Encouraging Words - Day 10

Hey! Jen Tapler here with a super late post for Day 10 of the Encouraging Words Project Parade! First of all, I'm soooo sorry this is late! I completely spaced and had my days confused. Ooops! Better late than never, right?

When I started thinking about this month's theme, I knew I wanted to create a special little project for my 2-yr-old son, Dean. But let's face it, he doesn't really have much appreciation (right now anyway) for my "Encouraging Words"!! LOL. So in keeping with the whole "Encouragement" theme, I decided to make this fun little game for him, to ENCOURAGE his current love of numbers and math. He seems to have this weird natural affinity for numbers. The little smarty is 2 and can count to 100 and already seems to grasp the basic concept of addition (believe me, he does NOT get this love of numbers from his mother!!). However, as someone who has never loved numbers and found math to always be my weakest link, I want to encourage him in this early fascination.

First, the card. I used this week's MoJo Monday sketch to make a quick little card for him that was all matchy-match with his new game. I used printed digi papers from the Imagi-nation kit by Dani Mogstad (Sweet Shoppe) for the entire project, with a little Kraft cardstock thrown in as well. For the card, I combined a few sentiments from the new Starstruck set and added the star image from the You Rock set.

Now, for the fun game. I used white acrylic paint to cover some wooden blocks, then designed and printed out some numbered fronts for each side of the blocks to create "dice". I then stamped 12 stars from the You Rock set, 6 on red and 6 on yellow digi paper. I cut them out and mounted them on chipboard stars. Now Dean has a simple math game - he can roll the dice and "add" the 2 numbers by counting out the number of red stars from one die and the number of yellow stars from the other die and then adding the two together. Clear as mud? He seems to get it and LOVES it!! Here's another look at the completed project so you can see the group of stars a little better:
So there you have it - my ENCOURAGING little creation for the Project Parade. So yeah, I took some creative liberties with the theme, but I think it works!!

So what do you think? I know you have enjoyed the fabulous work that the other Divas have been sharing during our Project Parade, but now it's your turn! Create a card/project that is focused on encouraging words, and link up your creation to the Mr. Linky widget on the DAY 1 POST before midnight MST on Sunday, October 18. As with all of our project parades, we've got prizes! One lucky project parade participant will win a $35 gift certificate to the Verve Store. Be sure to show some love for the Divas each day (Oct.5-17) for another chance to win, because ONE lucky commenter will also win their choice of any Verve set. We can't wait to see your creations...Happy Stamping!

Encouraging Words Challenge: Day 4

What a fabulous challenge this month. Julee has such a wonderful gift of coming up with encouraging sentiments! That's one reason I've always been drawn to her images. So when I found out that this month we were to make a project to encourage someone, I got excited. I knew the exact person I wanted to make something for. I've been blessed to have a personal trainer since March, and she's a sweet little thing. She brings the *hurt*, believe me, but with a smile and encouragement. On two occasions, she commented that she loved the color of nail polish I had on and that she was going to go look for that very color. So I thought I'd get some for her. I also included a base and top coat. Of course I had to make a gift box for it. The bottles are oval and the Standard Oval Nestabilities worked beautifully to hold the bottles in place with an insert.

I combined a few different images for this project. The Fleur de lis and striped backgrounds are from the Bountiful Backgrounds Set, the Star is from You Rock, and believe it or not, there's a star on the bg tag too (if you click on the photo, you can see it better) from the Starstruck set, as is the sentiment on the inside. The tag shape is Labels 5 (Spellbinders), and I added some ribbon, bling, and a decorative border. That's it. I hope you've enjoyed this project as much as I enjoyed making it!!
Tosh ~

So, now it's your turn! We'd love for you to play along with us and show us your card or project focused on encouraging words or friendship. Verve stamps are not required, but if you've got 'em, why not show 'em a little love? ;)

As with all of our project parades, we've got prizes! To enter, just link up your creation focused on encouraging words or friendship to the Mr. Linky widget in THIS post before midnight MST on Sunday, October 18. One lucky stamper will win a $35 gift certificate to the Verve Store. That'll buy you a whole lot of encouragement;) For another chance to win, be sure to give the Divas a little shout out in the comments as they parade their fabulous creations inspired by this month's theme. One lucky commenter during the course of the parade (Oct 5 - 17) will win their choice of any Verve set.

Happy stamping!We can't wait to see what you create!

Sneak Preview: Starstruck and You Rock

Welcome to Day 2 of our Sneak Previews! Today we’re featuring cards made with Starstruck and You Rock. These two sets offer an updated approach to a theme we just love here at Verve – stardom! They’ll be available for purchase immediately following our Release Party this Friday night, so you don’t have long to wait! And be sure to read all the way to the end of this post to find out how you can have a chance at winning these sets for your very own!

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Designed by Julee Tilman

Since we first released Starlight Starbright & Wonderful Wishes in October 2007, I've had many requests to have some of these sentiments available in a bigger size. As my styles and tastes as an artist have changed over the past two years, I thought it would be good to revisit these two sets with a fresh perspective and Starstruck and Wishing You (which was peeked yesterday) are the result. I'm so excited about the possiblities of mixing and matching these sets with some of our older star sets for a whole new look. My card uses a flourishy star image, a smaller star, and a fabulous new sentiment from the Starstruck set.

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Designed by Amber Hight

Hey everyone, Amber here with a peek at Starstruck! When I first saw this *amazing* stamp set, I had all kinds of ideas for it, especially to create my own patterned paper with this awesome swirly star! I stamped it several times on a piece of cardstock and then used the medium-sized star to stamp in the middle of the large swirly star. I outlined the swirls with Gold Ice Stickles and then to finish off the fancy pattern I added some red pearls by Kaiser Krafts. I hated to cut this piece of paper up because it's just so dang pretty, but I like it on my card too;) I stamped the sentiment, inked all the edges, and then added a strip of cardstock cut with my Apron Lace edge punch (by Fiskars).The ribbon, button, and jute were added before I adhered the sentiment panel but I felt like the card still needed something....hmmm...what to do?! I decided to add a couple jute stitches along three sides of the card and it was complete!

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Designed by Jen del Muro

"You Rock." That's what I want to tell Julee each month when I get my DT package. Always filled with A-MAA-ZING stamp designs that are fun to work with. This month is no exception. It's an eclectic mix of fun, funky and elegant...quite the combo, right? The set that has my heart all a flutter this month is You Rock. It's a small set, but so much fun! When I sat down to make the card, I wanted to something that would really "POP." So I decided to combo black and white with a pop of pink and some bling-bling to make this a card appropriate for any true rockstar!

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Designed by Amy Sheffer

Warning, Verve fans: You Rock may be a small set, but the two stamps in it are likely to capture your heart in a big way! I never would have thought to put stars and fleurs-de-lis together, but just look at this star image with the fleur-de-lis pattern in it. Isn't it GORGEOUS?! What an enchanting fusion of geometric on the one hand and frilly elegance on the other! And then there's Starstruck, with even more star images and uplifting sentiments you will melt over. For my peek, I created a tall, skinny card (3 1/4" x 6 1/2"). The color combo was pulled from the Amy Butler designer paper I used, and the combination of elements - the polka dots, dry embossed swirl pattern, scallops, dp, and bling - hopefully have captured the fun, modern, yet super classy look and feel of these wonderful new Verve sets. Can't wait until Friday!

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Like what you’ve seen so far? Just leave a comment here on this post before 6 PM Eastern on Friday, September 18 and you’ll be put in a drawing to win these two sets! Winners will be announced at our release party that night.

And for even more chances to win, be sure to check out the Release Week challenges going on in the Verve Forum for your chance to win our entire release! Okay, that’s it for today, we’ll see you back here tomorrow for another peek at some more new sets!