Holiday Diva Dare - Day 5

Monday Greetings everyone!!  I hope you had a wonderful SUPER LONG Thanksgiving Day weekend.  This Canadian Diva is always a little jealous of the way you celebrate Thanksgiving right!  Now onto Day 5 of the Holiday Diva Dare!  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 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!  Oops!! Did you hear Christmas?  I'm working a little backwards...so stay with me!  Today just happens to be my son's 23rd birthday (AND btw Diva Andrea's!! Happy B-Day sistah!).  I wanted to make him a birthday card that would house a Starbucks card and a "little" cheque from Mom :)  I used a Small Phrases sentiment to let Jake know, once again, how deeply loved he is by his Mama.

 

Here is the inside of the gift card holder, using 2 stamps from Birthday Bash along with the leaves from Bloom and Grow.

Okay, here's where the "Christmas" comes in.  It's a busy time of year and I wanted to show you how you can save time (and hair pulling) by using a card layout you've used or seen before and just change it for the present occasion.  With full time work, the pending move to the new house, Jake's birthday AND Christmas, this Diva is more than willing to save a bit of time by reusing a card design...here's the Christmas version...

 

I just changed the papers, dies and sentiment and voila!  Christmas Gift Card card done!  Here's a peek inside...

I had a fun time mixing last year's stamp sets (Glad Tidings, Frosty Flakes, Christmas in the Air) on the outside with the latest stamp set, Bright Spirits, on the inside....they all work together so well! Here's a last photo with both cards so you can see how similar and different they are...

Thanks so much for sharing a special day with me...now onto the details of the DARE!

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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!

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September Diva Dare ~ Day 9

Happy Wednesday, Verve fans! It's Amy here today, checking in with Day 9 of our September Diva Dare! This month, we've come up with a fun challenge, 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 that are wondering...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!

I am honored to be CASEing the amazing Tosha! Her style is elegant and gracious and always filled with expert details. And she can seriously do it ALL! Multi-layered and dimensional, clean and simple, heavily distressed, crisp and clean all-white, 3D/altered -- it's all there! 

Some things that jump out most when looking through her gallery: distressing, vintage elegance, sheer beauty, layers, and lots of embellishing (we're kindred spirits there!). She's a genius with stamps and dies, using them in surprising and uber-creative ways that leave me scratching my head wondering why I didn't think of that.


Here's what I came up with ...  

... based on this recent beauty in Tosh's gallery. I used Tosh's overall layout and combination of elements, changing the colors and theme to Christmas. Tosh is a big fan of My Mind's Eye papers, so I stuck with MME, just a different line than the one she used. I love Tosh's punched border along the bottom and was tickled to have the same Martha Stewart punch in my aresenal. 

For the focal point, I started with a Rounded Scallop Frame that I die-cut from one of the rich burgundy patterns in My Mind's Eye's Lost & Found Christmas collection. On top of that is a Curvy Bookplate diecut that I stamped with the matching frame in Tag Time and a sentiment from Merry Wishes. As a CASE of Tosh's out-of-the-box thinking, I used the larger of Verve's Leafy Sprigs dies, the corresponding leafy sprig image from Sunny Days, and some white pearls to creative a mistletoe accent for the tag cluster (at least I hope it looks like mistletoe!):

That's it for me today! I can't wait to catching up on all of your gorgeous challenge entries so far! If you haven't played along yet, there's still plenty of time!

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

1. Play along with us and link up your new Case-a-Diva creation (posted September 16 or later) to the linky widget on the DAY ONE post 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!

Have a fabulous day!!

September Diva Dare - Day Four

Welcome to day 4 of this month's 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 that are wondering...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!

I have the distinct honor of CASEing Jackie. What fun to be "Jackie" for awhile. Channeling her diva skills, using her sketch...and ideas....*grin*. Pure stamping fun!!

Now comes the really hard part. Choosing one of Jackie's stunning cards. No easy task, let me tell you. I finally settled on THIS ONE, because I liked the layout and shapes she used. I don't normally think vertical like her sketch suggests, so it was fun to work with. She also has a fabulous way of working with colors and patterns. I loved the horizontal striped panel in the back.

Here's what I came up with.

I used the same set, Sunny Days, for the flowers and leaves, and added a sentiment from the set Making a Statement. I changed my shapes up a bit, and added some Webster's Pages flocked netting behind the main panel. I also changed my color palette.

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

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!

September Diva Dare - Day Three!

Hello and welcome to September's Diva Dare!  This month, we've come up with a fun challenge, 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 that are wondering...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!


So, Andrea had the task of matching all of us Diva's up to the talented girl we'd be case'ing. No matter who we got paired up with was going to be a challenge because every single one of these Diva's is full of talent. I happened to get Laurie! OMG, right? Nothing like a little pressure to get your mojo going, haha! I always love her elegant, distressed, shabby style. I was MUCHO intimidated, but as I started going through Laurie's gallery, I was also MUCHO inspired:) After alot of "hmmmm'ing" and "haw'ing" I decided on THIS beauty! I loved the diagonal panel and wanted to see what I could do with it!

I knew I had to have distressing, inked edges, and fabulous sewing to even come CLOSE to making Laurie proud! The sentiment is from "Making a Statement" and the leaves are from "Sunny Days" and cut out with the "Leafy Springs Die Set".  The heart behind the sentiment is cut out using the Jotted Heart die. The diagonal panel is paper from MME's Lost and Found Two line. I also used some fabulous SU! ribbon and a Recollections rose! 

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

1. Play along with us and link up your new Case-a-Diva creation (posted September 16 or later) to the linky widget on the DAY ONE post 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!

August Diva Dare - Day 2

Good morning everyone!  It's Charmaine and today I'm sharing my answer to the August Diva Dare with you!  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 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 Sending Some Sunshine!  So, we're actually going to SEND our card to someone for this challenge.  :)  When I was thinking of who I would send my card to, I thought of this sweet, sweet girl who is ALWAYS making cards and sending them to sick children.  Her name is Emersyn, she is 9 years old, and she is such a sweetheart.  She also has a Cards For Kids Facebook page. She loves crafting and loves putting a smile on a child's face.  I am going to send my card to her (along with others in my stash) so that she can pass them along to more sick children. 

For my card, I used the Sunny Days set along with papers from the Early Bird Collection from Cosmo Cricket.  I stamped the flowers onto patterned papers and cardstock and cut them out.  Then I added buttons with twine to the centers.  I stamped the sprigs onto Kraft cardstock in black ink and die cut them with the Leafy Sprigs Die Set. 

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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 Sending Some Sunshine creation (posted August 26 or later) to the linky widget at the bottom of THE DAY 1 POST before 9PM Mountain on Sunday, September 11. 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 Sending Some Sunshine creations. One lucky commenter will win the Verve stamp set of his or her choosing! Winners will be announced on Monday, September 12 right here on the Verve blog.

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

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