December Diva Dare - Day 9

"Playing Favourites", December Diva Dare

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

 

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

 

Though this Diva does not like to play favourites either, it was easy to pick my favourite Verve set of 2013...Teachers Count!  Are you surprised? LOL  Julee took my idea for a teacher set and created the most beautiful stamps with sweet apple images and the most heartfelt sentiments.  I took this set and put a Christmas twist on it!

 

 

I've used a sentiment from Merry & Bright and the Winter Tree Plain Jane with coordinating Winter Fun die to create a sweet teacher Christmas card.  Here are some of the cards I made throughout the year with Teachers Count.  My set is very brown and well loved! 

 

 

  

This first card was for a teacher who retired last June.

 I left this card on a new staff member's desk in September.

 A colleague bought this card to give to her daughter's teacher!

 

What are your three favourite Verve products? 

Well, I love it all!  The dies that match specific stamps, the stamps, and all the yummy seam binding ribbon.  Julee's ribbon is super soft and a dream to tie!

 

What is your current go-to colour combo?

Hmm, I really don't have a favourite!  I'm a lover of colour and my choices come from the beautiful paper pads I use.  I do, however, love non traditional colours for Christmas and Valentine's Day.

 

What is your current go-to embellishment?  

Are you ready?!  Doilies, bakers twine, jingle bells (continuing for 3 years now!), gems, seam binding ribbon, tags, oh my! 

 

What is your favourite stamping or organizational tool?

I would have to say that my Big Shot and Stampin' Up guillotine cutter are the two tools I use for every card I make.  I also love my jewellery organizer that I bought at Michaels.  It sits by my Big Shot and holds all my Verve dies.

  

What is your favourite treat to eat while stamping? 

 I rarely eat in the studio as my hands are too busy!  BUT you'll often find a coffee, or latte, or glass of water on my desk.

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 favourite Verve Stamps creation of 2013 or a new creation using your favourite 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 Favourites" 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 Favourites" 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! -

 

December Diva Inspirations Hop

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Hi Verve fans! It’s the 5th of the month and time for our monthly Diva Inspirations Blog Hop! If you’re not familiar with our hop, it’s our design team’s time to shine a light on some old favorites from the Verve line-up and breathe a little fresh life into them. Sometimes we dust off older sets to use them by themselves and sometimes we mix and match them with newer products, but we always have a lot of fun getting our Verve on! Hop along with us to see what I mean! For my card, I mixed old and new stamps for a whimsical little Christmas card.  My little Christmas birdie and sentiment are from the brand new Christmas Joy set.  I stamped the sentiment onto a Scroll Die cut stamped with the coordinating Scroll Plain Jane, then accented with a snowflake from Holiday Treats cut with the Winter Fun Die Set. My birdie has a glitzy red coat and is standing on some glimmery white snow, courtesy of Stickles!  I added some fun scrappers floss and mini jingle bells to finish things off. Did I mention there's a PRIZE hidden along this little hop! Just leave a comment at each stop as you hop around to the blogs linked below and you’ll be entered into a drawing to win a $40 voucher to the Verve Store!  Eye candy AND a chance to win free stamps... sounds simply fabulous!  I can't wait to see what everyone created! This little shindig starts over on my blog, Poetic Artistry, so I'll see ya there! {grin} 1. Julee 11. Andrea 2. Amy 12. Teresa 3. Anya 13. Charmaine 4. Betty 14. Laurie S. 5. Jessica 15. Stacey {Guest} 6. Karen 16. Jen 7. Sankari 17. Maureen 8. Sarah 18. Marisa 9. Susan 19. Christyne 10. Tiffany Comment deadline for the prize drawing is 5pm Mountain on Tuesday, December 10.

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And since the year is coming to a close, we thought we'd celebrate with a 25% off sale on all of our stamps that released in 2013 (and their coordinating dies)!

Supply List:
Stamps: Christmas Joy, Scroll, Holiday Treats (Verve)
Paper: 'Tis the Season (Echo Park), basic black, basic gray, cherry cobbler (SU!), white
Ink: Black
Accessories: Scroll Die, Winter Fun Die Set (A Cut Above by VERVE), red, green, orange and frosted lace stickles (Ranger), white scrapper's floss (Karen Foster), mini jingle bells (JoAnn)

April Diva Dare 2012 - Day 10

It's the Diva's last day bringing you our take on the All Aboard! theme. Are you bursting with ideas, yet? I can't wait to show you how I met the challenge, but first here's the deets... 

This month we dare you to make a card, project, layout, or whatever fits your stamping style using this month's theme - All Aboard! It has been Grand Central Station around the Verve nest lately, Julee and Mark have welcomed two beautiful baby boys into their family and have had their hands full! So on that note, we are challenging you to use chipboard, corrugated cardboard, or kraft on your creation or project! We can't wait to see how you answer the dare! Stay tuned to learn how you could win some shiny new Verve!!

My house seems to run a little different than the well organized Grand Central Station... more like a circus! LOL So that's where my take on the challenge started with a couple animal car box cutting files using my favorite challenge item, KRAFT cardstock. After that the color just started jumping to join in! Take a look...

I used the darling monkey from To the Moon who loves to hang out of the car...

A giraffe and elephant too! The billboard sets the theme of this circus with the sentiment from Super Dad and is framed and die cut from Love Story set and the Lovely Marquee A Cut Above Die set. These animals just couldn't get anywhere without a ring leader and leading lady so Verve's recent couple from Twitterpated stepped into the center ring.

And all together with some Winter Trees die cut with the Winter Fun Die Set makes for an exciting day!

Want to know how you can win some fabulous new VERVE GOODIES? 

1. Play along with us and link up your new All Aboard creation (posted April 20 or later) to the linky widget on THIS POST before 6:00PM MST on Thursday May 3. One lucky stamper will win a $30.00 gift certificate to the Verve Store. Verve Stamps are not required, but if you've got 'em we would LOVE to see ‘em!
2. For another chance to win, be sure to give the Divas a little shout-out in the comments section as we share our All Aboard creations. One lucky commenter will win the Verve stamp set of his or her choosing! Winners will be announced on Friday, May 4th right here on the Verve blog.

Now it's YOUR turn! We DARE you to show us your creations!

Holiday Diva Dare - Day 6

Welcome to the Holiday Diva Dare! I have been so inspired by both the Diva creations and the challenge entries uploaded so far. I hope you have too!

For those of you who are new to this challenge, here is how it works: Following each release, we will post a theme that we dare you with and you'll then have two weeks to complete the challenge. During those two weeks, the release team will be posting their creations and sharing how they answered the dare!

This month's theme is A Handmade Christmas! The theme is pretty broad and can be interpreted in so many different ways...from a lovingly made card, to heartfelt gifts and homemade decorations! With the Holidays right around the corner, this will be the perfect time to get a jump start on your card and gift making!

So, we DARE you to make a Handmade Christmas card or gift!

I answered the dare with an ornament that I created using the tree die from the new Winter Fun Die set and a sentiment from Glad Tidings.

I started with a decorative oval chipboard frame, then added a Classy Label diecut, a paper rosette, a layered felt tree, and a sentiment flag. I attached a rusty jingle bell at the bottom and some ivory vintage buttons at the top. I distressed the chipboard and paper elements with Frayed Burlap Distress ink for a somewhat rustic look.To create the layered felt tree, I die-cut three trees from green felt, stacked them, and then stitched vertically through the center. Press open the seams for a more 3D effect if desired. Fairly quick and easy to make! I think these will work especially well with kraft gift bags or packages wrapped in kraft paper. For the recipient, the ornament can go right from the package to the tree for a gift that keeps giving.

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Want to know how you can win some fabulous new VERVE GOODIES?

1. Play along with us and link up your new A Handmade Christmas creation (posted November 18 or later) to the linky widget on the DAY ONE post before 9PM Mountain on Thursday, December 8. One lucky stamper will win a $30.00 gift certificate to the Verve Store. Verve Stamps are not required, but if you've got 'em we would LOVE to see ‘em!
2. For another chance to win, be sure to give the Divas a little shout-out in the comments section as we share our A Handmade Christmas creations. One lucky commenter will win the Verve stamp set of his or her choosing! Winners will be announced on Friday, December 9 right here on the Verve blog.

Now it's YOUR turn! We DARE you to show us your creations!

Holiday Diva Dare - Day 3

Welcome to the Holiday Diva Dare!  It's Sankari here with the details of the challenge and then my project for the Diva Dare this month:

For those of you that are new to this challenge, here is how it works...following each release, we will post a theme that we dare you with, and you'll have two weeks to complete the challenge. During those two weeks, the release team will post their creations and tell you how they answered the dare!

This month's theme is A Handmade Christmas! The theme is pretty broad and can be interpreted in so many different ways...from a lovingly made card, to heartfelt gifts and homemade decorations!  With the Holidays right around the corner, this will be the perfect time to get a jump start on your card and gift making!

So, we DARE you to make a Handmade Christmas card or gift!

I answered the dare by making a little banner to hang on our front door. I have always enjoyed making handicrafts that can be hung on our door and our kids get so excited for the next season with a new doorway banner or wreath. After Thanksgiving, I am excited to hang up this little snowy banner on our door using the Bright Spirits Stamp set. I love this sentiment: "May your Spirits be Bright" and the sweet little star shape that can be both a flower or snowflake. I created a little ornament that I saw while surfing awhile ago and then saw again made in our LSS (hi Cynthia!) and couldn't wait to add as a big rosette to the banner:

Here is the center piece of the banner - I created a double star and used the Winter Fun Die set that has this beautiful tree to create little icicle pennants for the top: 

 

I had some glittery snowflakes from a previous project that I added to the center of the large rosette and then layered the sixpoint snowflake (large and small) from the Bright Spirits stamp set into the middle and added a little button to the center:

Here is a side view of the banner and the layers:

Project Ingredients:

Stamps: Bright Spirits from Verve Stamps

Papers: Yellow Bicycle Winter Twig

Inks: Memento Danube Blue

Accessories: Winter Fun Die Set from Verve Stamps, snowflake punch from MS, dimensionals, Spellbinders, red tacky tape, pearl embellishment from Want2Scrap, ribbon, jumbo eyelets from WeRMemory Keepers, Chipboard and liquid pearls

I loved this challenge and love making home decorations! I am so excited to hang this on the door after Thursday and surprise my little ones with a new door hanger and get ready a beautiful season of Merry and Bright Spirits!!! 

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Want to know how you can win some fabulous new VERVE GOODIES?

1. Play along with us and link up your new A Handmade Christmas creation (posted November 18 or later) to the linky widget on Laurie's Day 1 post before 9PM Mountain on Thursday, December 8. One lucky stamper will win a $30.00 gift certificate to the Verve Store. Verve Stamps are not required, but if you've got 'em we would LOVE to see ‘em!
2. For another chance to win, be sure to give the Divas a little shout-out in the comments section as we share our A Handmade Christmas creations. One lucky commenter will win the Verve stamp set of his or her choosing! Winners will be announced on Friday, December 9 right here on the Verve blog.

Now it's YOUR turn! We DARE you to show us your creations!

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