A Blog Called Wanda

Easter Cards!

 
Hi everyone! Thought I would share Easter cards today! I hope you are all ready for a lovely Easter day with your families and friends. Our day is spent at Church and then usually a nice brunch or lunch out.

Here are my Easter cards for this year:

A fairly simple design this time around. The beatiful background paper is a giant sheet of Japanese paper from Paper Source (love that store).  It was the inspiration piece...and so much prettier in person. I used Versamagic ink in Pink Grapefruit for the sentiment and butterflies. Some Prima flowers to complete the look. I love pink and green together...always!
 

 The inside of the card:

The card below was my Easter card from a couple of years ago. I had saved one because I really liked how it came out. I was in a chocolate brown Bazzill paper phase back then. But I do like the brown offset by the pastels. Thought I would throw this card in today too.

How cute are those bunny brads???

Are your Easter baskets all ready??!!

 

This 'n That for today...

Hi There! Well....yesterday and today were quite exciting here on the old bloggy blog! My Top Crop pick from Taylored Expressions yesterday resulted in HUGE interwebs traffic for me. 277 Blog views to be exact! Wow! I don't even know what to say. I am humbled and super excited to welcome new visitors! Even one person checking in from the Netherlands! Hi Holly! Thanks for the comments - I really appreciate each and every one.

Today I just have sort of a mish mash of this 'n that to share. Two cards and a couple of photos too. Let's see what we got.

This card was made from the Pure Innocence stamps from My Favorite Things. Is she not the absolute cutest thing? Her dress and pockets were paper pieced with some Basic Grey Paper. Her little collar was colored white with a gel pen. Copics were used to color the images.

 

 

 

 
This card is a simple Asian inspired card - again colored with the Copic markers. I colored the orange fish twice and then cut one out and popped it with some double sided foam tape. The water is 3-4 shades from the blue green color family. The background bamboo stamp is from Hero Arts. This would make a nice masculine card, perhaps.

 

 
Hydrangea update! They are BLUE! If you've ever grown hydrangeas you know they can get a little weird if not given the right plant food. They will revert back to pink! It's always nice to see the first ones pop their heads out to show me their true colors!

 

Happiness...on a cold drizzly, grey day...ahhhhhhh...

 

A GREAT BIG THANK YOU!

Wow. So I started this bloggy blog exactly three months ago today. Hard to believe, actually. Time flies by so quickly. Three months is just a tiny bit of time, compared to the big, giant fun I am having being a blogger chick. I love it. I waited so long, and thought so hard about doing my own blog. I don't know why I was afraid. No need for that. And so I owe you a BIG THANK YOU!

Thank you to my DH for his complete support and encouragement. Thank you to my friends for being so over the top happy for me and for checking in often. Thank you to the many new people I've "met" online via this forum. Thank you for every SWEET comment and compliment. I feel like Sally Fields on Oscar night...you really like me! Your support means the world to me and I'm very grateful. Thank you to all for making this such a positive experience.

Here are some current stats about my blog:

Three Months

45  Posts

3780  Blog Page Views!

151  Comments

15 Official subscribers

Top Crop winner on Taylored Expressions (just today!)

One tweet by a stamp company (thanks Dave)

One facebook mention by a stamp company

You can now Google 'ablogcalledwanda' and it comes up!

= ONE happy girl!

 

It's difficult to put into words why I started a blog. I thought it would be fun to share, that it would keep me creating and growing, and it would keep a record of my projects and my progress... But it is so much more than that. It is so positive - all of it. There is a magazine called Artful Blogging... I know...right? I found a quote in the Spring issue from a fellow blogger that sums up my feelings. 

Annie Lockhart - Her Blog Here

"The thought of sharing. The idea of acceptance. The notion of understanding. The willingness to be authentic. To be able to engage whole-heartedly with the insights and influences of our daily lives and to openly put them "out there" in the wild blue yonder of these electronic pages is magical to me. The world is cozier, more accessible, and full of nourishing possibilities." "This is why I blog. It pulls the universe within reach. It's the connections with other like-minded souls who dig their families, lose themselves in their art, and photograph life and nature that keeps me coming back for more."

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT EVERYONE!

A Cherry Hello!

Hi All! Hope you are having a super fabulous weekend! I went to a 50th birthday Disco party yesterday and it was really fun! The cake had a mirror ball on the top. Great music. A candy buffett! Awesome. I think the birthday 'girl' had a great time. I know I did! It kind of scared me that I still know all the words to those disco songs. Good times!

My card for today is for two card challenges that I came across this week that called for stitching. I'm not that great with the paper + the sewing machine...but gave it my best shot. I really like this card - especially the colors. One challenge - Embellish Magazine - called for light pink, light aqua, kraft, and stitching. The other challenge - Shabby Tea Room - called for Spring theme and stitching.

Here is my card:

 

 

 

 

 

 All that stuff for ONE card??

 

 

This card feels so vintagey - so I decided to take a sepia picture of it too:

 

Buddy Says...Life is just a bowl of cherries!

Rain or Shine...you're a friend of mine!

I think it's important to honor the friends that weather life's storms with you. They are there through rain and sleet and wind and snow and dark of night. I am deeply blessed to have many such friends. Today I made a card with the simple sentiment - Friends, rain or shine.

I have had this neat umbrella stamp for years but was never able to color it just the way my mind wanted it to be. So, I decided to give it a go with my Copics. All I can say is "WOW!" I think this might be the best coloring I've done to date! It came out exactly as I wanted. I really (REALLY) paid attention to the shading and blending and took my time. I hope you like it - and I hope the fact that I'm showing the process is helpful too. It's the beginning of a nice Spring weekend. Have a good one!

The finished card:

Deciding my pallette - see all the squiggles? Four shades of red on that bad boy!

  

The red is done, moving on to the yellows...

 

Yes, I used ALL of those markers...plus a few more I think!

 
The finished image:

 

This is what the back looks like - I think that's kinda pretty too:

I chose this blue dotted paper to look like raindrops. I decided to keep it simple with the papers and just used primary colors and no real patterned paper. Okay, that was hard! I NEED patterned paper...but it didn't work in this situation. I might get over it. The sentiment was printed on the computer.

If you are practicing your coloring - I want you to really look at this. See how all of the lighter parts are on the same side of every umbrella? That makes your eye believe that is the direction of the sun. This is very hard for me. I have been working on it though.

 

I feel like I need to play a Rihanna song in the background right now. Under my umbrella, ella, ella, ella...  Peace out chicadees!

Pretty Party Dress - A Tuesday Trigger Challenge

Ya know how I love Moxie Fab Tuesday Trigger! It's that time again! This week the trigger photo is of a pretty cotton sundress for a little girl. It just happened to be with my favorite colors (aqua, lavender and green) and plaid! I'm mad about plaid! An idea came to me pretty quickly. Here is the trigger image first:

 
What came to my mind was a pretty preppy Spring party dress for a soiree out on the lawn...Close your eyes...can you imagine the twinkling white lights and the champagne? And the lanterns hanging from the trees and the jazzy ensemble... Oh yeah, wait, come on back to me. Come back! I said COME BACK! Whew.

Okay, so here is my card-

Behind the scenes of making the plaid skirt for the dress...Giant stamp from Hero Arts. Three favorite colors of Versamagic ink. I only used a tiny bit of green and then criss crossed the other two colors.

Then I stamped the dress in black onto my plaid 'fabric' and cut it out. I stamped the dress again on my main paper and colored the bodice with my Copics - three shades. 

 
When I attached the skirt part I put the upper part on with mono-adhesive and the lower part with double sided foam tape to look like the skirt had some movement. The argyle pattern is stamped on the lavender card stock with versamark ink (Judikins stamp). I glued on a pretty pink flower corsage and a polka dot bow...There ya have it!

This would be a nice card for a special gal pal or even a bridal shower. So feminine and sweet!

Here's what's going on out in the front yard with my babies...my giant Nikko Blue Hydrangeas...I can't wait for their giant periwinkle pom poms to come out to see me! Here is a good start. Nature at it's finest, don't ya think?

 
   

Margaritas Anyone?

I knew that would get your attention! Hahaha. It was really warm this weekend here in Sac-town and a refreshing margarita would have been very nice. Maybe next weekend... This card is my entry for Taylored Expressions sketch challenge #105. I was having low crafty mojo today. I went through all my clear stamps and found this cute margarita set from Unity, and thought it would be fun to color. I then found a 6x6 paper pad from Junkitz called 'Salsa!' I knew it was meant to be.

 Love these bright cheery colors - hope you do too.

I used my Copic Markers to color everything and then used Judikins Diamond Glaze over the contents of the blender to make it look shiny and 3-dimensional. I also added a ribbon of glitter to the top.

Who wouldn't love a hot pink blender like this???? 

 

My color pallete:

Another view... Don't be afraid to make your own embellishments! I didn't have anything that I thought would work for the accent, so I made my own. Colored and cut out another part of the stamp set and popped it up with some double sided foam tape. Oh..and some glitter too.

 

Hope this made your Monday a bit brighter. Have a good week!

Since you asked...What are Copics?!

Hi There and Happy Saturday to everyone! We are immersed in March Madness at our house since Cal is in the dance this year and we won our first round game! Woot woot! BUT....we have to play Duke tomorrow - the #1 seed in our bracket. I have a glimmer of hope - because this is the time when anything can happen! Right? Okay, enough basketball talk.

Over the past few weeks I have had several people ask me "What's the dealio with the Copics?" I thought I would take some time today to give a brief run down on Copic Markers. First of all - I love my markers and would save them in case of fire or earthquake. I'm attached. For life. Using Copics has improved the quality of my work by leaps and bounds. I have been a stamper for 16 years and had always used colored pencils or watercolor pencils up until I discovered Copics. Now they are my weapon of choice.

This is my personal stash - so far -

Copic Markers are alcohol based art markers from Japan. The Manga Comic Book and Anime artists use them for their incredible images. Do a google image search for Manga and you can see some of the amazing work they do! With markers! More and more local art stores and stamp stores are starting to carry them. They average about $5.50 each. They come in three different shapes with different tips. I prefer the oval sketch markers which have a brush tip on one end and a highlighter type tip on the other end.

Copic Markers come in 350 colors. Yes, I said 350. (gasp). That is the best part! This makes it possible to blend 5-6 different shades of the same color together to get those real-looking results. The markers are labeled with a color name but also with color numbers to allow you to select the same color family for blending.

 

I have a color chart that I use to help match patterned paper for my card projects. It's easier than trying to guess with my eye. I copied my chart onto the kind of paper I color with the most so that I know ahead of time what I will get. I then can hold the patterned paper up to the chart and see exactly what shade matches.

When I color something, I use a minimum of three shades of the same color. A light, medium and dark shade. Copics also have a colorless blender pen which acts like an eraser of sorts in case you need to lift color off or if you make a mistake. It takes a lot of practice but I believe the results and the enjoyment are worth it!

If you happen to live in Northern California and are interested - I am teaching Copic Marker classes at my home the weekend of May 1st and 2nd. Email me and let me know if you would like an informational flyer and I'll get one to you.

So, I had to make a card today and I thought this cute hedgie image from Penny Black would be a good one to use to illustrate coloring tips.

I used warm grey, cool grey, browns, and tans to make the hedgie 'fur' on top. Their faces and tummies are with a very very light red and some pink for their cheeks. The ladybugs are actually colored with two shades of red and a pink. The grass was not in the picture/stamp but I thought they needed to be grounded. I used three shades of green and drew it in. This is much easier than it sounds - really.

Yeah, I bought the Martha Stewart Ladybug edger punch.....you know I did.... After the ladybugs were colored, I went back with a clear gel pen to make them shiny. Then, I went back over the dots with a black gel pen to make them pop!

 

And this is how BTC (aka Buddy The Cat) spends his Saturday in the craft room. He has his own bed with a heating pad and a fleece from Old Navy. But he's not spoiled. Nah.

I hope I have answered some of your questions today. If you have more, feel free to email me. Have a great weekend everyone!

Simple, Quiet, Spring Beauty...

Does anyone else remember this old song?: Tis a gift to be simple, tis a gift to be free. Tis a gift to come down to where we ought to be. It has a nice sing songy rhythm and a sweet lilt. I was going through the pictures on my camera from the past two weeks and I was struck by how many of them are of a simple image of Spring. They were a good reminder  to me to be present in the moment and take note of what is around me. I thought I would share some of the pictures with you today - since I don't have a card made right at the moment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

I started this post with a quote from a lovely old Shaker song from the 1840's. I will end the post with a quote from one of the wisest men of MY generation:

"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."   Ferris Bueller

 

Embellish Magazine Color Challenge with fabric...

The challenges continue...This one is a color challenge using red, blue, kraft and green. Also, there must be fabric used somewhere on the card. Click here to go to Embellish Magazine's Blog! Again, going out of my comfort zone with this color scheme. Usually I like muted tones. This challenge called for bright colors. I rummaged around in some of my old stamps and found a favorite from waaaaay back - the denim pocket stamp! Yay! Haven't used that bad boy in quite some time.

Here is my card:

 

The pocket has a message inside - just pull up on the tab and it appears! I crumpled up a piece of paper to look like a bandana hanging out.  

I used my Adirondack Ink Pad in, what else, Denim! I got out a swirly stamp to give the pocket a design element. Doesn't it look like real denim? Love that.

 

 
Here are my fabric elements - denim and felt flowers with a fabric covered brad in the center. The card base is kraft. A little pop of bright green and there you have it! I do like this card - it's very friendly and cheerful. I can stamp any sentiment inside to fit the occasion.

 

Later Gators!

Another Sketch Challenge! #104 from Taylored Expressions...

In follow up to my post from yesterday...Here is another card I made over the weekend in my crazy quest to enter all these challenges! This one is from Taylored Expressions. Check it out! Enter a card too! This one was good because it is a forum to use lots of different patterned papers...gotta love that! I used a new color combo for me and I love the layout. I may make another one of these...

Here is my card:

Sweet little Penny Black hedgie in a pot! Colored with my Copic markers of course! A bit of glitter on the bee wings to make it sparkle.  The flowers are a new Martha Stewart punch...are you sensing a trend? Hahaha. My Martha Stewart punch addiction is a whole blog post by itself!

If you notice, I put a little glitter glue on top of the brads too!

See how the center of the pot looks faded? You do that by coloring in your entire image and then going back with the blender pen and taking away some of the ink. I used 5-6 colors of brown for the pot and two shades of green for the grass.

 

Mixing patterns is okay as long as the scale is similar and the colors all go together. As you can see, there are four patterned papers and a patterned ribbon in this card.

 

Here is the sketch recipe image:

 

 

It was a stamping frenzy today!

Here in the old craft room today it was a crafting, stamping freny! I made cards for FIVE card challenges! I will post two tonight (the other one is in the post below this one) and the rest during the week. I had a great time pushing myself to come up with very specific cards to meet the criteria. The one posted here is for Cards Magazine Blog. This is a great  magazine - so I hope they like this one! The theme is simple - make any card with birds...

I have about a gazillion bird stamps - my favorite - so the only hard part was picking what to use. I decided to go my Memory Box stamps and use soft spring colors. I used my new Martha Stewart Birds on a Wire punch too. OMG. Love it!

Here is the card:

The Inside:

Close up:

 

 

 

The birds are punched out of dark brown paper -

it's photographing really dark here:

  
 

 

This is not related to stamping, but I had to share anyway! I was at my friend Stephanie's paper/stamp store (Paper Garden) Friday night and when I walked outside, this is what I saw!!! It had rained all day and this was the sunset after the clearing storm. AMAZING, don't ya think?  I've never seen a parking lot look so pretty.

Have a great week ahead. Oh, by the way, I want my hour back! 

Get Sketchy Card Challenge #29!

I found this cool website called Get Sketchy that has card challenges based on design layouts. The way this works is that the blog gives you a layout, or sketch, and you make it your own. I decided to give this one a go! Here is the sketch:

 

And here is my take on it:

 

 

Thanks for stopping by to see my cards today!  

Pretty Green Toile - Tuesday Trigger

I'm throwing my hat in the ring for another Tuesday Trigger Card contest over at Moxie Fab World. One of my favorite colors is green so I knew I had to make a card. I immediately remembered I had this old stamp of a toile scene. It took me a while to dig it out of the stamp cupboards...but I found it! I used my nestabilities to make the pretty ovals and I used a cuttlebug folder to impress the white part of the card base. Add a little bling and voila!

The trigger image is so pretty - here it is:

 

Here is my take on it:

 

 

 

 

 

 
Okay, so I have to tell you that I cut out that white oval and then got the scene in there on the first try!! Can you believe it? I don't think I could have planned it better. I might have to use that stamp to make some other stuff. I'm thinking it would look nice in a pretty brick red color. 

On a side note - here is a pretty picture I snapped in the parking lot of the gas station today at lunch! Gotta keep your camera with you at all times! Happy Friday everyone and have a great weekend.

Here is a little shout out to my sweet pal S.A. who is working on finishing up her Master's Degree in the next couple of months. Good luck! I miss you!

As lovely as a tree...

This post is about the AMAZING Camellia tree that has been my artisitc muse for the past week. This tree has captivated me with her astounding beauty. She sits at the far edge of the park that surrounds our grand State Capitol building. She leaves a carpet of pink petals beneath her. She stopped me in my tracks. The morning light was more than I could take.

Gather round, and get some popcorn - the big tub - cuz this is a long post. I took about 75 pictures and it was very hard to select only a few to put on the old bloggy blog. Thanks for coming by today and I hope these pictures inspire you as well. I'd love to hear from you.

 

 

 

 

 

  
 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I THINK that I shall never see

A poem lovely as a tree.

 

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest

Against the earth's sweet flowing breast;

 

A tree that looks at God all day,

And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

 

A tree that may in Summer wear

A nest of robins in her hair;

 

Upon whose bosom snow has lain;

Who intimately lives with rain.

 

Poems are made by fools like me,

But only God can make a tree.

Joyce Kilmer, author

 

Another Tuesday Trigger Challenge Card!

DO SOMETHING CREATIVE EVERY DAY! I have been trying to live that statement this year. Take a picture, cook something new, make a card or a handmade project...Something creative each day. It has made me a happier person. I carry my camera around with me now. I take the time to sit down and create things I am proud of. I try to help others in their crafty endeavors. It's been wonderful.

When I saw the Tuesday Trigger image from Moxie Fab this week I gasped - SO gorgeous. I adore that color pallete! Such a beautiful collage of items. Here it is for you to enjoy:

I mean really, can you stand it? I could have made 50 cards from this inspiration. What caught my eye most was the center image on the right hand side with the pink flowers. I had recently taken a gazillion photos of the most amazing camellias blooming near my work. So, I decided to combine a photograph with my stamping. I hope you like my card!

 

 
 

The closed front of the card - yup, another easel card, folks!

 

 

 

 

I had some paper left after finishing my TT card, so I decided to make some more cards with the same color scheme. Here is one I'd like to share with you!

 

 

Here are some of the fab women who help me do something creative every day! Love this crazy bunch!

   
I will do another post, hopefully soon, with all of the pictures from the Camellias blooming. I have some favorites...Have a Creative Day!

Love these new Prima flowers!

I got these beautiful Prima flowers at Michael's a while back. I love the muted colors - they are not super bright or pastel - the perfect in between. I made a shabby chic birthday card and a cheery hello card using them. Hope you like them too!

The shabby chic birthday card - made with pretty pink and rose tones. The stamp is from a Stampin' Up set and the border is a Martha Stewart punch. I colored the image with my Copic markers.

 

 
Here is the cheery hello card. Stamp set is from Stampin' Up and I used Marvy Markers to color directly on the stamp before stamping it onto the paper. 

 

 

 

My lovely photography assistant, NOT helping, by putting his boo-tay directly on top of what I'm trying to take a picture of! He says he is much more gorgeous and photogenic. What do you think?

 

TGIF!

Okay, now I know we are all glad it's FRIDAY! I have my little Friday lunch time routine and I thought I would share it with you today. The peeps I see and the places I go make my day! A little slice of heaven in this workaday world. About a 5 minute drive from the office is my mini oasis in the city.

First off, there is Newsbeat! Now, this girl LOVES magazines. You might say I'm a magazineaholic! Don't call Dr. Drew on me yet, though. It's all under control. Maybe. Newsbeat is that one of a kind place that doesn't really happen anymore. A good old fashioned news-stand. I love it. The cool chicks that work there are and helpful and kind. There are magazines for miles, and newspapers, and British candy, and cards, and magazines, and magazines...

 

 

My favorite section:

 

 

 

The place just has a cool vibe to it...

  
Now, as if that wasn't wonderful enough...just two doors down is Luigi's! Which definitely is a little slice of heaven!

 

This is a great sign!

  

 

Are you drooling? Yes, it tastes as good as it looks...

 

And, if you're still hungry, there are brownies. I've never had one, but you never know. They look amazing. Cuz the one thing you need after eating a big ole' slab of pizza is a brownie. Right? Right?  

And last, but not least, the pickle. Yup, that's a pickle on the corner and he is happy to see me! See him waving? My Friday would not be complete without him.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone! I'm off to my friend TeaDub's house tomorrow for some stampin' action. The Oscars are on Sunday - red carpet time! Toodles.

Sweet Strawberries...

Okay, so my OBsession with the cute tiny checked paper continues... I made a nice, sweet card using it in red this time. Lovely basket of strawberries image is from Magenta. The saying is from Amuse - another fan favorite! New patterned paper from Cosmo Cricket (I think). I used my Copic markers, of course in three or four shades of brown and gold for the basket and four shades of red and pink for the berries. I had one leftover bee so he could buzz on into the picture.

  
Thanks for stopping by for a looky loo today!

Embellish Magazine Challenge - Spring Colors -

I found a nice challenge on the Embellish Magazine blog - to make a card with some pretty Spring colors - Pink, Peach, Moss Green and Yellow. Here is the idea image:

I really like these colors anyway, so this wasn't a hard card to make. I pulled out some pretty Basic Grey patterned paper, and my trusty Martha Stewart Punches! Bazzill cardstock...Here is my card!

Here is the inside:

I punched out the butterflies and then folded them in half. I used a glue pen to glue just the center of the butterfly onto the paper. Then I folded their wings up to make them pop!

 
 Until next time...