A Shabby Little Tag

Hi friends! I'm popping in today with a shabby little tag I made while I was playing around with the Arteza brush markers earlier this week.

The butterfly and sentiment are from of the printable PDF that comes with purchase of the Lifted Hope Die Set  After coloring and die cutting the butterfly, I circle cut the sentiment, then mopped up a bit of the extra ink I had on my craft mat to give it a pop of color. Next I pulled out a tag from my stash and started stamping randomly with the script and splatter stamps from the Texture Tiles 1 stamp set from Sweet 'n Sassy stamps. I absolutely adore this set! It's perfect to add a little oomph to any background.

I sponged everything with antique linen distress ink for a vintage feel and added a black circle mat and a border from the Lacey Trim Duo Die Set for accent, then finished off with some Prima flowers and some ribbon from my stash.

Thanks so much for stopping by today! I hope you have a fabulous start to your weekend! If you haven't checked it out yet, there are still a few items in the Verve shop, and all remaining stamps and dies have been reduced to 75% off.

Enabler's List
Stamps: Lifted Hope printable PDF (Verve), Texture Tiles 1 (Sweet 'n Sassy)
Paper: smooth briston (canson), basic black (SU!), tag
Ink: laser printer,  seedless preserves, antique linen, tattered rose (Ranger Distress), real brush pens (Arteza - Amazon affiliate link), wink of Stella clear glitter pen (Zig)
Accessories: Lacey Trim Duo Die Set, Lifted Hope Die Set (A Cut Above by VERVE), paper flowers (Prima), circle die cuts, ribbon

You Got This

Hi friends! I'm popping in today with probably the most "mailable" card I've made in a long, long time. Haha. Absolutely no dimensional tape was used in the making of this card! I love me some dimension with all the bells and whistles, but also admire and desperately hope to get better at a cleaner style, too. Sometimes it's enough to let the ink and paper do the talking, right?

This card started out with a little experimentation. After watching Tiffany's Arteza video review, I recently purchased the 96 count Arteza real color brush pens. I've been using my Zig clean color markers more lately, but was feeling very limited in the 36 colors I had. Not long after I watched the video, Amazon had a lightning deal on the Artezas for $60 and I just had to get them. With some rewards I had been saving for a rainy day, it brought my out of pocket cost to just $13, so it was a no brainer to give them a go. Here they are all swatched out with a water brush. 💓💛💚💙💜

My first attempt coloring with them was less than stellar. Once I realized I had printed on regular cardstock and not the smooth bristol, I knew what the problem was and had to give them another go.  Here I used a butterfly from the Lifted Hope printable that's free with the purchase of our Lifted Hope Die Set and colored with pinks and purples. Side note: if you've already purched this die set and would like the printable, just email me at info at vervestamps dot com and I'll send the link.   Okay, on with the art stuff... I will say that the results with the Zig brush pens is a tiny bit better. They seem to stay wet a little longer and one color blends with wet medium are better than with the Artezas. But the Artezas do blend well with each other and with water, so I found myself blending dark to light and then using the wink of stella pen to soften. The brush tips aren't quite as nice and I've had to snip a few stray hairs, but overall I'm really happy with my rainbow of new markers!

Once my butterfly was colored and cut, I wanted a fun background, so took the pens I had colored with and scribbled onto an acrylic block to do a watercolor background. I taped off a rectangle of watercolor paper, then started plopping on color with a large very wet brush. It was quite a bit of fun, but I wanted just a bit more vibrance so I plopped in just a touch of crushed grape dylusions spray at the end and love how it turned out.  Once it was dry, I flicked on some dylusions white paint and a bit of my leftover ink.

I had intended to use the sentiment from the printable, but couldn't bring myself to cover up that pretty background. So I reached for the brand new Coffee Talk 2 set I just picked up from Lil' Inkers Designs. It's got lots of fabulous coffee themed sentiments, but I went for the "you got this" sentiment, as it's been my mantra these past few weeks as I'm working towards the final days of Verve.  I've got another fun thing in the works with the Hope sentiment and that other butterfly, though! Just need to photograph it. 

Thanks so much for stopping by today! I hope you've found a bit of inspiration here and have a fabulously creative rest of your day.

Enabler's List
Stamps: Coffee Talk 2 (Lil' Inkers Designs), Hope Printable (Verve)
Paper: smooth bristol, watercolor paper (Canson), basic black
Ink: laser printer, intense black (Hero Arts), Real brush pens (Arteza - Amazon affiliate link), Crushed Grape spray, white linen paint (Dylusions/Ranger), Wink of Stella clear glitter pen (Zig)
Accessories: Lifted Hope Die Set  (A Cut Above by VERVE)

Our Greatest Glory

Hi friends! I hope you're having a fabulous week so far. Mine is flying right by, just flitting from one activity/appointment/event to another. I'm looking forward to the lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer, for sure!

Today I'm popping in with one more mixed media card I made for the Pink Diva Inspirations Challenge.  I had lots of fun with this card, directly sponging on worn lipstick, seedless preserves and picked raspberry distress oxides and spritzing and drying.  I then dabbed some bubble gum pink Dylusions paint on with a baby wipe until I got the look I was going for.  I splattered with some white India ink, then embossed the quote from Learning to Sail directly onto the panel in white.

The hot air balloon is from the Hope Lifts set, and I stamped it in black on white cardstock twice, cutting one image with the coordinating Lifted Hope die set, then fussy cutting just the balloon to color with copics and pop up.  I finished with some distressed edges and a trail of rhinestone stars.

Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising EVERY time we fall. 

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

Enabler's List
Stamps: Learning to Sail, Hope Lifts (Verve Stamps)
Paper: white (Neenah)
Ink: archival black, picked raspberry, worn lipstick, seedless preserves distress oxide (Ranger), Copic markers, Versamark (Tsukineko), white India ink, bubble gum pink Dylusions paint (Ranger)
Accessories: Lifted Hope die set (A Cut Above by VERVE), white embossing powder, paper distresser, rhinestone star adhesive strip

Going to Be Okay

Hi friends! I'm back again with another shabby card using the Lavender collection from Prima.  And its another take on the April Viva la Verve sketch. Deadline for linking up is May 4, so there's still plenty of time for you to get inky and link up for a chance to win! I hope you'll play along!

Lately I've been loosely challenging myself to use as much up of my paper when I pull something out of a pad. So this card started with leftovers from yesterday's card and the other Lavender scraps in my stash.  I stamped and embossed the sentiment from Hope Lifts directly on a piece of patterned paper and cut with a stitched circle die.  I matted this with a lacey circle die cut from Spellbinders.  Next I arranged my layers to fulfill the sketch, cutting a Lacey Frames die cut for the second circle.  I then set to work on the butterfly from Hope Lifts.

I already had one butterfly embossed in white, watercolored, and then cut with the Butterfly Dreams set laying on my desk from a previous project. So I stamped the butterfly from Hope Lifts again on watercolor paper, embossed in white and cut with the coordinating Lifted Hope die set. Next I watercolored with pugnacious purple and plum tuckered out shimmerz products.  The white was a bit for my antiqued card. I recently picked up some vintage collage medium on clearance, so decided to give it a go over the embossed butterflies to age things a bit.  I finished off with lots of distressed edges and a little paper flower in the center of the butterfly.

Enabler's List
Stamps: Hope Lifts (Verve Stamps)
Paper: Lavender (Prima), crumb cake (SU!), cream (Neenah)
Ink: early espresso (SU!), antique lace distress (Ranger), Plum Tuckered Out Vibez, Pugnacious Purple Inklingz (Shimmerz)
Accessories: Lifted Hope, Lacey Frames and Butterfly Dreams die sets (A Cut Above by VERVE), white embossing powder, paper flower, circle dies (Spellbinders), corner rounder, paper distresser, Vintage collage medium (Ranger)

April Verve Spotlight Hops Day 2

Hi friends! We're back with another day of hopping counting down to our new release on April 10. I hope you'll hop along with us to see the eye candy the Divas are sharing. Leave a little comment love for them as you hop about for  a chance to win some shiny new Verve!

I'm the first stop on the Day 2 April New Release Spotlight Hop, so if you didn't hop here from somewhere along the hop, you're in the perfect place to jump right in! All of the stamps and dies you'll be seeing over the next few days will be available in the Verve shop on Tuesday, April 10. If you missed yesterday's hop, click here for my Day ONE post.

Today the Divas and our special guest, Michele Greenwood, are featuring the new Hope Lifts stamp set and the coordinating Lifted Hope die set. The design for this set has been floating around my head for a while. Whenever I read a blog post about someone facing a health or other tough challenge, the sentiments in this set are some of the things that go through my head. You know the... "I wish I had a stamp for that..." type of moments in life? Luckily, since I have my own stamp company, I can sometimes make my wishes (well at least the stamp related ones!) come true. 😉

So maybe, like, me, you've been wishing for a hot air balloon stamp with a matching die. Or maybe you wished that the butterfly in Sparkly Dreams was just a teeny bit larger and easier to color?  Or maybe you could just use a little word of hope for a friend going through a difficult time? Well, this is the set for you!

Since I used the butterfly image for my Viva la Verve card on Friday, I decided to start with the hot air balloon image from Hope Lifts for today's card. I simply stamped it and cut with the coordinating Lifted Hope die set and started coloring with Copics.

Next I pulled out some shimmerz sprays and did a watercolor wash on a piece of watercolor paper.  I embossed the hope things start looking up sentiment in white.  At this point I decided that the Copic colors I chose didn't quite match my wash, so I used some of the leftover ink to watercolor over the Copics.  I then used a little white india ink to add in some white highlights, then coated the whole thing with wink of stella.

I chose a tall card layout to reinforce the looking up sentiment.  A piece of patterned paper, a taffeta bow and some shiny sequins finish things off.

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

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 post today for the full hop list, prize details and a little more on this fun new set.

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

Enabler's List
Stamps: Hope Lifts (Verve Stamps)
Paper: Perfectly Plaid Winter (Lawn Fawn), watercolor pad (Prima), white (Neenah)
Ink: Jet black (Altenew), copics markers, jenni b bleu and palm reader Vibez, ride the tide creameez (Shimmerz), versamark, white india ink (Bombay), wink of stella clear glitter pen
Accessories: Lifted Hope die set (A Cut Above by VERVE), ribbon (SU!), white embossing powder, paper distresser, sequins

April Verve Spotlight Hops Day 1

Hi friends! I'm so happy to finally be kicking off a new stamp release blog hop today! We've got three new sets and coordinating dies to share with you over the next few days leading up to our new release on April 10. I hope you'll hop along with us for a fresh dose of inspiration and a chance to win some shiny new Verve!

I'm the first stop on today's April New Release Spotlight Hops, so if you didn't hop here from somewhere along the hop, you're in the perfect place to jump right in! All of the stamps and dies you'll be seeing over the next few days will be available in the Verve shop on Tuesday, April 10.

Today the Divas and our special guest, Michele Greenwood, (hop on over to the Verve Blog today to read her little mini interview) are featuring the new Risen Savior  set. If you've been following my blog lately, you've seen a few sneaks of this set in action already. I decided to release it when it came in without much fanfare so those who wanted to get a copy before Easter could. Now our release is finally here and we can give it the shoutout it deserves!

I just love egg wreaths and each year just can't wait for St. Patrick's Day to be done so I can hang mine on my door! I have all sorts of plans for these sweet speckled eggs and that old rugged cross image! This has been a super fun set to design with and I've found myself humming hymns all day long as I've worked on this release!

My card for today features the Risen Savior set and a word die that's in the Lifted Hope die set that we'll be spotlighting in a couple days.  I had this vision in my head of this bright, glowing light coming from the empty tomb, so started with a mixed media background of yellows with shimmerz products and some stencils.

Next I stamped the cross in brown on a stitched rectangle die cut and added the leafy sprigs in green on either side and colored in a little dirt.  I then set the die cut back inside the stencil and sponged yellow ink around the inside.

The speckled eggs are stamped in brown and then colored with Copics and fussy cut to add a little interest to the card. I just love these eggs and I'm sure you'll be seeing a lot of them on future creations! For the hope banner, I die cut the hope word die from white cardstock and some cardboard packaging. Then I sponged yellow inks onto the white cardstock and layered the two pieces together with a smidge of an offset, to set it off.  I layered this onto a strip of vellum, sponged with distress inks and added it to my card.

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

Check out the Verve Blog post today for the full hop list, prize details, a mini interview with Michele, and a little more on this fun new set.

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!

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

Enabler's List
Stamps: Risen Savior (Verve Stamps)
Paper: white (Neenah), vellum, cardboard packaging
Ink: glorious day, egg noggin' (Shimmerz), squeezed lemonade, scattered straw, antique linen, wild honey, gathered twigs distress inks (Ranger), Coffee archival (Ranger), forest glades (Altenew)
Accessories: Lifted Hope die set (A Cut Above by VERVE), stitched rectangles dies, layering stencils (Tim Holtz)

Lifted Spirits Viva la Verve

Hi friends! It's the first Fri-yay of a new month and that means it's time for me to host a new sketch challenge over at Viva la Verve! This week's sketch has lots of layers, but you can dress it up or dress it down as you like. I hope you can play along with us! I love seeing the linky fill up with so many lovely cards to take a peek at throughout the month.

My sample card is also a sneaky peek at a new set we'll be releasing on April 10th. Our new release spotlight blog hops start tomorrow (4/7), so be sure to tune in for a chance to win some shiny new Verve! And for some early peeks, click on over today to the Viva la Verve blog to see a bunch of sneaky peek samples from the Divas using the April VLV sketch.

For my card, I started with the butterfly from the new Hope Lifts stamp set. It's similar, but a bit larger than the butterfly in our previously released Sparkly Dreams set (which was briefly retired due to a lost artwork file, but I'm happy to say the lost has been found and it's back among our offerings!). I embossed the butterfly in white once on white cardstock and once on vellum. Next I colored with watercolor pencils and blended with a wink of stella pen.  Then I cut the white cardstock butterfly out with the coordinating Lifted Hope Die Set. The vellum butterfly was cut with the butterfly die that has no antennae from the Butterfly Dreams Die Set. The image in Hope Lifts is larger than this previously released die, so it cuts off parts of the stamped image, but it makes for a perfect layered dimension to this image. I then cut the antennae from the same Butterfly Dreams die set out of smoky slate and then layered together with some grey pearls.

Next I worked on the sentiment panel, using a cereal box stencil I made with a smaller circle die to mask off a circle die cut and then do a watercolor wash with some Prima color bloom spray.  Once this was dry, I embossed the sentiment from Hope Lifts in white over the watercolor.  This is matted on a big pinking circle from so saffron. I liked how this gave the look of a sun, so added some embossed clouds to the background panel, then some embossed stripes for the rounded square panel.

The vertical panel is embossed with polka dots, then I used the same spray ink for the background and added on a new border die from the Lacey Trim Duo die set.

Alright, there you have it! Thanks so much for stopping by today! It's sure to be a busy weekend for me with daily blog hops and the boys' first ever flag football practice and game on Saturday. They're totally pumped for it, though. I'm just praying for no injuries! {grin}

Enabler's List
Stamps: Hope Lifts (Verve Stamps)
Paper: smoky slate, so saffron (SU!), white (Neenah), vellum
Ink: dragonfly blue color bloom spray, Scenic Route watercolor pencils (Prima), wink of stella glitter pen, versamark
Accessories: Lifted Hope Die Set, Butterfly Dreams Die Set, Lacey Trim Duo Die Set (A Cut Above by VERVE), clouds, stripe and polka dot embossing folders, pinking circles, classic circles nestabilities (Spellbinders), corner rounder, pearls