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 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!