Friday, February 1, 2008

Serenity Sneak Peek

....God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,


the courage to change the things I can,


and the wisdom to know the difference.


I can't tell you how thrilled I was when Julee told the design team that one of Verve's February releases was a set called Serenity.

I'm sure many of you are familiar with the Serenity Prayer. It's a prayer that has helped many, many people across the world get through difficult times. It helps put into perspective that which we can control, and that which we cannot control.

My father-in-law is going through some difficult times after the death of his wife of 52 years this past summer. I knew the instant I got Serenity in my hands that I wanted to make something special for Karl that he could keep for a lifetime. Something that could sit out on his desk that would remind him of this prayer in the dark days of his grief.

Can you believe the finished frame actually started out looking like THIS?


This is a frame that I found in the Target $1 section! I love a bargain. Anyways, it took me a while to get the finished product. I had a few mess-ups in the process. I first tried covering the front of the frame with white cardstock and then stamping the bible verse that's included in the Serenity Set on the white cardstock. For some reason, I screwed that up (yes, even design team members screw things up!). So my next thought was to cover the frame with some Ranger Crackle Paint. This product is so cool! It's a one step paint, slap it on and it dries and crackles in minutes (with a little help from the heat gun). After my paint had dried, I rubbed some Ranger Distress Ink in Walnut Stain over it. Then I took the prayer sentiment out and stamped it directly on top of the crackle paint all the way around the front of the frame. The finished frame looks like it's 100 years old!!!

Here's a close-up of the frame....

For the inside of the frame, I stamped the Serenity Prayer onto some Very Vanilla cardstock with Versamark, and embossed it with gold embossing powder. The green leaf, also part of the Serenity set, is actually embossed with Ranger Distress Powder in Lettuce. When this product is heated, it doesn't turn shiny and puffy like normal embossing powder. You wait for it to cool after heating, and then rub over it to release some of the embossing particles (so it looks distressed). It feels like sand paper!

To complete the frame, I added some ribbon alongside of the Serenity Prayer and embellished it with a bronze metal oval medallion.

Well, there you have it. The very first sneak peek at Verve's newest February set, Serenity. Please check back Saturday for another sneak peek from Verve Design Team member Laurie Schmidlin. There are a total of four new sets in February, so you'll have to come back tomorrow to see which one Laurie is going to give you a sneak peek of....it could be Serenity again, or it could be one of the other new ones. You'll just have to wait and see!!! Just an FYI...all four new sets will be released on February 10th!! Woo-hoo!