December Diva Dare ~ Day 10

"Playing Favorites", December Diva Dare

Welcome to the last Diva Dare of 2013!  This month's Dare is entitled "Playing Favorites" and it is a fun one indeed!

What we're daring you to do this month is to post your favorite Verve Stamps 2013 creation OR make a new card using your favorite Verve stamp set.  

Hello Verve lovelies! It's Andrea here with you today! Over the past few years at the end of the year, I've posted my favorite cards, month by month as a recap. I have to say that probably 11 out of 12 of those cards feature Verve stamps..only because they are my VERY FAVORITE! I'm going to narrow down my list just a little so I hope you enjoy!

This card features the No Matter What set...which was a new release in January. Here's the original post.

Guess what?! I love No Matter What so much, I used it again in February. Here's the post from my blog with the deets.

This card came about from our March Diva Dare challenge. I created this beauty with the Beautiful Plain Jane merged with Maureen's Buttons and Bling and Laurie's Just Give Me Stamps. A very nice marriage...I must say!

 This card was Pinterest inspired (one of my very favorite inspiration sites!) I love the type-written font from the Twitterpated set. This is how I made it.

 A bold burst of color for me...the idea was to feature yellow, so I had this bright gingham ribbon and matched it up with some pretty yellow and green flowers. The Verve set I used is Take Note. Here's the original post.

And...lastly...another Diva Dare creation! This one paid homage to our wonderful leader, Julee and the always uplifting Teresa! I inked up Words of Wisdom and shabbed up some Truly Madly Deeply seam binding to make this vintage gem. Here's where you can find the original post.

Ok, time for a little Q & A:

What are your three favorite Verve products?
Like my fellow Diva sisters...how do you pick just three (or just one hundred)? Let me see...I really love Julee's stamps, dies and ribbon...but to be a tad more specific...I do reach for the Pennant Trim Die quite often, the Truly Madly Deeply ribbon collection is the most cut into and my inkiest stamp set would have to be Celebration of Thanks.

What is your current go-to colour combo?
Ah, that's easy. Every color, though muted down to almost colorlessness. Well, not that extreme, but I do love my pastels and almost every card I make has earthy tones, brown, tan, cream with muted accent colors.

What is your current go-to embellishment?
Past, present and future will always be flowers. I absolutely adore the sweet, delicate feminine look of flowers...in truth, they just make me happy. :)

What is your favorite stamping or organizational tool?
Currently...two pencils. What? I've devised a way (my resourceful side coming out) to make the tightest, prettiest bows using two pencils. I have a tutorial for that here. Of course, this card features a beautiful Verve stamp...Harvest Blessings.

What is your favorite treat to eat while stamping?
That's easy. Life cereal. Yummy wheat squares with a smidge of sugar in the middle. I can put those things away by the handful!

I hope you all have a wonderfully Merry Christmas and Happiest of New Years!

Deadline to link your cards is 8PM Mountain on Thursday, December 26th.  Entries must be posted 12/6 or later, include at least one Verve product, be your favorite Verve Stamps creation of 2013 or a new creation using your favorite Verve Stamps set, and be linked up to the linky widget by 8pm Mountain on 12/26/13.   As an reminder, last month's $40 gift certificate winner did not use any Verve stamps on her card so she was not eligible to win and we had to draw another winner.

During this month's Diva Dare, there are 2 prizes up for grabs!

Win a $40 Gift voucher to Verve Stamps! Take our "Playing Favorites" Dare and link up your card (created December 6th or later) to the linky widget below to be eligible to win.  One participant will be randomly selected to win the gift voucher.  You can enter as many times as you like, but each card needs to be in a separate post.

Win a set of your choice! For another chance to win some new Verve, leave a little comment love on our design team's "Playing Favorites" Diva Dare posts!  One lucky commenter will win a Verve stamp set of his or her choice, so be sure to tune in each day!  Comment deadline to be entered in our prize drawing is December 26, 2013.

Winners will be announced on December 27, 2013.

- Go forth and get inky! We DARE you! -

April Diva Dare-Day 11

Hey there!  It's Laurie here with Day 11 of the Diva Dare!  I have a card today using Andrea's amazing sketch for week 4 of Viva La Verve.  You can check that out on SCS and play along too!  :)



Here is my take on the sketch...

This month the Diva Dare is to find inspiration from two of our Divas - Marisa and Charmaine.  The theme for the month is "Bright Blooms and Butterflies"!  I thought some fun bright springy colors and a some butterflies on my card would totally do the trick!  :)  I stamped this amazing PJ called Beautiful on to white card stock and then layered it up with some fun papers from Studio Calico.  I added in some butterflies and bling as well!  

Wanna win some Verve?  Check this out...

1. Win a $40 Verve gift certificate! Play along with our March Diva Dare and link up your creation to the linky widget entry form.  A winner will be chosen by random draw. To be eligible, your entry must:
• Be a new creation - posted April 12th or later.
• Be a card or project using bright colours and having a flower and/or butterfly (or other die shape) as your focal point.
• Use at least one Verve product.
• Be added to the linky widget before 5pm Mountain on Wednesday, May 1.
2. Win a Verve set of your choosing! Leave a little shout-out for the Divas in the comments section as we post our answers to this month's dare weekdays through April 29th.  A random comment winner will be chosen from all the comments over the course of the Dare.
3. Winners will be announced on Friday, May 3rd.

- Go forth and get inky! We DARE you! -

March Diva Dare - Day 11

Hello everyone, it's Christyne here hosting Day 11 of the March Diva Dare.  March is almost over and I feel like I've been waiting forever to show you all my March Diva Dare creation!  This month we are spotlighting the fabulous divas Laurie Schmidlin (Just Give Me Stamps) and Maureen Plut (Buttons and Bling).  Combining the themes from both blogs, we get "Just Give Me Stamps, Buttons, & Bling!"  Here are my stamps, buttons, and bling!

I decided to use a bunch of different shaped layers as a nod to Laurie since I just love how she always makes that work so well.  From Maureen, I wanted to highlight her bows that are always so bold and perfectly fluffed with a little touch of twine and of course, a button!  The doilie is a steal from both women and one of my favorites as well, so I just had to use one!  I added some bright colors from the My Mind's Eye paper pad Ooh La La for Her, and of course some bling in the form of rhinestones and shiny silver brads.  From the fabulous new Verve release, I used the Beautiful PJ and the Scalloped Trio Trop die, as well as two colors of seam binding from the Spring Fling collection.  

The Divas are almost done posting their Diva Dare creations.  Monday, March 25 will be our last inspiration piece for March so be sure you don't miss it. Additionally, you can catch up with the previous creation postings using the list to the right.  Why, do tell? There are going to be winners!!  We'll announce the winners on Thursday, March 28th.  Keep reading for the prize details:

Here are two ways you can win some fabulous new Verve!!  

1. Win a $40 Verve gift certificate! Play along with our March Diva Dare and link up your creation to the linky widget entry form.  A winner will be chosen by random draw. To be eligible, your entry must:
• Be a new creation - posted March 8th or later.
• Be inspired by a Verve card or project combining Diva Maureen and Diva Laurie's style.
• Use at least one Verve product.
• Be added to the linky widget before 5pm Mountain on Wednesday,  March 27.
2. Win a Verve set of your choosing! Leave a little shout-out for the Divas in the comments section as we post our answers to this month's dare weekdays through March 25th.  A random comment winner will be chosen from all the comments over the course of the Dare

March Diva Dare - Day 7

Morning Verve friends! Andrea checking in here with you today with my take on this month's Diva Dare challenge! When this idea was first presented to us, I thought to myself, wow, what a great idea to glean the individual styles of the Divas! A wealth of inspiration is found with any one of the gals...however, this month we're shining the spotlight on Maureen {Buttons and Bling} and Laurie {Just Give Me Stamps}. I have to admit to stalking these two pros before joining the team and I'm honored to add a little bit of the sparkle to my card that makes their cards special. So here's my take on buttons, bling, layers and stamps:

 Buttons and bling? Oh, yeah...I'm down with that! I dedicate all these lovely pearls and that sweet, dependable bow (that her cards are so famous for) to lovely Maureen. I added lots of layers as well to this card in dedication to Laurie, who's beautiful style vacillates from classic to whimsy with simple ease and grace. I started off with a base of Attic Treasures papers, sewing the inside panels after distressing them with Walnut Stain ink. I then added the scalloped panel across the middle, layered lace, satin ribbon, more lace and finally a strip of white pearls. The bow was added after, and adorned with a hemp bow, button and pearl. More pearls in the form of a flourish and then lastly, I stamped the sentiment from Verve's latest release, Beautiful Plain Jane onto the empty space of the top panel. (Which in retrospect, I should have done first since all that dimension got in the way...) Can't force creativity sometimes! :) Oh, then lastly LASTLY I decided on the Onyx Pearl border around the outside perimeter. Love me some dots!

The Divas are going to be posting their Diva Dare creations using our newly released products right here, each weekday, for a total of two weeks. And what does that mean? There are going to be winners, so you need to get your entries in! We'll announce the winners on Thursday, March 28th. Check below for the down-low on how to participate:

Here are two ways you can win some shiny new Verve! 

1. Win a $40 Verve gift certificate! Play along with our March Diva Dare and link up your creation to the linky widget entry form.  A winner will be chosen by random draw. To be eligible, your entry must:
   • Be a new creation - posted March 8th or later.
   • Be inspired by a Verve card or project combining Diva Maureen and Diva Laurie's style.
   • Use at least one Verve product.
   • Be added to the linky widget before 5pm Mountain on Wednesday,  March 27.
2. Win a Verve set of your choosing! Leave a little shout-out for the Divas in the comments section as we post our answers to this month's dare weekdays through March 25th.  A random comment winner will be chosen from all the comments over the course of the Dare.

March Diva Dare - Day 3

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Good morning!! Amber here with Day 3 of the fabulous Diva Dare! This month, we have two Diva birthdays so we're celebrating with a theme to match their blog titles! Laurie is Just Give Me Stamps and Maureen is Buttons and Bling! I gotta tell you, I love BOTH of those blog titles and was anxious to get started!

I created a trio of cards featuring the new Plain Janes and the large open flower from Surely Goodness. I used this week's Viva la Verve! sketch for the layout! The hardest part was coming up with the color combinations and then the rest just came together.

The Beautiful Plain Jane

The Smile Plain Jane

The Anniversary Plain Jane

I also used the Pennant Trim die and the Flag it Die Set as well. The rhinestones are from Michaels and the buttons and twin from PTI. 

To get your wheels a turnin', the Divas will be posting their Diva Dare creations using our newly released products right here, each weekday, for the next two weeks.  Winners will be announced on Thursday, March 28th.  

Finally, noted below are two ways you can win some shiny new Verve!  

1. Win a $40 Verve gift certificate! Play along with our March Diva Dare and link up your creation to the linky widget entry form.  A winner will be chosen by random draw. To be eligible, your entry must:
• Be a new creation - posted March 8th or later.
• Be inspired by a Verve card or project combining Diva Maureen and Diva Laurie's style.
• Use at least one Verve product.
• Be added to the linky widget on the Day 1 post before 5pm Mountain on Wednesday,  March 27.
2. Win a Verve set of your choosing! Leave a little shout-out for the Divas in the comments section as we post our answers to this month's dare weekdays through March 25th.  A random comment winner will be chosen from all the comments over the course of the Dare.

- Go forth and get inky! We DARE you! -