Verve Stamps: AfterParty: Altered Inspiration Shelf

Hi Everyone!

Friday night was the Release Party for the August Anni-Verve-Sary Release from Verve Stamps - where all peeked samples from all the wonderful stamp sets released! Today on the Verve Blog, there is an afterparty where the Verve Divas are posting their favorite creations from the release that you have to check out - so much yumminess!

For my favorite - I picked this altered shelf project that I absolutely had an amazing time making! I can't even express how much fun it was to do this project! I found this shelf at a garage sale for like $4 and immediately wanted to buy it to alter it (My DH did not want me to purchase it but I told him just to wait and see if he liked it after I was done  - and he loved it  :). Here are the before pictures:

 

My MIL who was there (yes, going to garage sales are a family outing :) lol!) said that from the apples on the tin plates, she felt that this was a mini replica of a cooling shelf for cooked pies. I tried when I came home to clean the plates with all sorts of cleaners, but they were so dirty it was next to impossible - so that's when I decided to alter the whole thing. I wanted to make an Inspiration Shelf - which would inspire and remind me to always go for my goals. So I covered it with a fresh coat (or 2) of paint and got to work! For the metal plates, I embossed upon a sheet of silver metal and fit it to the size of the panels. Here is the outside view of the shelf after it was done (you can click on each picture to enlarge):

 

 I painted the outside of the shelf black and the front portion a teal/baby blue mix with some green. I covered the shelf with the gorgeous Chapter One collection from Kaisercraft Paper. Using a MS border punch, I glued the altered border to both sides of the front of the shelf and for the center panel, using the most inspiring Words of Wisdom stamp set from Verve, I stamped my favorite sentiment: "Live the life you've imagined." in two different inks and then sponged the edges. The sentiment is adhered to the Curvy Bookplate die from Verve and above and below the sentiment are two flowers that I created using the Loopy Flowers die with a small circle center with bling. I used the Rounded Scallop Frame Die from Verve and used the black rounded scallop paper on the metal plates and used a punched heart to adhere to the center of the plates. I then finished it with a generous coating of ModgePodge and while it dried, I worked on the tag for the doorknob - Here is a closer look at the tag which was created using the Tag Time stamp set:

I love the sentiment: "Life is beautiful" from the Sunny Days stamp set and the little bird from the Making a Statement stamp set :) The ribbon is from American Crafts and I couldn't believe how close it matched the color of the shelf! For the inside of the shelf, I used another one of my favorite sentiments from the Words of Wisdom stamp set: "You are never too old to set a new goal or to dream a new dream" - isn't that just  beautiful! I love that sentiment! I created a little box for each of the shelves - I still don't know quite how I made the three boxes (kinda eyeballed it) and then decorated each of the boxes for the shelves with different papers and borders. The back of the shelves are covered by three rectangluar cuts from the DP paper. All of this was then given a generous coating of ModgePodge after I was done to keep everything adhered and smooth. Here is a side view to the shelf: 

Here are some closer peeks at the details of the shelf: The sides and top were covered with paper and then lined with liquid pearls (and then ModgePodge) :

Project Ingredients:
Stamps: Tag Time (Tag on the knob), Sunny Days (sentiment "Life is Beautiful"), Making a Statement (little birdie),Words of Wisdom stamps from Verve Stamps
Papers: Kaiser Craft paper collections: Chapter One Collection
Inks: Memento Tuxedo Black, Teal ink from Chalk ink
A Cut Above dies: Curvy Bookplate Die, Tagged Rectangle Die, Rounded Scallop Frame Die, Loopy Blooms Die Set
Accessories: silver metal plate, Cuttlebug embossing plate, ribbon from American Crafts, liquid pearls, modpodge, heart punch

I absolutely love how this shelf turned out - and I was going to give it to my friend for her birthday - but is it so wrong to want to keep it instead? It's just that it makes me so happy to look at it and to see it's transformation.

I love all the new Verve Stamps and Dies which is really what inspired this project! Please check out all the new releases HERE!!!!  (And Julee is having a fabulous sale on dies and stamps!!) And don't forget to stop by the Verve blog to see all the new favorite picks from the Verve Divas!

Thanks so much for stopping by today!
Hugs,
Sankari :)†