I worked tirelessly for several months building a website and just a couple days before the launch we did a few test orders and guess what? The shopping cart took the money, but there was no record of the order! Absolutely none! No name, no products, no number, no address, nothing taken out of inventory... NOTHING! Ack! I was pulling my hair out trying to figure it out with no luck. The software did not have support and so my wonderful husband calmly just said, "Let's look at your options, we can either spend the next day trying to make this work and hope for the best, or we can start fresh". So we quickly evaluated other shopping cart systems, selected one, and he sat with me for 24 hours straight while we built an entirely new website from the ground up.
Talk about the kind of love that holds you up when you've grown too weary to stand. I hope everyone feels that sort of love at some point in their lives. Although Mark doesn't stamp or help with the business (aside from appearances at early release parties, occasional tech support and one week where he bravely took on shipping duties while I was away), without him Verve just wouldn't be possible. He's the dreamer when I'm all out of dreams. He's my cheerleader when I'm too tired to get back on the court. He's the voice of reason when I am too emotional to see clearly. And he knows when it's time to keep trying to fix things and when it's time to just start fresh. Building and maintaining a business is HARD work, and a supportive family makes all the difference.
So Verve was born at 12pm Mountain on August 1, 2007. Our first stamp offering was red rubber, but by the end of the year we had switched entirely to clear stamps. I still can't believe the huge support this amazing crafting community has given us! Ten years has made me stronger than I ever thought possible. I'm a very shy and private person and this business has pushed me in ways I never knew I could grow. Thanks so much for your part in this incredible journey!
For my project today, I'm sharing a mixed-media canvas I made for myself. This quote is from Words of Wisdom (also available individually on clearance in the New Dream plain jane). I just love it and it speaks to my heart about not giving up, no matter how old I am. As motherhood has changed me, I've found myself being less goal oriented and my dreams have shifted to dreams about the boys' future rather than my own. I just want them to have the opportunities I missed out on as a child because we were too poor and lived in too rural an area. While it's good to have dreams for the boys, I realize it's important for me to have my own goals as well. So this little piece is going in my office to remind me that I'm never too old to dream, and never too old to start again.
The making of:
I started with a blank 8"x8" canvas, primed with heavy gesso. Next I added some torn Postale tissue paper with matte medium and then scraped on some mini art stones mixed with 3D Matte Gel in opposing corners for a bunch of texture. Next I spritzed on green and teal shimmer sprays. The outcome was softer than I would have liked, so I covered the entire piece in watercolor gournd and then spritzed again. That made a big difference in the vibrancy of the colors.
I dry brushed on some brass rust paste to add to the patina effect and added some Daniel Smith watercolor for that deep teal color. Lots of fussing around with brass, then spritzing, then watercoloring until I achieved exactly the look I was going for.
I embossed the sentiment in metallic bronze on deli paper, then added it to my canvas with 3D matte gel. I didn't remember to lighten the area below it, and it was super hard to read the sentiment once it was glued down. So I mixed the green spray with some white acrylic paint and painted over the area, then stamped over it in white paint. It's a pretty lumpy surface, so this was pretty tricky to do. I still didn't feel like I could read it well enough, so then embossed over that in metallic bronze.
The whole look of the piece was inspired by the little paperclay embellishment I added below this sentiment. I made it with the IOD keyholes mould and some paperclay. Then I used watercolor ground, and the same colors of spritzer and rust paste to give a patina effect. Love how it turned out. The sentiment is grounded with a bit of embossing powder all around it, then I added my collage elements.
The collage elements start with a layer of cheesecloth, then a die cut star that I spritzed to match, then I added a few paper flowers and spritzed and coated with brass paste until I acheived the look I wanted. I'm so happy with how it turned out and excited to hang it in my office to look at each day.
Thanks so much for stopping by!
-Julee
