April Diva Highlights Part 1

Hey Verve fans! How's it going? I just thought I'd pop in to share a few highlights from this release and a little reminder that the April Viva la Verve challenges are finishing up.  The deadline to get all your VLV card links in is tomorrow night (April 29)! Somebody will win a whole Verve release, will it be you?  Click the images below to get the deets and inspiration pics for each challenge.

April Week 1	April Week 2	April Week 3	April Week 4

The Divas have been hard at work creating their usual drool-worthy samples for this release, so I thought I'd highlight a few of my favorites from each Diva over the next week or so.  You can click each cropped image to view the full size photo in our gallery:

Amber used Happy Days, Dude, Relax and the Hibiscus Plain Jane on these beachy fab samples. I just love the tropical flavor - these just scream summer fun! To see more of her creations from this release, visit Amber's Verve gallery or her blog, The Stamping Scrapbooker.
Amy used Happy Days, Blessings and the Romans 8:18 Plain Jane to make these gorgeously elegant creations. I love the way Amy layered the sentiment on the first card, {not to mention her gorgeous coloring}, and her shabby chic style is second to none. To see more of her creations from this release, visit Amy's Verve Gallery or her blog, Pickled Paper Designs.
Charmaine used One Person, Blessings and Happy Days on these beautiful projects. I love how different they all are, yet still so fabulous. The beautifully layered flowers are so fun, the gift set is stunning and the gorgeous browns, corals and reds on the final card just make me smile. To see more of her creations from this release, visit Charmaine's Verve Gallery or her blog, Oodabug Alley.
Jackie used Dude, Happy Days and Relax on these spectacular cards. I adore the sassiness of the first card with the bold colors and beautiful pleated ribbon. The orange and aqua is scrumptious together, especially with that touch of bling and the sand under those surfboards just makes me want to curl my toes in the sand! To see more of her creations from this release, visit Jackie's Verve Gallery or her blog, The Scalloped Edge.
Jen used One Person, Happy Days and Relax on these stunning samples. I just love the way she's been making ATC sized panels and then turning them into full sized cards. The second one almost makes me hear the roar of the ocean, and I adore the layered rickrack behind her girly pink surfboard! To see more of her creations from this release, visit Jen's Verve Gallery or her blog, I {heart} 2 Stamp.

April 2010 RELEASE!

We had such a fabulous time at our release party! Thanks to everyone who made this a fantastic week of celebration! Be sure to check out the Winner's Announcement for the list of winners from all of our new release activities.

Plus, the new sets are live on the website now, so be sure to hop on over.  Through May 16 (while supplies last) the whole Beach Party Collection (includes all 5 new sets and 3 plain janes) is discounted $18!  That's like getting an entire set for free!  We've also got some savings on our sets for Dads & Grads, so be sure to check out what else is on SALE while you're surfing the store!

New Release Spotlight - Day 4 and RELEASE DAY!

Hi everyone, it's Michelle here introducing you all to the last set in the April release!  It's called One Person and is a set of 17 amazing stamps.  It is a fabulous combination of flowers and sentiments designed like only Julee can. 

Today is RELEASE DAY!  You are all invited to join us over on the SCS forum for the Release Party fun.  There will be chatting, more sneak peek cards, and lots of prizes! 

This is from the AMAZING Diva, Tosh:

 Hi Verve fans!!  I'm thrilled to share a card that I made with the set One Person today.  True to Julee's impeccable attention to detail, this set has everything you need to show that special someone how much they mean to you:  flowers, flourishes, wonderful sentiments, and gorgeous fonts.  I stamped my sentiment and flowers with Black Onyx Versafine and embossed them with Detail Black ep.  The flowers were stamped on watercolor paper and were colored with Tombows.  The edge of the card does not go completely to the end and is finished on the inside as well.   I used two different Martha Stewart border Punches, and an EK Success leaf punch, along with some rhinestones and Frosted Lace stickles at add a bit of bling.  The dp is a combo of G.C.D Studios and Glitz Design.

This is from the FANTASTIC Diva, Amber:

Hello and welcome to the last day of sneak peeks! It's only a matter of HOURS before you can order these GORGEOUS stamps for yourself:) Just like every other release, Julee has come up with AMAZING sets! My absolute favorites are the beachy ones, aren't they FUN? I can just create with them allll afternoon! BUT, I also love the sentiment sets as well. One Person is a fantastic set. I especially love the sentiment I used on this card. I've always loved this quote and am so excited to own a STAMP with this quote! The fonts, aren't they TDF? I don't know how she does it! This card is going to my Mom for Mother's Day! I used papers by K&Co, some yummy wrinkle ribbon, buttons, twine, edge punches, all of my favorite thing!

This is from the AWESOME Guest Diva, Carolina:

Carolina here, wishing you a very happy Friday! Are you all as excited about the release as I am? Amazing stuff from the Divas this week and I'm just tickled pink that I get to post with them this month! I couldn't think of a better set for Julee to conclude the new release spotlight this week than with the One Person set. I fell in love with it as soon as I saw it. She has put an amazing set together and one that you NEED to add to your collection. The sentiments are heartwarming and the flowers, just gorgeous. For my card, I wanted to take a shabby chic approach and selected one of my favorite sentiments from the set. It speaks of unconditional love…no matter what happens today or tomorrow ~ I love you! Ahhhh…you know you’ve got to love that. I used Copics to color in the flowers and paired the flower and sentiment from this set with the flourish from Happy Days, which by the way rocks! I can see many uses for it. I finished it off with some distressing, some pearls, a pin, and tied it all up with some yummy satin ribbon. Hope to chat with you all at the release party!!!

And from me, Michelle:

Like what you’ve seen so far? Just leave a comment here on this post before 6:00 PM Eastern TODAY, and you’ll be put in a drawing to win this fabulous set! The lucky winner will be announced at our Beach Party Release Party TONIGHT!! And for even more chances to win some new Verve, be sure to check out the Beach Party Challenges going on in our forum! I hope to see you there!

New Release Spotlight - Day Three

Hey there!  It's Charmaine and today I get to introduce another new Verve set to you!  This set is called Blessings. Blessings is a set of 12 including wonderful sentiments and a few flourishes!  It's just beautiful!  You'll especially love this set if you're Irish!  :)  So let's see what the Divas have to share with you!

From Diva Laurie Schmidlin: 

Amazingly uplifting sentiments, beautiful fonts, & stunning images that coordinate perfectly...yes, Julee has done it again! Blessings is one of those "must-have" sets that can be used to create one-of-a-kind projects for so many different occasions! I just adore the unique flourishes that accompany the sentiments...ones that I will be reaching for over and over!



From Diva Jen del Muro:

I love what some refer to as "wedding season." All the pretty fresh colors and love in the air just makes for the perfect inspiration for a wedding card. This uses the soon to be released set, Blessings. Not only does this set have wedding wishes, but can be used for several other occasions. I look forward to making many more cards using this very versatile and fun set.



From Diva Shannan Teubner:

Hey, y'all! I'm so glad to finally be back with my fellow divas to showcase the upcoming release for April. Like I told Charmaine, it was good to finally get back into my stamp room and get messy...and boy did I!

I have been in love with the new Blessings set since I first laid eyes on it. This particular stamp in the set is especially close to my heart...our choir sang it many times in high school, and it is very special to me. My choir director is retiring this year, so I decided to make a special little gift for him to display in his office. Using the front page of a Basic Grey chipboard book as my starting point, I added Jillibean Soup papers, acrylic paint, jute, and buttons to create a wall hanging that would work just as well in a kitchen or bathroom as it would in an office or study. Now the hard part...letting it go!
 
 
 
From Diva Charmaine Ikach:
 

As you know from a previous Verve set, Beautiful You, this is one of my absolute favorite sentiments.  I was SO excited to see it in this set in another font!  This sentiment has always been a reminder to for me to "not sweat the small stuff."  Life is too short!  I also used the Hibiscus Plain Jane paired with one of the flourishes from Blessings.  I used Glossy Accents on the flower, so it really jumps out at you! 

From Guest Diva Christi Thorsen:

 

Blessed is a word that really describes me right now. I have a wonderful family, I am able to stay at home with my boys and do what I love, and I'm a guest Diva for my all-time favorite stamp companies. That's why I'm so excited to be showing off this gorgeous new set called Blessings. My stepdad recently lost his uncle so this set came at the perfect time. I based the colors of my card off of my new Marrakech dp from Basic Grey. I stamped my sentiment in Elegant Eggplant ink and one of the gorgeous flourishes from this set in Baja Breeze ink on either side of my sentiment, and cut it out using my circle Nestabilities and Cuttlebug. I cut out three panels from different patterns from the Marrikech pack, sponged the edges in Colorbox Chestnut Roan ink, and matted them onto PTI white cardstock. I added a strip of navy cardstock across the card and added some gray organdy ribbon and some silver beads along the outer edge of the circle to frame the sentiment a bit more. You are going to LOVE the elegance of this set. The flourishes and sentiments are just amazing.

Like what you’ve seen so far? Just leave a comment here on this post before 6:00 PM Eastern on Friday, April 23, and you’ll be put in a drawing to win this fabulous set! The lucky winner will be announced at our Beach Party Release Party Friday night. And for even more chances to win some new Verve, be sure to check out the Beach Party Challenges going on in our forum! Stay tuned tomorrow for another release spotlight!

New Release Spotlight - Day Two

Happy Wednesday, Verve fans! It's Mercy, and I am here to sneak a couple of stamp sets for you. I know you all are having a ball with all of the challenges and sneak peeks that will be yours to purchase later this week!  I am here with a few of the Divas to show off Dude and Happy Days. Dude is a 4X3 sentiment set, and Happy Days is a 4X8 set filled with gorgeous fonts, beautiful hibiscus flowers, and a large flourish...you can just feel the tropical breeze off of the white, sandy beaches when you use these two sets!
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From Diva, Teresa:

Hey gals, it is partay time..lol....it's Teresa and I don't know about you but I am super excited, I can't wait until Friday!  I hope to see you there.  For my card I wanted to make a background word stamp with all of these fabulous words, so I first stamped all the words from the Dude set on top of a piece of Bell Blvd. designer paper.  I placed it under the main image, it looks like designer paper, don't ya think?  The fun thing about making you own word designer paper is that it does not have to be perfect, sometimes I can get caught up in wanting everything perfect.  The main image is from the Relax set that was peeked yesterday, such a cool set.  I paper pieced the surf boards and added a few stitches down the side.  The sun is stamped and cut out and I added stickles to the center.  That's it for me until Friday night, we will have many more great creations to share, let the fun begin!  Enjoy.

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From Diva, Amy:

Duuuuuuuuuude ... Verve's really got it goin' on with this release! I cannot wait 'til Friday!! I'm spotlighting Happy Days, a set that includes a gorgeous hibiscus image, a stylin' circular flourish, and tons of mix-and-match sentiment components. I love that its images and sentiments (both the words themselves and the font treatments) are such perfect complements to yesterday's set, Relax, but that it's also versatile enough to take in a completely different direction. For today's card, I've used Julee's Beach Party Sketch Challenge #3 for my layout. Aren't these release sketches phenomenal? On the focal point circle, I first stamped two sentiment components, with the smaller brown part slightly overlapping the larger orange part. The circular flourish is stamped, trimmed out, popped up, and positioned to highlight the sentiment. I then added the pair of bright orange hibiscus midway around the circle flourish. The hibiscus are colored with Copics and adorned with a touch of Orange Peel Stickles. The three panels of designer paper (from October Afternoon's Fly A Kite collection) pick up on the current Beach Party Color Challenge (#1). For the horizontal strip on the sketch, I combined Stampin' Up's Bermuda Bay dotted ribbon and a Tangerine Tango card stock strip that has been punched with EK Success's dotted wave border punch. I swapped the three circles on the sketch for three ribbon pleats. Everything sits on a Kraft background, which is machine stitched and adhered to a scalloped Kraft notecard base. 

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From Diva, Sankari:

Hi Everyone, its Sankari here. Well, Julee has done it again! This month's stamp release is just fabulous - beautiful designs, sentiments, fonts for every occasion! After surviving another cold and long Iowa winter, it was a huge joy to play with awesome and gorgeous images that made me dream of sunny weather! I created this card using the Happy Days stamp set and used the funtastic sketch from the Verve Beach Party Release Sketch challenge (VSAPRBP3). I am a huge fan of swirls and LOVE this swirly design that Julee has designed that you can stamp inside of among other things. I stamped the swirly shape in shades of red, orange and pink and then the sentiment: "You're so Awesome" in the same color shades. I had to add some liquid pearls and finished it off by adhering the stamped flower onto the ribbon with glue dots. You are gonna love every single stamp in this set and in all the sets this release! Get ready for a rockin' release party!!! Big hugs to all!

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And Last....From Me:

We all know I lurve me some Verve!  Julee's clean and fresh designs bring a smile to my face, and put a song in my heart! Gorgeous fonts and phrases, and whimsical-yet-elegant images that show her unique and impeccable sense of style. Well this month is no different!  I adore the beach-inspired images and sentiments, but I truly fell in love with these fabulous Hibiscus flowers in the "Happy Days" stamp set!  I started my sample with a White Cardstock base, then stitched a piece of patterned paper from the Ooh La La For Her collection by My Mind's Eye directly to the base.  I added several Black Rhinestones to the centers of each medallion on the piece of patterned paper, then stamped one of the sentiments in Black Ink directly onto the card base.  The flowers were also stamped onto White Cardstock using Memento Tuxedo Black Ink, then colored each with Copic Sketch Markers. The blossoms were cut out and attached to the base using Dimensionals to complete this clean and simple card.  Feels like I'm on the Big Island...now all I need is a Mai-Tai and some sunscreen! :)
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Like what you’ve seen so far? Just leave a comment here on this post before 6:00 PM Eastern on Friday, April 23, and you’ll be put in a drawing to win this fabulous set! The lucky winner will be announced at our Beach Party Release Party Friday night. And for even more chances to win some new Verve, be sure to check out the Beach Party Challenges going on in our forum! Stay tuned tomorrow for another release spotlight!

New Release Spotlight - Day 1

Hey there! Jen Tapler here and I'm soooo excited to be sharing the first day of New Release Spotlights with you for this Totally Rad Verve Beach Party Release!! I know I say it every time, but this time I really do mean it - this is my absolute favorite release Julee has put together. I don't know, maybe it's the Maui Surfer Girl in me *wink*, but this entire release has me SO excited!! I've been bugging Julee for just about forever for some tropical-ish stamps and boy did she deliver!! But don't worry, not ALL of the sets this release are beachy - they are all super fabulous though! Some of the Divas and I will be sharing a few projects with you using the new Relax set, which is a totally "beachin" (ha! get it?) set of 19 stamps that will have those of you on the mainland even more anxious for summer than you already are (and those of us on Maui just anxious for the weekend!).

Take a look at what we've done...

From Diva Jackie Pedro:

Have you been yearning for warmer weather? Well, hold onto your sun hat ladies, because Verve is going tropical with this month's release! Julee has come out with some fun, whimsical and beautiful stamps for this month's release! You will not be disappointed! I couldn't wait to give you a sneak peek of the set we are previewing for you today called Relax. I created a fun beachy scene using the palm tree, sun and two of the five surfboards that are included in the set. The sand is a cool new product that I recently picked up at my local Scrap Store. It's called Sand Paste (by Mudd Puddles) and this particular sand is called Jamaican Beach. I cut the image out with a Labels One Nestability and before removing it from the die sponged Cool Caribbean ink around the edges. I added some fun sugared glitter (Doodlebug) to the coconuts and the center of the sun. The patterned paper is Thrift Shop by October Afternoon and the sketch is from our own Diva, Mercy Kerin (MTSC70). The inside reads simply "Relax". Can you see yourself relaxing on this beach? I sure can!!


From Diva Susan Liles:
Well, Aloha! Susan here and I'm so excited about the newest release from Verve! These stamps are going to fill the void a lot of us have when it comes to masculine stamps. And the fear of making masculine cards? Well, kiss it good-bye! These stamps will make handsome, manly cards a breeze! Speaking of which - making a handsome, manly card was my first thought when it came time to create this project, but I was inspired to go a different direction as I was browsing the Target "dollar-to-two-dollar-and-fifty-cents" spot a couple of days ago. They had some adorable wooden signs that were perfect for a sunroom, pool area or any room decorated in an island or Hawaiian theme. So I took a picture (I'm old and needed that to remember) and came came home and put my own spin on it solely from stamps, paper and cardstock - well, and a little cork! I used 8 stamps from the new set, Relax. There are so many fun elements to it, I just couldn't stop myself! I'm sure ya'll are already drooling at what Jen and the other girls made, too, but hold onto your surfboards, because you're going to love "hangin' ten" with all the stamps coming your way with this new release!

From Diva Lynda Benden:

Oh my gosh, I LOVE this set and believe me, you are going to as well! I had such a great time putting this card together!! The card base is Select White and is 5 1/2" square. I also used True Black and Pumpkin Pie CS. The decorative orange paper is from Fancy Pants and the "sand" paper is some old stuff I had in my stash!! I cut an oval in the Fnacy Pants DP using my oval Nesties and then added a Prima Say it in Crystals Frame. To make the sunset in the window, I sponged Real Red, Pumpkin Pie, Summer Sun and Barely Banana ink on glossy whiteCS for the sky and Night of Navy, Not Quite Navy, Baja Breeze and Soft Sky for the water. I also added some Clear Ranger Crackle paint on the water to make it look more realistic! I then tore the sand paper, sponged Frayed Burlap (Ranger) ink and layered it toward the bottom of the "window". I stamped the AWESOME palm trees on Select White CS, colored using my Copics, cut them out, added brown flock to the coconuts and adhered them using dimensionals. The DARLING sun was stamped on Select White as well, colored using Copics, cut out and then added Yellow Stickles because there HAS to be glitter on the sun!! LOL! The final step was to add the black Pink Paislee ruffled ribbon and topped it off with some linen thread.

And from me, Diva Jen Tapler:
I think I already pointed out that I am totally in love with this Relax set!! Living on Maui, I am constantly on the lookout for a stamp set like this! I know what a shortage of cute tropical / Hawaiiana / Beach themed stamp sets there are out there and Julee totally nailed it with this set! And I can see so many uses for this set besides just summer cards - it's the PERFECT set for those vacation scrapbook pages, for a fun beach-themed birthday party, and I have about a gazillion little gift ideas planned! For my sneak peek I created a bright a cheerful hybrid card using 3 of the 5 surfboard images in the set and the Relax sentiment. I used Kraft and Chocolate Chip CS along with printed digi papers (the label is a printed digi embellishment too) from the Color Me Crazy kit by Melissa Bennett (Sweet Shoppe). The card sketch is an old Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge by Karen Giron (SSSC52). I finished it up by adding some messy stitching around the perimeter of the card.

Like what you've seen so far? Just leave a comment on this post and tell us at what Tropical Destination you dream of finding yourself RELAX-ing. Comment before 6:00 PM Eastern on Friday, April 23 and you'll be put in a drawing to win this set! The lucky winner will be announced at our Beach Party Release Party Friday night. And for even more chances to win some new Verve, be sure to check out the Beach Party Challenges going on in our forum! Stay tuned tomorrow for another fabulous new release spotlight!