched several others, but those two were probably my favorite, since I'm a big fan of sci fi. In other genres, Victoria, The Missing Season 2 and Anne With an E were top on the list. (Note: started watching Anne with an E with my boys in the room, thinking it would be okay, but soon herded them out as it's a bit intense, especially with flashbacks to Anne's past.)

Movies

For movies, we saw a total of 2 in the theater. Guardians of the Galaxy and Wonder Woman, both of which were huge favorites of mine. My favorite rental was Logan... love me some Wolverine, and this movie exceeded my expectations.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Enabler's List
Stamps: Bloom Brighter (Verve Stamps)
Paper: Welcome Home (Carta Bella), black, cream
Ink: archival black (Ranger)
Accessories: stitched circles stax (Cottage Cutz). lacey circles nestabilities (spellbinders), Welcome Home ephemera (Carta Bella), border die, teeny rhinestones, linen thread, toothpick flag

Enjoy Today

Hi friends! I'm popping in today with a little watercolor card I made with the August Verve release. Continuing in my watercolor all the things mode, I plopped some watercolors from the Pastel Dreams watercolor confections palette onto watercolor paper to make the background.

Next I plopped some pinks from the same palette onto another piece of watercolor paper and embossed the flowers from Bloom Brighter (3 small flowers and one larger one with leaves) in white, making sure to stamp the flower with the leaves so it would be in a white space.  Then I watercolored the leaves with a paintbrush, using a green from a different prima watercolor palette.  I cut the stamped images with the coordinating Blooming Die Set.

The sentiment is from Cake & Candles and I stamped it onto a Stitched Pennants die cut, then layered them all together and accented the center with a bumpy rhinestone.  The final touch was some Nuvo jewel drops. This was my first time adding them directly on the card like this, and well, I think I need some practice! My drops definitely have lots of "character". {grin}

Thanks so much for stopping by today! I hope you have a fabulous day.

Enabler's List
Stamps: Bloom Brighter, Cake & Candles (Verve Stamps)
Paper: watercolor paper (Creatology)
Ink: Versamark, Pastel Dreams Watercolor Confections, The Classics Watercolor Confections (Prima)
Accessories: Blooming Die Set, Stitched Pennants Die Set (A Cut Above by VERVE), Sea Breeze Jewel Drops (Nuvo), white embossing powder (JudiKins), adhesive rhinestone bump (Bead Landing)

Day 2 AnniVERVEsary Spotlight Hops

Hi friends! We're back with Day 2 of our 10th Anni-VERVE-sary release! I just loved all the sweet little peeks the Divas shared yesterday, and we've got even more in store for you today!

I'm the first stop on today's blog hop so WELCOME! Verve is releasing 4 new sets and 2 die sets on Monday, August 28. The Divas and our very special Guest Diva, Kelly Lunceford, are joined by three very talented former Divas. Amy Sheffer, Amy Kolling and Laurie Willison! There are prizes to be won each day of our hops, so let's get to it!

Today's feature is on the new Bloom Brighter stamp set and coordinating Blooming Die Set. Our very first Anni-VERVE-sary release brought a special commemorative set where each design team member chose a quote to be made into a stamp. This set was called Beautiful You and the flower included in this set is one of my all-time favorites. It seemed only fitting to give this simple flower image an update and bring it back for our 10th Anni-VERVE-sary release.

For my sneak peek today, I did a little watercoloring with Zig clean color real brush markers. I've never had much success with these, but I recently watched a couple videos by Tiffany Solorio  (she'll be joining us as an Alumni Guest later this week) and was inspired to give them another go. I loved the results and think I'll be reaching for these markers a lot more in the future! I stamped and embossed the outline flowers from Bloom Brighter, then colored with the Zig markers and cut with the coordinating Blooming Die Set.

The sentiment is stamped on a circle die cut and then I offset a black circle behind it to give a feeling of movement to the layout. I thought this sentiment would be perfect for either a birthday card or an encouragement card. I love sentiments that can go either way, don't you? The background is done with watercolor paper and some Flat Magicals. I loved how vibrant the colors turned out.  I finished off with a bit of washi tape down the side  and some bumpy adhesive rhinestones in the flower centers. I found these in the beading section at Michaels, and absolutely love them.

I've got another fun card with this set over on the Verve blog today, so don't forget to hop on over there for a little more inspiration!  If you already know you want the whole release, be sure to get in on the 30% off Buy It All Bundle pre-order.

Thanks so much for stopping by today! Happy hopping!

Next up on the hop is Maureen.

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! Leave a little shout out in the comments section on all the blogs below to increase your chances! Check out the Verve Blog today for the full hop list, a little more about our new products and all the prize info and deadlines!

1. Julee 7. Amy K. (Alumni) 2. Maureen 8. Lesley 3. Betty 9. Christyne 4. Charmaine 10. Laurie 5. Marisa 11. Kelly (Guest) 6. Amy S. (Alumni) 12. Laurie W. (Alumni)

Enabler's List
Stamps: Bloom Brighter (Verve Stamps)
Paper: watercolor paper (Creatology), basic black (SU!)
Ink: onyx black (Versafine), Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers (Kuretake),  Hibiscus Rose Flat Magicals from Caribbean Cruise set (Lindys Stamp Gang)
Accessories: Blooming Die Set (A Cut Above by VERVE), clear embossing powder (JudiKins), circle dies, enamel dots, adhesive bump rhinestones (bead landing), washi tape