Spotlight Hop Day 5 - RELEASE DAY!

Hi Verve fans!  It's finally time to release new Verve into the world!  Hooray!  This has been the longest span we've ever had  between releases, and I'm so happy it's finally here!  The stamps I designed were originally meant for our 6th Anni-VERVE-sary in August, but life happens, and we're now having a bit of a belated birthday celebration!

We've had a giveaway every day this week, and today's no different!  Just hop around to the blog posts below where our Divas are sharing their first looks at Rain or Shine and leave a little comment love at each stop and you'll be entered in a drawing to win today's featured stamps!  Woohoo!

For today's card I stamped the small umbrella from Rain or Shine onto soft sky then added stripes and polka dots with a white gel pen.  Did the same on real red cardstock and then pieced onto the middle umbrella.  The butterflies are made by stamping one of the raindrops four times to form a butterfly shape, then I accented with a white gel pen and some tiny black rhinestones.  I've accented my sentiment panel with a smoky slate border using the Award Banner Trim Die and finished with a bit of liquid pearls.

Okay, on with the hopping!  I'm the first stop on the hop with another card using this set!

 
Day 5 PRIZE: Rain or Shine, Autumn Elements Ribbon Collection

Comment Deadline:  Sunday, September 29 @ 5PM Mountain

1. Julee 7. Amber 2. Teresa 8. Laurie W. 3. Charmaine 9. Christyne 4. Stacey {Guest} 10. Marisa 5. Andrea 11. Janelle 6. Jen 12. Laurie S.

I'm a sunshine girl, but I also love the rain.  Nothing makes the grass greener and the world seem brighter than a little sunshine after the rain.  My twins LOVE books, and pretty much adore any book you can sing.  A couple of their favorite books are the adorably illustrated You Are My Sunshine and Rain, Rain Go Away.  I must read/sing these both at least 10 times a day to the boys, so it seemed the perfect inspiration for a set!

Thanks so much for hanging out with us this week! Here our links to our entire release, which is ON SALE and available in the store right now!

Each Day	Geared Up	Birthday Bots	Poppy Birthday
Rain or Shine	Psalm 94:18	Award Banner Trim	Build a Poppy Die Set
Pastel Sequin Mix	Metal Mix	Autumn Elements Collection

Stamp Collection

Accessories Pack

September Spotlight Hops - Day 4

Hi Verve fans!  We're back with day 4 of our release week previews and today we're shining our spotlights on a new set called Poppy Birthday.

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!

The first thing from the release I pulled out to try was the Poppy Birthday set and coordinating Build a Poppy Die Set.  I was just so giddy to play with them, and they did not disappoint!  I made a super simple card in about 5 minutes and that's the card that inspired this one..  If you want to see the Poppy Birthday set and dies in action, I made a short little video yesterday as I started on this card. I've embedded it below, or you can click this link to view it on YouTube.  After I finished the video, I added the Award Banner Trim, a few more sequins and some liquid pearl accents to dress it up a bit.

On with the hop.  I'm the first stop with another card using this fun set! 
Day 4 PRIZE: Poppy Birthday, Build a Poppy Die Set

Comment Deadline:  Sunday, September 29 @ 5PM Mountain

1. Julee 8. Laurie W. 2. Teresa 9. Christyne 3. Charmaine 10. Maureen 4. Stacey {Guest} 11. Marisa 5. Andrea 12. Janelle 6. Jen 13. Laurie S. 7. Amber

I'm a huge fan of poppies.  When I art journal, I really enjoy creating them with paper shapes and doodling around them, so I decided to create a stamp set and die set that I could use both for mixed-media projects and cards.  The set includes sketchy poppies in three sizes and solid blooms in 5 sizes, creating a myriad of options for layering, 2-step stamping, paper piecing or coloring.  I've included some super fun scripty sentiments perfect for birthdays, too!

September Spotlight Hops - Day 3

Hi Verve fans!  We're back with day 3 of our release week previews and today we're shining our spotlights on a new set called Birthday Bots.

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!

My little guys were on my mind when I pulled out Birthday Bots, so I decided to get a jump on making their 2 year birthday cards.  Here I paired the set with yesterday's spotlighted set, Geared Up, which I used for the number background and the 2 cog embellie thingy.  {grin}  I stamped one of the little bots from Birthday Bots twice onto cream cardstock, then colored each one in blue and green (one of the only ways we could tell them apart for almost the whole first year of their lives!) and accented their little belt buckles with sequins from the Pastel Sequin Mix.  I added the award banner die down the side in soft sky, then accented with some thin grosgrain ribbon.  I made a mat for the bot images to look similar to a polaroid, then embossed the Happy Birthday sentiment from Birthday Bots in white, then colored over with a grey copic to make it not so stark.

ll right.. on with the hop.  I'm the first stop with another card using this fun set! 
Day 3 PRIZE: Birthday Bots, Metal Mix and Pastel Sequin Mix

Comment Deadline:  Sunday, September 29 @ 5PM Mountain

1. Julee 7. Amber 2. Teresa 8. Laurie W. 3. Charmaine 9. Christyne 4. Stacey {Guest} 10. Marisa 5. Andrea 11. Janelle 6. Jen 12. Laurie S.

As I mentioned yesterday, I think robots are awesome!  Could be the geeky chic in me coming out, but I had so much fun illustrating these little bot!  They're perfect for baby, birthday or just because cards and super fun to color or paper piece, whichever suits your style. They make me think of my little men each and every time I peek at the set, and creating with them was one of the funnest times I've had stamping in quite a while. I hope you love it just as much as I do.

We're also adding some sequins to the mix this release.  Our Metal Mix includes approximately 50 gear shape embellishments in each of two sizes, perfect for accenting your bot cards.  Our Pastel Sequin Mix  includes approximately 50 small and 50 medium sequins in 5 pastel colors.. pink, green, turquoise, yellow and pearl.

September Spotlight Hops - Day 2

Hi there Verve fans!  Welcome to Day 2 of our new release spotlight hops!  We'll be releasing 5 new sets, 1 plain janes, 2 dies and a couple of sequin collections this Friday, September 27.  As we countdown to our release, the Divas and our special guest 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!

Here's a little birthday card I made for my nephew featuring both the Geared Up set and the Award Banner Die we're spotlighting today.  When we gave it to him at his birthday party last weekend, he said, "I can tell Aunt Julee made this, because she's a wonderful card artist".  High praise, indeed, from an 8 year old boy!  {grin}

Day 2 PRIZE: Geared Up and Award Banner Die
Comment Deadline:  Sunday, Sep 29 @ 5PM Mountain

1. Julee 8. Laurie W. 2. Teresa 9. Christyne 3. Charmaine 10. Maureen 4. Stacey {Guest} 11. Marisa 5. Andrea 12. Janelle 6. Jen 13. Laurie S. 7. Amber

Check out the reveals and a little back story on today's featured products  below...  

Geared Up is an $18 set of 21 party themed stamps. For the twins' 1st birthday last March., I decided on a robot-themed birthday party.  I absolutely love robots and was surprised at how hard it was to find anything robot-themed to decorate with.  (Rookie mistake:  don't decide on a theme, until you've found the decor!)  I vowed to make some robot stamps that would work for party decor and birthday cards and invites when I had time, so this set and the set we're revealing tomorrow are my answer to that vow.  {grin}

This little retro robot is all geared up with a party hat and includes the numbers 0 - 9 to personalize to any age.  The gears are perfect for dressing up his body or creating fun backgrounds or dimensional elements.

I'm pretty partial to party banners, too, so I created a fun little banner trim die that has varying lengths of pennants and circles, for a super fun effect.  At 5.5" wide, the Award Banner Trim Die is perfect for cardmaking!

 All of the products featured this week will be available for purchase in the Verve Store on Friday, September 27.

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!

September Diva Dare 12 and Spotlight Hop Day 1

Hi Verve fans!  It's Julee here, wrapping up the final day of our Tic-Tac-Toe Diva Dare with my take on a tic-tac-toe inspired project.  And all in the same post, it's the kick-off to our September Spotlight Hops! That's right, we've got a whole bunch of new Verve coming your way this week and the Divas will be hopping all week long, sharing our first looks at the new product! Be sure to scroll to the end of the post for today's hop details and set reveals!

So, let's get to it!  Today's hop is spotlighting the new set Each Day and the Psalm 94:18 Plain Jane. The Tic-Tac-Toe Diva Dare was the perfect jumping off point for my card.  I knew I wanted to use the butterfly image from Each Day, which made me think of some fabby butterfly washi tape I picked up a while ago.  So I used the washi to make a little wonky tic-tac-toe grid, then sponged on some distress inks for a honey sunny winner!  This panel is crimped for some texture and I just love the way it turned out.

The butterfly is embossed in white onto vellum cardstock and then hand cut.  I sponged the back of the butterfly for some coordinating color, then accented with some flatback pearls for the butterfly body.  The base of the card is stamped  with the sentiment "God is able", to pair with the main sentiment, "Do not worry about tomorrow."  I think this card is so uplifting and so very "ME".  {grin}

So, there's still time to play along in this month's Diva Dare! And even if you don't have the time to participate, you can still have a chance to win by leaving a little comment right here on this post.  We'll be picking a random winner from all the comments over the series of this month's dare, so be sure to take a look at the sidebar for the links to all the posts!

For the entry form and all the prize details and deadlines for the Dare, visit the Diva Dare page on our site. Deadline to link your cards is 8PM Mountain on Wednesday, September 25th.  Entries must be new (posted 8/9 or later), include at least one Verve product, include multiple layers, and be linked up to the linky widget by 8pm Mountain on 9/25/13.

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

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Okay, now it's time for the Spotlight Hop portion of this post!

I just love an uplifting scripture, and our featured stamps today are just that.  The Each Day set was developed around the Matthew 6:34 scripture.  I wanted to be able to use it both all together and broken up between the front and inside of the card, so I created it in 4 different pieces.  Elegant cross and butterfly imagery, a few small sentiments and a similar font treatment on Psalm 31:24 finish off this set.  When I was done designing,  there was one more verse that didn't quite fit in the set, so I made it into the Psalm 94:18 Plain Jane.

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!

First up on the hop is ME, hop on over to see what I did with the Psalm 94:18 PJ! And a great big welcome back to our returning Fall/Winter Guest Diva, Stacey Schafer!

Day 1 PRIZE: Each Day and Psalm 94:18 Plain Jane

Comment Deadline:  Sunday, September 29 @ 5PM Mountain

1. Julee 8. Laurie W. 2. Teresa 9. Christyne 3. Charmaine 10. Maureen 4. Stacey {Guest} 11. Marisa 5. Andrea 12. Janelle 6. Jen 13. Laurie S. 7. Amber