June 2014 Diva Dare - Day 6

Welcome to June's Diva Dare!

Stacey here sharing another round of inspiration from our Diva Dare theme, A Man's World.    

This month we're daring you to create a stamped card or project with a masculine theme. 

 I went with bright, cheerful and trendy card with a masculine flair...love the mustache, lightbulb and camera patterned papers!  I used sentiments and the hibiscus image from Happy Days along with the Scroll Die to add interest to the sentiment tag.  There's a new Viva la Verve sketch up and running today, too!

Two ways to win prizes for double the fun!

Win a $40 gift voucher to Verve! Take our A Man's World dare and link up your card to be eligible to win.  Entries must be masculine in theme, posted 6/6 or later, include at least one Verve product and be linked up to the linky widget by 8pm Mountain on 6/25/14.  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 Verve set of your choice! For another chance to win some new Verve, leave a little comment love on our design team's A Man's World 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 25, 2014.

Winners will be announced on June 26, 2014.

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

September Diva Dare ~ Day 10

Hi!  It's Charmaine with Day 10 of the September Diva Dare!  This month, we DARE you to Case-a-Diva!  With nineteen Divas (see the photos and links on the right sidebar), the inspiration is vast! For those of you who don't know...CASE means to copy and share everything. And that is just fancy talk for copying! What you copy is up to you! It can be a layout, color scheme, or even something more subtle like a certain embellishment cluster!

You will find the links to all the Diva's blogs on the right sidebar, or you can visit their individual Verve galleries!

Stay tuned for info on how you could win some brand new Verve goodies!

I had the absolute pleasure (not without intimidation) to CASE the extremely talented Amy!  Ummm. . .have you spent any time in her gallery?   If you have, you know that there is TONS of inspiration!  I had a very difficult time choosing a card to CASE, but I finally settled on this one.  I absolutely LOVED the colors and the layout was really cool, and the embellishing. . .well, it was just SO Amy! :)  She always embellishes in ways I never think of.  When I think of Amy, I think of pearls, lace, layers, unique embellishments and fabulous layouts.  Lace didn't make it onto my card, but hopefully I've "done Amy proud" with my creation.  ;) 

I loved how she used the swirl from the Happy Days set, so I kept that!  :)  For the sentiment and the "butterfly", I used the Fancy Florals Remixed set.  I dug WAY back into my Verve stash for that set.  I love it, but it hasn't seen ink in a long time!  The papers are from the Life of the Party Collection from My Mind's Eye.  I started by diecutting the card base with my Scallop Square Grand Nestabilities.  The sentiment circle was die cut using the Plain Circle Nestabilities.  In creating the "butterfly", I wanted to embellish in a "unique" way following in Amy's footsteps, so I created a flight trail and antennae for the butterfly using button twine.  For the flight trail, I curled the button twine using some stickles and wrapping the twine around a paint brush handle until it dried.  Of course, I couldn't create an "Amy card" without using pearls!

I hope to see you playing along!  There's still time!

1. Play along with us and link up your new Case-a-Diva creation (posted September 16 or later) to the linky widget below before 9pm Mountain on Sunday,October 2nd. 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 Case-a-Diva creations. One lucky commenter will win the Verve stamp set of his or her choosing! Winners will be announced on Monday,October 3rd right here on the Verve blog.

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

You can post your card here.

May Project Parade--Day 15--The End

Well, it's me, Susan and I'm here to be the caboose of this May Project Parade Party Train! Hasn't it been a great ride?! All the wonderful projects have been absolutely stunning and I'm always amazed at how all the Divas come up with so many creative ideas. Great job, girls!

Even though summer has not officially started yet, it certainly feels like it here in Texas! This weekend we are already looking at highs to be around 102-105 degrees! Along with the end of May/beginning of June comes high school and kindergarten graduations, of which my family has one of each! (Crazy, I know!) So I had already made the high schooler a little gifty with some money in it, but I needed to come up with something fun to give to my kindergarten graduate, Audrie.


I thought it would be fun to make a "crayon box" of sorts but for sidewalk chalk (hopefully it will cool down a little so it will be fun to use outside). I designed this box similar to a 2-4-6-8 box, but with a few modifications to fit 8 pieces of Crayola brand chalk that I picked up at the grocery store and wrapped with some 2" strips of paper (I hate the feel of chalk! It totally oogs me out!). The box measures 3 5/8" by 4 1/2" by 2" and the handle is 1 1/2" wide.

Audrie's nickname is "Audrie Awesome", so I knew I had to use the sentiment stamps from Verve's Happy Days set to help congratulate her in her kindergarten accomplishment and again tell her how awesome she is. She really is (but then again, I'm biased.)!!

I stamped the big Hibiscus flower from the Plain Jane Collection and punched it out and then matted it on another circle and scallop circle to serve as the fastener to keep the box closed. I used temporary adhesive for this, but I would suggest using Velcro if you want to be able to carry it by the handle with something a bit heavy inside. I just didn't want to look for where the Velcro was in my bucket o' embellishments--I've been too busy with all this graduation stuff and took a shortcut this time!

I hope you've loved every minute of this Project Parade as much as I have! As with every Project Parade, we've got prizes! You still have until Monday to get your Summer Sizzle on and create a HOT project. Here's some more details on how this all works:

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There are two ways to win:

1. Play along with us and link up your new Sizzlin’ Summer Fun creation (posted May 17 or later) to the linky widget on the Day 1 parade post before midnight on June 7th. One lucky stamper will win a $30.00 gift certificate to the Verve Store. Verve Stamps are not required, but we 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 parade our Sizzlin’ Summer Fun creations. One lucky commenter during the course of the parade (May 17 ~ June 4) will win the Verve stamp set of their choosing!

May Project Parade - Day 14

Hi everyone!  Laurie here, and I am excited to be able to share my "Sizzlin' Summer Fun" project with you (although it's not easy following in the footsteps of the rest of the Divas!!)!  :-)

Having four kids, Summer is as much about the fun "treats" as it is about the weather!  :-)  One of those special Summer treats that our family especially enjoys is smores!  We even have a small fire pit on our property near our house (we live waaaay out in the country) and love to have campfires several times a week.  It never fails, that when we have company over for dinner...we somehow end up out by the fire!  LOL!  Well, I thought it would be fun to "plan" for it...and made up these cute little "smore kits"!

I started by stamping some large glassine bags using one of the decorative stamps in the Relax set and some Palette ink (it will dry and not smear on the glossy bag surface).  I then filled the bags with everything needed for several delicious smores - graham crackers, marshmallows, and of course a Hershey bar!!

For the "tags", I combined stamps from the Relax and Happy Days sets with some left over patterned paper (by Stampin' Up!) that I found in my stash.

On each of the tags, I added a punched bottom border, a wooden heart, and some satin ribbon.

Here's a close-up picture of the stamped glassine bags. 

So, what do you think?  What fabulous projects have you been using your new Verve stamps for?  There's still time for you to play along with us (Psssst, there's prizes involved if you do)!  But hurry, because the deadline is approaching fast!  Here's some more info on how to enter...

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As with all of our Project Parades, we’ve got prizes! There are two ways to win:

1. Play along with us and link up your new Sizzlin’ Summer Fun creation (posted May 17 or later) to the linky widget on the Day 1 parade post before midnight on June 7th. One lucky stamper will win a $30.00 gift certificate to the Verve Store. Verve Stamps are not required, but we 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 parade our Sizzlin’ Summer Fun creations. One lucky commenter during the course of the parade (May 17 ~ June 4) will win the Verve stamp set of their choosing!

May Project Parade - Day 13

Good morning everyone, it's Sankari here :) Haven't all the summer sizzilin' projects been HOT HOT HOT!!! Simply and totally awesome! Don't forget that you have until June 7 to submit your totally rad creations for a chance to win!!

Summer always reminds me of cooking with garden vegetables and sauteing with freshly picked herbs. One of my very good friends is an amazing gardner and is a wonderful cook - and she loves the colors yellow and teal. So I decorated a terracotta pot for her using the Happy Days and One Person stamps and wanted to give her this special present

I painted the pot with her favorite colors and then stamped the beautiful flowers from the One Person stamp set . The circle image in the center is also from this same stamp set. I love that these stamps are clear because it is easy to see where to stamp and also to bend the stamp a little to match the curve of the pot. I stamped the sentiment: "You're So Amazing" and used the stamps from the Happy Days stamp set to create this sentiment. This side of the pot says: "You're So....

And the other side of the pot says: "Amazing". After stamping and then coloring the pot, I added some liquid pearls - really - I couldn't help myself - what can I say - I simply {heart} liquid pearls :).

For the finishing touch - I sprayed an acrylic protective finish onto the pot so that it seals the paint in and can be displayed outside even in inclement weather. I planted some basil into the pot and hope that she gets a big smile on her face everytime she goes to use her basil plant!

Here's a picture of the plant outside after the rainstorm:

I loved creating this little basil pot for my friend and can't wait to give it to her! Speaking of giving away.... As with all of our Project Parades, we’ve got prizes! There are two ways to win:

1. Play along with us and link up your new Sizzlin’ Summer Fun creation (posted May 17 or later) to the linky widget on the Day 1 parade post before midnight on June 7th. One lucky stamper will win a $30.00 gift certificate to the Verve Store. Verve Stamps are not required, but we 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 parade our Sizzlin’ Summer Fun creations. One lucky commenter during the course of the parade (May 17 ~ June 4) will win the Verve stamp set of their choosing!

May Project Parade - Day 12

Good morning, it is Teresa.  I hope that everyone had a wonderful three day weekend, they are always great!  I am blown away by the divas projects, aren't you?  You have until June 7 to get your wonderful creation in for your chance to win.

I have created a Hand Fan/Church Fan, now I have to tell ya this was my husbands fabulous idea....I luv it!  I even looked up a little history(bottom of page) on these fans, it seems they are a status symbol as well as functional.  While I was creating it I was thinking back about the days as a young girl in church with my Mom and Aunt.  We used these in church back then, there was no air conditioning.  I had to add the white piece of trim for the nostalgia memory.  I used the Verve flowers from the set One Person.  The COOL sentiment is from the set Happy Days.  This would be perfect to take to ball games(cow bell attached....lol), lawn parties, and cook outs. 

The handle is a Lowe's paint stick.  I used white acrylic paint on the handle and then sanded it just a bit.

I made it 6 x 6, using a heavy duty watercolor paper(given to me by a friend).  I attached my 6 x 6 finished pages to the watercolor paper and then attached the stick and pages with Scor Tape.  It is super heavy duty and works wonderfully.

This is a picture of the back, using the matching designer paper from Cosmo Cricket DeLovely.  I will be in the tiki hut with my hand fan if you are looking for me....lol.

As with all of our Project Parades, we’ve got prizes! There are two ways to win:

1. Play along with us and link up your new Sizzlin’ Summer Fun creation (posted May 17 or later) to the linky widget on the Day 1 parade post before midnight on June 7th. One lucky stamper will win a $30.00 gift certificate to the Verve Store. Verve Stamps are not required, but we 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 parade our Sizzlin’ Summer Fun creations. One lucky commenter during the course of the parade (May 17 ~ June 4) will win the Verve stamp set of their choosing!

May Project Parade ~ Day 10

It's Friday, and summer is on its way!! Woo-Hoo!!

Tosh here, and when I think summer, I think freedom!! Now, probably not in the way you'd imagine though. It has nothing to do with school projects or cold weather coming to an end. (I much prefer cold to heat.) Instead, it has everything to do with feet freedom. Oh, yeah!! No more confining socks or shoes!! *sigh*....bliss!! LOL

However, with the constant exposure to rough surfaces and heat, the feet tend to compensate by forming calluses and dry skin. Therefore, with this month's project parade theme being "Sizzlin Summer Fun!!", I thought foot care products would make a perfect gift.


I used Lauren Meader's Trendy Tool Tote Template for my gift box, and decorated it with images from the following Verve Sets: One Person, Relax, and Happy Days. I used coordinating Versamagic chalk inks to match the colors from the Bath and Body Foot scrub containers.

The borders were made with EK Success punches, the and dp is by Crate Paper. Finally, I added some ribbon and a bit of sparkle with some Kaisercraft Rhinestones.

Here's a look at the box without all the gift products inside and around:



Here's a close-up of the front with the sweet little palm tree and sentiment medallion:



I put a "Relax" sign on the left side:



And surf boards on the right side:

So, now it's your turn:

1. Play along with us and link up your new Sizzlin’ Summer Fun creation (posted May 17 or later) to the linky widget on the Day 1 parade post before midnight on June 7th. One lucky stamper will win a $30.00 gift certificate to the Verve Store. Verve Stamps are not required, but we 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 parade our Sizzlin’ Summer Fun creations. One lucky commenter during the course of the parade (May 17 ~ June 4) will win the Verve stamp set of their choosing!

May Project Parade - Day 9

Happy Thursday, Verve Fans! It's Shannan here, and I'm so excited to share my project for this month's Project Parade.

Summer is already in full swing here in Texas...it's supposed to be 94 degrees today! ACK! So I wanted to do something a little different to cool things off a bit. Check it out:

I bought this shadowbox/frame thingy from my local scrapbook store and thought it would make a cute little gift for a friend. After covering the back piece with patterned paper, I stamped the sentiment from the Happy Days set on vellum in black Stazon to use as an overlay. I assembled my frame, adding a mixture of glitter and Dazzling Diamond Dust tinted with a Copic marker refill. I thought the hibiscus flowers were the perfect touch. The papers are from October Afternoon's Fly a Kite collection.

Well, that's it for me today...I hope you enjoyed my project! Are you ready to get Sizzlin'? Here's what you can do:

1. Play along with us and link up your new Sizzlin’ Summer Fun creation (posted May 17 or later) to the linky widget on the Day 1 parade post before midnight on June 7th. One lucky stamper will win a $30.00 gift certificate to the Verve Store. Verve Stamps are not required, but we 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 parade our Sizzlin’ Summer Fun creations. One lucky commenter during the course of the parade (May 17 ~ June 4) will win the Verve stamp set of their choosing!

Have a fabulous day!

May Project Parade - Day 8

Hey there! Jen Tapler here with a fun Beach-y home decor item to share with you. I've had this Gallery J brand Hanging Frame Kit laying around for a few years just waiting for the perfect project idea. You know me and my love for a good Photo Keepsake! Here's a look at the finished project (which I had a SUPER hard time photographing by the way).


I used DP from the Lil' Buddy and Twitterpated Collections by Pebbles Inc and picked out a couple of my favorite photos of my son Dean at the beach last Spring to use inside 2 of the frames.


I decided to stamp inside the middle frame. I stamped the wave-y frame thing from Happy Days in a creamy orange pigment ink on cream cardstock and cut it out with my hobby knife to "frame" the Fun in the Sun sentiment from Relax.


And here's a look at the second photo I used - isn't that the cutest little Surfer Dude ever!?!?


And finally, the bottom of the kit had a smaller plaque kind of thing. I used one of my labels Nestabilities dies to create a mat for the "Dude" sentiment from, you guessed it, Dude. I also added the duo of hibiscus flowers from Happy Days, colored with Copics to match the papers used on the project.

So there you have it!! My Beach-y, Sorta Summery (although here on Maui, it's pretty much always Summer!! LOL) Home Decor Project! I can't wait to find the perfect spot for this in my son's bedroom!

As with all of our Project Parades, we’ve got prizes! There are two ways to win:

1. Play along with us and link up your new Sizzlin’ Summer Fun creation (posted May 17 or later) to the linky widget on the Day 1 parade post before midnight on June 7th. One lucky stamper will win a $30.00 gift certificate to the Verve Store. Verve Stamps are not required, but we 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 parade our Sizzlin’ Summer Fun creations. One lucky commenter during the course of the parade (May 17 ~ June 4) will win the Verve stamp set of their choosing!

May Project Parate - Day 7

Hi everyone!  It's Michelle here with a Summer Birthday project.  There is a little girl who lives down the block.  She is HAPPY, FUN, BRIGHT and a JOY to be around.  She loves COLOR and CANDY!  I made this card and candy bag ensemble for her.  Her birthday is in June and I know she will love it.

The card is made with the Happy Days set.  I stamped the circle wave in green, cut it out and popped it up on my circle panel.  I colored the hibiscus flowers with my copics in bright pinks to match the AMAZINGLY bright Cosmo Cricket DeLovely paper!  I added some tiny rhinestones and some silver cord for accents, but for the most part, I let the stamps and paper be the focus.

My tag also uses the Happy Days set.  She is always walking around with sunglasses announcing that she is COOL (she's only 5!).  I declare this stamp set was made for her!!  I decorated the tag with scraps left over from the card.  I love how just a tiny bit of paper at the bottom can make such a difference! P.S.  Aren't the Laffy Taffy candies a PERFECT match for the Cosmo papers?  Happy sigh...

Now it's your turn!!! As with all of our Project Parades, we’ve got some wonderful prizes...and there are two ways to win:

1. Play along with us and link up your new Sizzlin’ Summer Fun creation (posted May 17 or later) to the linky widget on Day One's parade post before midnight June 7th. One lucky stamper will win a $30.00 gift certificate to the Verve Store. Verve Stamps are not required, but we LOVE to see them if you have them!

2. For another chance to win, be sure to give the Divas a little shout-out in the comments section as we parade our Sizzlin’ Summer Fun creations. One lucky commenter during the course of the parade (May 17 ~ June 4) will win the Verve stamp set of their choosing!

We can't wait to see how you make your summer sizzle, so GO CREATE!!! :)

Sizzlin' Summer Fun! May Project Parade--Day 6!

Hiya peeps! It's Amber here, writing to you from the FUTURE! LOL! It's Monday night here, so I'm writing to you as you read this and it's Monday morning there in the states:) Did you ladies *and gentlemen in you're out there!* have a great weekend?  We did too! And we have a FOUR day weekend coming up, YEAH!;)

Okay, sorry but I'm feeling chatty, lol! Let's get on with the show, shall we? This month, we're busting out our fun, summery stamp sets and creating something sizzlin' fun! I'm sure I don't have to tell you how FAB the latest summery stamp release was! I just love every single stamp set, but that's not really a surprise;) I reached for a couple different stamp sets for this card:

The sentiment and small sun images (the sun image is stamped on the yellow dp, can ya see it???) are from Let it Shine, the sparkly sun peek out from behind the wave is from Relax, and the fun wavey circle is from Happy Days! I really love this fun, summery color combination! The papers are from the new collection by Cosmo Cricket called DeLovely! 

SO have you loved the Diva's creations this past week? Well hold on tight cause there is plenty more on the way! 

Now it's your turn!!! As with all of our Project Parades, we’ve got some wonderful prizes...and there are two ways to win:

1. Play along with us and link up your new Sizzlin’ Summer Fun creation (posted May 17 or later) to the linky widget on Day One's parade post before midnight June 7th. One lucky stamper will win a $30.00 gift certificate to the Verve Store. Verve Stamps are not required, but we LOVE to see them if you have them! 

2. For another chance to win, be sure to give the Divas a little shout-out in the comments section as we parade our Sizzlin’ Summer Fun creations. One lucky commenter during the course of the parade (May 17 ~ June 4) will win the Verve stamp set of their choosing!

We can't wait to see how you make your summer sizzle, so GO CREATE!!! :)