June Diva Dare ~ Day 1

Puddles of Colour, June Diva Dare

Hello Verve fans!! Marisa here with this month's Diva Dare entitled "Puddles of Colour".

This month's dare pays tribute to Diva Jen (Deconstructing Jen) who is an amazing colourer (word can be found in any crafter's dictionary wink, wink) and Diva Janelle (Rain Puddles Design) who also colours 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 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 is my take on the dare.

I decided to go the mixed media route as I have never done it before, and well... a dare is a dare...and I'm not one to turn down a challenge!  Being a mixed media newbie, I'm not sure if I succeeded, but I sure had fun making this card.

I started out by creating the background paper using the emboss resist technique.  I stamped the wheel image from Strong Anchor in VersaMark on glossy paper, heat embossed it, and then sponged on a mix of Bashful Blue, Brocade Blue and Night of Navy.  In keeping with the sea/nautical theme, I die cut five Flourish Trims and stacked them one above the other to create "waves".  An up-cycled a Starbuck's sleeve became my tag and fulfilled the kraft element.  I added the Adjusted Sails Plain Jane sentiment to the tag, curled one corner of the sentiment panel and added a bit of distress ink around the edges.  Still needed a colouring / painting element so I swiped my white ink pad along the edges of the tag and then finger painted the white smudges on the word "hope".  The tag was then layered on to the burlap strip and I used the Nautical Die set for the wheel image.  Some distressed edges were in order and I finished things off by framing the card with some multi-coloured red, white and blue twine.    

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 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 below 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! -

May Diva Dare ~ Day 10

Hi everyone!  Maureen here winding up the week with Day 10 of  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!

 

 

I had plenty of inspiration this month...not only with our talented Divas we are highlighting, but with my son's graduation from Engineering next week :)  His university colours are gold and navy (my alma mater!) so that took care of the colour scheme.  Then came some stripes from Strong Anchor and a whole bunch of sparkling stars from the Starry Die and glitter cardstock.  I couldn't resist adding a little extra note from Small Phrases to let Jake know I am extra proud of him.  But the part I love best is the centre piece, Happy Graduation.  I was so excited that it was part of the latest Release...perfect timing for me! Then last, but not least,  I added some fun golden flag ends from the Flag It 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! -

May Diva Dare-Day 8

Hey there!  It's Laurie here for another day of Diva Dare!  I have a fun CAS card for you today.  There is still time to play along so here are the details....

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!

(Fun huh? Stars and Stripes!)  Here is my card...

I used the reverse side of the rope (again....kinda hooked on stripes!)  from Strong Anchor in yellow ink.  I added in a sentiment and image from Shining Star.  It's kinda hard to see in the picture, but the stars are full of Star Dust Stickles.  :)  

Now check this out for all the prize details!  I hope you have a chance to play along!  

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 ON THIS POST. 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.

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! -

May Diva Dare - Day 6

Hello everyone, Christyne here on this wonderful Monday morning bringing you some more inspiration for this month's Verve Diva Dare. If you haven't already joined in the fun, there's still plenty of time to play along for some great prizes!!

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!

My Diva Dare inspiration pairs some classic stars and stripes colors with a sentiment for a special upcoming holiday.  The colors are an obvious nod to Amber's military service and I tried to leave a big patch of stripes exposed to highlight Laurie's CAS style.  The stamp set used was the new Strong Anchor set, including the fabulous circle border and many Father's Day sentiments.  I also used plenty of pennants, cutting them with the Banner Bundle Die Set and the Pennant Trim Die.  Finally, I added some accent stars using the Starry Die.  I also used plenty of hardware embellishments on one half of the card while leaving the other half a little cleaner in an attempt to blend these two Diva styles.  Finally, the sketch used for this card is this week's Viva La Verve sketch (May week 3) by Charmaine.  I hope that's enough challenges to inspire you all and I can't wait to see what you come up with!!

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 ON THIS POST. 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.

May Diva Dare - Day 2

Hello Verve Fans!  It's Charmaine with Day 2 of this month's Diva Dare entitled "Stars & Stripes".



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 chose to use the Strong Anchor set.  I started by adding red and blue stripes to the bottom part of the cardstock using the border/stripe image from the set.  Once I had my stripes all stamped, I die cut a bunch of stars using the Starry Die.  The stars are all covered in glitter to make them shine!  :)

I'm not sure how well you can see it in the picture, but the card base is embossed with thick stripes to add to the "stripe" theme.  I tried to keep a CAS element to my card as well by not adding too many layers or embellishments. 

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 ON THIS POST. 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! -

May 2013 Spotlight Hops - Day 3

Hi there Verve fans!  Welcome to Day 3 of our new release spotlight hops!  We'll be releasing 5 new sets, 4 plain janes, 3 dies and 2 ribbon collections this Friday, May 10.  As we countdown to our release, the Divas and our 2 special guests are strutting their new Verve with daily blog hops now through Friday!

And since we LOVE to share our Verve, we've got a giveaway every day this week!  Just hop around to the blogs on today's hop and tell us what you think in the comments at each stop and you'll be entered in a drawing to win today's featured stamps!  Woohoo!

Day 3 PRIZE: Strong Anchor, Adjusted Sails Plain Jane and Nautical Die Set
Comment Deadline:  Sunday, May 12 @ 5PM Mountain

1. Julee 8. Andrea 2. Charmaine 9. Jen M. 3. Teresa 10. Laurie W. 4. Stacey 11. Laurie S. 5. Amber 12. Janelle 6. Christyne 13. Maureen 7. Marisa 14. Jen S.

Before I get to the reveals, I have a little announcement about our dies.

As of this release, we will no longer include plastic alignment tools with our A Cut Above dies.  Anything that is in our inventory that has plastic tools will be shipped with the tools until we run out, but we will not be re-ordering any tools or including them with our new dies.


Our manufacturer originally included these tools for free, but have since added a charge for each plastic piece, and I'd rather keep our costs affordable than have you pay for something that you could just as easily do without.  The plastic tools are easy to lose and not as accurate as the new method I'm excited to show you, especially for the smaller, more intricate dies.  I've been making my own die alignment templates from scratch paper for the past year and I think it is so much easier and more accurate. Here's my first ever video explaining this method along with a sneak peek of the Strong Anchor and the Nautical Die Set...

Okay, on with the reveals...
 
Strong Anchor is an $18 set of 12 nautical themed sentiments and images.  I've been a long time fan of anything nautical, collecting lighthouses for many years and planning my dream retirement by the beach.  I'm so excited to see the paper crafting industry trending on everything anchors lately!  I couldn't wait to add my take on this fun theme and expand our masculine set offerings in the process.  It's perfect for Father's Day, masculine birthdays and for anyone who's a guiding force or solid anchor in your life.  And of course, it was the perfect excuse to put one of my favorite scripture verses into stamp form... Hebrews 6:19.

Production Note:  We discovered a typo in the scripture reference on this set after the set had gone to production.  I'm blaming it on two sweet little twin boys that are always stealing me away from the task at hand. {grin}  Anyhow, our replacement stamps should be in-house early next week, so if you order this set, just know that it might be delayed a few days so we can include the corrected stamp.


Here's the sweet little CAS card I made in the video featuring Strong Anchor and the Nautical Die Set.

Our plain jane feature today is the Adjusted Sails plain jane.  Coordinating beautifully with Strong Anchor, I just love this quote and the hope and perseverance it symbolizes.  I can't wait to add a page to my art journal with this stamp and I know I'll be using it for encouragement cards for some of the amazingly strong women who have crossed my path.  This stamp measures 1.75" (w) x 2.25" (h) and will retail for $3.

Stamp reads, "She stood in the storm, and when the wind did not blow her away, she adjusted her sails. - Edwards".

To finish off our nautical theme, we're releasing a Nautical Die Set that coordinates with the anchor and ship's wheel images in the Strong Anchor set.  This die set will retail for $6.

Size reference:  Anchor 1" (w) x 1.5" (h), Ship wheel 1.375" (w) x 1.375"(h)

All of the stamps, dies and ribbons featured this week will be available for purchase in the Verve Store on Friday, May 10.

Thanks so much for hopping with us today!  Have a great day and we'll see you back here tomorrow for some more fresh new looks at VERVE!