A Blog Called Wanda

You are a picture perfect friend!

Hi friends! It's almost time for Memorial Day weekend! Yay! Three days of rest and relaxation....just have to make it the rest of the week. What do you have planned? I'm not even sure what we're doing! But it will involve sleeping in, that much I know for sure! And probably some stamping!

When I was cleaning out my craft studio getting stuff ready for the garage sale last weekend I went through all my old Stampin' Up sets. I have such a hard time getting rid of those. Some I've had for 15 years or more! They feel like old stamping friends. I found these cute stamps that are part of a travel set from 2006 and decided to make a card with them to share today! It's a CAS design - lots of white space, and a pop of bright green...

 

 

 

Oh snap! Gotcha! I put some ultra fine prisma glitter on the flash and a pretty gem in the center. The background stamp is from Paper Inspirations.  

 

 

Here are my supplies...clean and simple... 

 

 

I think this is such a great sentiment for a crafty friend who likes to take pictures. I added some more gems here and there for a bit of sparkle. All that white space kinda makes me nervous...it's hard for me to walk away! hee hee.  

Thanks for stopping by!!! See you soon!!! Enjoy the rest of the week. I can't wait for the American Idol finale tonight! I was really rooting for Joshua though....

 

New goodies and some show and tell....

Hi everyone! I'm in the craft studio winding down the weekend. Where did it go? I'm not sure, but I do know it was a lot of fun! The big crafty garage sale yesterday was a huge success! Thanks to everyone who came out to shop and visit. We had quite a crowd. This is the fourth time I've done this and I made the most money this time around. It was awesome! It was good to see friends and fellow crafty girls. There were nine of us selling stuff and afterwards we all went out to a nice lunch together and paid for the whole thing in $1 bills! hahaha. After lunch I decided I had to spend some of my cash on new crafty products! Took a trip down to Stamper's Corner and saw my pals there, saw the lovely and talented May F teaching a class, and bought just a few things.

My card for today was made with my new goodies I bought yesterday. Paper from Basic Grey's collection called What's Up and some new dies... These new dies may just be the key to the crafty universe. I was STOKED when I found them. You'll see in a minute....

I was inspired by this card from Pinterest...and I love banners.... 

 

 

 

I used a cream cardstock base and lightly edged the base with Antique Linen distress ink. After I put the entire card together I spritzed the whole thing with Cappuccino Perfect Pearls Mist. You can see the splotches from the mister. The little flag is part of the Basic Grey collection and the flower is from Prima.

 

 

Here are the new dies, and my other supplies. The dies are from MFT and they're called Fishtail Flag Stax! OMG! Perfect flags every time!!! Are you kidding me? YAYAYAYAYAY!!! New favorite thing. Someone didn't want to move his big furry self so I had to shoot around him!

 

At the last minute I added a little spray of pearls... 

 

 

I am so lucky to have the most sweet and wonderful pen pal!! She and I became friends through my blog! One of the best things about having a blog is meeting so many amazing, kind and talented people from all over the world. Holly is from the Netherlands and is a fabulous paper crafter. I get the prettiest things in the mail. Last week I got a package from her and the cards inside blew me away! I had to share them with you. 

 

I can feel the love that went into this card.

 

 

These are so cool and fresh and happy...

 

So totally beautiful, right? Sigh.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a wonderful week ahead of you. XOXOXO

 

What's up? Paper Smooches cards for today...

Hi everyone! Happy Friday Eve! (also known as Thursday!). I have a busy weekend planned and stuff to do and so I thought I would post now (instead of my usual Friday night post) and share these fun cards I made last weekend. A while back, I bought some adorable stamp sets from Paper Smooches! Don't you just love her stuff? My stamps have been sitting in my craft room and I finally used them! I love it when that happens. I have three cards in one post since I just wanted to share them all. Hope you like 'em. Kim's style lends itself to clean and simple. 

I think this one is my favorite of the bunch, so I'll show it first...Let's chat! Such a cute image and that handwriting font for the sentiments is so great! 

 

 

 

I really always love aqua and red together, and the color scheme for this card was inspired by that pretty patterned paper. I found matching ribbon and a button in my stash.  

 

 

Here are my Copic colors for this card....

 

 

 

 

 

It was fun to try to make this image seem vintage. I stamped on cream cardstock to make it not so bright and also lightly distressed the edges of my circle.  

 

 

This next card came together with more of a possibly masculine flair. I combined the chevron background with some pretty teal ink and then added just a pop of red to the hearts.  

 

 

 How freaking adorable is that sentiment??? LOVE. 

 

 

To add some depth and dimension, I added a few coats of clear glaze just to the red hearts....

 

 

Now, last but not least, a pretty kite card! The clouds and kite are all one stamp and then I added the sentiment from another set. One thing I love about the Paper Smooches stamps is that they stamp so crisp and clean - the very first time out of the package. For this one I thought those clouds needed to be spark-a-lay! What do you thinK?  

 

 

 

Okay friends, that it for today! Tomorrow is a full work day and then Saturday is the big crafty garage sale. I'm still going through things and trying to get ready. Hope to see some of you there. Have a great weekend! Mwah.  

Happy Birthday, Cupcake!

Greetings and Salutations! How are ya? Today is one of my days to post for Taylored Expressions and I have a fun cupcake birthday card to share with you! I used one of the most versatile sets from Taylor, called Build a Treat and you can use it to make ice cream and cupcake treats...to your heart's desire! I also incorporated Jen's Sketch #51 for a fun layout. I needed a birthday card this week...and that is where my inspiration came from. I went through my stash and found some happy papers to match my mood.

 

 

 

 

 

Here is the Sketch Image from Jen - you really much check out her blog, and there is still time for you to put in your entry for this great sketch!

 

 

 

This set is so much fun. I love how each element is separate, so you can choose your colors. This set also comes with matching dies - which are also a lot of fun! I used the TE Medium Scallop Die for my bottom scallop edge. Put some twine on and a cute Doodlebug button to match....

 

 

 

Here is the stamp set image....

 

 

 

Happy Birthday Cupcake!

 

Thank you for coming by today! Have a good one!

Hello Sunshine!

Hi Bloggy Friends! Hope you had a wonderful weekend, and for those of you who are moms, a very Happy Mother's Day! We had a nice weekend. Saturday we went to a movie double feature! Haven't done that in many many years. It was fun. It was super hot outside on Saturday so it felt good to be inside the A/C all day. First we saw Avengers and it was excellent! (some of you might remember this post about my DH and his love of Marvel). Then, we saw Dark Shadows....also excellent. I was already a huge Johnny Depp fan, but this put me over the edge. I think it might be my favorite role of his ever. Really fun movie.  Have you seen either of these? I can honestly say I would recommend both. The rest of the weekend I continued to get ready for the big stamping garage sale next Saturday! I have loads of goodies to sell. 

Today I'm posting two cards I made last week with the same stamps and technique. I was inspired by THIS POST from the lovely Jill. Her work is amazing and I am always 'inspired by' her. I love the way she stamped the music and then put flowers over the underlying image. I used words for my background image....

 

 

 

 

The card base and the main panel are cream cardstock instead of white. I think this makes the cards warmer. I stamped the Friends Background (from Hero Arts) onto the cream paper using Linen Distress Ink. It faded into the perfect soft shade. For the other card I used the French background stamp, also from Hero Arts. 

 

 

I distressed the edges of the main panel using two shades of brown, for more depth. I am in love with my Distress Markers, which I used directly onto the stamp. 

 

 

You can see that I also stamped the flower image in Linen Distress Ink to give some more interest to the card. 

 

 

I used four shades of green in these two panels. The stamp is from Amuse....

 

 

This sentiment is from Papertrey Ink! I adore the fonts on this one and it just seemed the perfect, simple, finishing touch. 

 

I'm really trying to mix up my stamping lately, and do more clean and simple designs. You know how your taste and style kind of change from time to time? I am loving getting 'back' to stamping basics every once in a while.  Best wishes for a fantastic week ahead! 

 

 

Gingham Sweet Treats!

Hi friends! Did you have a good week? Hope you did! It was another busy week here and Spring is in full swing and the weather is getting warm. Looks like a nice weekend on tap. I wish all of you that are moms a very Happy Mother's Day on Sunday!  So, I was trying to decide what to make and I was blog surfing and guess what I found? This post on the Moxie Fab World Blog - with a Gingham Challenge! Are you freaking kidding me? A gingham challenge??!! If you've stopped by here on more than one occasion, you know that I am gaga for gingham... That settled it. Now, I had to come up with a fresh new way to use it!

I had purchased this cool Fry Box Die a couple of weeks ago at Paper Garden and it was sitting on my work table. An idea started forming...I went back through my PTI stamps...and the idea grew... And here you have the final project! Some happy gingham treat boxes!

  

 

 

I made my fry boxes out of brown and white gingham paper. I thought it was sort of a country feel to match the fruit images! The stamps are from an adorable set from Papertrey Ink! LOVE those fruits!

 

 

I popped up the little cherries with some foam tape and added a little green bling to the leaves. The circle dies and the matching cherry dies are all also from PTI. Seems so fresh to me...

 

 

Here is the die. If you cut a sheet of 81/2 x 11 cardstock in half, you can get two fry boxes from one sheet of paper. Awesome!

 

 

I used these new Colorbox Ink Pads....

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm Sweet on YOU my bloggy friends! Maybe you will pop over to the Moxie Fab World blog and enter your own gingham creation!? I know I'm not the only one around here who loves gingham!

 

Have a blessed day and a most wonderful weekend! Thanks for coming by to see me today!

 

  

Taylored Expressions Calendar Challenge - May!

Today it's time again for our cool new calendar projects from Taylored Expressions and I am having such a good time making my pages each month! The Baker's Dozen Design Team will be sharing calendar goodies and ideas with you throughout the entire year, so be sure to check out everyone else's projects too.

Refer over to Taylor's blog to get all the info to play along with us each month. There will be a linky at the bottom of Taylor's post and it will remain open all year, so you have the option to go back and catch up if you start playing late. For everyone who plays in 10 or more of these monthly calendar challenges in 2012, there will be a random draw for a TE prize pack valued at over $150!!! Click here to go to the TE Calendar Department and see all the goodies.

I chose to make the "Frame Your Imagination" calendar and use Cuppie as my theme! The stand for the calendar comes in raw wood and then you can paint it whatever color you choose. I painted mine kind of an antique white and then speckled some brown onto it to give it some character.

CLICK here for the calendar stand...CLICK here for the page protectors and CLICK here for the page inserts. I like this a lot because the finished pages are 6x6 and that gives a lot of room to stamp!

Here is my May Calendar page....Cuppie is already primed for Summer! :-) 

 

 

 

I used the Wave Border Die for the bottom and two of my favorite TE stamp sets!

 

 

Here are my Copic colors for this project - so bright and cheery!

 

 

A Year of Sweets 2 and A Day in Paradise - they go together nicely for a beach scene!

 

 

 

I colored Cuppie one shade darker than I normally do...he has a bit of a sunburn! hee hee. You know, the first time out of the season and all.

Thank you for popping in today to see my calendar page. Links to everyone's projects are below...have fun!

Charmaine Ikach

Jodi Collins

Melissa Sauls

Melody Rupple

Sankari Wegman

Taylor VanBruggen

Wanda Guess

 

Lavender Birthday Cameo....

Hi Friends! Whew...I was a bizzzzzzy bee this weekend in the craft studio! How about you? Did you do something creative? Fun? I spent the entire day on Saturday in my creative place and made some fun stuff to share with you. I got out ALL of my Papertrey Ink supplies and just let them talk to me. You know what they said? "Make a cameo card!" LOL. I love PTI's stuff so much, and I have gobs of it. Why do I forget to play? Anyhoo...here is my card for today!

 

 

 

 

Today's card definitely takes a "more is more" approach! Ha. I used lots of different techniques on this one! I kept thinking of things to add and I couldn't help myself. First up, I scored my cream layer on my MS Score Board. I tried it first with an A2 size sheet of paper. Um, yeah, that didn't really go so well... Thus, my card ended up being a square! Much easier to score evenly, every 1/2 inch!

 

 

 

I had just gotten this pretty "Winter Wisteria" colored ribbon in my last PTI order. It's the perfect shade of bluish-purple. Yum. I found some matching Bazzill in my stash. That button is from Doodlebug. I added a pearl to the center. Okay, so most of you know that I am severely bow-impaired. I don't know why I didn't think of this sooner! Duh! For this card I tied a bow separately and got it all nice and pretty and then put it over a strip of ribbon!!! That way I didn't have to fight with tying the bow on the card! I'm sure everyone already knew that....haha.

 

 

 

I used the Happy Birthday sentiment from a different set and stamped it on a sheet of vellum. I gave our little lady a nice necklace.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the craft room disaster area - in which I had all my PTI goodies out of their bins and on the floor! You might say this is the "during" photo!

 

 

 

One last picture for today. A wee tiny rosebud I came across last week in my travels. Just the softest shade of pink...ahhhhh.

 

One of the other things I did this weekend was to go through my entire room searching for things to sell at our fourth annual Crafty Girl Garage Sale, which is Saturday, May 19th. If you live in Sac-town, let me know and I'll email you the address. There are eight of us selling this year! It's always a good time, and lots of good crafty stuff to buy! 

Thanks for coming by to see me here! I hope you have a wonderful week!

Polaroid Card Set!

FRIDDDAAAAYYYYYYYY!  Can I get an Amen?! YAY! I had an awesome week, but I gotta tell ya, I'm pooped and ready to sleeeeeep in tomorrow! So that means I will surely be wide awake at 6am. Isn't that the way it goes? You can finally sleep in, but you wake up anyway? Did you have a good week? Lots of good stuff going on at work, release week for TE, a retirement shindig...you name it, this week had it. I hope you have fun things planned for your Spring weekend. Thanks for popping in here.

Today's cards were completely inspired by all the cool junk currently sitting on my desk. Everything I used for these cards all came from different companies, bought at different times, but it all was sitting there and it all matched perfectly! The initial inspiration came from the neat patterned paper from American Crafts in a pretty Spring color palette. I made one card, and couldn't stop myself from making two more. I will not hoard craft supplies. I will not hoard craft supplies. I will not hoard craft supplies....

 

 

 

I think this one is my favorite of the bunch! I had a lot of fun mixing and matching the little Polaroid prints and the colors and flowers. This is such a happy color range...

 

 

The paper is called Neapolitan and it is from American Crafts. I bought the 6x6 pad and also some of the big sheets of the Polaroid patterned paper. LOVE! It's really just too much fun.

 

 

The felt and the flower die are both from PTI. The fabric buttons are from We R Memory Keepers and the neat wood flags are from Jillibean Soup. I matched everything up with some Bazzill papers and kraft card bases.

 

 

 

 

Or maybe this one is my favorite....

 

 

 

Have a great weekend! XOXOXO

Taylored Expressions May Release Day!

                            

TE RELEASE DAY!                                           

• All of the new products are now available for purchase! Check out the Fresh Out of the Oven Department to see everything in one place!
• More projects from the Baker's Dozen to inspire you. Just follow the link list below.
• Be sure to check the TE Current Specials page for May Release Bundle options. The new Father's Day Digi Image and inspiration sheet is available FREE with purchase of any Bundle!
• Did you win one of the Mystery Baker's Dozen Blog Giveaways? Find the list of winners on Taylor's Blog.

 

Today I'm featuring a new set from the Whimsical Wishes line of stamps by Nancy McKinney. It's called Oops A Daisy and it's beautiful. It is a full size set of 20 images and sentiments and is another gorgeous floral set from Nancy. This set also has four coordinating dies. Once again, Taylor has given us a choice of solid or open line images for coloring and stamping. Truly something for everyone! This is the perfect set for Mother's Day.

For my card, I chose to use the solid images and emboss them on watercolor paper for a soft effect. Hope you like it!

 

 

 

Here's a close up of the watercolor wash I put over the images. I stamped in white pigment ink onto watercolor paper and then heat embossed with white powder. Then, I wet the entire sheet of paper and chose some colors of watercolor pencils and just played around with it until I got the look I wanted. This is a very forgiving technique. At the end, I chose to distress the edges just a bit to "ground" my image.  

 

 

This is how it looked before watercoloring....

 

 

I kept the layout clean and natural and simple. I think this looks nice with yellow and kraft. Just a touch of twine...

 

 

 

 

 

For my second card for today I have a (not really) funny story! I was supposed to make TWO cards yesterday! I spaced out and made this card on the wrong day. It kind of worked out that today ended up being a very daisy day...with two card using beautiful new daisy stamps! Is it Friday yet? This next stamp set was illustrated by the lovely Nancy McKinney and is another gorgeous Petite set in the Bouquet series - this is Daisy Bouquet, a set of 6 stamps for the Whimsical Wishes line.  This set included sentiments that coordinate perfectly with the new Mini Tags Dies, which is a set of 9 tags in super cute shapes. I chose a more traditional tag and attached it to my card using some twine. These little tags are awesome!

 

 

 

 

 

 

My Copic color choices for this card....

 

One trick to making things look white (the daisy petals) is to color them grey! I know this sounds counterintuitive...but it works! It tricks your eye into seeing white. Try it some time!

Here is the image of the Mini Tags....

Thank you for coming by this week. It is always fun to share sneak peeks with you. I just know that you have found some things you want to buy today! I hope the rest of your week is awesome. Now, get to shopping! :-)

Here are the last linkys of the week:

 

Charmaine Ikach

Jami Sibley

Jen Shults

Jodi Collins

Karen Giron

Melissa Sauls

Michele Boyer - Guest Designer

Nancy McKinney - Illustrator

Regina Mangum

Sankari Wegman

Stephanie Kraft -

Taylor VanBruggen

Tori Wild

Wanda Guess