February 2014 Diva Dare - Day 8

"Perk Up" - February Diva Dare

Welcome to February's Diva Dare!  It's Charmaine, and I'm exciting to bring you my take today!  This month's Dare is entitled "Perk Up."    

What we're daring you to do this month is make a card or project to perk someone up, whether it’s with a warm beverage or just a heartfelt sentiment to brighten someone’s day.  No shortage of options as Verve has some wonderful coffee and tea sets as well as a plethora of uplifting/heartfelt sentiments.

I decided to use an old favorite set of mine called Delightful & Delicious.  The papers are from the Fabulous Collection from Simple Stories.  I stamped the "coffee & friends" piece and cut it out.  I cut various hearts using the Jotted Heart Die and the Heart Quartet Die.  I added a border of hearts using the Scalloped Trim Trio.

To embellish a little, I added some ribbon from the Summer Sailing Ribbon Collection.  Finally I added some "pearls" using a pearl pen.   Thanks for stopping by today!  I hope you choose to accept the dare!  ;)

Deadline to link your cards is 8PM Mountain on Wednesday, February 26th.  Entries must be posted 2/7 or later, include at least one Verve product, a warm beverage or heartfelt sentiment, and be linked up to the linky widget by 8pm Mountain on 2/26/14.

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

Win a $40 Gift voucher to Verve Stamps! Take our "Perk Up" Dare and link up your card (created February 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 "Perk Up" 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 February 26, 2014.

Winners will be announced on February 27, 2014.

December Diva Dare - Day 5

"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 Fans, Christyne here answering this month's Diva Dare!  This month's dare involves your favorite Verve set, and well, that's so hard to choose.  If I had to choose, it'd be a holiday set as these were the first stamps that caught my eye from Verve.  In honor of Verve's amazing holiday sets, I created a card for you today with Holiday Greetings and a couple of my favorite colors and embellishments including the Scalloped Trim Trio Die, Verve ribbon, the pastel sequins mix, and the Borderline stamp set for accents and borders.  The sketch inspiration for this card was this week's Mojo Monday sketch (#323).  

I had trouble highlighting just one favorite set or card, so here are a few other favorite Verve projects that I've created this year!

The Best Things

All Right

Seize the Cupcake

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday

Birthday Wishes

As a fun extra this month, the Divas are answering "The Diva Fab Five Questionnaire."  Here goes!

What are your three favorite Verve products?

This is such a tough question, but if I have to choose, I don't think that I could live without the Banner Bundle Die Set.  It's constantly out on my stamp desk and as you can tell from the cards above, it makes an appearance on my cards more than it doesn't.  The second Verve product that I couldn't live without is the new Seam binding collections.  It's hard to choose a favorite among them, so I'll have to pick the whole ribbon collections line!  My final favorite Verve product is the Scalloped Trim Trio die set, I specifically love the simple rounded lace border as it works so well as a subtle accent.  

What is your current go-to color combo?
My absolute favorite color combo is black and white with a bold accent color, as I'm sure you can tell from the above cards.  I simple think that you can't go wrong with simple.  However, if I'm working with a bunch of patterns and colors, I like to extract a bolder color in the pattern for accent purposes!

What is your current go-to embellishment?
My current go-to embellishment is jingle bells for the holiday season. However, sequins are really becoming a favorite of mine as well, I only wish I had more colors!  

What is your favorite stamping or organizational tool?

My favorite organizational tool is probably DVD cases for my Spellbinders dies.  I like to put a little double stick or magnetic tape on the insides to hold the dies in place.

What is your favorite treat to eat while stamping? 

My favorite treat while stamping is definitely Gevalia's Pumpkin Spice coffee with a touch of cinnamon while brewing and some French Vanilla creamer!  While I'm normally a dark roast fan, this light roast has a subtle flavor and isn't so strong that I can't set those rhinestones!!

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! -

October Diva Dare ~ Day 6

Tag, You're It, October Diva Dare

Morning Verve friends! It's Andrea checking in today on this lovely Friday morning with  Verve's monthly Diva Dare challenge which is in full swing...this month's theme is called "Tag, You're It!" Your project can either be a tag, or inspired by one. I love to make tags every now and then...I feel like I have much more control over the size of the 'canvas' to fill. I've got two tag projects to share today, one in my predictable shabby chic/girly/vintage style and the other in a fun, festive Halloween theme. First up is girly....

I stamped and cut out the butterfly from Verve's Each Day stamp set twice, inked up the edges and sparkled them with some coarse glitter. I then mounted one on top of the other with some dimensional tape.

To Maja Design's Vintage Autumn Basics collection paper, I added pearls, flowers, lace and crocheted stickers.

Then I decided, appropriately so, that since it's October, I would go with a Halloween theme. This tag features Verve's Boo to You stamp set, Polka Dot Basics & Summer Sailing Ribbon collections:

I glittered up the cute little ghosts after inking up their edges:

The ghosts are mounted against a medallion made with Ranger's Rosette die and to finish off the look, I added a perimeter of Platinum stickles:

 These flowers were on clearance at Michael's and I've been hoarding them...until now:

I thought that the Polka Dot ribbon looked great against the orange flowers:

Ok, now you can check out the deets....

Deadline to link your cards is 8PM Mountain on Saturday, November 2nd.  Entries must be new (posted 10/11 or later),include at least one Verve product, include a tag, and be linked up to the linky widget by 8pm Mountain on 11/02/13. 

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

Win a $40 Gift voucher to Verve Stamps! Take our "Tag, You're It" Dare and link up your card (created October 11th 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 "Tag, You're It" 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 November 2, 2013.

Winners will be announced on November 3, 2013.

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

June Diva Dare - Day 9

Hey there Verve fans!! Christyne here bringing you some inspiration on day 9 of this month's Diva Dare entitled "Puddles of Color".

This month's dare pays tribute to Diva Jen (Deconstructing Jen) who is an amazing colorer (word can be found in any crafter's dictionary wink, wink) 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 is my take on the dare:

For my card, I began with Jen's classic kraft cardstock as my base and sentiment layers.  I heat embossed the sentiment from Verve's Let it Be set as Jen also does often.  Unfortunately, I can't paint to save my life, so to highlight Janelle's talents, I colored up some of the beautiful flowers from Verve's Let it Be set with Prismacolor pencils.  I also tried to use some artistic DP and a bold color pallet as a nod to Janelle's fabulous mixed media creations.  A little distressing, some new ribbon from Verve's Summer Sailing Ribbon pack, and some pennant banners from Verve's Banner bundle die set were added for some pizazz!   As some added inspiration, I used this week's Viva la Verve sketch (June week 4) designed by Diva Janelle:

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 coloring/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 Color 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 Color" 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! -

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! -

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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.