Verve Release Day and Spotlight Day 4

Everything you see previewed along today's hop and from Day 1, Day 2 and Day 3 will be available in Verve's online store on Friday, May 10. That's today, release day!

May 2013 Spotlight Hops!  Today we're shining our Verve spotlights on the new stamps Teachers Count, Apple Die Set, All Occasion, Occasion Frame Die, Promoted Plain Jane. Each of the release team Divas and Guest Divas below has posted her first look at these new stamps today. As you hop through the list below, you just might see some super sneaky peeks of new coordinating dies and ribbons, so keep your eyes peeled! 

Want to win some shiny new Verve? We'll be picking a random commenter on one of the hop spots below to win today's featured products! So be sure to leave a little comment on all the blogs below to increase your chances! Check out the Verve Blog for all the prize details and deadlines. 

If you started at the beginning of today's Spotlight Hop you will have come from Laurie Schmidlin's blog to get here and after seeing my sneaky peek you'll be jumping over to Maureen Plut's blog. If you are just finding us then you can see the full hop list at the bottom of my post. :) Welcome and so glad you could drop in.

I couldn't help get one more card in for Mother's Day. It's so elegant when made with the frame from the All Occasion set and coordinating Occasion Frame die. There's another adorable Verve flower! Squeeeeee! It's so much fun to color. I used a matching pattern paper with a light yellow base and colored darker values with Copic markers.

It's been so much fun seeing the Guest Diva's, Stacey and Jen M, ROCK their style with Verve this release. We are so thrilled to have had them join us this release! Now your next hop is on to Maureen.

1. Julee 8. Andrea 2. Charmaine 9. Jen M. 3. Teresa 10. Laurie W. 4. Stacey 11. Laurie S. 5. Amber 12. Janelle 6. Christyne 13. Maureen 7. Marisa 14. Jen S.

Details:
Stamps:  On Occasion (Verve Stamps)
Paper:  Kraft (Wausau), Spotted Canary Designer Paper Pad (K & Company)
Ink:  Tuxedo Black (Memento, Tsukineko), Copic Markers
Accessories:   Occasion Frame Die (A Cut Above, Verve), Juli's Garden EF (Cuttlebug, ProvoCraft), white liquid pearl (Viva Decor)

Verve's Mother Day's Cards

It's time to start sending out those beloved cards for Mother's Day. I'm actually created a few extras this year for a donation at my church. Every year I wonder if it would be a good idea to have a few dozen made up and sitting at the greeter's desk on Mother's Day morning. You know, just for those sons and daughters that might have forgotten? :)

Each card is using Verve sentiments from Joyful Blooms, and Love Deepens.

This little lovely uses the frame from Verve Stamps, Love Story back dropped by die-cut and embossed vellum.

I used the flowers from Joyful Blooms and embossed them with Stampendous Detail White embossing powder (boy that stuff is shiny!) I added some adhesive backed pearls and some of Verve's luscious Seam Binding ribbon from Spring Fling Collection and added some stitches. Oh, see I even added an embossed doily in the background (see the next card for details).

 I added some lace doily stamps from My Mind's Eye, CUTIE PIE Clear Stamp Set, and new to me Stampin' Up Apothecary Framelit Dies. Seam binding ribbon is from Verve's Signature Ribbon Collection.

Are you ready for Mother's Day?

Details:
Stamps: Joyful Blooms, Love Deepens and Love Story (Verve Stamps), Cutie Pie (MME)
Paper: Various solid cardstock for bases (Wausau and Craft Warehouse packs), Jubilee Pattern Paper (K and Company)
Ink: Perfect Plum, Soft Suede, Rose Red (Stampin' Up), Watermark (VersaMark, Tsukineko)
Accessories: Lovely Marquee die (A Cut Above, Verve), Spring Fling Ribbon Collection, Truly-Madly-Deeply Ribbon Collection and Signature Ribbon Collection (Verve Stamps), eyelet circle die (Spellbinders), vintage wool thread and nylon thread (friends and mine stash), Detail White Embossing Powder (Stampendous), Juli's Garden embossing Folder (Cuttlebug), sewing machine, paper piercer (Stampin' Up), buttons, corner chomper (WRMK)

Happy Mother's Day ~ Weekend

It's a great Friday today, everyone. I've been in a very long wait to get my kitchen back in order. The microwave and wall oven haven't worked since Easter, but today the new appliances are going to be delivered. The not so good news? They won't be installed until Monday... Happy Mother's Day to me anyway!!!!!

I've got a really quick post today. I've been playing along with the Viva La Verve sketches this month in the midst of the most busiest month for this time of year. Schools are having lots of fun activities and programs for soccer, preschool graduation and Caravan's are all in the same week!

It's week three for the challenge, but today I've got this little Mother's Day card to show using the second week Viva La Verve sketch by Charmaine. Come join us with this fun sketch and get inspiration over at the forum!

To give you a head start on your summer stamping and man holiday, check out Verve's Stamp sale this month.

Have a wonderful weekend to all my wonderful mom friends both online and offline. : )


Details:
Stamps: Love Deepens (Verve Stamps)
Paper: Basic Black (SU!), Madeline Paper Pad (Prima Marketing), kraft (Wausau), Rose Red (SU!)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento, Tsukineko)
Accessories: circle and scallop circle dies (Spellbinders), adhesive back grass green pearl (Queen, CO.), Daisey Chain punch (EK Success), Dots and Flowers Set embossing folder (Sissix), ribbon (SU), Embroidery Thread, Sew Easy zig zag tool (WRMM), YG097 (Copic Marker)

Vintage Mother's Day

Mother's Day is getting closer and I just wanted to share a card I made with the new Stampendous Mother's Love Set. It features some extra texture with Stampendous Essentials and I was delighted how it turned out. The Chiffon Color Fragments framing the top half of the image looked so nice I kept going with the Frantage technique and gave the card some shimmer with the Aged Rose Embossing Enamel.

I stamped the ribbon tied baby rattle first and carefully trimmed a mask for it from a sticky note paper then stamped the mom and child image over it. The image was die cut with the technique I learned from Sharon Harnist a few years ago.

This adorable mom and child comes with more sentiments to make this versatile for any occasion that involves a mom and a child. You can take a look at the stamp set over at the shop here.



Details:
Stamps: Mother's Love (Stampendous)
Paper: Banana Bliss (Bazzill), light terrific teal (WorldWin Treasures),  flocked damask (Canvas Corp), Papyrus (WorldWin Treasures)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento, Tsukineko), Copic Markers
Accessories: Chiffon Color Fragments (Stampendous), Aged Rose Embossing Enamel, blue (Stampendous), lace edging ribbon (Walmart), Sewing machine and thread

Happy May Day!

This is the last month of the school year and it's going to be a busy one for us. How about you? There's no stopping us now, it's the home stretch, right? We have our little ones in soccer this spring and it brings back so many memories about the all day outings when my hubby and I played on leagues. It's fun and exhausting. So our week has sprouted three extra outings on top of all the field trips and regular activities which makes for a busy month ahead.

I'm a bit chatty today, but speaking of field trips, I volunteered to chaperon first grader's on a field trip last Friday. They were able to go to the Idaho Botanical Gardens because of a special donation specifically to pay for the buses. What a wonderful opportunity. It turned out to be pretty cold and raining though. The sun would peek out ever so often and then it would get windy or a couple of times it hailed on us. Spring weather is always a treat!

Okay onto my card for today. I wanted to post this last week, but my time got away from me. It's using the April Sketch For You to Try from Jen del Muro. I had started some flowers for another project, but they weren't working out as I thought, so I gave them a bit of a color twist with the blue center's and that made all the difference. These flowers are from Verve's April release Joyful Blooms Set and they started out on cream paper die cut with the coordinating Joyful Blooms Die Set. When I finished coloring them the nice edge that the die created didn't fit in with my new color scheme, so I fussy cut them away. Creative process is funny sometimes, isn't it.

My card base is pumpkin pie that I couldn't believe I scored off center, but a Martha Stewart edge fixed that snafu. I ran that through my Cuttlebug with a Sissix embossing folder and direct to stamp distressed the raised dots with Really Rust and sponged a little around the edges of the card to soften it up.

I scored some blue scrap paper and was tempted to add pearls to the intersection of lines, but I decided to leave it simple so the flowers could steal the show. My sentiment is from the same Joyful Blooms set that I cut out with Verve's Charming Ovals Die Set. The flowers and sentiment are resting over a cajun craze circle die from Spellbinders that goes nicely with the edge punch, at least I was impressed. I dotted around the flower centers and across the bottom edge with black liquid pearl by Viva Decor and then added some Orange Peel Glitter Glue to the spellbinders circle.




Details:
Stamps: Joyful Blooms (Verve Stamps)
Paper: Basic Black, Cajun Craze, Pumpkin Pie (Stampin' Up), blue scrap
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Tsukineko), Really Rust (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories: Charming Oval Die Set (A Cut Above Die, Verve Stamps), Edge punch (Martha Stewart), circle die (Spellbinders), score board (Martha Stewart), Dots embossing folder (Sissix)