A Blog Called Wanda

Cozy Christmas House!

Hello! Today is my last day of freedom... I have been off work for 20 days and tomorrow is when I have to go back. I have enjoyed my turn at domestic bliss, staying home, getting lots of things done, cooking, stamping and sleeping in. Now - back to reality and 5:00 in the morning wake ups! Argh. It's gonna be a tough transition. I must say that I do like my job very much. It's just that I hate morning! hahaha. I'll let you know how it goes. For today, I am enjoying some last few peaceful hours in the craft room and making cookies for the DH. Buddy is by my side. Life is good.

I bought a gorgeous Impression Obsession Christmas stamp a while ago and really love it. Actually, I love all of the images in their "house" series. I have three of them, including this one. You may recall this card I did a while back for my friend Jilli Bling, using one of the stamps. Here is my card for today...

 

 

 

 

 

That's a whole lotta markers for that one little house!!! This is my work space while coloring. I put my markers right in front of me so I can see all my choices. I wanted pops of red since it's for a Christmas card, and pretty shades of olive green... 

 

 

 

 

I added micro fine crystal glitter to the tops of all the windows, steps, and roof. you can barely see it in the pictures, but it just makes the card look a little softer...like fresh snow!

 

The glossy sticker with the sentiment and the holly were embellies in my Christmas stash. I added some gingham ribbon, because I wanted that vintage feel.

 

 

 

I got my Etsy store up and running on Saturday. So far, there are only four cards for sale on there...just testing the waters with that. Check it out! Click on the link in my left sidebar... I am very open to any tips or suggestions anyone has on this topic!

 

 
 

Pretty Ice Skates...

Greetings! I hope you all had a very nice Thanksgiving! What day is it? I'm not really sure... I'm coming down from an all day shopping spree for Black Friday and my time is all wonky. The DH and I have a long standing tradition of getting up at the crack of dawn and going shopping the day after Thanksgiving. On Thanksgiving night we lay out all the coupons and ads and strategize. Then we wake up super early and head out...not to be seen again until late at night. This year, however, we changed it up a bit! One of our local malls opened at midnight with some crazy deals. SO...we stayed up all night! EEEK. Nothing like an all-nighter to make you feel your age. Ugh! I'm still recovering! I have 100% of my Christmas shopping done, though. Now I just need to wrap and mail, and enjoy the holiday season with friends and family.

Today's card was inspired by the uber cute PTI set that was new this Winter - On Ice! It's an adorable ice skate with socks and sentiments to add. As soon as I saw it - one word popped into my head - pink! The pink snowflake paper is from October Afternoon.

 

 

You can see in the stamp set there are five different socks! How freakin' cute is that? You can really create any feel to your card with them. I love the fonts also - I like it when two fonts are combined - think that's a great design element. I used my copics to color the skate blades and to barely give some icy color to the skate boots.

 

Close up of the skates! The blades are done with Martha Stewart's antique silver glitter. The tiny pom poms have been in my stash for a while now. The white background paper is from Bazzill and I liked it because it reminded me of snow.

 

Okay, all I can say is thank goodness I bought the die that makes the little skate!!! That's a whole lot of ice skates. Looks funny like that...all laid out in a row.

 

 
 
 

 

 
  

 
 

Polar Bear Cutie! TESC #134 Sketch Challenge!

Hi everyone! Happy Thanksgiving to you and your families...wherever you are and whatever you're doing! I hope you have a wonderful day! We are on our way over to my brother-in-law's house to hang out with the fam and eat too much turkey and watch some football!

Yesterday morning we drove up to the snow to try to take some pictures! It was 19 degrees!!! EEEK. Needless to say we did not get out of the car! We don't have snow tires or chains so we went as far as we could and then turned around. The snow is about 40 minutes up the hill from our house. I have never seen such a Winter display - magical is the word that came to mind. I did get a few pix and managed to make a new Winter bloggy banner!

Before posting today's card, I just wanted to take a moment to say "THANKS" for all the sweet and kind comments about my blog post from Tuesday. I am overwhelmed by the kindness of people, and my faith is uplifted knowing there are so many nice people out there willing to say something complimentary to a stranger. Really wonderful. Crafty girls are the best! And, I am reminded why I started blogging in the first place. Thank you! I read every comment and appreciate each one. Thank you. Thank you.

Today's card is my entry into Taylored Expressions Sketch Challenge #134. I love Taylor's Blog! (Just a little hint, she is having a sale tomorrow!) I have been wanting to ink up this cute little Penny Black image and the sketch seemed perfect to feature it!

Here is my card:

 

 

Here is the sketch image - notice I flipped it on it's side!   

 

 

The clear snowflake is part of the Imaginisce collection featured on Tuesday - I had some left over! The background papers are hot pink and lime green! I added some tiny blue snowflakes around the main image. That's a little stamp from Stampin' Up. Just added a little bit pop of glitter in two spots. The sentiment is from Denami stamps. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

See what I have to put up with? Apparently the five blankets we have in the house just for him are not sufficient enough for sleeping on!? When I told him to get up, he just rolled over. What a character! How is a girl supposed to stamp?

 

 Gobble Gobble! Happy Thanksgiving!  

 

Cottage Christmas!

I am super excited to share some cool news with you today! I have been working with the amazing and kind Lori over at  Imaginisce Paper for a little while, and today I am being featured on the Imaginisce Blog as a guest designer! I am super grateful for the opportunity and hope to be working with them on a continuing basis. I have always loved Imaginisce products - surfing penguins, adorable snowmen, and that Apple Cider collection this year? OMG. Crazy good stuff. I hope you will go on over to their blog and check it out, and also sign up to be an Imaginisce facebook fan. You could win a prize today by leaving a comment!

Today I'm posting four cards made exclusively with the Imaginisce Cottage Christmas Collection (paper, ribbon, rub-ons, embellies) for this Winter. Cute gnomes, beautiful snowflakes, sweet little houses, and another interesting color scheme. Thanks for stopping by today and Have a great week!

Card #1 is made with my favorite paper from the collection - the gorgeous snowflakes on the bright red background. MMMMM. The stripe is the other side of that paper. All the papers are double sided. The sentiment is a rub-on that I put on some thick white cardstock. The clear snowflakes were attached with silver jump ring so they could dangle. I attached clear blingees in the center of some of the snowflakes using the i-rock tool, also from Imaginisce!

 

 

 
 

 

 

 
 

 

Card #2 is a clean and simple design. I cut a strip of the paper with the trees/presents and then layered that with a pretty red scallop border. I attached the big chipboard sentiment on the top...couldn't be easier. You could make a lot of these for Christmas cards.

 

 

 

 

 

Card #3 is made with the cute gnomes! I love their silly faces!! So festive. For this card I used two big chipboard shapes (the large gnome and the sentiment), Some strips of paper, snowflake ribbon, rub-ons, and two big bling snowflakes! There's a lot gnoming on! hahaha. Okay, not really that funny.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Card #4 is back to clean and simple design. I took a long card, made from craft cardstock and added two strips of paper - the green and the houses - and then made my own embellishment out of the stickers. I added a strip of red ribbon and a big bling snowflake to finish it off.

 





 

Thank you again for stopping by my blog! 

The other man in my life.....

...is a BEAR! Oski the Bear, to be exact! As you can see, we are often spotted together out and about, especially at football games. We don't try to hide our love affair... Even the hubs knows about it and doesn't care! Today is the annual BIG GAME - the Cal vs. Stanford football game. I've been attending every year since I was a freshman and this year's game will be my 29th in a row. My freshman year was "The Play" - one of the most famous events in sports history. Come rain or shine (unfortunately looks like rain this year), we always go. It's the law. I am a serious college football fanatic and am crazy about my Bears!

 

 

Something vintage...

Today's card is made with the Basic Grey collection called Curio! It's full of shabby chic goodness with a vintage feel. Collage/Vintage cards are hard for me - I always feel like I don't add the right elements, or that I put too much stuff on the card. I'm seriously OCD so to make something collage-y doesn't always compute in my Type A brain! I like the papers and chipboard stickers, so I just kept with a few items.

Minimal stamping on this card - just the saying and the swirl in brown in two places. I added some soft green paper to kind of offset some of the brown tones. After the card was done I felt it needed some bling so I added ultra fine copper glitter. I think it adds a nice contrast. Hope your week was great...we're in the home stretch...Friday is right around the corner.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 

Wintery Wishes...

Hi! I've been away too long...but I'm back with a Wintery card project for today's post! I have been off work for the past week and the DH and I have been doing lots of healthy and productive things...which is great...but isn't leaving me too much time in the stamp studio. Tonight I locked myself in and got inky! I was inspired from by this cool new paper I bought a few weeks ago.

The paper and main embellies are from the "Merry January" collection from We R Memory Keepers. This year I seem to be drawn to unique color combinations for Winter and Christmas. I'm loving all the new colors being incorporated into Winter. This line of papers have a cool antique vibe that caught my eye right away.

 

 

 

Here is my inspiration palette. Many times, when I get ready to make a card, I go around my studio and get everything together that I think matches and lay it all out on my table. Then I can play around with what I have in front of me. Does anyone else love Candace Olson? I always think of her with her basket of design elements... 

 

 

The white snowflake is a cut out from Paper Source. I antiqued the edges with some distress ink and then put a sticker and a bling snowflake in the center.  

 

 

I have to be honest that I don't know for sure where this sentiment is from. I think it might be from Unity Stamps?? LOVE it.  

 

 

 
 

 

Betsy Bluebell!

Greetings and happy Saturday to everyone! Hope you're having a great weekend so far! I have been hiding out in the craft studio making a giant paper mess...oh, and a card! Today's card features the cute stamp set from Penny Black called Betsy Bluebell! The images are ADORABLE and so much fun to color. The sentiment is also from Penny Black. For this card, I chose my purple and green color scheme first and then got out the Copics...a lot of them! Surprising how a small image uses like, 100 markers! hee hee. Hope you likey!

 

 

 

 

Here's a close up of my coloring. To get her cheeks to look faint/flushed I colored her entire face with E000. I then lightly colored uneven circles in RV10 and RV00 for the cheeks. Then, I went back over the entire face a second time with the E000, even going right over the pink. Once it dries, it all kind of blends together. Her hair is about four shades of yellow and brown. The purple was achieved using the BV01, BV02 and BV04 combo.

 

 

I finished my two main images first and then had to decide what to do with them! Originally I wanted both on the front of the card, but it was just too much going on. So I ended up saving the smaller circle for the inside. They were cut out with my circle Nesties. The sentiment here is from Taylored Expressions. So cute!

 

 

Here is a picture of the stamp set and my Copic color palette:  

 

 

I stamped the main image a second time and then cut out some of the flowers to give the card some dimension and more pow! I added ultra fine glitter to the butterflies and the flower centers.  

 

 

Here is the inside of the card! The butterflies are part of the main image....so I inked up just those parts of the stamp to make it match! 
 

 

 

 

 

 
 

I have to run for now! We have just enough time to get to the gym, work out, and get back in front of the TV in time for the massacre Cal vs. Oregon football game. Say prayers for the Bears!

Enjoy your day! 

 
 

Got Snow?

Hi! Today I am sharing my second Design Team project for Eat Cake Graphics. I'm sure many of you already have snow where you live...and it's cold here...so I thought I'd do a cute snowy card. Such adorable images from ECG!

 

 

My Copic color palette and the stamp images from Eat Cake:
 

 

I always love a pop of bright red with light blue. Something about that color combination! The polka dot paper is from Bo Bunny and the Let it Snow paper is from Martha Stewart. The snowflakes are embellies from Martha too. The small sentiment at the bottom of the card is from Papertrey Ink.
 

 

 

 

 

 
  

Thanksgiving Card Greetings!

Well, yesterday was a cold and very rainy day here in my corner of the world. The perfect day to stay home, start a fire in the fireplace and stamp! That's just what I did. DH and Mr. Buddy watched football all day by the fire and I cleaned in the craft room and finished Thanksgiving cards!

It all started with the pretty focal image which I had stamped and colored some time ago with my Copics - in warm Fall shades of olive and brown. That sort of set the color scheme for the card. Then, I wanted some printed background paper...but everything I had was in black and white and that just didn't look right...I needed cream and brown...so I made my own! Then I used some gorgeous antique lace sent to me all the way from The Netherlands (thanks Holly)! And it just all came together into a homey feeling greeting.

 

 

This card has a million little details because I kept fixing things and adding things and then distressing and inking and on and on! The stamp is from PSX. The green paper is my ever favorite Kiwi Kiss from Stampin' Up. The oak leaf punch is an oldie but a goodie from Creative Memories. The sentiment is from Waltzingmouse. The lace was sent from my sweet pal Holly all the way from Europe! It's gorgeous and meaningful.

 
 

Here is my home-made patterned paper! I had fun thinking of Thanksgiving words and then typed them into my word processing program. I picked a typewriter font that I liked and then printed it out on PTI cream cardstock in brown ink!

 

 

 My supplies and Copic color palette. Not too many colors this time!

 

 

 

Have a great week everyone! Thanks, as always, for stopping on by!
 
 
 

Party Penguins!

I'm back! I've been partying like a rockstar all week - getting spoiled by my friends! I haven't had time to stamp all week! It has been a great birthday week, but all good things must come to an end... Did I mention that I have the best friends in the entire world? Thank you everyone for the cards and presents and drinks and dinners!! Mwah.

Today's card is made with some cute holiday penguins from Art Impressions! I adore this stamp - their faces are classic! I had fun with the color scheme too - incorporating light blue in with the traditional red and olive green. I still have Thanksgiving cards to make, but right now all the pieces are in a stack...just waiting for me to decide on a layout I like. Those need to get made soon! In the meantime, here's a Winter card! I hope your weekend is off to a great start.

 

 

 

 

This is a good stamp for mass production - just a little bit of coloring. I added some tiny cotton pom poms courtesy of Impress Rubber Stamps! I thought there was too much white space behind them so I added some light blue snowflakes too. That stamp is from Stampin' Up.

 

 

 

  

Blessed...

Hi peeps and friends in Blog-land! Today is my birthday! I can't believe I'm finally 30! Just kidding (totally kidding)... No card to post for today, just some thoughts. I get very nostalgic and sentimental around my birthday. I don't get like that on New Year's! To me, the start of a new year always feels like this season - Fall and my birthday. I usually take time to reflect on life and where I've been and what I've accomplished (or not) and where I want to go in the coming months. One of the great things about this past year is my blog! It has been the source of so much fun, creativity and positivity! Truly the highlight of 2010. Thanks for coming along for the ride with me!

Today I'm reflecting on how blessed and grateful I am. I've been receiving beautiful cards in the mail all week and feel very loved and appreciated. Isn't that one of the great things about being a crafty girl? Lots of homemade love coming my way. Last night the DH brought home a beautiful arrangement of red roses and a very thoughtful card. A couple of gal pals have already taken me out for pizza and drinks. I received the most amazing box of wonderfulness from The Netherlands from my sweet pen pal. And there's more fun to come later in the week. I am spoiled! I have such wonderful friends and just want to acknowledge that here. Really wonderful friends. The best! Thank you to everyone who makes me feel special. I can't possibly put it into words. Simply said - I AM BLESSED!

 

Don't look now...it's the first card of Winter!

Hey! It's a new month and time for some new crafty projects non-Halloween related! Thanksgiving sometimes gets lost in the shuffle...but I will be making Thanksgiving cards here pretty soon. Not to worry. I love Thanksgiving and all that it represents. And...it's still Fall! But today - it's a bit o' Winter here on the bloggy blog!

I want to share my excitement - and my first Winter card. This card is my first ever Design Team card!! I am in love with the cute images I got from Eat Cake Graphics and want to show you the card I made. It's featured on the Eat Cake Blog today too! Woo WOO Woo! I hope you likey!

 

 

Seriously...can you stand it? That little girl is so adorable and the little birdie with the ear muffs?? Puhleeze! Ack! I stamped the Christmas tree image to make a focal point as if she's skating outside in the fresh air. Added lots of chunky glitter stickles. Added some clouds... 

 

These are the three Eat Cake stamps I used. The sentiment is from Amuse and the little swirl behind her skates is from a clear stamp set from The Cat's Pajamas. You can see my Copic color palette. The chalk ink was for the clouds and the ouline of the sentiment. That ink is the perfect blue.

 

 

 

 

 

I hope everyone had a fun Halloween! Did you dress up? Get lots of trick-or treaters? It was pretty quiet around our house. No wild parties for us this year! hahaha. Oh...it's my birthday week! Yay! DH and I both have the day off (Wednesday) and I think we're going to go have lunch and see if there's a good movie. Can't wait. I hope you all have a good week ahead.