Viva La Verve!

It's been far too long since I last participated in one of Verve's Viva La Verve sketch challenges. At the beginning of this year, Amber, our sketch artist/challenge host, changed things up a bit, and I love the new format! (I wish I loved my card as much - more on that later.)

The VLV theme is "At Home With Verve: A Year-Long Home Walk-Through," and each month Amber will be featuring a different room, along with some gorgeous inspiration photos. Foyers and entryways have been the focus this month. Just like last year, there is a grand prize each month - the next month's full stamp release from Verve! That's HUGE! To be eligible for the drawing, all you have to do is complete all of the sketch/inspiration challenges for that month. The deadline for participating this month is January 29. You can find all four January Viva La Verve challenges in the Contests & Challenges area within the Verve Forum on Splitcoast.

I've used the January Week 4 challenge for this first card, along with this inspiration photo:


As you can see, I pulled my color combo from the inspiration photo - lots of black/white/gray neutrals and little pops of green. My card is a little different from my "usual" (if there is such a thing), and I'm still deliberating whether I like it all that much. The heart floral, the sentiment, and the florals I used to create my background pattern, are all from the new Love's Flower set.

Since I'm already posting one card outside my comfort zone, how about another one? I have to say this next one is a radical departure from almost anything else I've ever done. You'd be hard-pressed to use up even ten minutes to create this - I, on the other hand, spent over an hour on it! Clean-and-simple just doesn't come naturally for me. I puzzled and puzzled, stitched and unstitched, distressed edges and cut again, switched a white felt stem for a black one, switched back ... you get the picture. I think I would like this one if I saw it on someone else's blog, so hopefully someone else will like it on mine :)

One of the things that first attracted me to Verve was the abundance of these small sentiments. I'm so glad Julee continues to put together sets of these little gems, like she's done this month with Celebrating You. The fonts are fun and the sentiments are always a fabulous mixture of traditional and fresh.

I try to check in soon with some CHA pictures!




Fabulous:
Stamps: Love's Flower (Verve Stamps)
Paper: Stampin' Up Sahara Sand and Basic Black, Papertrey Vintage Cream, Smoky Shadow, and Spring Moss
Ink: Versafine Onyx Black, Memento Tuxedo Black, Papertrey Spring Moss, Stampin' Up White craft
Accessories: Oval Nestabilities, Stampin' Up striped ribbon, May Arts burlap string, Papertrey button, Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder, EK Success scalloped border punch

Just Because:
Stamps: Celebrating You (Verve Stamps)
Paper: Stampin' Up Kiwi Kiss textured, Papertrey Vintage Cream and Kraft
Ink: Papertrey Dark Chocolate
Accessories: Prima felt stem, Spellbinders tag die, Papertrey button and twine, sewing machine, distressing tool, Scor-Pal, EK Success scalloped border punch