design by diana

Cool Summer {samantha walker}

2013-05-18T05:00:00.000-04:00

Today on the Samantha Walker blog I'm sharing a short tutorial on using 6x6 paper pads to add dimension and layers without adding bulk to your pages. Stop on by and see my tips & tricks for getting this effect on your next layout.

Don't you just love this paper/collection? It's the Cool Summer line by Samantha Walker for Carta Bella. It was so fun to work with!

Thanks for stopping here today — and thanks for popping over to Samantha Walker's blog to see my tutorial!

Be real {scrapbook circle}

2013-05-17T05:00:00.000-04:00

One Friday a month, Scrapbook Circle calls attention to Project Life or layouts that use camera phone pictures. We want to see the real moments we live everyday and document those.

Using the My Favorite May kit from Scrapbook Circle, I made this page with pictures of some of my fave outfits. Bestie Sara Zenger and I have been taking pictures of what we're wearing while we are at work and messaging them to each other. I have to admit it is fun and a highlight of my day. It's been fun to see we have a very similar style and would love to raid each other's closets.

The My Favorite kit has some really fun little envelopes, tulle ribbon and bows that added a really pretty feminine touch to my page.

I also printed my pictures out on white card stock to give it a softer look compared to the rich shine you get with photo paper. The end result coordinates so well with the theme.

I had a lot of fun taking the pictures as well as making the page. We haven't stopped taking pictures, so there might be another layout to come. Thanks for stopping to see my page!

Go for it all! {scrapbook circle}

2013-05-16T05:00:00.000-04:00

I have another baseball layout to share with you. I'm going to apologize in advance for the heavy concentration of baseball pages that have been (and will continue to be) saturating my blog for the beginning of the summer months. I hope you like the color blue! (LOL)

As I said on Monday, the Scrapbook Circle kit for May is chock full of great blues and yellows that make for really great boy pages. The baseball-themed stickers are from Jillibean Soup and I grabbed those from my stash. I've been hanging onto them for baseball pages.

My son plays short stop, so I am very lucky in that he has the ball quite often during a game. I've managed to capture a few great action shots, and I love his face — so much concentration! You can tell that even at six years old he is taking this so seriously.

Thanks for stopping to see my layout today!

Badges for baseball {imaginisce}

2013-05-15T05:00:00.000-04:00

This week at Imaginisce we are using the i-top to show off a variety of projects you can make with one tool. It's badges and buttons day, and I made these badges for my son's fans. LOL — OK, just his family that cheers him on at each game, but we feel like his raving fans.

All I needed to make these was the i-top, the extra large badges from Imaginisce, the extra large punch tool and pictures of my son edited to 1.5" circles. I did that in Photoshop. I should add too that I printed these out on regular letter paper because the photo paper was too thick and didn't fit onto the badge very well (it wasn't smooth coverage over the top of the badge and it creased a bit at the edges).

Once I punched them out, I put the top of the badge into the i-top and squeezed, like you can see below. I squeezed again for the bottom and it was finished! Such a fast and fun project.

Since I was handing these out as gifts at a game, I mounted them easily to some paper cards.

Make sure to stop by the Imaginisce blog this week for even more ideas on what to make with your i-top tool!

Arrows and 007 {pink paislee}

2013-05-14T05:00:00.000-04:00

Pink Paislee is talking about the arrows trend this week over on their blog. I made this layout for today's post using arrows from the Luxe rub ons, Artisan chipboard, Luxe chipboard and Cottage Farms die cuts. Lots of arrows choices with Pink Paislee!

To make this arrows black, I rubbed a bit of Heidi Swapp Black Velvet mist on the chipboard. It has a resistable finish, so it works really well.

I love adding the pops of pink and yellow from Cottage Farms. It makes the black arrows stand out even more next to those pastel colors.

If you are wondering about the title, my son is just days from turning 7 years old, and it seemed like a fun title for my little man. He looks mysterious in this picture and in his mind he is just seconds from his next birthday.

Thanks for stopping to see my layout!

Always smiling {scrapbook circle}

2013-05-13T05:00:00.000-04:00

Hi! Dropping by here today to share some more of my work with the My Favorite May kit from Scrapbook Circle. I love the stars and stripes that are in this kit along with all of the blue and yellow. Without meaning to be, it is a great boy kit.

How cute are the corrugated potty people? And I love the Lily Bee labels for layering.

Thanks for stopping by today! I hope your week is off to a good start.

Project Life {part 8}

2013-05-10T05:00:00.000-04:00

I attended a crop last week for National Scrapbooking Day and was able to catch up a bit on my Project Life binder. Here are two pages I made using the Echo Park All About A Boy collection.

I love the bright fun colors in this collection. There are also a lot of fun design elements and stickers that worked out great for this baseball PL spread.

My son has been having such a blast playing baseball, I wanted to make sure I caught some of the candid moments while he plays. I wrote a little bit about playing short stop and made sure I documented that his friend Andrew played on his team with him.

Thanks for stopping to see my PL for today. Nate has his birthday and end of the school year coming up, so I'm sure I'll be adding to this soon!

Have a great weekend!

Scrapbook Circle sketch challenge {with lily bee}

2013-05-09T05:00:00.000-04:00

It's about that time again when I share the latest sketch for you from Scrapbook Circle. This time, we have a twist to it — there's a chance at a prize from Lily Bee for playing along with us this month!

I made my sample page using the sketch, the Lily Bee Destination paper and labels in the My Favorite May kit, as well as twine that can be found in the Lily Bee embellishment pack in the add on for May.

The brown and blue in the Destination paper go perfectly with my boy's baseball pics, and the labels add in some great layering and pops of color.

Here is the sketch I made for you all. Head on over to the Scrapbook Circle blog to see all of the details on how to be eligible to win the prize from Lily Bee.

Samantha Walker Creative Crafters Team Blog Hop {teacher gifts)

2013-05-08T02:00:00.000-04:00

Welcome to the Samantha Walker Creative Crafters Team Blog Hop! You should have come to my blog from Claudia Harvey. If you found me first, make sure to start back at Samantha Walker's blog to catch all of the fun from the beginning.

This month's lucky winner will receive a Silhouette Portrait!

...and be eligible for the free SVG/Silhouette file for this month. Be sure to look extra closely at Step #4 below to learn how you can get this FREE SVG and Silhouette Studio file:

To enter, just leave a comment on Samantha's blog during May 8th through May 12th. The winner will be announced on Samantha's Facebook page on Monday, May 13th.

For additional entries:

1. Receive an additional entry for commenting on each of the other blogs in the blog hop.

2. Go here and follow Samantha Walker's blog.

3. Follow her on Facebook.

4. Sign up for an e-mail subscription to Samantha's blog and you will automatically receive a link to a free SVG cutting file that you can download and use on your personal electronic cutter. If you are already a subscriber, just enter in your information in the secure form on Samantha's blog! The free files will be e-mailed early next week!

To receive the additional entries and get the free files, mention in your comment on Samantha's blog that you have done so!

Now, for this month's theme: Teacher Gifts!

I made this gift box using Samantha Walker's Semi Circle Box studio file and the Cool Summer collection by Samantha Walker for Carta Bella.

The box is decorated to share the summer theme and inside will be a gift card for a cold sweet treat to a local ice cream place. In Rochester, the only obvious choice is Abott's!

As you can see based on the picture, I still need to go buy the gift card, but it is all ready and waiting until then.

Your next stop on the hop is Jamie Cripps... Click on the image below to keep on hopping!

Thanks for hopping along with us this month!

Mother's Day gifts {imaginisce}

2013-05-07T05:00:00.000-04:00

Imaginisce is celebrating Moms in honor of Mother's Day. I made this gift set using Imaginisce and you can see more about it on their blog today.

No matter how old the kids get, I'm sure handmade gifts are always welcomed by Mom!

The card details, gift box and tulips were all cut using Silhouette files and the Cameo. I've had my Cameo for quite a while now and I can't see myself getting bored of it anytime soon. It really is an amazing machine.

Inside the gift box is a fabric-on-silver pendant that I made using Imaginisce Magni-top jewelry and the magnet daddies with the i-top.

Thanks for stopping to see my Mother's Day gift idea. Stop by their blog all week for more Mother's Day cards and crafts.

Baseball Mom {lily bee}

2013-05-06T05:00:00.000-04:00

Lily Bee is featuring layouts, cards and projects focused on "Mom" this week. I used the Pinwheel collection here on my layout.

I wanted to do an nontraditional "mom" layout and focus on how I feel as a mom when I watch my son. Right now I could not be more proud of him. Looking through my lens way out into the field, I can see his expressions as he plays baseball: joy, apprehension, excitement, intensity...

I know he's doing well because we've raised him to be passionate about what he loves — and he sees that in my husband and me as we are passionate about what we love.

If you find yourself making "Mom" projects this week, take a different angle on the photo or topic and see where it may lead the journaling on your page.

For this layout, I used nearly every kind of product that Pinwheel offers. There are label and word stickers as well as alphas and chipboard…even twine! Lots of goodies going in in that collection.

Thanks for stopping to see my layout today. Check out the Lily Bee blog to see what else we're up to this week. It's sure to put Mom front and center for her special day!

May monthly challenge {imaginisce}

2013-05-01T05:00:00.000-04:00

It's the first of the month, so it's time for another sketch from Imaginisce — with a twist. We want you to use the sketch as well as:

1. The theme: Mother

2. The color yellow

3. Add some chevrons

The sketch is at the end of this post as well as on the Imaginisce blog. Stop by and see what the rest of the DT did with the monthly challenge.

The picture of my mom in this layout was taken by my stepdad. I was so glad he thought to send it to us kids. It is such a cute picture of my mom!

And by now, I think my family has figured out that they shouldn't send me pictures they wouldn't want scrapbooked because I am most likely going to use those photos at some point.

You can see where on the layout I interpreted use of the chevron and moved the title over a bit, but my page is pretty much just like the sketch.

I hope you have a chance to play along with us the month at Imaginisce! Thanks for stopping to see my layout today.

National Scrapbooking Day challenge {pink paislee}

2013-04-29T05:00:00.000-04:00

This Saturday is National Scrapbooking Day (NSD), and Pink Paislee is setting you up all week to have plenty of inspiration, challenges and fun for your weekend festivities. Each day this week, we'll be sharing with you a freebie for your NSD projects.

To kick it all off today, I have a sketch for you! This is the layout I used with the sketch I made that you can find at the end of this post as well as on the Pink Paislee blog.

I used Luxe and Cottage Farms on this layout, as well as some Heidi Swapp Color Shine mists. Aren't the chipboard stars the best?! I love adding them to my pages, and in this case, they totally make the page pop right out at you.

This sketch calls for a longer title, and the glitter letters in the Luxe collection are perfect!

I hope you'll get a chance to scrapbook this weekend and join in the festivities. I'll be at a crop with Lisa, Audrey, Kate and my friend Renee to benefit Relay For Life - Victor. Can't wait!

Create: Embellish {pubbed}

2013-04-25T05:00:00.000-04:00

Pretty excited to have my gift box in the Create: Embellish issue this spring. I made the box using a Cocoa Daisy kit — which always have the best custom stamps, like the leaves I used on this tag.

Thanks for stopping to see my good news. I still haven't seen this issue in person. I need to head on out and find a copy — until then, I love having the digital subscription at Northridge, the publisher for Scrapbook Trends. So fun to scroll through the pages!

Nautical trend {lily bee}

2013-04-24T06:00:00.000-04:00

This week on Lily Bee we are talking about trends. I have one I love, love, love — Nautical. I know it isn't for everyone, but I've been a long-time fan of stripes, navy, pops of red and even stars. When the anchors started showing up in scrapbooking products, I was quite excited.

Wednesday is cards day at Lily Bee, so I made 2 cards that show off the nautical trend. I used the Destination Collection from Lily Bee, and it is a travel line — not nautical — which shows that you don't have to invest in a nautical-themed collection to still play along with the nautical look in your projects.

For this first card I went with the anchor (cut from a die that my bestie Sara sent me) for the main image. The dark woodgrain works so well with the map background and the color scheme.

For this second card, I focused on a lighthouse. I cut it using my Silhouette Cameo and multiple patterns and colors from the Destination collection at Lily Bee.

I love how these turned out! I challenge you to find some papers and patterns in non-nautical collections and turn them into a sea-worthy, fabulous project.

Thanks for stopping here. Check out what else is going on at Lily Bee on the blog.

At Yotality {ormolu}

2013-04-23T05:00:00.000-04:00

I'm blogging for Ormolu today! Stop on over to the Ormolu blog to see my last layout for Ormolu. The DT term ends this month, and I know we are all so sad to be finished blogging over there.

I used a lot of the Made and Montage collections on this layout, so stop on over there and see the full page.

Imaginisce {and the twinery}

2013-04-22T05:00:00.000-04:00

Imaginisce is teaming up with The Twinery this week to bring you ideas on how you can incorporate baker's twine into your layouts and projects.

For my idea, I used four colors of twine (Cantaloupe, Honeydew, Buttercream and Shore) and alternated them behind the negative space in a digitally cut title that I cut using the Cameo.

The final effect adds texture to my layout and a bit of whimsy to the project. In total, this layout has at least 4 levels of layering on it.

I hope I've given you an idea for your next project using twine. There are lots more on the Imaginisce and Twinery blogs this week.

Here are the other designers hopping today:

Jodi Wilton

Sara Zenger

Diana Fisher (you are here)

Amy Crockett

Julie Ranae
Sarah Andreotti

Imaginisce is giving away a collection package of Endless Summer, an i-rock tool and 1 compact of Hot Rocks to one lucky hopper.

Stop by and check out what we've been up to! Thanks for visiting here today.

SUPPLIES: Imaginisce: Good Dog (pattern paper), Childhood Memories (pattern paper, stickers, 3-D stickers)The Twinery (Cantaloupe, Buttercream, Honeydew, Shore), Silhouette Cameo (digital cut-grass, title, eggs), Fiskars cloud punch, white & teal gel pen

Serendipity Hop with Paper Issues

2013-04-21T12:00:00.000-04:00

Welcome to Paper Issues “Serendipity” blog hop! You should have arrived here from Audrey's blog. If this is your first stop, be sure to head over to Paper Issues to start at the beginning!

I really liked working with this collection from Elle's Studio. The colors are perfect and I just love those patterns.

Make sure to hop along and do some liking in order to be eligible to win one of the 5 packs of Serendipity goodness up for grabs!

- Like Elle’s Studio on Facebook {tell them we sent you}

- Like Paper Issues on Facebook

- Leave a comment on this blog and the Paper Issues blog.

Next up on the hop is Leslie…I'm sure you'll love all of the projects along the way!

Be real {scrapbook circle}

2013-04-19T05:00:00.000-04:00

For the past few months, we have been sharing a new feature called "Be Real." Once a month on the Scrapbook Circle blog we have been sharing work using our Scrapbook Circle kits and focusing on either layouts with Instagram photos or Project Life pages.

This month's kit was too perfect for me not to make some PL pages. You can see what Jill and guest designer Megan made over on the Be Real post for today. Lots of great ideas going on over there!

One thing I added new to this section of my pages, was a 4" x 6" card just for Nate to fill out with his handwriting. My PL is the Simple Stories 6" x 8" binder and goes the length of first grade. With school coming to a close in June, it's been great to look back and see how he's grown in that short time.

I wish I had done one of these at the start of school and then again at the end of it. Now that I know, I'll be sure to have him do one for second grade at the start and end of the year. It'll also be great to see the change in his handwriting!

Thanks for stopping to see my Project Life pages.

A lucky baby card {paper issues}

2013-04-18T05:00:00.000-04:00

We have a few babies on the way in our office, so we just had a baby shower at work to celebrate. I, of course, volunteer to make the cards. My favorite cards to make are new arrival and wedding — I just love those moments!

I used the Dear Lizzy Lucky Charm 6" x 6" paper pad for this card (which I scooped up from the Paper Issues shop). The baby stamp is a few years old and it is from Papertrey Ink.

If you feel like doing some shopping, stop by the Paper Issues shop. I have a discount for all of my blog readers. Use code DIANA20 at checkout for 20% off your total order.

Thanks for stopping to see my card!

Color combos {imaginisce}

2013-04-17T05:00:00.000-04:00

I'm stopping by here to share with you today a layout I made using the Color Combo for April for Imaginisce. If you scroll down a bit, you can see the combo in this post. I love the greens, blues and browns in this one. Plus that pop of orange — it's perfect!

…especially for a certain little boy I love the scrapbook about.

I took these posed pictures of Nate more than a month ago. He's starting to look like a true athlete. Every time I set up a little photo shoot with a nice shirt or a prop, he begs to add in a ball of some kind and demands a wardrobe change. Ha! Love this kid!!

Here is the color combo. The DT has been sharing inspiration all month long using the colors. Make sure to stop by the blog and see what the rest of the ladies did.

And thanks for hanging out here for a bit. I know Nate is super excited to share this page with you all.

PaperHaus call for submissions {and spring projects}

2013-04-15T05:00:00.000-04:00

Open call for Summer Issue submissions at PaperHaus Magazine! I just know you all have some great summer projects and layouts you could whip up for submission.

And now that we are well on our way to the summer issue, I wanted to stop by and share with you what I had published in the Spring Issue. You can read the whole issue HERE online!

I made the card for the card sketch section of the Spring Issue.

Below are the tags that I made for the tag section. The tags were cut from the Cameo using digital cut files in the Silhouette store.

Thanks for stopping to see the call for Summer and also what I had made for the Spring Issue.

Mini pillow tutorial {samantha walker}

2013-04-14T05:00:00.000-04:00

Today on the Samantha Walker blog I am sharing how I made this little push pin pillow. The yummy fabric is from the Serenata collection Samantha Walker designed for Riley Blake fabrics. I love this pattern and color!

Stop by and take a peek over on the Samantha Walker blog. Thanks!

April sketch challenge {scrapbook circle}

2013-04-12T05:00:00.000-04:00

Have you found your Happy Place?! I love that the name of the April kit from Scrapbook Circle is called Happy Place. It really is a happy little kit. Gorgeous bright spring patterns and colors — all perfect for your fun and whimsical layouts and projects.

My son is a big Lego fan. He has more Lego guys and sets than I care to even try to count. This little set in the picture was a random surprise gift from his Aunt Ashley. He got it in the mail and went to work on it right away.

I made this layout using the sketch below, and you can play along with us, too! There are more details on the Scrapbook Circle blog, so head on over and check it out.

Thanks for stopping to see the sketch and my layout. Hope you all are having a great Friday.

Using negative space {lily bee}

2013-04-11T05:00:00.000-04:00

Yesterday we shared cards using negative space over on the Lily Bee blog. I was over here hoppin' for Samantha Walker, so today I can share my cards.

For this umbrella card, I used papers from the Pinwheel and Sweet Shoppe collections as well as the Cameo and digital cut files from the Silhouette store.

For this next card, I used just Sweet Shoppe. I love this cute Marshmellow paper. The hearts are too sweet for this newborn baby card.

When I remember to use negative space, I'm glad I did. It is such a fun technique to help break up the way I usually make cards.

Thanks for stopping by here today! Stop by the Lily Bee blog to see the other great ideas using negative space.