getting my Diva on with Verve!

How awesome, I ask you, is the new Verve Get Your Diva On challenge!?! I almost missed this, but I'm so glad I saw it and decided to play along! Charmaine issued an Inspiration Challenge, where we are to take inspiration - in some form - from this photo:

For my card, I wanted to use To the Moon, because I LUV IT, and I hadn't used the sweet little elephant in it yet and thought that little cutie patootie would look so sweet in pink! I didn't want to do another baby card though, and I didn't necessarily want it to be all Valentine-y either, so I used the "hugs & smiles" sentiment from Kind Words, because after all, doesn't that little elephant look like he would come bearing hugs and smiles??

OK, let's talk about the inspiration! First, obviously, I used the color scheme in the photo - varying shades of pink, and white. I also thought the little beads on the heart in the photo reminded me of the pearl gems that I added to the top of my card.

Now, about the sweet little frame around my elephant friend - how cool is that? I have to give a major shout-out to Verve Diva Tosha Leyendekker for that idea. When I saw how she used the Labels 12 and Square Nesties to create a frame that perfectly fit the stamp, I... uhm... well... I went right out and purchased the Labels 12 and Square Nesties! LOL! So I cut the frame, but the whole inspiration photo has a sense of "sparkle" to me, so I heat-embossed the frame and then dusted a bit of Perfect Pearls over it... VERY hard to photograph, I tried approximately ump-teen different angles to show the shimmer, but here is the best I could do:

And this photo also gives a better view of my last bit of the inspiration... look at those buttons! I was digging through my pink buttons and saw those, and immediately thought of the pattern on the beautiful crystal wine glass (which looks very similar to my wine glasses, incidentally...lol)! I knew that these are the buttons I need on this card!

Thanks for looking, and thanks so much to Verve and especially Charmaine for the fun and inspiring challenge!