March 2014 Diva Dare - Day 11

Hi there! Jen here, bringing you Day 10 of the March Diva Dare challenge, "Do The Polka".  

What we're daring you to do this month is to use polka dots somewhere on your card. Whether you choose to strut your polka dot stamps, paper, ribbon or all of the above, we want to see you do the polka! 

I was so happy when I found out this challenge involved polka dots because it meant I had another excuse to use the fabulous background stamp from Better Together. I just love stamps that let me step away from patterned paper for a bit to just focus on stamping. I combined the dots from Better Together with the flowers from Lean On Me (colored with Copic markers) and the leaves from Dream Big along with their respective dies, Pointed Flowers Dies and Dreamy Leaves Dies. The sentiment is stamped on a bit of cream cardstock cut with with Rounded Rectangle Die. Underneath it all I die cut the Pennant Trim Die from a bit of pale pink cardstock. To finish it all off I added a few teeny tiny rhinestones in a pale pink. 

Deadline to link your cards is 8PM Mountain on Wednesday, March 26th.  Entries must be posted 3/7 or later, include at least one Verve product, polka dots, and be linked up to the linky widget by 8pm Mountain on 3/26/14. 

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

Win a $40 Gift voucher to Verve Stamps! Take our "Do The Polka" Dare and link up your card (created March 7th or later) to the linky widget 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 "Do The Polka" 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 March 26, 2014.

Winners will be announced on March 27, 2014. 

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

Fanspiration Diva Dare ~ Day 9

Good morning Verve fans, Janelle today sharing my fan-inspired card creation with you.  We are almost done with our daily inspiration from the Diva's that "dare" you to show us your new creations inspired by projects made by Verve fans!  You can pick any little Verve project to inspire you, as long as it is not by one of our design team members (or yourself!) and that is why Julee appropriately titles this months Diva Dare theme...Fanspiration!  Join us if you dare!

Okay, you know YOU ALL are fantastic and it was SO much fun to go through the Fan Gallery to get inspired. I'm just bursting with fun ideas, so thank YOU! In the end I just kept coming back to this May 2012 Viva La Verve number by Gini Cagle {Beadz} 

She had so much fun with die cuts that I couldn't resist. The background is cut out with the Flourished Trim Die by measuring in 3/16 of an inch around all the edges and marking the center to align the die. It worked perfectly! I've also managed to use the Mini Classy Label Die, Pointed Flower Die, and Pennant Trim Die... all Vervey goodness. My images are stamped from the Lean on Me and Borderline sets. I'm most happy when I can get my hands messy with ink and paint so I brushed many acrylics, oil pastels, colored pencils and my new tool, a Wite-Out pen, until I just couldn't find another spot to messy.

So thank you Gini for inspiring me! Now how about YOU, Verve fans?

How fun is this Dare?  Don't know where to start?   Head over to the Verve Fan Gallery to peruse some projects, pick one then join in the fun...here are the details...

 Well, hopefully you've enjoyed this ninth day of our Fanspiration Diva Dare! Join us on tomorrow to find out who Amber was inspired by!  Read on to see how you can win some shiny new Verve!  There are two ways to win...

1. Win a $50 Verve gift certificate! Play along with our Fanspiration Diva Dare and link up your creation to the linky widget entry form. Winner will be chosen by random draw.  To be eligible, your entry must:
• Be a new creation - posted September 7 or later
• Be inspired by a non-design team created Verve card or project
• Include a link to the inspiration piece you used, as well as a brief explanation of what inspired you
• Use at least one Verve product
• Be added to the linky widget before 5pm Mountain on Sunday, September 23.
2. Win a Verve set of your choosing! Leave a little shout-out for the Divas in the comments section as we post our answers to the Fanspiration dare each weekday through September 20.  A random comment winner will be chosen from all the comments over the course of the Dare.

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

Fanspiration Diva Dare ~ Day 8

Hi Verve fans and friends!  Andrea here continuing with this month's exciting Diva Dare theme!  I have to say that as I was perusing our fan gallery and seeing all the fabulous entries for our recent card carnival I was very inspired as well!  I can certainly see how this inspiration led to Julee's decision to make this month's Diva Dare theme...Fanspiration!   This month, we "dare" you to show us your new creations inspired by projects made by Verve fans!  You can pick any little Verve project to inspire you, as long as it is not by one of our design team members (or yourself!) {grin}.  To get your wheels a turnin', the Divas will be posting their Fanspiration creations using our newly released products right here daily for a total of 2 weeks!
I have long since admired one of our Verve fans' work (among others) and what really draws me to Olena's creations is her incredible use of color. I tend to make things more on the neutral/pastel side, but wow! When you see how color can be used, particularly on this card....my goodness, it really inspired me to make this card here:

I started off by heat embossing with clear powder, the flowers from the newly released Lean on Me set. After embossing, I sponged color, starting from the middle with Sunflower yellow ink, then working outwards using Really Rust and then the outside perimeter is colored with Walnut Stain distress ink. I cut out each flower with the coordinating Pointed Flowers die. I cut out 3 large and 4 small designs, layered them, curled up the edges and added a rhinestone to the middle. The leaves are a combination of the previously released Bloom and  Grow, cut out with the Elegant Leaves die and also leaves from the Dream Big set, cut out with the new Dreamy Leaves die.  The sentiment is from the With Love set, stamped on the Scroll Plain Jane  and cut out with the coordinating Scroll die. The last colorful details added were some orange organdy ribbon, orange rhinestone flourishes, a doily and a raffia adorned wooden button. The perimeter was paper pierced as well.

 Read on to see how you can win some shiny new Verve!  There are two ways to win...

1. Win a $50 Verve gift certificate! Play along with our Fanspiration Diva Dare and link up your creation to the linky widget entry form. Winner will be chosen by random draw.  To be eligible, your entry must:
• Be a new creation - posted September 7 or later
• Be inspired by a non-design team created Verve card or project
• Include a link to the inspiration piece you used, as well as a brief explanation of what inspired you
• Use at least one Verve product
• Be added to the linky widget before 5pm Mountain on Sunday, September 23.
2. Win a Verve set of your choosing! Leave a little shout-out for the Divas in the comments section as we post our answers to the Fanspiration dare each weekday through September 20.  A random comment winner will be chosen from all the comments over the course of the Dare.

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

Fanspiration Diva Dare ~ Day 7

Hi there!  It's Charmaine bringing you Day 7 of our Fanspiration Diva Dare. This month, we "dare" you to show us your new creations inspired by projects made by Verve fans! You can pick any little Verve project to inspire you, as long as it is not by one of our design team members (or yourself!) {grin}. To get your wheels a turnin', the Divas will be posting their Fanspiration creations using our newly released products right here each weekday!

I really had a tough time with this dare because I couldn't decide on A card.  It took me a while just to narrow it down from all the fabulous Verve Fan creations in the gallery. . .but I still ended up with two that I just couldn't decide between!  One of the cards I was so inspired by is THIS CARD from girlgeek101.  This card is totally my style.  I LOVE how Audrie used the embossing to add detail to this simple but elegant card along with that pop of color with the flower image.  I created my card using the Learning To Sail set.  Since the stamps I used to stamp behind the sentiment were line stamps and not silhouette, I added a border of cardstock in the same color as the ship to bring it out a little more. 

I used the Beaded Oval Nestabilities for my focal piece.  I'm not sure how well it shows in the picture, but I added a tranparent pearl on each "bead" with a Viva Pearl Pen.  I thought it would be a neat detail that added to the water theme.  :)

The other card that I just couldn't decide between was THIS CARD from Jen Mitchell.  I just LOVED the colors that Jen used in her card.  I LOVE the warm, Fall colors with a pop of red!  I also loved Jen's layout.  I just changed the stamps and the papers for my card and added a sentiment using the Lean On Me set with the leaves from Dream Big. 

I die cut the flowers using the Pointed Flowers Die Set, stamped them in red ink and then used a blender pen with the ink pad to color them.  The leaves were die cut using the Dreamy Leaves Die Set.  I also used the Rounded Rectangle Die as well as the Rounded Scallop Frame Die with the border stamp from the Treasured Words set. 

How fun is this Dare? Don't know where to start? Head over to the Verve Fan Gallery to peruse some projects, pick one then join in the fun...here are the details...

There are two ways to win...

1. Win a $50 Verve gift certificate! Play along with our Fanspiration Diva Dare and link up your creation to the linky widget entry form. Winner will be chosen by random draw. To be eligible, your entry must:
• Be a new creation - posted September 7 or later
• Be inspired by a non-design team created Verve card or project
• Include a link to the inspiration piece you used, as well as a brief explanation of what inspired you
• Use at least one Verve product
• Be added to the linky widget before 5pm Mountain on Sunday, September 23.
2. Win a Verve set of your choosing! Leave a little shout-out for the Divas in the comments section as we post our answers to the Fanspiration dare each weekday through September 20. A random comment winner will be chosen from all the comments over the course of the Dare.

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