Verve's 10th Anni-verve-sary! Day 2-Bloom Brighter

Welcome to Day 2 of the Anni-VERVE-sary Spotlight Hops!  It's time for another day of spotlighting the Verve release with the Verve Divas and special guests! We're super excited to have a few very special Diva Alumni joining us for the hop today. Everything previewed this week will be available to order in the Verve online store on Monday, August 28. If you just can't wait, you can pre-order the entire release now as the August 2017 Buy it All Bundle at a 30% discount through August 27.
Today we're sharing our first projects featuring the Bloom Brighter stamp set and coordinating, Blooming Die Set. A fresh take on the flower from the retired commemorative set Beautiful You, this beautiful encouragement set is perfect for a vareity of cardmaking occasions.

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 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)

ETA: if you've come looking for my "keeping Christmas" post, it will be postponed until Tuesday after the Verve blog hop! Welcome back! Once again, I've gotten carried away with samples! I really enjoyed experimenting with these new sets! These flowers are so fun to play with. For this first card, I heat embossed the largest flower using white powder onto watercolor paper. I watercolored them using an aquapainter and ink refills. Watercoloring over embossing is one of my favorite techniques and is so easy to do. 

Once they were dry, I die cut them and adhered them to a panel of vellum using foam squares. The sentiment is stamped in white onto the vellum as well. I contemplated heat embossing it so it would show up better, but I didn't want the vellum to warp so I left it. I actually wanted a soft look, so I am happy with the result and in person it is more visible. The vellum is adhered to a soft stone card base and I used adhesive behind where the flowers are. The finishing touch is Duck Egg Nuvo Drops here and there. They are the perfect color!

My next card is a companion to the first card in color and feel. I really liked watercoloring those flowers, so I decided to try it as a background. I really like the result.The sentiment is once again stamped onto a vellum strip and then wrapped around the watercolor focal panel. The entire piece is adhered to a soft stone card base. I wanted to give a nod to the classic tissue paper that every Verve order comes wrapped in! I just love the blue and silver! 

This next design adds in the solid floral image that I embossed in gold mixed with the watercoloring of the larger bloom. I just love how they work together. To get started, I created a watercolor panel using blues and pinks. I really like how it turned out. That is what is fun about using watercolors; you never really know how it is going to turn out. Sometimes you're hating it right before you fall in love! LOL!

I heat embossed the both the solid and line images using gold embossing powder and then watercolored them as I did in the first two cards. Like I mentioned before, I really like using this technique. I heat embossed one of the amazing sentiments onto the middle of the watercolor panel using the same gold. I REALLY like the brushstroke sentiments included in the set. I can see myself reaching for them often.

The flowers are arranged in clusters on two corners of the card and then I used my paper trimmer to square everything up. Tip for the day: when cutting watercolored panels, it best to cut it by turning it upside down. You get a sharper cut that way, especially if you're impatient and the panel hasn't dried completely. (wink) I added quite a few gold nuvo drops to add in some extra detail, but I really wanted the sentiment and flowers to be the main attraction!

The final project for today showcases how easily you can create a large focal image by using one tiny stamp. I thought the little fern-like image included in the set could make a great wreath...and I was right! It is the perfect frame for one of the fabulous sentiments. Thank for joining me today and thanks for fluttering by!