Verve Stars and Stripes

It has been a *long* week and I’m so glad that Friday’s almost here. I managed to finish the last two cards for this week’s Verve release challenges. So I could get everything done, I kept these cards pretty simple.

This one is for the distressing challenge. Distressing and vintage-y looking stuff is not my usual thing, but I gave it a shot on this masculine card. I paired sentiments from Verve’s Father Figure with one of the background strips from Bountiful Backgrounds for my simple layout. The background stamp is stamped directly on the Sahara Sand panel in matching ink. I sponged around the panel with a combination of Sahara Sand and Mellow Moss inks.

The sentiments are stamped in Mellow Moss ink on a cream panel. I distressed the edges of an Always Artichoke panel with my distressing tool and layered the sentiment panel on this before attaching it to the cardfront with dimensionals. I added a pair of copper brads and a sage twill tab to finish the card.

Materials Used:
Father Figure and Bountiful Backgrounds stamp sets (Verve Stamps); Mellow Moss and Sahara Sand Classic inks, Always Artichoke, Sahara Sand, and Very Vanilla cardstock, sponge, distressing tool, dimensionals (Stampin’ Up!); copper brads (Making Memories); sage twill tape (Martha Stewart)

This one is for the sparkly challenge. Sparkly=stars in my mind, so I turned to my Polka Stars set for this one (looking forward to seeing the new Verve star set on Friday night . . .).

Two of the star images are stamped in gold ink on a light blue panel. Usually when I use metallics, I use silver and not gold, so this was a nice change for me. I stamped one of the large stars on a scrap of blue cardstock and punched it out with a star punch, then layered it on the card with a dimensional.

Other than the pops of gold, I kept the rest of the card monochromatic with additional shades of blue. I stamped the “superstar” sentiment from Great Expectations on a narrow blue panel and added a coordinating gold star brad before positioning the panel with dimensionals.

Materials Used:
Polka Stars and Great Expectations stamp sets (Verve Stamps); Night of Navy Classic ink, Night of Navy, Bashful Blue, and Brocade Blue cardstock, Encore Gold ink, large star punch, dimensionals (Stampin’ Up!); star brad (Making Memories); gold paper (Target)