Happy Birthday LeAnne! (Merry Monday & MIM#174 - Diamond Wallpaper Stamping)

Good morning friends.  I'm combining 2 challenges today, and playing along with Merry Monday's who are having a surprise birthday blog hop for LeAnne (she turned 60 on Monday!!) and also with Papertrey Ink's "Make it Monday" challenge where Ashley shows us how to use our stamps to make diamond wallpaper backgrounds. 

I have to be honest here, and tell you I cheated a bit with my background, as I didn't have any PTI stamps that would really make a diamond pattern. (good reason to buy more, right?!!)  So I started with a retired SU! background stamp called "Print Pattern" and stamped off Smokey Slate ink to make my diamond pattern, and then used the "string" stamp from PTI's "Birthday Style" to stamp my definition lines.  Take a look:

I used one of the flower centers from "Beautiful Blooms" (PTI) and Pretty in Pink and Pool Party inks to stamp the little dots on the background.  I kept with those 2 colors for the rest of the card too, using one of the little Christmas birds from Penny Black's "Winter Wonderland" set (by not coloring the Santa hat red, it looks like a "party" hat, right?!!) and then the sentiment and balloon from the "Birthday Style" (PTI) set.  A little bit of glitter for the hat, and a pop dot for the balloon, and I have a cute little card for the birthday girl!  LeAnne always leaves the nicest comments when you play along with the Merry Monday challenges, and deserves many, many birthday wishes for this special milestone birthday! :0)

And make sure you check out Ashley's great card and video, and all the other entries (and COOL and surprising diamond backgrounds!!) over on Nichole Heady's Blog . 

Thanks so much for stopping by today and have a wonderful Wednesday!  It's cool enough here in my "neck of the woods" that I'm going to go try a new recipe for berry scones and if they turn out, I'll take them along to my bible study this morning! :0)