July Verve Diva Inspiration Hop!

Welcome to Verve's July Diva Inspirations Hop. It's the 5th of the month and that means it's time for the Divas to serve up some fresh inspiration with their Verve stamps! Leave some comment love along the hop spots for a chance to win a prize, then grab some stamps and play along with our July inspiration challenge for another chance to win!

Our July challenge is Red, White and You:

Red and white are always classic, pair this gorgeous color combo with a color of YOUR choice! Make a statement or keep it muted, it's all up to you! Feel free to use the graphic as inspiration or not, we just want to see you flash a little red, white and "up to you" color on your creation!

I've used one of my favorite Verve floral sets:  Poppy Birthday.  After heat embossing in black onto watercolor paper, I watercolored with Festive Berries Distress Ink.  Sentiment is stamped in StazOn black ink onto vellum and wrapped around the panel.  A few Pretty Pink Posh sequins were added.......well, because I can't create anything without sequins anymore!!!

Need a little inspiration? Check out the blogs linked below to see what the other Divas did with the challenge! It's sure to be a treat, and speaking of treats, we've got a prize for one lucky commenter along the hop! Check out the Verve Blog today for all the prize info and deadlines!

	1. Julee	8. Sony
	2. Amy	9. Susan
	3. Anya	11. Maureen
	4. Betty	11. Stacey
	5. Karen	12. Chaitali
	6. Sankari	13. Amber
	7. Sarah	14. Marisa

It's a Red, White and Blue SALE!

Everything in the Verve store is marked down 15% (or more) through Thursday, July 10!

Curtain Call Inspiration Challenge: Birthday Bash

 photo source: 

We have an awesome new sponsor, Top Dog Dies, for the Curtain Call Inspiration Challenge: Birthday Bash!  The designers received some fabulous Tog Dog Dies to work with for this challenge...such a quality product!  The LEAD of this challenge will receive a prize from Top Dog Dies!

I fell in love with this tiny envelope and heart die that are included in the Heart Mini Album Finishers Die Set.  I paired it up over some sunburst stamps from the new Happy Everything stamp set from Whimsy Stamps (this was just released).

What I love about these "finisher" sets from Top Dog Dies is that there are so many dies included that can be used for OTHER things.  The Heart Mini Album Finishers Die Set has lots of heartsy things but I found a way to use this set for Birthday too!

Birthday Bash Designers

Amber Kroening

Amy Kolling

Amy Tsuruta

Gayatri Murali

Kim Singdahlsen

Laurie Willison

Lisa Henke

Marisa Ritzen

Maureen Plut

Monika Davis

Sheri Gilson

Sarah Gough

Stacey Schafer

Tenia Nelson

Tracey McNeely

Stop by the Curtain Call Inspiration Challenge: Birthday Bash and play along with us!

{a whole lotta HAPPY}

Stamps:  Happy Everything (Whimsy Stamps)

Paper:  White, Lemon Tart, Melon Berry (PTI)

Ink:  Peach, Island, Chamomile, Fuchsia, Pink Lemonade (Fresh Ink), Onyx Black (Versafine)

Dies:  Heart Mini Album Finishers Die Set (Top Dog Dies)

Misc:  Foam Adhesive

Brighten your days!

This past week has left me running so I hope that this week slows down.  Between both of my kids, they had 21 baseball/softball games in 9 days last week!  This week it's time for a slower pace, laundry, housework, and some stamping!

I pulled out the fabulous Brighter Days stamp set from Verve to do a little watercoloring with tonight.  These open floral images are perfect to clear heat emboss and use the resist technique with!!!!  I used my Distress Inks and a waterbrush for this.....and seriously nothing fancy.  Quick and easy!!!  (and I had to add my favorite sparkling clear 4mm/6mm sequins from Pretty Pink Posh too!)

Thanks for sharing a part of your day with me!

{Brighton your days}

Stamps:  Brighter Days (Verve)

Paper:  White, Soft Stone (PTI)

Ink:  Versamark, Picked Raspberry, Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade (Distress Inks), Onyx Black (Versafine)

Sequins: 4mm/6mm Sparkling Clear (Pretty Pink Posh)

Misc:  Clear Embossing Powder

You are my sunshine

Just wanted to share this card I made for my daughter to pop in her lunchbox for Summer Camp.  It's a mini......sorry I didn't measure as it was made using all scraps!  But I know she will smile when she sees it......it's between her and I.  :)

I've used the You are My Sunshine set from Simon Says Stamp.  It is a perfect little set and matching dies.  I stamped the sunshine image using Sunshine Ink and layered it over some silver thread.  My pinked layer was done using vellum and Surf Blue Cardstock.

Thanks for sharing a part of your day with me!

Thinking of............

Thinking of......ordering the Simon Says Stamp July Card Kit?  Well, I have another card to share using everything from the kit (with the addition of the Life Bubble Vertical 1 die).  

Here are the supplies from the kit for this card:

Washi Tape

Happy Thoughts Stamp Set

Pink Paislee Pen Pal paper

Lipstick Red Inkpad from Simon Says Stamp

Red Cardstock

I wanted that amazing sentiment to be center stage so I stamped and heat embossed with black embossing powder onto the polka dot pattern paper in the kit.  

Thanks for sharing a part of your day with me!

Here we go........CEC #1!

The day has finally come for our very first Cutting Edge Challenge – to say that I am EXCITED is an understatement!!!  I can’t wait for you all to play along, so let’s get to it, shall we?!

Okay, here’s the gig!  We were to be inspired by this AH-MAZING project created by Jackie Rockwell in some way, and include die-cutting (any and all forms accepted) in our design!  There’s so much about this project to be inspired by, right?!  Here’s what I created:

My inspiration:  You Rock sentiment and color scheme

I have to say that when I saw Jackie's inspiration card for the first challenge, I knew exactly which die in my "stash" I would use.  I decided to use this LARGE Die-Versions--"You Rock".  When I purchased this die (and a few others some time ago), I was so excited but when it arrived I was disappointed because it was HUGE.  I guess I should read the dimensions next time!  

I decided to stamp a piece of Tim Holtz watercolor paper with Seeing Stars stamps from Simon Says Stamp with Spiced Marmalade Distress Ink.  Next, I randomly spritzed my star panel with water and allowed it to bleed and run a bit.  I allowed it to dry but I sped it up by using my heat tool.  After diecutting my sentiment, I layered my negative and the sentiment over the top of my base card offsetting the sentiment just to the right.  A few 4mm Pretty Pink Posh Sparkling Clear Sequins were added for some bling!

We’d love to have you play along with us! If you click on through to The Cutting Edge Challenge Blog, you’ll find lots of information, including:

• The two winners of the $25 Avery Elle gift certificates are being announced;
• Our first Guest Designer, Kay Miller, is sharing her amazing take on the challenge;
• The first half of the The Cutting Edge Design Team is sharing their samples for the challenge, and they are pretty spectacular;
• The rules and regulations of the Challenge are listed; and
• The InLinkz link-up tool for you to link up YOUR project!

So, what are you waiting for?!  You can find everything you need to play along HERE.  We can’t wait to see what you create!!

{You Rock}

Stamps:  Seeing Stars (Simon Says Stamp)

Paper:  White (PTI), Island Indigo (SU)

Ink:  Spiced Marmalade (Distress Ink)

Die:  You Rock (Die-Versions)

Sequins:  4mm sparkling clear (Pretty Pink Posh)

Misc:  Foam Adhesive

Clearly Whimsy Stamps: Day 3

Hi everyone and welcome to the Clearly Whimsy Stamps June Release BLOG HOP!

All 6 new clear stamp sets AND 6 coordinating die/die sets are now available to buy from the Whimsy Stamps store and the DT and GDT are celebrating their release with a GRAND BLOG HOP!

I've used Happy Everything again for a birthday card.  I've stamped and masked the balloon images in fun colors and added some coordinating Pretty Pink Posh sequins.

The hop starts today (Saturday June 29th at 8.00AM EDT) and ends on Sunday June 30th at midnight EDT.

If you would like to hop along with us today, please CLICK HERE to start the hop at the Whimsy Stamps blog.

Here is a complete blog hop list in hopping order:

Whimsy Stamps blog

Simonne

Amy

Rosemary

Heather

Jen (GDT)

Debbie

Becky (GDT)

Deb

Alanna

Denise

One lucky hopper will win 2 stamp sets and 1 die set from the Time For Tea line.  To enter the draw, simply leave a comment at EVERY stop along the hop!

Thanks for sharing a part of your day with me!

{Happy birthday}

Stamps:  Happy Everything (Whimsy Stamps)

Paper:  White (PTI)

Pattern Paper:  diy boutique (Simple Stories)

Sequins:  Pretty Pink Posh

Misc:  Foam Adhesive