A Blog Called Wanda

Let's be merry and drink cocoa!

Hello friends! December is rolling along, and I'm frantically trying to make all the ideas that are inside my brain! I'm going to run out of time! Eeeeks! This morning I went through all my Christmas bins (there's a lot!) and sorted through things and re-discovered old favorites! Dang I have a lot of stuff! Twenty Five years worth! I also made my tiered tray for Christmas time and it has gnomes in it! So adorable. Are you on team gnome? I love them! It's foggy and dreary, but we are warm in the craft room today. My favorite kind of day.

We have officially switched from Pumpkin Spice Season to Peppermint Season! YESSSSSS. We bought Peppermint Whip Cream at the grocery store the other night and we've been making coffee and enjoying that hint of mint. You really need to try it!! It's the inspiration for today's card.

Yesterday I made a super fun card to share with you! No stamping - just die cuts and ink! Sometimes it's fun to make cards with die cuts only. I used a die set I bought last year. I finally used it! (Does that happen to you?). It's called Hot Chocolate and it's from Elizabeth Crafts! I am loving pink on Christmas cards this year too, so I used pink, red, cream and kraft as my color palette....

 

I started by die cutting out all the pieces to make the mug of cocoa: mug, topping, marshmallows, snowflake, drips, and candy canes. I used small sponge daubers and Distress Inks to ink around all the pieces. I used chunky Stickles on the marshmallows.

 

The snowflake was attached with a small foam dot and then topped with a glitter enamel dot. I splattered the mug with white paint to look a bit snowy...

 

The background is the gorgeous Sweater Weather Cover Plate from Taylored Expressions. It's a favorite. The sentiment die is also from Taylored Expressions!

 

Be Merry!!! Here's a close up of that cover plate die...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for stopping by today! Cheers to you! I'm lifting my mug of peppermint cocoa to you! Are you still making Christmas cards? I haven't sent any yet! Yikes, better get on that! This month always goes by too fast. Have a wonderful day. See you soon! XOXO

CLICK HERE or on the graphic below to see the supply list for today's project. (Affiliate Links Used). Happy Crafting!

Pretty Felt Mittens! For Ornaments or Gift Tags!

Ho Ho Ho! It's officially December! Yikes! Christmas is coming FAST! Better get your sleigh ready! Hope you're having a beautiful Sunday. We are all snuggled in because it's pouring outside! Hubs just went to get us a pizza and Lucky is fast asleep in his bed. I love this kind of day! Friday I did a little crafting and made some sweet felt mitten ornaments to share with you! (I made ornaments, but these could easily be package tie ons or gift tags or bottle tags, or a garland...whatever you want them to be!) I used beautiful felt from TE along with die cuts and embellishments. SUCH a fun project. Also an easy one to do with kids or beginning crafters! 

I made two ornaments. I wanted to make a bunch more but I simply ran out of time! Yeeks. There is never enough time during this time of year, right? I just popped into the TE Store, and all of the dies I used for this project are ON SALE!! So, if you're interested in anything - don't wait!! Their Black Friday Sale is outstanding. SUPPLY LIST is at the bottom of this post!

Here is the first one! Pink and red together...yum. So here's a funny story. I took these photos in the garden center at Lowe's! LOL. I wanted to take the pictures on a real tree (ours is faux) so imagine me standing there with my camera! Ha. The things we do for a blog post...

 

Here's the second one! Yummy aqua and pale green...with a pretty bow. (That ribbon is sparkly, and it's from Paper Source!)

 

Here are my color selections of felt. I use this gorgeous wool felt from Taylored Expressions because it is SO easy to work with and comes in a million colors. And see how it cut out that intricate die above??? Yeah!!! CLICK HERE to see all the colors.

 

I die cut two mitten dies for each ornament and filled them with a tiny bit of stuffing. I used a sharp needle and embroidery floss to stitch around the outside edges for a homespun look. You could also glue them together. I like the bit of contrasting stitching.

 

I used various die cuts and embellishments to decorate the mittens. Here I used the Evergreens Dies and the Sweater Weather cover plate. I glued them onto the top of the mitten. Then I added a button from my stash.

 

At the top of this mitten, I used thread to attach the bow and the Tim Holtz silver token charm. Jingle! Perfect!

 

 

 

This next mitten is pink and red. At the top I glued on some vintage ribbon I had here in my studio and then glued on a pretty holly cluster from Prima. So sweet!!

 

I die cut a couple of snowflakes and layered them onto the top of the mitten and then added a silver snowflake charm - also from Tim Holtz. For this one I stitched in white thread.

 

 

Thank you for stopping by today! Happy DECEMBER! I hope your month is full of fun, delight and merriment!! Welcome Winter!! XOXO

CLICK HERE or on the graphic below to see the supplies I used for today's project! (Affiliate Links Used) AND everything is on sale as I'm typing this!! Happy Crafting! 

Snow Sampler Cross Stitch and Framing Project!

Hi everybody! Happy day-after-turkey Day! How are you? How was your holiday? We had a very nice and calm day here at our house. We started decorating the house for Christmas and my husband decorated my car too! YAY! It's full on pedal to the metal Christmas mode now! I hope you had a great Thanksgiving! Are you going shopping today? We are! In the past we were those crazy people who got up at 3am and went shopping on Black Friday. But now, we are more reasonable and go out later. Mostly because there isn't much 'stuff' that we want! Now we go to enjoy the spirit of the day and listen to music and drink coffee! Cheers to a nice weekend!

On Tuesday I worked on a project most of the day, and now I'm here to share it with you! I finished a cross stitch sampler maybe two weeks ago. I wanted to frame it myself and make it all fancy. I had the idea in my head. We headed out to Hobby Lobby Monday afternoon and picked out all the stuff. And Tuesday I went for it. And, you know what? It came out just like I wanted! I'm so happy with it! It was really fun to create and craft something different. Paint and glue and ribbon...all the good stuff. A LOT of people followed along on my Instagram Stories as I made it - and that was fun too. I saved the stories in a highlight in case you want to go back and watch the videos. 

The pattern is called Snow Sampler and it's from Country Cottage Needleworks. The fabric I used is Aida 14 in the color Raw. I used all the called for colors of DMC floss, except I made the house red instead of brown. This was a nice easy stitch and it came together quickly. All of the framing supplies are from Hobby Lobby. This is an 11x14 size frame.

 

I purposely made the little house red because I knew I wanted a red frame for this piece. The bow and greenery are attached to the top of the frame using a zip tie! I used two layers of quilt batting under the stitching to make it 'puff' out just a little bit.

 

 

 

 

 

Here are a few in-process photos of this project as I was stitching it!

 

 

 

 

 

Here are all my framing supplies from Hobby Lobby! The paint color is Country Red from Deco Art's Americana Collection. The ribbon is wired. 

 

 

 

I chose this frame specifically because I love that little bit of scroll work and the uneven edge of the outside of the frame.

 

Here's the first layer of paint. I used a sponge brush.

 

 

This was after three coats of paint!

 

I ended up doing FIVE coats of paint before it was finally good and solid!!! I was really surprised at how fast the paint dried. I was able to just keep working without having to let it sit too long.

 

 

Now for that giant bow! I was a little intimidated by this part! I have never made a bow like this before. I ended up following this VIDEO TUTORIAL on how to make a wired ribbon bow. Guess what? First time! It was perfect!! I love this!!

 

I'm pretty proud of this part!!! LOL.

 

I used a little flat snowflake ornament and some greenery sprigs to finish off the decorations.

 

In this photo you can see the finished frame. I used some sandpaper and gently sanded away some of the red paint to make it look a bit more vintage or distressed. I am happy with how this looks!! The frame really looks like it came this way. I can't wait to do more of this kind of project.

 

I used a zip tie to hook the two sprigs together and another zip tie to attach the bow in the center. A long zip tie wrapped around the top of the frame to hold it on. Tip: Never use glass with stitching because it needs to 'breathe' and will get discolored faster under glass. (I learned this while researching for the project!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you for popping by my blog today! I have discovered that MANY of you who follow my blog and Instagram are also cross stitchers! I guess I am late to this party! I am totally hooked on stitching now! (Cuz you know I needed another hobby - LOL!) It's so relaxing and pretty, and kind of old fashioned too. I am completely into it. 

There are TONS of crafty Black Friday Sales!! Below are my links to all my favorite shops - including Target and Amazon! I am always SO GRATEFUL when you shop using my links. THANK YOU! Take care until I see you next!! XOXO

Happy Thanksgiving 2019!

 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING 2019!

FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS!

 

LOVE WANDA, MARK AND LUCKY GUESS!

Yeti or Not - It's Christmastime!

Hi friends! It's Sunday afternoon and I've been relaxing in the studio today! My husband and Lucky are in here too - watching football and hanging out. It's been a perfect day. Also, finally, the weather has turned and it's cold outside and cozy inside. Yay! I haven't posted or crafted in a few days.... Last week I was really sick and didn't leave the house all week. I had a bad reaction to some medication and my entire mouth, tongue, cheeks swelled really big and I had hives on my tongue. OMG it was awful, and so painful, and so depressing. I couldn't eat anything, or talk (two of my favorite things to do)... I couldn't even drink water - it hurt sooooo bad. Thursday I finally started turning the corner and today I feel about 80%. I'm so grateful to feel better. Because yesterday was my college rivalry football game - and I haven't missed one in 38 years!! I was afraid we weren't going to be able to go. But, thankfully, we went and had a fantastic day. Feeling super grateful this afternoon. I hope you've been having a great weekend!! 

So I had some time to craft today without any assignments or rules. I knew exactly what I wanted to make! YETIS!!! LOL. I am in love with this set from Hello Bluebird and have been wanting to ink it up. Well, today was the day! My little Christmas Yeti is soooooo cute. I even gave him a sassy plaid scarf! The finished card is an A2 white card base. All the stamps and dies are from Hello Bluebird. I used Copics to color him and lots of Unicorn Stickles!

 

I used the Snowy Sky Dies and the Glacier Peaks Dies to create the background scene for my Yeti! The top portion of the scene is blue paper that I edged with blue distress ink for a bit of blending. The mountains are grey paper and the peaks are white paper covered in Stickles. I stamped the Yeti and colored him with Copic Markers. His scarf was paper pieced with this paper collection! Isn't he sweet??

 

 

The sentiment was heat embossed with white embossing powder onto red cardstock! So festive!

 

 

He's holding a little Christmas Tree!

 

 

 

Here's a picture of me at the game yesterday - when we were tailgating! I love my bear ears!! I am a CRAZY school spirit person! Can you tell? LOLZ. 

Thanks for stopping by today! I hope you have an amazing Thanksgiving week with your friends, family and loved ones! We are going to have a low key holiday and be at home at our house. Rain is coming this week and I can't wait! XOXOXO Take care friends!

 

The Greetery Winter's Song Mini Release - Day Two! More Christmas cards!

Hi there crafty friends! Welcome back! Today is an exciting reveal day for The Greetery! It's day two of the mini release to launch more beautiful Christmas stamps, dies and stencils! The release reveals are two days (yesterday and today_ and then all the goodies will be for sale at The Greetery on Friday November 22 at 10am EST. I am so excited to show you the new products, and I am also super excited to see what all the other designers made to share today! I'll be sharing two more cards today! All Christmas! CLICK HERE to visit the Greetery Website and Blog.

This first card is bright and shiny, like a Christmas ornament!! I used the awesome Nordic Frames Dies, along with the beautiful Winter Sketches stamps and the Fit To Be Tied Dies.... Traditional colors of red and green, with a pop of silver! The finished card is an A2 white card base. Layered with some gingham and woodgrain from my stash...

 

Here's a top down shot of all the layers... I used a bit of twine for the ornament hanger, and stuck it through the hole in the die cut piece. I used a circle die to make an ornament from silver cardstock.

 

I stamped the pretty bough from the Winter Sketches stamp set. So easy to line up and stamp these pretty pieces. I die cut a bow from bright red cardstock and then attached them all together. One pretty glitter enamel dot in the center of the bow to finish off...

 

 

 

This is the second largest size of the Nordic Frames. 

Next up is my final card for this release! I used the new Budding Beauties stamps and dies along with the existing mason jar stamps to create a winter scene! The new stamps are pretty little bouquets for winter. The finished card is an A2 card base from white cardstock. I layered aqua and then just a bit of red gingham...

 

Here's a side view to see the layers. I stamped and die cut out the pretty holly bouquet. Then I used the stamps to stamp more foliage onto the card layer to go behind the die cut piece. So easy to get this nice effect. 

 

 

 

The elements were attached to the card using foam tape. I added the curved sentiment for something different! I like how it frames the florals... 

 

 

CLICK HERE TO visit The Greetery Website and Blog! Remember, all the new items will be available to purchase tomorrow - Friday, November 22nd at 7am EST! Thank you for following along with me as I help introduce the new release! What is your favorite thing from the new release?? I'd love to know! XOXO

LIST OF DESIGNERS FOR TODAY'S INSPIRATION PROJECTS!

Kay Miller

Laurie Willison

Dawn McVey

Heather Nichols

Keeway Tsao

Angelica Conrad

Lizzie Jones

Kelly Lunceford

Norine Borys

Wanda Guess

The Greetery Winter's Song Mini Release!

Hi there crafty friends! How are you? How's your week going so far? I hope all is well with you! Today is an exciting reveal day for The Greetery! This is a mini release to launch more beautiful Christmas stamps, dies and stencils! The release reveals are two days (today and tomorrow) and then all the goodies will be for sale at The Greetery on Friday November 22 at 10am EST. I am so excited to show you the new products, and I am also super excited to see what all the other designers made to share today! I'll be sharing two cards today, and two cards tomorrow. All Christmas! I'm getting a really good start on my Christmas cards. CLICK HERE to visit the Greetery Website and Blog.

The first card to share today is a vintage inspired traditional Christmas card. Made in shades of red, green and gold, and then tons of distress inks and glitter! Yummmmmy. I used the brand new Nordic Frames Dies along with the gorgeous new Pine Blossoms Stamp set. Lots of one layer stamping for the win on this one. I started with an A2 card base in kraft, and then one layer of bright Christmas red. The top layer and the oval are die cut from cream cardstock.

 

Here's a close up of the stamping/floral cluster. This is a layered stamp set that is easy to line up with your Misti or stamp positioner! I covered parts of the images with chunky Rock Candy Distress Glitter.

 

I die cut the Nordic Frames panel and stamped directly onto that die cut. Greens, reds, golds.... I edged everything with brown distress inks and a sponge dauber. The oval was die cut out and also edged with distress inks. I used a hole punch and some twine to attach it to the card front.

 

Here's a side view so you can see the glitter and the layers... I stamped a few snowflakes onto the oval for a bit of a pop of color.

 

And here's a close up of that beautiful Nordic Frames Die!!! This is the largest size of the dies in that set. 

 

The next card was made using the amazing new Speed Tagging Paper and the brand new Inside Out Berry Branch Die. The card base is A2 in kraft cardstock. The top layer is cream cardstock. I tried to think of an innovative way to use the Speed Tagging Paper. IT'S SOOOOO PRETTY! OMG. The paper matches up with the Speed Tagging Die launched last release! I die cut out one of the sheets and then used the tags to make my own patterned paper! I'll explain more...

 

The center focal point of this card is a layered piece with three die cut circles! I layered kraft and cream cardstocks until I had the right size I wanted for the center of the card. I love using metallic paper, vellum and all that good vintagey looking stuff! I piled it all on this card!

 

In this shot you can see how I used the tags to make my background patterned paper. I glued the tags to a piece of cream cardstock. Then I ran it through my die cutting machine using the Crimped Frames Dies. I love how it came out!!

 

I die cut the Inside Out Berry Branch Dies from silver paper and vellum and mixed and matched them with my focal element circle. So many textures and colors going on in this card.

 

I'm loving how pink is an on trend color for Christmas this year too! 

 

 

CLICK HERE TO visit The Greetery Website and Blog! Remember, all the new items will be available to purchase on Friday, November 22nd at 7am EST! Thank you for following along with me as I help introduce the new release! What is your favorite thing from the new release?? I'd love to know! Be sure to check back tomorrow to see two more cards! XOXO

LIST OF DESIGNERS FOR TODAY'S INSPIRATION PROJECTS!

Kay Miller

Laurie Willison

Dawn McVey

Heather Nichols

Keeway Tsao

Angelica Conrad

Lizzie Jones

Kelly Lunceford

Norine Borys

Wanda Guess

Guest Designing with Sunny Studio Stamps! A Frosty Hello!

Hi friends! I'm sharing a happy snowman card today as the guest designer for the Sunny Studios Blog!! I'm always happy and excited to be the guest designer for Sunny Studio! I'm delighted to work with the beautiful and fun stamps and dies from Sunny Studio! The newest release is holiday fabulousness! I am obsessed with the Feeling Frosty snowmen and those Scenic Route Stamps!! I had so much fun creating a card to share with you all today. Let's get started and take a look at my project. I'm sending you a frosty hello!

This card is BIG! It's a 5.25 inch square card. I wanted lots of room to build my snowy scene, so I made my card base into a square from Neenah Cardstock. I used the amazing Very Merry Paper Pack too add that snowy sky to the scene. My layers are: white square card base, lime green cardstock, Snowy Sky patterned paper, Scenic Route die, Stitched oval. (Yes, I love layers!).

 

I stamped and die cut out the three snowmen and the snowy hills/trees. I stamped a second snowy hill/trees and fussy cut out another grouping of trees. I had fun coloring everything with Copic Markers in vivid shades. For accents I added bits of white gel pen and Diamond Stickles. I also stamped some snowflakes onto the top most white layer.

 

 

 

The sentiment was heat embossed with white embossing powder onto black cardstock. I love that look! Very graphic and clean. To assemble the card I used foam tape and a tape runner. The snowmen are popped off the card with foam tape. A few sparkly clear gems completed the card. 

 

 

 

 

 

How adorable are those snowmen?? I love them! I want to stamp a million of them. Ha! Sunny Studio stamps make me smile. The stamp sets are all perfectly sized and scaled to mix and match, and that makes it so much fun to create with all your stamp sets. I think I might make this card a second time and use tones of red and grey for a more farmhouse look! The possibilities are endless. 

 

Big thanks to Mendi for having me as a guest! I'm very blessed that she always invites me back!

Thanks for popping by today! I hope you'll head over to the Sunny Studio Stamps Blog and leave some love there too! Have a blessed and beautiful day everyone! XOXO

CLICK HERE or on the graphic below to see the supply links for today's card. (Affiliate links used). 

Ellen Hutson November Release is live now! Sharing two happy cards today!

Heellllooooo frannnds! Happy Sunday! I just finished cleaning the kitchen after making a giant batch of blueberry pancakes and a slab of bacon. My tummy is full and I'm resisting a nap! However, lots of work awaits me in the craft room today! How is your weekend going? I hope you're enjoying a nice Fall weekend. We are having the strangest weather - it's been 80 degrees all the past week! We had to go out and do yard work and water the grass! Too weird! I really just want to wear a sweater and boots tho. 

Today is the launch of the brand new November release from Ellen Hutson! Yahooooo! Everything is already live in the store now for shopping. It's all very happy and bright and fun. Think butterflies, trees, flowers, and blimps! (Yes I said blimp!) I have two cards to share with you to showcase the new stamps and dies from Ellen Hutson and Brandi Kincaid. It was nice to take a break from holiday crafting and make something super colorful!! 

First up is this fun and artsy butterfly card made with the "Be the Change" stamp set. I used grey to ground all the colors and to make it fun. I started with an A2 card base in gray and then layered one more layer of gray die cut with a stitched rectangle die.

 

I used the Pattern Play stamp set to stamp stripes, crosses and flowers onto some bright cardstock and then die cut the cardstock into banners. The cardstock and inks are from The Stamp Market. I used Citrine, Party Pink, Leafy, and Tropic Teal. I gently wrinkled the banners with my fingers and glued them to the card using clear glue. I stamped the sentiment in the upper left corner. 

 

I stamped the large butterfly in black ink onto white paper and die cut it with the matching die. Then I die cut a second butterfly from vellum. I layered these two to add some more texture and interest.

 

I put everything together and then added some clear enamel dots and staples from my Tiny Attacher... I love the mix of soft and hard and color and metal all mixed together.

 

 

 

Next up is a super happy card made the the "Up in the Air" stamp set! OMG that blimp is so adorable! I started with a white A2 card base and used gingham throughout the card in primary colors for a playful feeling.

 

I paper pieced the blimp using red and yellow gingham papers. I stamped and die cut out the blimp, the banner, the clouds and trees. I colored in with my Copic Markers, again in primary shades.

 

There are a few different sayings you can put onto the banner! Isn't that fun??

 

I stamped a few birds flying by, before attaching all the elements to the card.

 

 

That's it for today! Happy Sunday! Thank you very much for popping by today to see the new release from Ellen Hutson. I hope you find something you like! I'm not sure when I'll be posting again... Next week is super super busy for me. I'll be gone almost every day out doing things, meetings, etc... I will try to pop in soon with something crafty. Until then, I'll catch you on Instagram! XOXO

CLICK HERE or on the graphic below to see the supply links for today's cards. (Affiliate Links Used). Thank you for shopping my links! 

Christmas Recipes Book - Fun Project!

Hi everyone! I have a really fun project to share with you! I made it a while ago, but then the kit went out of stock so I wanted to wait to post it. But, it's finally ready to share! Yipppeeee! Something a bit different than a card. And something cheerful and Christmas-y too! I used supplies from Queen and Company and some other supplies from my stash to create a cute Christmas Recipes Book! It's going to be a gift and I'm so excited about how it came out. 

The book is a fun flip journal sort of book that stands up on its own. It's OLD - like 20 years old - from my stash!!! It's from K and Company! Remember their cool products?? I miss that company. Even though my book is old - you could easily create this project with your Cinch machine - or use any cool book or scrapbook. The book itself is made from kraft paper which I thought was perfect with bright red and green for this project. 

 

I used the AWESOME shaker card kit called Happy Holly Days - from Queen and Company! The paper, the shaker elements, the stamps...all from one kit! The ribbon at the top is from my stash (Stampin' Up I think) and the die cut letters are one of my favorite dies from MFT. (Links are at the end of the post). How freakin' cute are those Gingerbread peeps?? I love them!

 

I started by using glue and papers and laying down the foundation of the project - kind of like how you would start a scrapbook page. I used the pretty green floral, the red, the snowflakes and the pretty stripes! Everything from this paper pad is so good together!

 

The Gingerbread peeps are shakers! ACK! The Happy Holly Days Kit comes with EVERYTHING you need to make these - and so easy. The acetate is already cut to the shape, the foam is also already cut to shape...they take all the hard parts out of making shakers! You do the fun part - add the shaker bits! I put two of them on the front cover and added a heart. They are 'grounded' by a cream circle edged with Distress Ink. 

 

I stamped the sentiment right onto the snowflake paper. The recipes word was die cut from the same paper as the Gingerbread peeps to keep a consistent look to the project. The letters were die cut and glued onto a banner which was then inked with Distress ink. I assembled everything with foam squares and clear glue. Added a few finishing touches - and bam! A gift is finished!

 

This kit comes with everything you see in the photo. 18 steel dies, 6x6 paper pad with 24 double sided sheets of paper, 4x6 stamp set, glitter paper, 7 toppings and 24 foam shakers with acetate covers. You can make so many things with one kit. You can also buy extras of any of the individual pieces. The entire kit is $44.95. Such a great deal. 

Thanks for stopping by today! I hope you have a wonderful weekend! XOXO

CLICK HERE or on the graphic below to see the supply links for today! (Affiliate links used). CLICK HERE to shop directly at Queen and Company to see all their fantastic kits!