August Release Project Parade ~ Day 14

Happy Tuesday, Verve fans!  It’s Mercy here with the final day of this month’s “Something Old, Something New” Project Parade.  Haven’t the Divas been knocking you out with their gorgeous creations days after day?  I took this theme as a personal challenge to not only combine both old and stamp sets, but to also use old and new patterned papers, cardstocks, embellishments, and techniques.  I hope you enjoy the end result as much as I enjoyed making it!

With Christmas just around the corner, I wanted to take advantage of this month’s theme to create a card using the older sets “Star of Wonder” (sentiment) and “Holly Jolly Christmas” (holly accent) along with one of the newest releases “Fabulous You” (frame).  Julee was kind enough to send me an advanced copy of yesterday’s Mojo Monday #156 to use as a template for this seasonal delight…thanks so much, Julee!  I stitched the multiple strips of patterned paper, then distressed the edges of the completed panel.  The sentiment and frame were stamped onto the same White Cardstock panel, the the holly image was stamped onto a scrap piece of White Cardstock.  After the holly was colored, I cut it out and attached it to the sentiment panel using pop dots.  After adding some dry embossing, sponging, pearls, and TONS of extra pop dots the card was complete!

That’s it for me today!  Thanks for stopping by, and be sure to enter your favorite “old” and “new” project for a chance to win some wonderful prizes!  Here’s how to enter:

1. Play along with us and link up your new SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING NEW creation (posted August 25th or later) to the linky widget on the DAY 1 PARADE POST before midnight on Wednesday, September 15th. One lucky stamper will win a $30.00 gift certificate to the Verve Store.

2. For another chance to win, be sure to give the Divas a little shout-out in the comments section as we parade our SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING NEW creations. One lucky commenter during the course of the parade will win the Verve stamp set of their choosing!

GOOD LUCK & HAPPY STAMPING!!!

{{{Hugs}}}

Mercy

Home For the Holidays: Day 12

Good Morning Everyone! Its me - Sankari :) and I have been loving peeking at all the amazing and gorgeous samples that the Divas have been making every day - and they maybe under $10 - but they look a million bucks to me!! So to continue the challenge of creating home decor and accents for under $10 - I created a little hanging chipboard star mobile to hang from our light fixture in the dining room. We are always hanging around the dining room table - whether it is for meal times, snack times or craft time with the kids - I thought it would be nice to decorate that area with a starry mobile :) The total cost of 4 chipboard pieces were $2.99 and each of the ribbons were only 50 cents - bringing up the total to a grand ole: $4.99 (and then some change with tax) - gotta love that!

Each star measures approximately 4 inches across. Each one was colored in on the edges and then I traced the star shape onto the lovely Jolly by Golly paper pack from Cosmo Cricket (each star is double sided - so I traced 8 stars on the different papers - and then adhered them paper onto the stars with some zip dry). I absolutely LOVED making this project and love that we can use it every year! I LOVE all of the wonderful sentiments that Julee has in each of her stamp sets along with the gorgeous images! It totally makes it a breeze to create a project like this! The first star has one of my favorite sentiments: "Snowflakes are winter's butterflies" and this sentiment and the two snowflakes are from the set: Christmas in the Air.

On the back of this star is this gorgeous sentiment from Blessed Christmas: "Have a blessed Christmas and a Prosperous New Year".

The second star's design comes from the beautiful set: Holly Jolly: The holly leaves are stamped 5 times and cut out and then popped up on dimensionals and I love the sentiment: "Have a holly jolly Christmas" :)

On the back of this star is the sentiment "Christmas Blessings" from the stamp set: Blessed Christmas. For this star,I created a little pocket so that my children could write all things that they are thankful for and what they wish for their friends, family and the world (my son's wish for everyone is always that everyone gets to have a monster truck! :)

The third star is one of my faves - I love this little winter scene created from the gorgeous setChristmas in the Air.- where I paper pieced the Christmas tree and then created a little snow scene with some crimped snow, popped up trees and some little buttons to the side.

On the back of this star, I used the sentiment "Let it Snow" from the stamp set: "Snow Wonderful" and I cut some of the hats and mittens out of the paper to create a little scene.

The last star has on the front a little coffee mug (which I am imagining is some yummy hot chocolate!!!) from the set "Delightful and Delicious which is also the expression in the sentiment:

And on the back of the star is a wreath that I stamped and colored with copics and is from the set: O Christmas Tree and in the middle of the wreath is the sentiment "Merry Christmas" that fits perfectly in the middle of the wreath. I decorated with some bling and some liquid pearls :)

Here is how this star looks hanging on the dining room light fixture:

I hope you liked this project - its fun to make and its so nice to see something like this on the dining room area where we are always together all the time :)

So, now it's your turn! We'd love for you to play along with us and show us your homemade goodies for the upcoming giving season! Verve stamps are not required, but if you've got 'em, why not use 'em?

And, as with all of our project parades, we've got prizes!
To enter, just link up your Home for the Holidays creation to the Mr. Linky widget at Day One's post before midnight MST on Thursday, November 26. One lucky stamper will win a $30 gift certificate to the Verve Store. And for another chance to win, be sure to give the Divas a little shout out in the comments as they parade their fabulous creations inspired by this month's theme. One lucky commenter during the course of the parade (Nov 11 - 25) will win their choice of any Verve set.

Home For The Holidays : Day 10

Happy Friday, everyone! It's Mercy here with another inexpensive and easy project for you all during this holiday season. All of the Divas have done such a phenomenal job showcasing beautiful gifts, decor, and more...and they've done them all for under $10! Now it's my turn to share my project with you.

I was able to make a stamped candle with a coordinating 3X3 card and envelope for under $5! I purchased a vanilla-scented candle and a pack of white tissue paper from an "everything is a dollar" store for $2. Then I used leftover bits and pieces of patterned paper, cardstock, and satin ribbon. The cost of papers couldn't be more that $1, and I actually got the ribbon from the end of a huge roll of satin ribbon for FREE. The candle and card were both stamped with the ornament shapes and sentiment from the "Holly Jolly Christmas" set, then the candle was placed into a large cello bag that cost only 10 cents...yes, I said it...10 CENTS!!! The envelope was actually from a gift card that I had received with one of my Christmas presents last year, so I thought I would reuse it instead of paying for a whole pack of new 3 X3 vanilla envelopes...especially since I only needed one!

That's it for me! So, now it's your turn! We'd love for you to play along with us and show us your homemade goodies for the upcoming giving season! Verve stamps are not required, but if you've got 'em, why not show 'em a little love?

And, as with all of our project parades, we've got prizes!
To enter, just link up your Home for the Holidays creation to the Mr. Linky widget at Day One's post before midnight MST on Thursday, November 26. One lucky stamper will win a $30 gift certificate to the Verve Store. And for another chance to win, be sure to give the Divas a little shout out in the comments as they parade their fabulous creations inspired by this month's theme. One lucky commenter during the course of the parade (Nov 11 - 25) will win their choice of any Verve set.

Home for the Holidays - Day 8

Hi everyone, it's Michelle! What a fun Project Parade this month? I have been lovin' what the Divas have done so far.

My project is something I have never done before. I altered letters! Yep. It was challenging, but I love how these little guys turned out!

So... GIMMIE A "J"...

GIMMIE AN "O"...

GIMMIE A "Y"...

WHAT DOES THAT SPELL? ...
Sorry Verve fans, this project has been removed for Publication!  Look for it in the 2011 Winter issue of Paper Creations.

Aren't these cute? I bought them at Joann's for $1.29 each. They measure 6" tall and come white! I love the white base, cause then I don't have to paint them-LOL! Easier the better I say, that's how I roll during the holidays!

First I covered the letters with Bella Blvd, December Details pattern paper and then adorned them with stamped images from Holly Jolly and Christmas in the Air. It's all about personal taste and what is in your stash. Everything on these letters I already had. These letters are a nice inexpensive way to add a personal touch.

So, now it's your turn! We'd love for you to play along with us and show us your homemade goodies for the upcoming giving season! Verve stamps are not required, but if you've got 'em, why not use 'em?

And, as with all of our project parades, we've got prizes! To enter, just link up your Home for the Holidays creation to the Mr. Linky widget on THIS post before midnight MST on Thursday, November 26. One lucky stamper will win a $30 gift certificate to the Verve Store. And for another chance to win, be sure to give the Divas a little shout out in the comments as they parade their fabulous creations inspired by this month's theme. One lucky commenter during the course of the parade (Nov 11 - 25) will win their choice of any Verve set.

Thanks for stopping by and have fun with this one!!

Home for the Holidays - Day 7

Hey there Verve Fans!! Jen Tapler here with another Verve-style Holiday project for ya!! Can you believe all these amazing holiday treats the Divas have been cranking out each day? WOWZA!! My project is a little different - it's a keepsake holiday mini album (click on photos to see larger images for detail).It's become a little tradition in the Tapler house for me to create a special Holiday keepsake mini album using the photos from the previous holiday. The little albums have become part of our Holiday Decorations and it's so much fun to spend a little time each year reminiscing about the previous years' festivities and seeing how much we've all changed and grown, especially my 3-yr-old son Dean!

This year, I went hybrid, using a Cosmo Cricket Blackboard Jack album and the Merry and Bright digi kit by Zoe Pearn (Sweet Shoppe Designs). As you can see in the following photos, I used a few Verve sets throughout the album - I just love how all of these sets coordinate and it's so much fun to mix and match the images and sentiments! The album has a total of 6 front and back pages, but in an effort to conserve space I'll just share a few of my faves. The cover, pictured above, featured a sentiment and paper-pieced tree from the Christmas in the Air set. I added some ribbon and buttons for embellishment and tied several pieces of coordinating ribbon to the book binding ring holding the album together.

Each of the individual page layouts was designed digitally using Photoshop Elements, then I printed them on my home printer, cut them out and adhered to the album pages with Mod Podge before adding my stamped images and embellishments. My most-used stamp set in the album was definitely the Holly Jolly Christmas set!

That tree image from Christmas in the Air came in handy again for photos of Dean decorating our Christmas Tree, and it looks so cute with some little half pearls used as "ornaments":And finally, my favorite set of pages in the album features photos of our Christmas Eve morning spent at Baldwin Beach in Paia. Is it ironic to anyone else that I used the Snowflake Images from Christmas in the Air to embellish these pages:And here's a closer look at those snowflakes. I just love adding some glitter to the outer edges to give them an extra festive look:So, now it's your turn! We'd love for you to play along with us and show us your homemade goodies for the upcoming giving season! Verve stamps are not required, but if you've got 'em, why not show 'em a little love? ;)

And, as with all of our project parades, we've got prizes!
To enter, just link up your Home for the Holidays creation to the Mr. Linky widget on THIS post before midnight MST on Thursday, November 26. One lucky stamper will win a $30 gift certificate to the Verve Store. And for another chance to win, be sure to give the Divas a little shout out in the comments as they parade their fabulous creations inspired by this month's theme. One lucky commenter during the course of the parade (Nov 11 - 25) will win their choice of any Verve set.

Spotlight on Guest Diva Betty Wright

Welcome to another week! We had a ball at our release party on Friday night - learning, among other things, the meaning behind the phrase "Winner, winner chicken dinner!" We announced the winners from last week's blog giveaways as well as our release week challenges over on this thread in our forum, so be sure to check it out. And if you haven't had a chance yet, be sure to stop by the Verve Store to see all seven of our new releases, plus find out what's on sale!

Okay, on with the fun stuff! Today I'm excited to shine our little Verve spotlight on one of this month's Guest Divas, Betty Wright!

Betty (gbedwright on SCS) has been wowing me as a participant in our Verve challenges the last couple months. Her designs are always so detailed, with beautiful dimension, embellishments and a touch of elegance. And from a look at her gallery, I think she might love making square cards even more than I do! Is that possible? A girl after my own heart! :) Her cards for this release were gorgeous in every way, so let's get to the eye candy!

Before I get to Betty's answers to our VERVE-i-view, I'll start things off with this beautiful card using the new O Christmas Tree set. I just love the gorgeous ribbon embellishments, the subtle shading and the elegance of this traditional Christmas card. So beautiful!


When/how did you get hooked on stamping? I went to a Stampin' Up! party and was hooked immediately. My concept of stamping prior to then were those office ink pads and a date stamp.

How often do you stamp? I like to say I stamp at least something every day. I may skip a day here and there. However, just because I stamp does not mean I finish a project or card. Sometimes I am just playing around with background looks and color schemes. This process calms me.

What's your favorite embellishment or finishing detail?
Those little gold and silver pearls at Michael's. I always loved the brads, but I never really know where my card design will go. Often, I would have everything assembled only to think that it needs a few brads here and there. Then, I would have to pry everything apart and add the brads. With the pearls, I just lift and stick. LOVE that!!!

Okay, time for a little eye candy intermission. There's so much to love about this gorgeous card from Betty. The way she used the sentiment to create such an elegant Old World background, and the beautiful way she stacked two of the ball ornaments from Holly Jolly along with a star from Star of Wonder makes my head spin with possibilities! Love it!



How long does it take you to create a project that you're happy with?Honestly, I think the color challenge cards are the quickest. It takes me a bit to choose my colors. Once those are chosen, I then start playing around with color ratios. There have been times where I have completed a card in a little over an hour and times where I have had to walk away from my craft table because I over think it. Many times if this happens frequently in the same day, I will just set that item aside and start something new.

Tell me about your creative space. My craft room is organized chaos....with lots of little pieces of stuff everywhere at times it seems! I know where the most used items go and must have those stay in the right place because when the right brain starts creating the mundane thoughts like where I put the scissors, tape runner, etc.... are not kept in any memory cells. I have to have a place where I force myself to set those so I know where they are. Otherwise, I have to start talking out loud and asking myself questions. My right brain creative moment cannot comprehend thought words, hence the talking out loud part.

What is your usual starting point for a project? Oftentimes, from doing design work, a stamp set is my starting point. It is wonderful to have a challenge to focus on along with the set sometimes, though. Many times I take notes and do actual sketches for specific set cards. I will play around with a layout and a stamp set and figure out what goes where. That is what I call my precrafting stage. It helps me stay focused on big projects if I take notes.

Time for one last card from Betty. This one uses the new Christmas in the Air and Holly Jolly sets. I adore the little heart button she used to mirror the Christmas in the heart sentiment, and the tiny pearls on the tree just dress it up to perfection. A total treat for the eye!


What is your biggest source of inspiration?Of course, I get a lot of inspiration from other people. I like to think we all feed off of each other. However, one of the biggest sources is color. I really love colors!!! Anything from home decor, fashion, billboards, cookware, whatever. If it has color, I am always looking for a way to use the pattern or combo of colors on a card.

Who in the crafting world do you most admire and why? There are a lot of people's work that I admire. However, if I had to say one person, it would have to be Tim Holtz. His products are just amazing!!!! It completely changed the way I stamped. I do not own near enough of his stuff!!!

What is your favorite set from this release? Now, this is hard since I love them all!!! Of course, to be fair, I narrowed it down to two. O Christmas Tree and Holly Jolly. The first one because I love the images. I love making an assortment of Christmas cards, but I sometimes need to make a few fast that are the same. The tree image in this set is a stand alone, no coloring, beautifully shaded tree. Stamp it and it is done look! Aside from that, there are wreaths, a small poinsettia, two Merry Christmas sentiments...a big one and a small one as well as several other fabulous sayings all with the most beautiful font!!! The Holly Jolly set is fabulous because it has ornaments, poinsettias, holly, and sentiments. The sizes vary from true stand alone images, to images that make beautiful stamped backgrounds. Just gorgeous!!!

I hope you've enjoyed learning a little more about this fabulous stamper as much as I have! To see the rest of the projects Betty made for our release, you can check out her Guest Diva album in our gallery, or visit her blog, Stamping to the Wright, for her newest creations. I just loved all of her beautiful creations for our release and she was such a joy to work with. Be sure to give her a little shout out for all her hard work!

Thanks for stopping by! Tune in tomorrow as we shine our spotlight on Jessie Rone!

---

Christmas in the Air & Holly Jolly Christmas Sneak Preview

Hi everyone! It's Jackie here to get you revved up for day three of sneak previews!! Today we are previewing two whimsical and completely fun sets, Christmas in the Air and Holly Jolly Christmas. I literally squealed when I saw these sets (well, I can't lie....I squealed at all the sets!) because I am a lover whimsical sets! However, don't be fooled, because these aren't your average cutesy sets, they are whimsey with a touch of elegance, like only Julee can do!! These sets will be available after the Release Party on Friday night, October 23rd. For a chance to win these sets make sure you read all the way to the end of this post!

---

From the desk of Guest Jessie Rone

First of all, WOW, somebody pinch me!! I can't believe I am posting as a Verve Guest Diva!! Yayy me!! When Julee asked me if I would be willing to be a diva, I jumped at the chance...when I saw this month's release I was drooling!! All the stamps are GORGEOUS this month(they are every month though), and Holly Jolly happens to be my absolute favorite!! I love all the different ornaments you can use and how easy they are to mix and match. You can go cute or elegant with this set, which I LOVE. For my card, I went all SU, but it is all retired(except the Old Olive). The main image was stamped on an MFT Perfect Panel and colored with Copics though. I used this months release party sketch C(VSOCT09C) for my card as well.

---

From the desk of Sankari Wegman



Hi Everyone, Sankari here :) Haven't the sneak peeks been so awesome! I can't wait to see more and I am so excited about this release - seriously - Julee has just about made it amazingly easy to create every single card you can imagine for the holidays and beyond with these awesome sets that will be released on Friday! I made a card using the Christmas in the Air stamp set - I love every single sentiment in this set - but I think this is my most favorite one: Snowflakes are Winter's Butterflies - I love the font in this set and the snowflakes are divine. I stamped the four snowflakes and then colored them with copics and then glittered them and cut them out, adding dimensionals when layering them. I kept the colors monochromatic and simple so that the focus would be on the center of winter's snowflake flower :). I absolutely LOVE each and every single image in this set! I am so not a winter girl (can't handle the cold) but I can't wait for some winter wonderland after using this stamp set!!! Hot cocoa anyone?? :) LOL! See you at the release party!! Hugs!

---

From the desk of Jen Tapler



I always love ALL of the new sets Julee creates, but these two Holiday sets are just so much fun! I adore the whimsical images and the new fonts are just fabulous!! One of my favorite things about Verve stamps is the endless mix and match possibilities and Julee's created another awesome set with tons of interchangeable images in the Holly Jolly Christmas set. I chose to create a tall card using just 3 of the SIX ornament images included in the set as well as one of the fun new sentiments. I used the colors in the American Crafts DP to pick the ink colors for my ornaments and tied the whole thing together with some silver embossing powder on both the sentiment and the ornament hanger thingies as well as some silver cording tied around the top. I could create a whole series of unique cards using this same layout and just changing out the ornament images and colors used - I love that!!

---

From the Desk of Jen del Muro


Has anyone else been overwhelmed with Christmas stuff since July 5th? I can't believe how the craft and hobby stores spend almost a half a year on one holiday! Of course, it's all the red and green and sparkly that everyone has grown to love, including myself. However, for this project I wanted to do something a little different, so I chose a very neutral palette of kraft, black and white and then added a hint of color with some green. The snowflake was cut from a Cricut on thin chipboard, painted and embellished with Diamond Dust glass flakes and then topped off with a ribbon and button. I paper pieced the tree with paper from My Little Shoebox. Although this card may look somewhat time consuming because of the little details, it really would be easy enough to mass produce...which is not something I like doing, but it's good to have the option when you have 50+ cards to send out!

---

From the desk of Jackie Pedro

Oh my goodness.....I have to say that this release is one of my favorites EVER from Verve! The variety of Christmas stamps from Spiritual to Whimsey (Verve Style, of course) to the Breast Cancer Awareness set, Believe, is AMAZING! When I saw Christmas in the Air, I saw versatility! I love the whimsiness (is that a word?) of this set and couldn't wait to get it inky! I used my MUCH LOVED designer paper, Eskimo Kisses by Basic Grey. The trees were pieced with three different patterns as were the rolling hills. I sponged some Antique Linen Distress Ink on the edges of each hill and adhered them to a piece of Scarlet Jewel cardstock(PTI). I then stitched along the edges of the hills and then around the top of the card. The sentiment was cut out with a Ribbon Tag Die from Spellbinders and was tied to the card with some Scarlett Jewel Twill Ribbon (PTI). A few Papertrey buttons and the card was complete!!

---

Like what you’ve seen so far? Just leave a comment here on this post before 6 PM Eastern on Friday, October 23 and you’ll be put in a drawing to win this set! Winners will be announced at our release party that night.
And for even more chances to win, be sure to check out the Release Week challenges going on in the Verve Forum for your chance to win our entire release! Okay, that’s it for today, we’ll see you back here tomorrow for another peek at some more new sets!