March 2014 Diva Dare ~ Day 3

"Do The Polka", March Diva Dare

Morning Verve friends and welcome to March's Diva Dare!  It's Andrea here with you today on this glorious 'almost Spring' day! I'm sharing with you this month's Dare which is entitled "Do The Polka".  
What we're daring you to do this month is to use polka dots somewhere on your card. Whether you choose to strut your polka dot stamps, paper, ribbon or all of the above, we want to see you do the polka!  So, so easy...using Verve's Polka Dot ribbon collection...I've decided to use that as my focal point:

And....I'm peeking Verve's newest stamp set, this one is called 'Better Together'. I simply love Julee's style of mixing fonts on one sentiment. I also adore these darling rustic arrows included in the set too. I stamped them on an Occasion Frame die after I lightly inked the edges with some Vintage Photo distress ink. I added some copper accents, flowers, twine, a doily and wrapped it up, package style, with Verve's Polka Dot Basics collection. 

Deadline to link your cards is 8PM Mountain on Wednesday, March 26th.  Entries must be posted 3/7 or later, include at least one Verve product, polka dots, and be linked up to the linky widget by 8pm Mountain on 3/26/14.   

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

Win a $40 Gift voucher to Verve Stamps! Take our "Do The Polka" Dare and link up your card (created March 7th 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 "Do The Polka" 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 March 26, 2014.

Winners will be announced on March 27, 2014. 

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

January Diva Dare-Day 2

"Smitten", January Diva Dare

Good morning, it is Teresa sharing with you my take on the "smitten" Diva Dare. There is something sweet about the word smitten, don't you think? 

What we're daring you to do this month is to make a card or project with a heart, whether it's for the one you love, a sweet Valentine or a lunch note for a child.  Let's get smitten! 

A went all out and made mine glittery hearts....swooon....I adore creating with hearts and glitter so this is a very happy card. I used the Verve stamp set No Matter What, I luv this set! I framed it using the Occasion Frame Die, thought the curves fit perfect with the sweet smitten theme. And, for my glittery hearts I used the Heart Quartet Die, luv the shape of these sweet hearts. The mojo sketch inspired my card and is perfect for this month's Verve Diva dare...enjoy!

Deadline to link your cards is 8PM Mountain on Wednesday, January 22nd.  Entries must be posted 1/3 or later, include at least one Verve product, include a heart, and be linked up to the linky widget by 8pm Mountain on 1/22/14.  

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

Win a $40 Gift voucher to Verve Stamps! Take our "Smitten" Dare and link up your card (created January 3rd 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 "Smitten" 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 January 22, 2014.

Winners will be announced on January 23, 2014. 

August Diva Dare ~ Day 3

Pile On the Sweetness, August Diva Dare

Hello friends!  Maureen here today to bring you Day 3 of this month's "Pile on the Sweetness" Diva Dare.

This month's dare pays tribute to Diva Andrea (Ewen Style), and Diva Christyne (Stampin' with Sugar).  Both Divas are known for the wonderful way they can add layer upon layer on a card.  So what we're daring you to create this month is a card using lots of layers.   

If you want to kick this month's dare up a notch, you can add a flower cluster as per Diva Andrea, or go with a "sweet" theme as per Diva Christyne's blog name "Stamping with Sugar".  These are not required elements, but fun options should you wish to use them.  Just remember to use at least one Verve product on your creation!  

Here's how I answered the dare...

I've combined lots of layers with some super sweet papers, some lace, ribbon, pins and a flower!  After visiting both Divas' blogs, I was inspired to create a baby girl card...can't get any sweeter than that, right?  In keeping with my favourite (at the mo') Chalkboard technique, I paired up a couple of sentiments from To the Moon with the Occasions Frame and matching On Occasion  frame image.  I love the way the sentiment fonts make it look like one big sentiment, but it was made with two!  I used the flower from On Occasion to make a two layered flower to tuck under the chalkboard.  I finished off with some hot pink Truly Madly Deeply ribbon to add a girlish pop! Ready for the Dare Deets?

 Deadline to link your cards is 8PM Mountain on Wednesday, August 28th.  Entries must be new (posted 8/9 or later), include at least one Verve product, include multiple layers, and be linked up to the linky widget by 8pm Mountain on 8/28/13.

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

Win a $40 Gift voucher to Verve Stamps! Take our "Pile on the Sweetness" Dare and link up your card (created August 9th 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 "Pile on the Sweetness" 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 August 28, 2013.

Winners will be announced on August 29, 2013.

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

July Diva Dare - Day 11

Tattered Pages, July Diva Dare

Hello Verve fans!! Christyne here bringing you some inspiration on day 11 of this month's Diva Dare entitled "Tattered Pages".

This month's dare pays tribute to Julee (Poetic Artistry), owner and creator of Verve Stamps and Diva Teresa (Paperie Blooms).  Julee has created countless, uplifting sentiments which have become one of Verve's trademarks, and Teresa knows how to rock distressing and "shabbiness" on her cards.  So what we're daring you to create this month is a card using an uplifting sentiment and some distressing and/or shabby element to it.  Kind of like an encouraging card you have received which you have read so many times the edges are a bit tattered.  Just remember to use at least one Verve product on your creation!

For my card, I decided to use the Flowers of Tomorrow Plain Jane as my sentiment.  I love to garden, so this sentiment is very uplifting to me!  I printed the sentiment in black ink and paired that with black cardstock accents as a nod to both fabulous Divas who frequently use black accents so well in their creations.  To highlight Julee's amazing talents, I tried to add background stamp accents from the Borderline set on the sentiment as well as some loopy accents from On Occasion along the page borders.  I just love how she always utilizes the entire stamp set in her projects.  To highlight Teresa's awesome style, I used some shabby pastels, added a giant, bold loopy bow with Verve's Truly Madly, Deeply Ribbon Collection, as well as a bunch of distressed DP-only panels.  

Additionally, the sketch used for this card was last week's Viva la Verve sketch (July 2013 week 4).  To highlight this unique sketch, I used the Flourish Trim Die as a border.  

  

Deadline to link your cards is 8PM Mountain on Wednesday, July 31st.  Entries must be new (posted 7/12 or later), include at least one Verve product, an uplifting sentiment, and some distressing or shabbiness and be linked up to the linky widget by 8pm Mountain on 7/31/13.

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

Win a $40 Gift voucher to Verve Stamps! Take our Tattered Pages Dare and link up your card (created July 12th or later) to the linky widget on the day one postto 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 "Tattered Pages" 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 July 31, 2013.

Winners will be announced on August 1, 2013.

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

June Diva Dare - Day 10

Hey everyone! Jen here bringing you day 10 of this month's Diva Dare "Puddles of Color".

This month's dare pays tribute to Diva Jen (Deconstructing Jen) (that's me) who loves to color and Diva Janelle (Rain Puddles Design) who also colors beautifully, often uses paint on her cards and is a wonderful mixed media artist. So what we're daring you to create this month is a card using coloring and/or painting. If you want to kick the dare up a notch, you can add kraft card stock to the mix (Jen's specialty) and/or make a mixed media card (Janelle's specialty). Here is the link to Splitcoast Stamper's "Mix-Ability" Forum for some tutorials and ideas on Mixed Media should you want to try it out. This is not a requirement but a fun "extra" should you wish to add it to your card. Just remember to use at least one Verve product on your creation!

Here's my take on the dare:

For my card I started with what I typically start with - a kraft cardbase and I roughed up the edges a bit with a distress tool. Next I layered up a the background with patterned paper from my scrap pile (I believe it's MME's Nostalgia). I edged the patterned paper with Picket Fence Distress Paint (a la Janelle) but once it dried it was pretty sheer and didn't pick up in the photo, it shows up more in person. Lastly I stitched the edges. For the middle panel I embossed a rectangle of kraft with a quatrefoil embossing folder, distressed it, edged it with Picket Fence Distress Paint, edged with Vintage Photo Distress Ink and stitched the edges. Over this I layered a thin strip of patterned paper, also edged with Vintage Photo and adhered this to the background and wrapped it with twine thread. The sentiment panel is stamped using the frame from On Occasion  the small flower and sentiment from Let It Be and die cut using the Occasion Frame Die. This was adhered with foam tape.

Deadline to link your cards is 5PM Mountain on Thursday, June 27.  Entries must be new (posted 6/11 or later), include at least one Verve product, include some type of colouring/painting (with an option of adding kraft cardstock or mixed media, but this is not required) and be linked up to thelinky widget by 5pm Mountain on 6/27/13. 

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

Win a $40 Gift Certificate to Verve Stamps! Take our Puddles of Colour Dare and link up your card (created June 11th or later) to the linky widget to be eligible to win.  One participant will be randomly selected to win the gift certificate.  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 "Puddles of Colour" 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 June 27, 2013.

Winners will be announced on June 28, 2013.

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

~Jen~

June Diva Dare - Day 4

Puddles of Colour, June Diva Dare

Hey there summer crafters! It's Janelle here for Day 4 of our Diva Dare challenge this month. Puddles of Colour is our theme and it's about using wonderful color from two Diva styles! 

This month's dare pays tribute to Diva Jen (Deconstructing Jen) who is an amazing colourist and me, Diva Janelle (Rain Puddles Design) who is hopefully known to have a Copic in one hand and paintbrush in the other.

So what we're daring you to create this month is a card using colouring and/or painting.  If you want to kick the dare up a notch, you can add kraft card stock to the mix (Jen's specialty) and/or make a mixed media card (Janelle's specialty).  Here is the link to Splitcoast Stamper's "Mix-Ability" Forum for some tutorials and ideas on Mixed Media should you want to try it out.  This is not a requirement but a fun "extra" should you wish to add it to your card. Just remember to use at least one Verve product on your creation!   

Here's my take on this month's dare. I created background paper with acrylic paint, bubble wrap, paper doily and punchinello for stencils and Verve's On Occasion and Take Note stamp sets. (You can sponge acrylic paint on your stamp, stamp it quickly and brush them off without harming the stamp. I use water and an old toothbrush to clean them.) Next I used a credit card to smear white gesso paint on an old text book page before stamping the flowers from On Occasion. Those flowers were colored with vibrant water soluble oil pastels and fussy cut out to put on the stamped frame from the same set. I stamped the sentiment from the Let It Be set onto the frame and used the coordinating Occasion Frame Die to cut it out.

I added two hand cut banners from black cardstock to go along with the week three Viva La Verve sketch. The ribbon is a great match to the acrylic paint I used and is from the Summer Sailing Ribbon Collection. All of this is happily put onto a kraft cardstock base. There's a subtle shading with graphite pencils, any pencil will do really, and then a black pen to create a border. That's it!

Here's a quick little plug if you are thinking about having a go with mixed media.  Any project that uses more than two mediums is considered mixed media! Easy! If you take a look at the Mix-Ability Challenges Shopping List thread you'll find that you already have most of them in your crafty stash. 

Deadline to link your cards is 5PM Mountain on Thursday, June 27.  Entries must be new (posted 6/11 or later), include at least one Verve product, include some type of colouring/painting (with an option of adding kraft cardstock or mixed media, but this is notrequired) and be linked up to the linky widget by 5pm Mountain on 6/27/13.

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

Win a $40 Gift Certificate to Verve Stamps! Take our Puddles of Colour Dare and link up your card (created June 11th or later) to the linky widget to be eligible to win.  One participant will be randomly selected to win the gift certificate.  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 "Puddles of Colour" 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 June 27, 2013.

Winners will be announced on June 28, 2013.

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

---

There's also a new Viva La Verve challenge today with Diva Teresa who has a sweet little duet in a sketch and inspiration photo. Join in for a chance to win some shiny new Verve!  Details are over at the Viva La Verve forum on SplitcoastStampers.

May Diva Dare ~ Day 7

Hello Verve fans! Andrea comin' to you with my take on this month's Diva Dare! 

Stars & Stripes May Diva Dare

This month's dare pays tribute to Diva Amber's (Stamping Scrapbooker) military service and Diva Laurie Willison's (Soapbox Creations) wonderful use of stripes on her cards.  So we're daring you to create a card using stars and/or stripes.  While the title may conjure up visions of red, white and blue any stars and stripes will do! If you're feeling pretty in pink, go for it! Just remember to use at least one Verve product on your creation!  If you want to get really daring, you can add the extra challenge of making it a CAS card with stars and/or stripes, as that is Diva Laurie's signature style.  However, that is not a requirement, just an optional twist to the Dare if you're feeling daring!

Here is my take on this month's Diva Dare:

I couldn't help myself...as soon as I heard 'stars and stripes' my brain automatically went to the good ol' red, white and blue...so I went with it! The main sentiment is from a previously released Verve set called American Hero. I stamped that on a white panel and raised it up on a Occasion Frame die. I stamped the frame from the On Ocassion set and then heat embossed with white embossing powder. The blue and white star strip were cut with a Verve Ribbon Banner die and the left and right sides were stamped with a border from the Strong Anchor set. At the bottom, I stamped 'thank you for all you do' from the Teacher's Count set, because really that would work for anyone you're thankful for. Lastly I added some stars which were cut out using Verve's Starry die set.

During this month's Diva Dare, there are 4 prizes up for grabs!
 Win Verve's ENTIRE May Release! Take our Stars & Stripes Dare and link up your card (created 5/13 or later) to the linky widget below. One random participant will be drawn to win all of the stamps, dies and ribbons in our May 2013 release. You can enter as many times as you like, but each card needs to be in a separate post.  Here's a little look-see at what the winner will receive..

May Stamp Collection	May Die Collection	Black Beauty Ribbon Collection	Polka Dot Basics Ribbon Collection
Deadline to link your cards is 5PM Mountain on Thursday, May 30. Entries must be new (posted 5/13 or later), include at least one Verve product, use stars and stripes and be linked up to the linky widget by 5pm Mountain on 5/30/13.

Win a set of your choice! For another chance to win some new Verve, leave a little comment love on our design team's Stars & Stripes Diva Dare posts! THREE lucky commenters 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 May 30.

Winners will be announced on May 31, 2013.

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