A Blog Called Wanda

Some Summer Stuff...

Okay...so it looks as if I'm all into butterflies again! (Remember Butterfly week a while back?) I just can't seem to get enough of those pretty creatures! They are literally popping up everywhere! Today's post is full of some Summer stuff - a couple of cards and some photos...stuff. I hope your weekend is a terrific one. We are doing house projects and a mountain of laundry. Hopefully later I can get some stamping in and maybe a movie. Thank you for visiting today! Taylored Expressions sneak peeks start again on Monday - August - wow. How did that happen? Anyhoo...

First up, some butterfly cards. I was inspired recently by a pretty color scheme and wanted to do my take on it. Soft yellow, a pretty coral pink and a light blue. YUM. That's the first card here:

 

 

A simple design - could be used with any sort of punch. Mittens for Winter, Flowers, Leaves... I added a pop of color along the bottom with the yellow scallops. I used light brown ink to put some text on the butterflies with the big Hero Arts Friendship text stamp. They seemed too plain without it. Glue down the middle only - to get them to pop off the page.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Okay, so I was closing up shop after making the top card and something came into my head...GINGHAM! You guys know that comes into my head very often! hahaha. So I made the exact same card with gingham butterflies and substituted green for blue! Yay! The sentiments on both cards are from PTI.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The gingham butterfly card I made as a thank you card for my friend Jane who invited me up to the hills for dinner last night. I brought her a big bunch of sunflowers and that card. As I was driving up to her house I saw these AMAZING clouds in the distance. I had to take a snap out the windshield! Isn't that neat?  

 

 

And this is why Jane is my friend...(not really)...because she had lemon drop fixin's chilling in the freezer awaiting my arrival! Score! She found this cool lemon sugar stuff at BevMo and put it on the rims.

 

 

Um, yes please!!!!!

 

 

Wonderful! Drinks followed by a wonderful dinner and wonderful conversation late into the night. A perfect Friday evening.

 

 

I bought some Ranier cherries earlier in the week and went to eat them this morning and they were so lovely I had to take pictures. Yeah, I take pictures of everything! I think they're so colorful and simply perfect as only nature can do.  

 

 

 

 

 

Life is just a bowl of cherries! Happy Saturday!

 
  

Have a Beautiful Day!

Hello! Today I'm sharing a sweet birthday card I made for a sweet birthday girl! It's kind of a shabby chic confection sort of thing...full of color and girly goodness. I used one of my favorite card folds too. I used to make these cards a lot...but haven't for a while. You'll see what I mean. Hope you like it! Also, the week is going by at warp speed - so I hope you've had a great one! Thanks for coming by today! 

 

 

The inside pulls out! I added a birthday greeting and my own personal message after taking the pictures. I love this card design because you can go ca-razy with all your patterned papers! The sentiments are both from Amuse stamps.

 

This card is my entry for the Shabby Tea Room Blog Challenge Week #72! Look at this GORGEOUS inspiration image:

 
 
The card starts as an 8 1/2 x 11 piece of cardstock scored down the middle, and cut in half the long way. Cut the triangle on your paper cutter but cutting the area in half. The two will then match up when you glue them together. Easy peasy!

 

Don't you love all this yummy color?? I like that bright pop of red with the yellow and the flowers.

 

It needed something on the front, ya know! How about a bright pink flower? Why, yes, thank you very much!

 

 

 
 Have a beautiful day, beautiful bloggy friends!
 

The Ocean....

Hello everybody! I hope that you all had a wonderful weekend full of summer fun! I am on my last day of a four day weekend and just hanging out in the craft studio making a card to share with you. My theme for today is the ocean.... Friday DH and I went for a marvelous, relaxing, wonderful drive to the Point Reyes National Seashore. We spent the entire day driving, talking, exploring and taking pictures. No TV, no internet, and, practically no people.

I love the ocean. Really love the ocean. It is my favorite place to be. Sometimes I even get a physical longing to be near the sea. The fresh air, the fog, the cold, the sand, the smell. All of it. One day when I win lotto I will buy us a home by the sea. Until then, I am very lucky that it is just a short drive away. I took a lot of pictures on Friday (no surprise right?) and the pictures inspired me to make an ocean card this morning!

 

 

 

I found paper in the lightest shade of beach-glass green. I cut out the words with my Cricut and glued them onto my background paper. (This idea was totally inspired by this post from Heather Nichols)  Yes, this did take forever...and required tweezers! I love the end effect though!

 

 

 

I made the coral about five different colors and ultimately ended up using a green ink that matched the paper exactly. I added a few light green blings and mounted the top piece with foam tape. This card matches my mood. :-) 

 

Here are (some of) my ocean pictures from Friday. I hope you enjoy them! This first one is from North Beach.  

 

 

 

This pretty algae is the other inspiration for my card. Not the color, but the shape and texture, made me get out that coral stamp. I loved how everything in this picture was in shades of tan, white, and stone. It was so pretty.  

 

 

 

 

 

This is Point Reyes Lighthouse. You have to walk about 1/2 a mile out and then walk down 300 stairs to get to it. I wasn't feeling up to the trek, but DH went and he took this awesome photo!  

 

This is looking down from the Muir Beach overlook. 
 

Drake's Beach inhabitants!

 

The drive itself is lovely and peaceful...Isn't this a pretty house?  

 

All over the area there are working dairy farms that have been here for hundreds of years.  

 

Happy cows come from California!  

 

The rest of the pictures are my favorite flower pictures from the day.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And finally...the lovely San Francisco Bay!

 
 

DH makes these great videos of trips for us and he made one for me to share today. It's about three minutes long and has more of the ocean pictures...set to music.   

  

I hope that you have a wonderful week! Thank you for popping by today - you make me happy!

 
Wanda 

Guest Designing for Scrapbuggy...Part two!

Hi friends! Today I'm posting my second post as a Guest Designer for Scrapbuggy!  A while back I was contacted by the sweet owner of Scrapbuggy.com, Gia, and she asked if I would like to do some projects for her! Well...of course I said yes! She specializes in QuicKutz and she sent me some of her exclusive dies to play with. I posted some last Saturday and then this card today. Thanks again for the opportunity Gia! It has been so nice working with you!

This vine and flower die that she sent me is fabulous! It could work for a card, as I've done, or for scrapbook pages. It's large enough to cover a good size area. My finished card is 8x4 inchest to give you an idea of scale. I decided to make a happy summer card.

 

I layered two different colors of green vine to add some interest and depth to the project. I used two shades of pink and then also popped up some of the flowers with foam tape. Added some yellow blings to the centers...voila!  

 

Here is my pile o' die cuts! Isn't this a happy sight?  Even though this die is on the large size, I cut everything out with my Cuttlebug.

 

  

 

 

Thank you for coming by the blog today! Have a very happy Saturday! I'm off to see some of my stamping gal pals in the bay area to have some pizza and gab the day away. I need to hear all about the Stampin' Up convention deets.  Cannot wait!!

 
 
 

Sweet Sunday Sketch #126 - Baby Welcome Card!

Today I have a little baby girl card I made for a special someone who was born last week! One of my friends had her baby on Saturday morning...so you know I had to get crackin' on a card for her! I found some inspiration from Karen's Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge #126 and my Taylored Expressions stamps!  I used some papers from MME Lime Twist Collection and some tiny pom poms! This was a fun card to make - the best ones come from the heart...don'tcha think?

 

 

Here is the sketch image....I'll be coming back to this one for sure. You can make is super simple, or add a bunch of layers.

 

I paper pieced the baby buggy to add some color. At first I tried using Copics, but I thought it looked too plain. I liked this version better. I dug up those tiny pom poms from my stash... 

 

 

 

 

Taylor and some of the gang are at Chicago CHA this week. I'm just a wee bit (okay a lot) pouty about not being there with them! Please check back on Thursday because we will have some special deals over at the TE store. Have a great day!   

Fun weekend stuff!

Greetings! Are you having a great weekend!? I hope so! Mine has been full of crafty goodness. Dave Brethauer was in town this weekend, teaching at my friend Stephanie's store and I took another one of his pencil classes. It was AWESOME as always! We used all new Memory Box images and cranked out five cool cards in two hours. Dave is such a fun person and his pencil skills leave me breathless every time. He is on a cross country teaching tour with his wife and kids right now. It was nice to meet the rest of his fabbie family. I took some pix to share with you!  

First off, I always make Dave a card to give him when he comes through town - to thank him for class and to show off some of my favorite stamps from his line. This year I made him a birdie card using the new big ticket background and a bird/flowers stamp. Here's the card I made him...and it was funny because one of the cards we made in class used the same concept! I try to keep it masculine...but also bright and happy at the same time. I used the new papers from Memory Box too...

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

Here is a cute pic of Dave and his son Cooper. They had the best t-shirts! Each of them has a polar bear tee with their name on the front and "Memory Box" on the back. Love that!

 

 

Teadub came into town to take class too and we had a fun time hanging out together. Here's Teadbud taking a pic of Dave and Cooper! Lots of people in class. Saw so many friends - Miko, Erna, Joy, Ruth, Julia....what a great day.

 

 

Teadub concentrating on one of our cards...

  

 

The next few pics are the projects we made...

 

 

 

Isn't this funny - that this card looks just like the one I made Dave!? I am loving this new background stamp.

 

 

 

This one is my favorite! Love how he taught us to shade the pears with green, yellow and then some red in the center. 

 

Teadub's birthday is in a couple of weeks so I brought cupcakes and we had a little pre-birthday party after class! MMMMM....lemon.... 

 
 

This is me...just having a little fun with a picture I took of my pencils...I'm thinking some version of this is going to turn into my next blog header. I need to get crack-a-lackin' on that.  Before I forget.

Have a wonderful day!

 

 
 

Guest Designing for Scrapbuggy! Chairs to You!

Hi friends! Today I'm posting as a Guest Designer for Scrapbuggy!  A while back I was contacted by the sweet owner of Scrapbuggy.com, Gia, and she asked if I would like to do some projects for her! Well...of course I said yes! She specializes in QuicKutz and she sent me some of her exclusive dies to play with. I will post some today and some more next Saturday. Thanks for the opportunity Gia!

My first set of cards is made with a really fun chair die. It has a big, comfy chair and a pretty, formal chair. Here are my projects:

 

 

I cut my chairs die out with my Cuttlebug and I used the DCWV Adhesive backed paper for easy application to my card base. These chairs are great because they can be shabby-chic in white or masculine and formal in brown. You know which I chose! The seat cushion is a separate piece of the die so you can make it with a different paper. Love that!  

 

The "Chair" sentiments on both cards are from PTI... 

 

Can't you just imagine yourself in this big comfy chair with a bowl of popcorn and a movie? If I had my own little beach cottage it would be decorated exactly like this - flowers and white and blue everywhere! I made a little rug out of a piece of cardstock cut into an oval.  

 

 

 

Please pop over to Scrapbuggy.com and check out Gia's great dies!!  

Happy Saturday everyone! Have a wonderful weekend!

Take care!   

 

This is silly!

Alrighty...This is a loooong post that shows my weird train of thought and the roundabout ways that I get inspired! So, the story starts last week, when, out of the blue I got a sweet email from the Editor of Papercraft Inspirations (The biggest card craft magazine in the UK). She asked if it would be okay if she featured this card in their magazine!!! I'm like, um, yeah!

One of my goals has been to be published in a magazine...but I have been too chicken to submit anything. I don't care how long I've been stamping, I just don't want to be rejected. I need to get over it (but that's a story for another time). I guess their magazine has a feature in which they show cards from people's blogs! Yay! I will keep you posted, and let you know when the issue comes out!

I decided to hop over to the Papercraft Inspirations Blog to check it out...and I saw THIS adorable card from Humble Chan!! ACK. Seriously I had a cute meltdown! I knew that I had to find time to put my spin on this!!! (What is it with me and the cute fruits lately?) The ones on Humble Chan's card were store bought embellies, but I thought "I can make those!"  Okay, so that is the roundabout way that I came to make these:

 

 

I made all of these in just a couple of hours!! Really, it's just circles!! I used all my nice PTI felt and my circle nestabilities and went to town. The black for their eyes is jet black enamel accents. I used some Tacky Glue to put them together. Could not be simpler! OMG... I love this project. Totally makes me smile. I wish I had more felt...I woulda made a bunch more. Get it? A bunch more! LOL!

 

Kinda makes you want a margarita, no?  

 

He reminds me of the Fruit of the Loom guy!  

 

This one is my favorite!  

 

Not too many supplies really.... 

 

Look at them posing... 

 

 
I got to thinking, and I remembered that I have this nice words set from PTI that has a saying about a peach! AYYYYY. I found the stamp set and then I HAD to make this CAS card!  

 

 

 
We will have to examine my fruit fetish later, but for now I hope this made you smile too!  Have a wonderful, sweet day!

 
 

Shabby chic button heart!

Hello! Today I want to share a project that's been rambling around in my noggin for quite some time. I was inspired by the super talented Shari Carroll and a project on her blog. I had saved the link to this gorgeous project she made and just needed some time to sit down and create my version of it. Well...I finally did it! (The link and more about her project are later in the post!) This project took a long time and some patience, but I think the results are worth it. It was really fun to go through all my brads, buttons and blings to find all this pink! Maybe you will try it too?!

 

 

 

 

Here is Shari's GORGEOUS canvas project! OMG, can you see why I was inspired? Here is the link directly to the project on her great blog.  She is a designer for Hero Arts and I've been a fan of hers for a long time. Please pop over and check out her blog!

 

First I lightly drew a heart in pencil on my cream cardstock. That was the easy part! ha. I started with the bigger buttons and brads first and then filled in with the pearls and the rhinestones. It doesn't have to be perfect. This took some time...

 

Here's the back of the project! The buttons and things were put on with glue dots. The brads I just poked through the paper.  

 

Because the back was so bulky, I mounted the cream piece with the heart on foam tape. I kept the rest of the card relatively simple and light. Let the heart be the focus. 

 

 

 
Thank you for stopping by today! Hope you're having a good week. Now this project is very classy and serious... My project for later in the week is super silly and cheery! Nope, I'm not giving any clues... 
 
 

TE Sketch Challenge #142 - Banners for the Summer!

Well...I have been quite the bizzy bee in my little crafty hive this weekend! I've made so much stuff! That's what happens when you stay home all weekend! hahaha. Seriously, I've been having a good time! I hope your weekend was full of fun, sun and joy! Today my card is my entry for the Taylored Expressions Sketch Challenge #142! SUCH a cute sketch! I knew right away I had to jump in and join the fun. I used one of my favorite TE sets of all time and some fresh papers. Take a look:

 

 
Here is the fun sketch image:

 
 

Normally, I will shake up the sketch image a little bit...but this time I did the exact layout. I just thought it was so clever and fun. I added a scallop under my banners using the large size TE border scallop die. Just gave it another pop of color. The papers are from MME Lime Twist Collection. MMMMM. 

 
 
Here is my Copic palette, and you can see the stamp set in the background...remember this one? It's called "A Day in Paradise." LOVE. I only used a few shades - that matched the patterned paper. Aqua, red and green. Nice combo.

 

 

 

 

 
 
Maybe you are out soaking up some sun? I hope you are doing whatever makes ya happy! Summertime is upon us and it's time to relax... Have a great week next week.

 

Summertime Fun - Hero Arts Blog Contest!

Hi peeps! Yup, officially Summer here in our town...been over 100 for five days in a row now... I must say that after being back east a few weeks ago...there really is something to that "it's a dry heat" theory. I don't feel it here as much! I hope everyone is having a good time relaxing.  We are Fall people and we have been trying to plan a vacation for October to celebrate our 10 year wedding anniversary. We are debating several places and keeping a keen eye on the Travelzoo website. Our last two vacations were from that site and they were both great!

Today's post has my card(s) for the July Hero Arts Blog Contest. The themes this month are Summertime and Parties! I chose a cute set of Summer Fruits from Hero Arts to make a notecard set. This was such a fun project! Got out the gingham paper and the Copics and just a smidgen of glitter glue. Couldn't be easier. This stamp set is way adorable!

 

 

 

 

Some simple supplies and a quick and easy layout. I used a Martha Stewart edger punch for the solid paper. The notecards were cut using a large square Sizzix die. They are about 4.5 inches square. Makes it seem summery to me.

 

The set also has a Pear and a Pineapple stamp...I guess I could have kept on stamping! Oh, and I think there's an apple too! I think these four are the most season appropriate.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I know I took a million pictures... These colors were so fun to photograph. So graphic and clean with that white setting.  

 

 

 
There is still a lot of time to enter the contest. You can enter as many times as you like. Go on! Have a fabulous weekend everyone! Thanks for coming by my blog today. Mwah.

 
 

You're the Cat's Meow! Sweet Sunday Sketch with a little help from Buddy!

Hi there! Did you have a nice 4th of July? I hope you did! It was hot hot hot here in Sac-town and we spent the day relaxing at home. It was the perfect day... Yesterday Buddy and I spent some time in the stamp room together making a card to enter into Karen's Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge #124 for this week! I love Karen's sketches! Buddy helped me pick out a cute stamp from Whipper Snapper, because it reminded him...of him! hahaha. This is a really fun image and it was fun to color.

 

 

Here's the sketch image:

 

 

 

Here's Buddy helping me color...  

 

My Copic Color Palette for this card...

 

Buddy checking it out to make sure he approves... 

 

The blue background was made with the super cool, brand new Clouds Impression Plate from Taylored Expressions. You need this... Trust me. LOVE.  I ran it through the Cuttlebug and then gently sanded those adorable clouds to make the white paper core come through!

 

 

 

Made my own paper flower with a punch and a button. I like these bright fresh colors together. Very Summery.

 

 

 

I guess he approved...and then lost interest! 

 

 

He was cracking me up....sorry for all the pictures. I think he won't leave me alone ever since I got home from Virginia! So he will sit ON me or on my table! It's very sweet. My little stamping pal. He really is the cat's meow.

 
 
Have a great day my kind bloggy friends!   
 

Happy Birthday America! Happy 4th of July!

Hello there friends! Happy 4th of July to you! I hope you've been having a great weekend with your friends and families and enjoying this special summer time! I am feeling especially patriotic this year on the 4th, since I was just in Washington DC last weekend. That was my first time to our nation's capitol and I found it very moving and special. I thought I would take the time today to share some of my favorite pictures from my trip. I was very lucky to be able to see so many historical places. I went to Colonial Williamsburg and Monticello as well as Washington DC and Georgetown area. It was even better than I had imagined. So much to see! I wish I had more time....but I bet everyone says that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

  

 
 
I just posted some of my pictures here...trust me there are a lot more! Hahaha...you guys know me better than that! I took 624 photos in all! I chose about 60 as my top favorites to tell the story of my trip and I created a separate page for them. I didn't want to take up like 10 blog pages! If you would like to see all of my favorites...CLICK HERE TO GO TO MY PHOTO ESSAY PAGE...

Thanks for coming by today and God Bless America! Happy 4th of July!

   
Wanda!

Taylored Expressions July Release Day! Check it out!

 Release Day! 

• All of the new products are now available for purchase! Check out the Fresh Out of the Oven category and Taylor's Blog for all the deets!
• More projects from the Baker's Dozen to inspire you.  Just follow the link list below.
• Did you win one of the Mystery Baker's Dozen Blog Giveaways? Find the list of winners on Taylor's Blog
• Another chance to win... head on over to our forum and tell us your favorite stamp set from this release. We'll be choosing one person to win their favorite set FREE!  You have until Saturday July 2nd at 6 pm PST to enter to win.

My final project for the release is made using another one of the adorable Moka stamps!! This one is named after Taylor! This was Taylor's personal favorite from the stamp line so Nancy named it after her! The Moka Taylor set comes on a 3" x 5.5" full color sturdy storage panel. As with the rest of the cute collection, she was designed and illustrated by Nancy McKinney! There is also a Moka Justin coming out today...with inspiration from a famous Justin *wink*  and it has some funny sentiments perfect for a 'tween boy. 

 

My card features Moka Taylor and the Happy Birthday sentiment that also comes with the set. I used the My Mind's Eye Alphabet Soup/Girl paper collection and a fresh color theme of orange, aqua and salmon. This is called a Z fold card...and I like it because you can use a lot of different patterned papers! You should try it!

 

 

 

 

 

That's it for me today...and it's RELEASE DAY! Go shopping and have fun! Here are the links to the rest of the gang for today. Take care!

• Charmaine Ikach
• Danielle Lounds
• Jami Sibley
• Jodi Collins
• Karen Giron
• Karen Motz
• Melissa Sauls
• Melody Rupple
• Nancy McKinney
• Regina Mangum
• Sankari Wegman
• Taylor VanBruggen
• Tori Wild