A Blog Called Wanda

Tea and Scones... It's wedding day!

Congratulations William and Kate!

 
 
'Cheerio Lords and Ladies! It's Royal Wedding Day! What a lovely day and how nice to see some good news on the tele today. In this day and age of constant change I think it is so great to see tradition in action. I don't really have an opinion one way or the other about Monarchy in a political sense...I just know that I love all the ceremony and elegance that comes from doing things the same way for hundreds of years. The gorgeous gothic architecture of the church, the uniforms, the hats, the crowns and carriages...all of it is interesting to me. It is also a wee bit personal, as my father's family name is from Wales!

I remember staying up all night in 1981 (I was in high school) to watch Diana and Charles' wedding. That was way back when and my family didn't own a VCR yet! It was a big deal. This year, I set the DVR for about 10 hours worth of BBC America and am now watching it in the background as I go about my day.  In honor of this very British day...I decided to make scones and tea! Pip Pip!

 

I found the recipe on All Recipes.com....click here to link to it...   I made the recipe exactly as it is listed, no changes. I cooked them for 17 minutes exactly. With scones, be careful not to over cook them. They will look like they're not cooked enough...but they are! If you cook them too long, they get dry. I like that this recipe has sour cream in it. You can't really taste it, but it makes them moist.

Here they are before going into the oven. I like to leave mine together instead of cutting them apart before cooking. I added dried apricots instead of raisins. I think it would taste good with dried cherries or blueberries, too.

 

 You MUST have English Breakfast tea and marmalade!

 
 

 

 

 Here they are just out of the oven....mmmm....

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is just perfect!

 
Did you watch the wedding? I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Please stop by my blog on Sunday morning for a BIG announcement! Next week there will be a lot of activity here on the bloggy blog. I hope you will join me! I've been keeping a crafty secret and I can finally tell you! 

 
 

A little nautical...

Hey! How is your week going so far? Easter has come and gone and now it's time to start looking towards Summer! We ended up having a very nice Easter day. A great sermon at church, great breakfast out and a movie! We went to see Water for Elephants. It was terrific! I loved the costumes, the animals, and all the action. I definitely recommend it and it is more of a girl movie. DH liked it, but not as much as I did. It was just a nice day out.

So, to get in the mood for the next change of season...I have a little nautical action for today. My card was made with the GORGEOUS collection from Webster's Pages called Yacht Club. Seriously gorgeous. The motifs remind me of New England Summers and Cape Cod (which is where we got married). I made a card that could be either masculine or feminine. Okay, enough blabbing...here it is!

 

 

The little banner flags were made out of the frame stickers that are part of the collection. I punched them out with my triangle punch and the used some twine to mimic rope. I had those little shells in my stash. I used a dark cranberry ink for my sentiment.

 

This is kind of a cool technique...Tear one piece of paper and put another piece underneath it and then fray the edges. These papers all go together so nicely! Love the anchor!

 

 

 
 

 
 

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!

Hello and Easter Blessings to you and your family! We will be at church this morning and then out for a nice breakfast. Who knows...maybe even a movie! I'm dying to see Water for Elephants! Looks so good. I'm posting a hodge podge of things today. I have my last Easter card to share, some pix, and a shout out thank you to Hero Arts. Let's get started!

 

 

 This is a stamp from a set from Flourishes...called Spring has Sprung!

 

I used a very simple and soft color palette of blue and green and a touch of brown. I always love the soft pastels with brown. That never gets old.

 

For the brown border around my central image I used two Nestabilities at the same time in my Cuttlebug. I cut out a ring to place over the image instead of layering my image on top. Just wanted to try something different.

 

 I cut tiny strips of foam tape to put my ring of brown on top.

 

I wanted some more soft blue on the card so I made my own embellishment with seam tape, a flower and a gem. After I made the whole thing, as you'll see below, I distressed the ribbon and the flower.

 

 

 

 

 
 

Here are some pictures I took this week! They scream out SPRING! These daisies are planted in front of my office building and the pink flowers were on a tree in front of Starbucks. I really like both images for the fresh colors and the feel of the change of seasons...

 

 

 
 

 Lastly...you guys might remember that I won a prize from Hero Arts a couple of weeks ago (click here to go to that post)! I got to choose $50 in free product! Well, my package arrived and I thought I would show you my choices. Some of you had asked me what I would choose.  WOO WOO! SO cool. Thank you Hero Arts!

 

 

 
 
 
 

More Easter cards and a challenge too!

Wow. Friday. And a GOOD Friday it is! This has been a long stressful week and today I am trying to be mindful of the true and great significance of this day. My problems are small and I am safe. There is much to be grateful for. Amen. I hope you all have a nice Easter weekend! I have Easter cards to share today and then one more to share on Sunday. Be well and take care.

My Easter card to post today is also an entry for the Shabby Tea Room Challenge #58.  The theme this week at STR is pastels and stripes. That's fun, isn't it!? There are still two more days to enter your card into the mix...why don'tcha?

 

 

I'm mad about this plaid paper! PERFECT for Easter and Spring cards! The bunny stamp is from WhipperSnapper and the words are from Penny Black. The papers are We R Memory Keepers...

 

 

 

The coloring is very simple here...not too much shading or anything. I barely outlined the inside of the bunnies with a soft grey and then a soft pink for their ears. I went around the entire image with a light aqua to give a little more color and definition to the image. Nothing to it really.

 

 

 
 

Mr. Buddy was especially helpful in the making of this card and he wanted to make sure he received proper credit for ribbon oversight. So, I put this pic in just for him!

 

 

 
Happy Easter weekend Peeps! Get it? Peeps? Sorry, you know it had to be said. :-) 

  

Taylored Expressions April Blog Hop Day!

Can you believe it's been a month already since the last Taylored Expressions Blog Hop? I sure can't! I have enjoyed making cards for these hops and I always "meet" some new bloggers in the process as we go from blog to blog to check out everyone's cards. Well, today is the April Blog Hop Day! The theme for this month is "Clean and Simple" design. Yeah, I had to seriously curtail the use of 'stuff' on my card!! It's good for me though, right? Hahaha.

Here's my finished card. I used the adorable little pie stamp and setiment from the Sweet Treats stamp set. I also used the sketch from Sankari as you'll see below. Have fun today hopping around. The list of all the cards and blogs is at the bottom of my post!

 

 

 

Here's the sketch image. I kept is simple! Are you proud of me? hahaha. No layering, no ribbon, no blings, no pearls, no brads... But you know I had to add a teensy bit of glitter glue, right?  I do like how my card turned out, and this is a great layout to save for the future!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 

 

Easter week begins...

Hi friends! Been crafting up a storm allll weekend! My crafty mojo finally kicked in early yesterday afternoon and since then it's been non stop for me! The DH was busy with some stuff for work so I had uninterrupted crafty time. I got all my Easter projects done and started on some other things that are in the works for May. Since Easter is only one week away, I figured I'd better start posting my cards! I'm sitting down to watch The Amazing Race with the guys and blogging...perfect way to end the day. I hope a great week is in store for you! 
 

 

 

I started off thinking I was going to make an all white card, using different embossing folders and paper textures. I just wanted to use that pink bunny as the only color on the card. As I got into it, it just didn't look right to me. I decided to use some thin pink borders and then it looked better. The pink felt bunny is a Martha Stewart sticker!

 

 

 

 
 

 
 

Summer Houses...

Hi peeps! Saturday morning...feeling a bit melancholy today for whatever reason...trying to find some crafty mojo and some energy. Put the laundry in, now just looking at the giant hurricane aftermath on my stamping table. Not knowing where to start. But maybe I just want to go lay down with my kitty and take a nap. Ever feel that way? I will perservere and I know that something will kick in! I hope you are having a great weekend so far. Are you crafting this weekend?

Today I'm sharing a card I made for Eat Cake Graphics with their Summer Houses stamp. This is a big image and I had a lot of fun coloring it a while back. Reminds me of summers by the lake and easy breezy days. I hope you like it!

 

 

 

I colored the houses with my trusty Copic Markers. I made the roofs all the same color to give some uniformity to the image and also to "ground" all that color. I wanted the houses to pop off the page. I went back and forth on how to color the grass and ultimately decided just to add a little bit of green and leave the rest white. Don't you wish we were there right now?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Okay, I'm off to find my crafty mojo for today. Have you seen it?

THE END. Hee hee.

 
 
 

Bonjour Mimi!

Bonjour mes amis! Greetings of the Spring...and today it's Springtime in Paris! I got this super adorable stamp set a while ago and finally got inky with it! Mimi in Paris...from Penny Black...Ooh la la indeed! Since France's colors are the same as ours, red, white and blue, I used that as my color scheme. Scrounged around in all my stash for some Paris related items...and voila! Here's a card to share with you today. Best wishes for a fabulous day!

 

 
 

Here's the stamp set! EEEEK, so cute! Sorry I couldn't get a bigger image!

 

 

 

 

 

I colored her with my Copics and kept the colors super simple and bright. I used the B21, B23, B24 combo for the blue, which is one of my absolute favorite color palettes. I used a very light gray for the little pooch.

 

 

 

 
 Au revoir!

 
 

The first Easter card for this year!

Hi everyone! Happy weekend! I have had a blast this weekend so far. Yesterday was the big Rubber Stamp Convention in our town! Over the years I have become friends with the owner of A Stamp In The Hand - Kat - and her crew of FUN ladies. Kat puts on the RSC every year and starting about 7-8 years ago I began to work at the show. Sometimes I demo for one of the vendors, sometimes I will work the register, and this year I was at the front table taking admissions and greeting the crazy stamper stampede! Friday night we all went out for a nice dinner together and then yesterday worked the show all day and then had another nice dinner. Shout out to Kat for her generosity to me...she is such a cool lady. Now, in a flash, just like they arrived, they are back on a plane to LA. It was a good show - best attendance for the past few years. I reconnected with some stamping friends I hadn't seen in a long time and I look forward to getting together with them soon. There was a raffle for some amazing baskets full of stamping supplies and it raised $1600 for Japan Red Cross. Wonderful...

So this morning I had a little freak out moment realizing that Easter is in exactly two weeks! Now, normally Easter would have come and gone already...so I have had lots of time... But I haven't made my Easter cards yet! I made one this morning and wanted to share it right away. Kind of a shabby chic thing. I hope you have a fab day today!

 

 

 

This whole card was inspired by the pretty Easter banner with the chicks on it. I found this at Michael's a few weeks ago and stuck it in my stash. It is canvas and really thick. It had a wooden dowel through the top and a wire (so you could hang it on the wall) and I removed that part since I thought it was the perfect size for a card. I based my color scheme around the banner. I wanted to pop some of that pretty deep golden color and found a perfect match in some cardstock. Um, and yet again, me with the gingham paper. (I know what you guys are thinking - she really does need a 12 step for that!).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 Thank you for visiting me today here on the bloggy blog!

 
 

Cute Happy Birthday and a surprise for me!

Hi everyone! WOOT WOOT! Okay I am totally excited to write this post tonight! Because...I'm a Hero Arts Fab Five Winner! Yay! Before I even had time to post this card I found out I won a prize on the Hero Arts Blog! The contest for March was a Birthday theme and I made this fun card with the uber cute new stamps from Basic Grey/Hero Arts! These images are so happy and silly and fun! Before I blabber on further...I'll show you the card!

 

 

 

I can't believe I won a prize! I get to choose $50 worth of product from the Hero Arts online store! OMG are you kidding me? How great is that!? I have admired and used Hero Arts stamps since I started stamping in 1994! Now I feel like I am a part of the Hero Arts bloggy family. I'm really happy about this! Can you tell? Hahaha.
 

 

These stamps are just so happy! Don't you love the little cotton candy and ice cream? They just remind me of summer and fairs and fun times. I colored them in with my Copics and then smothered them in prisma glitter to make them all purty and spar-ka-lay! You know I love me some gingham and some banners...There you have it.  

 
 Thank you Hero Arts! Have a great weekend everybody!

 

 

 

Swaps to share!

Greetings and Salutations! How's your week going? Mine is so far, so good! Lots going on this week. Tonight is my monthly stamp club meeting and I always look forward to that very much. We are a crazy bunch of women who meet at our friend Janice's house once a month to share our love of all things Stampin' Up! We eat, gab, stamp, gab some more, card swap, give Janice a hard time, stamp some more...you get the drift! We act like a bunch of silly girls and I adore it. We've been stamping together a long time. One of the things I always look forward to is seeing all the great swap cards.

I was having trouble getting some swap card mojo going so I started surfing the web looking for ideas. I knew I wanted to use the new Stampin' Up set called "Bliss." In my surfing I came upon this post by Shelli Gardner - the founder of Stampin' Up.  I used her layout and made some (if I do say so myself) cute swaps! Take a look!

 

 

 

 

Everything on this card is from Stampin' Up...down to the last tiny pearl! My all time favorite color from SU is Kiwi Kiss...I used it here with dark brown and Soft Suede. The new seam binding tape is just wonderful.

 

Here is Shelli's card that I got the idea from. Isn't it wonderful? I loved it right away! I will use this layout again for sure.  Everything about it is just shabby chic perfect!
 

 

Here are my little swappies all ready to go! I used liquid Tombow clear glue down the center of my butterflies to make it so their wings can pop off the page. I made some in three different colors so everyone can pick the one they want.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

Then...and now!

Hi friends! Another weekend zoomed on by and here we are Sunday night already...ready for a new week! I had a nice weekend and hope you did too! Yesterday was Mr. Buddy's birthday...and he's four already! Check out this post from his birthday last year (some cute pics).  I got to spend a little bit of time in the crafty cave...

I have a fun post to share today! A few months ago, when we were cleaning out the garage, the DH found a box with a bunch of cards I had made him back in the day. That was a hoot! It was nice to see that I have improved over the years! hahaha. I thought it would be a fun thing to share with my bloggy friends. I particularly liked this one card we found...and come to find out I still have the same Hero Arts stamp set from 1996! So, I made a new card along the same design and color scheme. Isn't it fun to see our old stuff? Try not to laugh too hard at my old card!

I told you not to laugh! Looks like somebody just got a whole bunch of new scissors!

 

I must have been very proud - to sign the back of my work!  

 

Here is the stamp set - still in great condition! A pretty set from Hero Arts that I would still pick out today probably. Nice and cheery for Summer or for a picnic theme project.
 

 

Here's my card remake! How nice to be able to use Copics! No crazy scissors used here! :-)

 

 

 

 

 

 
Have a great day! Come back soon!