Viva la Verve!

Hey everyone! It's Julee here, just dropping in to give a little update on what's going on in Verveland. First off, it's Friday, so there's a weekly Viva la Verve! challenge. And this is the final sketch of the month, so that means you only have a week left to get in your February entries. One lucky stamper will receive the entire March Verve release and it's our biggest release ever (eight sets and 5 plain janes valued at $138 retail)! To enter just upload a card for each of the four VLVFEB challenges and post your links on the February Sketch Champions thread by midnight CST, February 27th. Click the sketches below to go to the challenge thread for that week...

Save the Date! Our release party is scheduled for March 8 @ 8PM Eastern in our SCS Forum. Sneak peeks by our Divas and two fabulous Guest Divas will be starting here on the blog on March 2nd.


Making Room for March Sale!
And last, but certainly not least, we've got an amazing sale going on now through the end of the month to make a little room for our new inventory. All of our regularly priced $24, $18, and $15 sets are on sale! These prices are only here through February 28, so don't miss out!

And That's a Wrap!

Thanks to everyone who participated in our A Kid at Heart project parade! We've had so much fun checking out your entries and blogging our projects over the past couple weeks. Like anything, my best ideas always seem to come after the deadline, so I'm sure you'll see some more kid at heart projects on my blog in the future!

So now, I'm just going to get right down to the winner's announcement...

Random Integer Generator
Here are your random numbers: 11
Timestamp: 2009-02-06 07:35:33 UTC

So congrats, Gretchen! You've won a $25 gift certificate to the Verve Stamps store! Please email me at info@vervestamps.com to claim your prize. Here's Gretchen's entry - check out her blog to see the awesome contents and read about her cool project!

And here is a link list of all the entries. If you have some time, be sure to check them out. These projects were all adorable!

A Kid at Heart Verve Stamps Project Parade Entries

1. Megan Lock 2. debhorst 3. Susan Rothbauer 4. Janette Olen 5. teresa kline aka va.sunshine 6. Stephanie Hargis

7. ...:::Paulina:::... 8. Michelle Shuman (aka mybelle101) 9. Justine Frederick 10. Lisa Foust 11. Gretchen 12. Melissa Sauls

13. nikki schmaltz 14. Ann Havanka 15. Janette 16. Kerri Michaud 17. Michelle Shuman (aka mybelle101) 18. Maria Gurnsey

January Project Parade - Family Frame

Hi everyone! It's Julee again coming at you with the final feature on our A Kid at Heart project parade. Today's your final day to play, so if you're one of those procrastinator's like me, the time is NOW for you to kick it into gear! LOL Link your entries to the Day 1 post by 8PM Mountain time tonight for your chance to win! Here to finish up the parade in style is our other fabulous Guest Diva, Lynda Benden. I'm in love with her project, and I think you will be too! Here's a little bit about Lynda's project in her own words...

Let me start out by saying….because I am a GUEST DIVA, I have an excuse for not following Jen’s instructions for January’s Project Parade!!! LOL!!!! When Jen advised us of her Kid At Heart Project Parade Challenge, I immediately started getting all kinds of teacher gift ideas, classmate ideas, any kind of treat ideas rolling around in my head….. Well, sometime between those ideas rolling around in my head, I must have gotten really dizzy, and the time I made my project, I TOTALLY forgot that the project is supposed to be based around the KID AT HEART theme!!! ACK!!!!

My frame does include my KIDS and my HEART is full of love for them so I didn’t totally mess up!!! The scalloped frame is from the On Board Batch of Blooms from SU! I covered it using Kraft card stock. The way I cover it is to apply my glue from a glue stick directly on to the chipboard frame, smooth it out until it is all stuck down. This step doesn’t take too long! Use your hobby blade to cut out the middle square and scissors to cut the outside scallops as close to the scallops as possible. Use your sanding tools (I have the Basic Grey kit and it ROCKS!!!) and sand the inside and outside. I then did the faux stitching and sponged Going Gray ink around the outside AND inside of the frame. I stamped the heart flourish from Hearts on Fire first on the frame using Basic Black ink and then again on the back of the K&Co. red glitter paper. I cut the glitter heart out and mounted it in the center of the first stamped heart using dimensional and then added clear Martha Stewart rhinestones to the flourish.

The square and circle scalloped chipboard “frames” are also from SU! I got them a while ago but I do see they are available in a couple of chipboard kits in the new catalog. I covered the 2 squares with Basic Black cardstock, one circle with Going Gray card stock and the other circle with the K&Co. red glitter paper. The Going Gray circle was stamped using the heart flourish from Hearts on Fire using Basic Black ink. For the other frames, I used rub ons to decorate. The little red glitter hearts were actually stamped using the small heart from the Hearts on Fire set on the back of the glitter paper (you can’t stamp on the front, won’t work!!!), then cut them out and adhered them on the frames. I used dimensionals to mount the frames on the inside of the big frame and on top of the Bo Bunny Unforgettable DP. The final step was to stamp the beautiful “I love you more today” phrase (from the Hundred Hearts set) on a transparency using White Stazon ink and then adding fine white glitter. I let it dry, cut it out and then used my Quickie glue pen to adhere the upper part of the phrase on the bottom of the top left square scalloped frame and then the bottom part of the phrase on the top of the lower right scalloped square frame.

For the back of the frame, I cut an 8x8 piece of Basic Black card stock and glued it to the back so it will cover up the back of the DP & chipboard frame. I made it large enough so it would show a little between the scallops. For the easel, I cut a piece of chipboard (the kind that comes with your paper packs) at 6 ¼” long, 2” across at the top and 4 ½” across the bottom. I covered the front and back with Basic Black card stock, using my glue stick again, scored about 1” from the top and adhered it on the back using sticky strip.

Well, Lynda, I think you hit the theme right on the money! What's better than a fabulous frame with gorgeous pictures of your family to celebrate being a kid at heart? Thanks so much for sharing it with us.

Okay, here's the final scoop on what to do...
Want to play along and be "A Kid At Heart?" Each participant that links their project to the DAY 1 post will be entered to win a $25 gift certificate to Verve Stamps. Please be sure that your entries are linked here no later than 8PM (Mountain) on February 5th (that's TONIGHT, folks!). Have fun and good luck!

January Project Parade - Playing Cards

Hi all! It's Julee here! I hope you've been enjoying the project parade as much as I have. Haven't the Divas made some amazing projects so far? I've got all these little Valentine project ideas swirling around in my head now! There are only a couple days left to enter, so be sure to get your entries in for a chance to win some free stamps! For today's post I asked January Guest Diva, Stephanie Kraft, to play along and I was just blown away with these fabulous hand-stamped playing cards she submitted! Here's what Stephanie had to say about her project...

When Jen first issued the "A Kid at Heart" project challenge, my first thought was of playing cards. My DH has such fond memories playing cards with his Dad at a very young age (he says he started between ages 2-3). They started out with "War" and "Slap Jack" and by the age of 8, Dan was a card shark, playing real adult card games like Pinochle and Bridge. While I enjoy playing cards for fun, he's a little too intense of a card player for my taste. Enter Sabrina, our DD, who is 5 1/2 now. She has just started to play cards with him, and she seems to enjoy it. That is their thing to do together.

So, even though we have numerous decks of cards around our house, I decided to make a special set of cards just for them. Instead of the traditional decks with clubs, hearts, diamond and spades, I used Hearts on Fire and Hundred Hearts to create an all heart deck. To begin with, I downloaded the Hoyle playing cards font (a free download available from many online font sites) and created Word text boxes to print the basic parts of the cards. After consulting with DH again, I learned that there actually is an official four-color deck created by a professional poker player. The colors are red = hearts, black = spades, green = clubs and blue = diamonds. I adopted the same colors for my deck, but I used only hearts.

My playing cards are what I found to be the standard size - 2.5" x 3.5". I started with a thin white cardstock base. After printing the official Hoyle numbers and letters in the upper and lower corners, I stamped the small heart from Hearts on Fire under each. I then used the slightly larger heart from Hundred Hearts to stamp the corresponding number of hearts onto each card. For the face cards, I downloaded images and sized them accordingly. I then carefully drew lines around each image with a black pen. I finished off the back of each card with a shimmery pattered paper, ran each card through my Xyron laminator, then I rounded the corners.

Once I finished my cards, I moved on to altering a small lunchbox tin which previously held Cherry Sours (yum!). I removed the hardware so that I could more easily decorate the box. I decorated the cover using the large open heart from Hearts on Fire, then I stamped the words with my tiny Karen Foster snap alphabet stamps and colored it with Copic markers. The insides of the tin are finished off with 2 of my favorite quotes from Hundred Hearts atop a stamped background of the tiny heart border from the same set. Rhinestones and ribbon finish it off. Now Sabrina has a special deck of cards to play card games with her Daddy!

Playing Cards
Stamps: Hearts on Fire, Hundred Hearts (Verve)
Paper: White (Georgia Pacific), Hearts & Flowers (Heidi Grace Designs)
Ink: Noir, Prussian Blue, L'amour Red, Viridian Leaf (Palette)
Accessories: Sticker machine, laminating cartridge (Xyron), Round-it-all (Zutter), black archival pen (Sakura).

Tin
Stamps: Hearts on Fire, Hundred Hearts (Verve); Snap alphabet (Karen Foster)
Paper: White, Pure Poppy (PTI); Bubblegum (CTMH), Hearts & Flowers (Heidi Grace Designs)
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black (Tsukineko), Fresh Snow (PTI)
Accessories: Long Rectangles and Labels One Nestabilities (Spellbinders), Cuttlebug (Provo Craft), Markers (Copic), tiny hearts border punch (Martha Stewart), Sticker machine, laminating cartridge (Xyron), lunchbox tin (Target), felt hearts (American Crafts), 3/8" ribbon and rhinestones (Martha Stewart), 1/4" ribbon, button, waxy flax, paper piercer.

So how cool is that??? Don't you wish you had a deck of your very own? I know I sure do! I think I just might have to make a set with some Hello Kitty paper! Thanks so much for playing with us, Stephanie!

Want to play along and be A Kid At Heart? To play, just link your project to the Day 1 Post and you'll be entered to win a $25 gift certificate to Verve Stamps. Please be sure that your entries are linked there no later than 8PM (Mountain) on February 5th. The winner will be announced here on February 6th. Have fun and good luck!

January Project Parade Goes Hybrid

Hey everyone! Jen Tapler here. When Jen (the other one - ha!) issued the Kid at Heart challenge, I knew right away that I wanted to make some type of age-appropriate Valentine keepsake for my 2-yr-old son, Dean. This is what I came up with...I used the new Hundred Hearts set to make a sort of learn-your-numbers-and-colors Valentine board book. I used Mod Podge to adhere my digitally designed and printed pages to a Maya Road Coffee Break chipboard book. I stamped the Hundred Hearts sentiment on the cover and added some ribbon, a covered chipboard heart and felt flower to dress it up a bit.

Each set of facing inside pages is color-coordinated - the color of the alpha used to spell out the name of the color matches the color of the stamped and paper-pieced hearts on the facing page as well as the mats on both pages. Clear as mud? Here, take a look at a few of the inside pages and you'll get the idea...I stamped off the small outline heart from Hundred Hearts the appropriate number of times on both the book page and on a piece of the coordinating colored paper. I then used my hobby knife and a 2-way glue pen to paper piece each individual heart on each set of pages. I alternated between stripes and the graphic pattern for the inside pages to add some interest.It's hard to see in the pic, but I also added some messy faux digi stitching around each of the panels.
Although I used lots of digital elements in this project, it would be quite simple to replicate using your scrap stash - obviously just use "regular" paper in place of the digi papers, chipboard or sticker numbers, and sticker or stamped letters to spell out the colors. You could even take it one step further and add in some REAL stitching!!

Want to play along and be "A Kid At Heart?" To play, just link your project to THIS POST and you'll be entered to win a $25 gift certificate to Verve Stamps. Please be sure that your entries are linked there no later than 8PM (Mountain) on February 5th. The winner will be announced here on February 6th. Have fun and good luck!

Stamps: Hundred Hearts (Verve)
Paper: printed digital paper from All You Need is Love by Dani Mogstad (Sweet Shoppe Designs)
Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black (Tsukineko)
Accessories: Coffee Break Book (Maya Road); Chipboard Heart, felt flower & silver brad (SU); ric-rac (Martha Stewart); Bad Sewing Machine Basics digi stitches by Traci Reed (Sweet Shoppe Designs); Extra Large Chippy Alpha (digi) by Libby Weifenbach (Sweet Shoppe Designs); Black, White & Red All Overlay digi alpha by Darcy Baldwin (Sweet Shoppe Designs)

January Project Parade Valentine "In-Box"

Hi there! It's Laura, and I'm here with my take on the "Kid at Heart" challenge! I have to tell you I was really stumped with this challenge and it took me a while before I finally decided that my youngest who is in grade three could probably use a Valentine "In-Box" to collect all her Valentines. I didn't want to purchase a mailbox, because like you I am a compulsive keeper and collector off all things that could be altered! This little box is what my dishwasher soap comes in, and it opens and closes tight and is just a handy little container. But it's not very pretty...yet!

I had soaked the container to remove the labels but the adhesive still remained, so a little Goo-Gone took care of it nicely! Since the lid was anything but a Valentine colour, I painted it with pink acrylic paint...two coats to cover up the green. I painted inside and out.

I chose double sided papers since the container was clear, I wanted the inside to look nice too. They were adhered with Modge Podge and covered with Modge Podge to give it a bit more sturdiness in the hands of an eight year old. I thought it would make a good little storage container for all those things an eight year old seems to collect once Valentines was over.

On the front I stamped the sentiment from "A Hundred Hearts", which seemed so appropriate for a Valentine "In Box". The row of double hearts was stamped below it and I added some pink heart gems to the centre of every 3rd heart. DD loves them! I stamped the large and small hearts in pink and brown and cut them out and adhered them above the sentiment. Since I had thought this little box might make it beyond Valentines, I didn't adhere the sentiment panel, instead, threaded ribbon through the sides and tied it with a bow.

Atop the box I added "Happy Valentines Day" from "Sweet Valentine", and would you believe the luck...I had purchased these little epoxy hearts last year, and they fit perfectly inside the hearts on the sentiment! I did have to make a little cut out on one, but it's so cute and so perfect for an eight year old who has yet to appreciate the wonderful colouring skills I have honed so well!

I added ribbon along the edge and the box still closes tight! DD has already seen it and this kid is after my heart! She thinks it's the best ever and hopes that they aren't making mailboxes in art, so she can use this! I love her so!

Want to play along and be "A Kid At Heart?" To play, just link your project to THIS POST and you'll be entered to win a $25 gift certificate to Verve Stamps. Please be sure that your entries are linked there no later than 8PM (Mountain) on February 5th. The winner will be announced here on February 6th. Have fun and good luck!

Recipe: Stamps: One Hundred Hearts, Sweet Valentine (Verve) Paper: Very Vanilla, Pretty in Pink (SU), Tawny Dark (Prism), Amy Butler designer paper (K&C0) Ink: Vintage Photo (Ranger), Pretty in Pink (SU), Versamark Acccessories: brown embossing powder (?), Regal Rose and Chocolate Chip grosgrain ribbon, slot punch (SU), Modge Podge, Labels One dies (Spellbinders), Prima Flower, fabric brad (Dollarama), Acrylic Paint (Memory Makers), epoxy stickers (Walmart), Heart rhinestones (Marks Crystal Stickers)