New Verve… O My Soul

Bless the Lord, O My Soul… A few weeks ago, I received an email from the incredibly talented, Julee Tilman asking me if I would be interested in a Guest Spotlight for Verve’s October release!? Of course, I barely could type yes fast enough when I read through her entire invitation and saw these words: there’s even a little wheat stalk image in the set!  Wheat! eep! Though, I’ve lived different places around the country… I am a born and bred Kansas girl… if you even murmur wheat or sunflowers, I’m all yours…

Isn’t that a classy Guest Spotlight graphic? Julee is one of the most talented graphic designers that I know! This is a fairly long post, but I’m just going to throw it out there: I *may* have a giveaway graphic and prize details mentioned below for those who stick with me to the end. 😉

So, speaking of wheat, it’s only fitting that I show you my favorite image from the newest Verve release first… The wheat and the Psalm 103:1 scripture shown on the card above both come from the new set, Good Work. Swoon.

I started with a piece of watercolor cardstock and Ranger Distress Inks (Wild Honey and Scattered Straw) to create a focal point base using the Wrinkle Free Distress tutorial at Splitcoaststampers. (The key is to allow your ink to dry well between layers!)

When I had created the base layer, I used a chocolate pigment ink and clear embossing powder to add the sentiment. I used my MISTI to stamp the sentiment twice since I wanted to be sure and have good, solid ink coverage. Amazing results. I’d actually been shying away from embossing the past few years because speckled spots of non-inked image bothered me so. Not anymore! (We produced a Product Focus review at Splitcoast for the MISTI last week, if you aren’t sure what that is!) The stalk of wheat was added with Brown Sugar ink (SU!).  This card also perfectly fits a fun Hope You Can Cling To challenge at Splitcoaststampers.

Next, I used the set Breath… Just beautiful, in general, but oh-so-appropriate for October, and I used the fun boxing gloves to make another Hope You Can Cling To card for Jeanne’s awesome challenge! The boxing gloves were colored with Copic Markers (RV52 and RV55), and I think the sentiments are perfect.. Fighter. Inhale courage. Exhale fear.

After I had made the most beautiful creative mess on my desk using both of the new Verve release sets I showed off above, I pulled out this adorable text Psalm 150:6 Plain Jane and Baja Breeze ink.

It seems like I am often stamping in a short window of time for a specific card that I need for one friend or the other, and one of the things I appreciate about Verve stamps is that the design of the sentiments is always so well done. It’s totally appropriate to let beautiful scripture or sentiment stand alone as a focal point on my cards.  From the Heart and Pennant Trim dies finish this off.

For this card above and the two below, I paired my sentiment with remnants from a favored 6×6 patterned paper pad (Harvest Lane – Simple Stories).

Here I used Romans 12:12 and the Praise the Lord sentiment, both from Good Work, Gumdrop Green (MFT) and Pumpkin Pie (SU!) ink with fun journaling tags that were a part of my paper pack and a trio of enamel dots.

And, finally for this last card in this quick and easy series with the Good Work sentiment, I pulled out some twine and a button to use with a few enamel dots and a scrap of the pennant die as accents to another journaling card in my paper pad. As you can see, I’m also partial to the Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher!

I hope you’ve enjoyed my Verve cards today. I’ve certainly enjoyed crafting with the new goodies. A special thanks to Julee and her team for including me with the release week fun!

If you are still reading, there is fun for you, too! Verve will be using random generator to select one of my readers who comments below to receive a $30 gift voucher to the Verve Store! How fun is that? So leave a little love before Sunday, November 1st, and the winner will be announced November 2nd on the Verve Blog!

And, I’m having so much fun with these stamps, I’ll have more to share later in the week! Thanks so much for stopping by!