Paper Players Theme Challenge: Happy Hour

 I'm loving that our summer weather has finally arrived here in Northern Virginia and along with the warmer weather has come the humidity, wow it's been crazy this early in the year.  so when I saw this weeks Paper Players theme challenge, summer and holiday I was already in the mood.  Nothing says summer more to me than bright colors and tropical drinks with umbrellas so I used that as the inspiration for this card.  The cardbase is Rich Razzleberry and then I added a piece of Pumpkin Pie polka dot paper from the Perfect Polka Dot DSP package and matted it with Going Gray and Whisper White Cardstock.  I added a strip of of Rich Razzleberry 1/4" Stitched Grosgrain ribbon and then knots with the same ribbon in Real Red, Whisper White, and Going Gray.

I used the Happy Hour stamp set for the tropical drink and inked the stamp with Stampin' Write Markers before stamping.  I used the same technique to make the rainbow umbrella and then cut it out with my Paper Snips and attached it with a dimensional.  The drink was punched out with the Extra Large Oval Punch and then matted on a piece of Tempting Turquoise that was punched with the Decorative label Punch.  The final touch was to stamp the greeting and I used my paper trimmer and snips to cut just around the words so the piece was nice and small.

If this card won't get you in the mood for summer I don't know what will.  The bright cheery colors are perfect for a friend with a summer birthday.

Have a great day,

Diana

Cheers to You!

Today I wanted to share a special card I made for my husband for our anniversay.  This card has lots of shimmer and shine (which Aidan loved).  I used Vintage Wallpaper Embossing folder and the Big Shot to add texture to the Basic Black card stock.  I used the champagne glasses from the Cheers to You stamp set and stamped it on shimmer paper.  I colored the drinks in with a So Saffron Stampin' Write marker before adding Crystal Effects to make the drink look wet and shinny.  Then I added dazzling diamonds at the top of the glasses.  This piece was matted on a piece of Gold cardstock and then I wrapped a piece of Whisper White Organza ribbon around the paper and knotted it.

Next I used the Oval punch to cut a window out of the cardfront and adhered a piece of Whisper White cardstock on the inside before stamping the greeting (from Teeny Tiny Wishes, as you know one of my favorite greeting sets) so you can see it through the window.

This card is awesome!!!  I hope you enjoyed this card as much as I enjoyed making it.

Have a great day and happy stamping,

Diana

Cheers to You, with Green Beer!

This week’s card for the Stamping 411 sketch challenge was definitely influenced by all our recent St. Patrick’s Day festivities. While I don’t mail cards to everyone for all holidays I do like to give my son and husband a little something to let them know I love them. I’ve been meaning to make my husband’s card and knew when I saw the challenge that I could cross off two things on my list as once. I used the Cheers to You stamp set to make green beer (perfect for St. Patty’s day) as the main images and used a Blender Pen and Garden Green ink to color in the beer. To make the frothy foam I actually shaved Whisper White Cardstock with my scissors to basically create “fuzzies” that I attached to the card with crystal effects, (you can only image what my studio and clothes looked like after 20 minutes of paper shaving) but I really like the end result.

The white piece of paper in the back was stamped with Wild Wasabi and Garden Green ink and the Got Treats stamp set before running it through the Big Shot with the Lattice die. The rest of the card is pretty straight forward, the ribbon is Certainly Celery Taffeta and the greeting is from the Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp set (the best greeting set ever!)

Now check out the sketch we were provided. Not the most elegant card but Chris is going to love it and it’s perfect for this holiday.

Before I sign off I wanted to share a picture from this weekend that helped get me in the mood, Aidan and I along with some neighbors attended the St. Patrick’s Day parade in Old Town Manassas on Saturday.

Aidan and I love to get all dressed up so this is before we left for the parade. It was pretty cold but we still had a good time!

Happy St. Patrick's Day and happy stamping,

Diana

A Lot of Bling to Ring in the New Year!

What a crazy week! After being on a business trip last week I'm really glad to be home and spending time with my guys. Chris is finally feeling better after being sick and Aidan and I have enjoyed some quality time together. I'm really looking forward to the upcoming holiday season but wanted to do something different for this weeks Stamping 411 challenge, so I made a New Years card.

I started with a card base of Barely Banana cardstock. The next layer uses Basic Black and I made a mixture of Champagne Mist Shimmer Paint and Rubbing Alcohol and spritzed the paper and let it dry. The main image uses the champagne glasses stamp from the Cheers to You stamp set. Then I colored in the drink with my Barely Banana Stampin' Write Marker before filling it in with Crystal Effects. After the Crystal Effects dryed I used my 2 Way glue pen to apply Dazzling Diamonds to the little spritzes out the top of the glass.

The next square uses a technique I've seen all over the internet right now. I took a piece of Bride Speciality Paper and applied Barely Banana ink with a Brayer. After letting it dry for a couple of seconds I wiped of the paper with the tissue so the design showed through and is really pretty (I can only imagine all the possibilities for this technique). The last piece of cardstock is Barely Banana to create the square layers.

The greeting is from the Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp set and is then punched out with the Modern Label Punch.

This was a great layout and I had a lot of fun with all the different layers. If you like this card make sure to sign up for December's Stamp-a-Stack because this will be one of our projects.

Have a great week!

What a dreary day…..

After a beautiful Memorial Day weekend here in VA we started the week with rain, at least it didn’t spoil the weekend plans! As I’m new to blogging, thought I would share a couple cards from this months stamp-a-stack.

The first card was definitely meant to get everyone into the summer mood and uses the Cheers to You stamp set. This is a Diana original and was kind of out of my normal style as I tried to use colors that I don’t use often. I started with a base of Tempting Turquoise and layered a piece of Rainbow Sherbet DSP (which is part of the Designer Paper Promotion going on now through the end of the month!) to set the tone. I punched the drink, I’m thinking Margarita with Basic Black Ink and colored it in with Stampin’ Write Markers. Then I added a touch of Crystal Effects to the drink and let it dry so it had a nice glossy look. Then I matted the drinks on Apricot Appeal and Tempting Turquoise cardstock and set them at an angle down the card. Then I used my Photo Corner Punch and punched corner pieces out of Gable Green with I attached with a Silver Brad. The final touch was to stamp “Cheers to You!” in Basic Black. Doesn’t this card just make you want to sit by the pool sipping a cool drink???

Hope this card cheered you up!