A Blog Called Wanda

Happy....

Hi everyone! How was your week? I hope it was a good one for you! My week went by in a flash, as weeks off work usually do, but it was a fun and productive week for me. I still have one more week until I start my new job so the hubs and I are going on a road trip to Palm Springs! It is about a nine hour drive from our house so we'll load up the car and head out early on Sunday morning. I can't wait to be warm and to relax and do nothing. This makes me happy...

Today's card is inspired by Palm Springs (at least in my own interpretation!) I always think Frank Sinatra, mid century vibe, lounging around the pool, cool furniture, bright colors, etc. So that's what got this card idea flowing. First I picked out a bright coral paper and then matched it with crisp white and turquoise! Lots of color coming your way right now! :-)

 

 

 

That quatrefoil patter again....I love it! So graphic and crisp. The die cuts for the quatrefoil, the letters and the frame are all from Papertrey Ink (PTI) and the butterfly die is from Memory Box. The paper is from American Crafts' Tropical collection.

 

 

I added some turquoise blings to make it spark-alay!

 

 

 

 

 

Here are some other things that made me happy this week! On Wednesday I got to have a nice four hour lunch with my friend Jane and meet her new puppy. This picture makes me happy.

 

 

The tulips and daffodils are blooming in our front yard...this makes me happy....

 

 

 

 

 

A sweet orange kitty on my stamping table makes me happy....

I hope you have a marvelous weekend! Taylored Expressions Sneak Peeks start on Monday next week. Lots of goodies for you, including a stamp set that I designed! (YAY!) Hopefully I will get some cool photos to share next week too, of our road trip. Thank you for stopping by my blog and take care!

 

A San Francisco Getaway...

Hi bloggy friends! I've been away for a long time it seems! It's only been four days but it feels like I haven't blogged in forever! Thanks for waiting for me... The hubs and I had a very nice romantic getaway to San Francisco the past couple of days and I am rested and restored. It was just so great to be away from our cares and to spend time talking and walking and shooting (pictures that is!). I had some free hotel points and the hotel wasn't crowded, so they gave us a HUGE suite and it felt all so decadent. We were really lucky! So, I haven't had time to make a card but I wanted to share some of my favorite photos with you. After I write this post, I'm off to get inky. XOXO

This is the view from Baker Beach and it's one of the iconic shots of the Golden Gate Bridge. I never tire of this... Lots of people will come down here to have their wedding pictures taken, and you can see why!

 

 

 

I thought this shot might look cool in old-fashioned sepia tone....

 

 

This is the view of the City from Dolores Park. It's one of the best vantage points in the entire City. I took a close up of the church with the amazing clouds in the background. I think it looks like a painting. It had stormed the day before we got there and the clouds were magnificent and the City was clean and glowing!

 

 

Also from Dolores Park. I think this picture looks fake!

 

 

 

 

 

The street going down the middle of the shot is the famous Market Street, and if you look closely you can see the Ferry Building at the very end.

 

 

Another great view is from Twin Peaks, the highest point in the City. You can see the windy road you take to get to the top. You can see for miles from up here.

 

 

 

A GIANT billboard in Union Square of my FAVORITE band!!! Are you kidding me with this??!!

 

 

The night street view from our hotel room....I love the contrast of the blue dusk sky with the warm lights of the street.

 

 

Yummy breakfast in our room....

 

 

The famous Bank Of America HQ building on California Street.

 

 

The flags in front of the BofA building looking up California Street towards Chinatown...

 

 

The beloved cable cars!

 

 

Chinatown - Grant Street...

 

 

 

I collect Good Luck cats and I love these little cuties. I bought the red one!

 

 

And a real shop cat!

 

 

 

 

 

I thought this was a cool contrast of architecture styles...the Chintown Lantern, Old St. Mary's Church and a modern office building.

 

 

Bubble Tea! Honeydew is my favorite.

 

 

You can always find lots of flowers in the City...flower stands, shops, and lots of flowers planted in front of the buildings.

 

 

 

 

 

These tulips were breathtaking! Three HUGE circular planters in front of an office building - so much color.

 

 

This is the view looking back at the City from Sausalito. Another beautiful sky - took this one on our way home.

 

 

PHOTOBOMB!!!! hee hee.

 

I want to say thank you to everyone who left a nice comment on my last post about transitions. All your comments helped encourage me! Friday was a difficult and odd sort of day. I am SO blessed that I have two weeks off before starting my new job adventure. I am trying to slow down and enjoy the time off.  I hope you've enjoyed my San Francisco photos! I need to go now, and get my craft on! I hope you have a wonderful week everybody.

 

Transitions...

Hi everybody! Happy Friday! Another weekend is upon us. I have loads of fun things to do this weekend and I'll be sharing pictures next week. The hubs and I are going on a short romantic getaway and I can't wait. Also...Spring Fling Stamp Camp is tomorrow - hosted by my awesome Stampin' Up friends! YAY!

But first, I have to get through this day. Today is a transition day for me...for it is the last day at my job, where I've worked for the past four years. I have to say good-bye to people I really like, and a job that was interesting and challenging and fun. I hate good-byes and packing and leaving. All of that. Don't like it. However, I am going to a new job that I know will be great for me. It's a good news/bad news sort of thing. I am returning to a company where I worked before and I have lots of friends waiting for me, and I am really excited about that part! As you can tell, I'm just a big jumble right now. Don't mind me. You can skip right to the card if you want! LOL.

I do have a card to share... One of my absolute favorite things from CHA was a paper collection called Prairie Hill by Pink Paislee. I LOVE the colors in the papers and love the cool designs. I wanted it right away! I finally got my mitts on some of it this past weekend at Scrapbook Territory. I used just a little bit of it in my card, but a little goes a long way. I used a layout from one of the cards in my Card Inspirations Pinterest Board and went to town... Made a homemade flower and had me some fun.

 

 

 

I made this flower using my PTI flower dies and some yellow polka dot paper. I sprayed the petals with water and crumpled them up so the flower would be shabby chic. I had this cute corduroy button in my stash.

 

 

 

 

 

Isn't this patterned paper the prettiest thing?  All those diamonds in different patterns... I'm really into graphic designs and shapes lately.

 

 

This wood banner is from Prima - they're called Wood Tickets.  Neato - bizeato!  

 

 

 

Thanks for spending part of your day here with me. I hope you have a wonderful weekend! Take a little time to enjoy the view...

 

 

Fresh!

Hi! I was trying to think of what to title today's blog post...and I looked at my photos and the words that came to mind were crisp and fresh. Interesting, but I decided to go with it. My card is crisp blue and white and I'm sharing some fresh lemon cupcakes I made too. Crisp. Fresh. There ya have it! Thanks for coming by to see me today.

I was super tired last night and felt that the most I could muster was a CAS card... Not too much coloring or layering. I just didn't have the energy. What I did have was this adorable stamp set from Paper Smooches, so I inked it up!

 

 

I love this camera and that cute sentiment! I used a bright blue paper and the hearts are kind of a watermelon color just to add a punch of a different color.

 

How freaking adorable is that stamp set?? Very!

 

 

 

We had a birthday in my office this week, so you know I had to make cupcakes! I never miss a chance to make treats! These are lemon cake with lemon frosting. So fresh! For the frosting I used a plain white frosting recipe then added a teaspoon of lemon extract and some fresh lemon zest. Then I added some more lemon zest on top for garnish.

 

 

 

 

 

 

That's it for today! Have a wonderful day everyone!  

My newest obsession - hexagons!

Helloooooo! Did you have a great weekend!? I sure hope so. I had a really nice weekend with just the right amount of business and quiet. The hubs and I went to Berkeley on Saturday and spent a very nice day together. I was volunteering - reading scholarship applications - on campus and the DH was nice enough to drop me off where I needed to be (in the rain) and then pick me up later. We also went to Scrapbook Territory and Paper Source, where I got some new crafty goodies. On the way home, we stopped in Davis and had a most lovely Italian dinner - really just such a nice day together. Sunday was spent in the craft cave making some projects for Poppystamps and to post here. A fine rainy day at home...perfect.

My newest crafty obsession is hexagons! Have you noticed? They're everywhere! Such a cool shape and they have an old fashioned vibe. I even started a hexagon Pinterest Board!  People are making the cutest things! I was very inspired and today I'm sharing my first project - I'm sure there will be more to come! I have a million ideas in my head right now...

 

 

 

I went for the shabby-chic-grandmas-quilt look for this card. I picked colors I like for Spring - happy, cheery colors. It's really easy to form the hexagons together - just like quilting - into flowers.

 

 

I sewed around the edges of the cream base to add more home-spun feel. I distressed the edges and also sanded the yellow paper...

 

 

Here is the die set I used to make this card. I found this on eBay - fifteen different sizes in one kit! Perfect! The biggest one is huge - probably won't use that one! I like that there are teeny tiny ones too.

 

 

Here are a couple of the other hexagon things I have on my desk right now....

 

 

So, yeah, I had to cut out each hexagon one at a time...took a while!

 

 

Ready for assembly!

 

 

I used some of my favorite embellies - ribbon, buttons, and pearls, to make a finishing touch on my sentiment.

 

 

 

 

 

I have some Instagram photos to share today too. CLICK here if you want to follow me on Instagram! It's one of my favorite iPhone apps and I use it all the time. If you have an Instagram account let me know, so I can check out your photos too! All these photos were taken and 'processed' directly from my phone. LOVE.  The past two weeks I was on the road for work in the Central Valley and managed to get a few good snaps...

This first one is Lake Kaweah, near where I was working - the rain clouds were rolling in....

 

My co-workers and I had a really nice dinner one evening....

 

This was one of the trees out in front of our work site...with a beautiful blue sky.  

 

 

This next one was taken on campus on Saturday...

 

This was my favorite photo of the day on Saturday - looking back at the main library and the Campanile Tower which is the center of campus... I really like the Instagram effect on this one.

 

 

More beautiful blosssoms we found in Davis...

 

Whew...okay...that was a lot of info for a Monday! I hope you found something you liked here today. I appreciate you stopping by and I hope you have a fantastic week! XOXO 

 

Top O' the day to you, my bloggy pals!

Happy St. Patrick's Day! I'm not Irish, but that isn't gonna stop me from celebrating a holiday! Especially since I love green so much! It's a good excuse to wear green, make cool green projects and generally be happy...so why not!? Are you doing anything special for St. Patty's Day? 

I promise after today I will retire my new favorite stamping/card making technique! I've been using this one to death lately. Time to move on! Hahahah. I LOVE using dies to make cut outs on cards. Can't.get.enough. But, I realized when I did it again for my St. Patrick's Day cards...that maybe it's time to put it away for just a minute. LOL. Do you get like that? Obsessed with one technique? Okay, and don't say it, but I used gingham too! ACK!

 

 

 

This pretty four leaf clover die is from Memory Box!

 

 

Here are all my cards finished and read to mail. I put yellow blings on some of them...can't decide if I like green or yellow better!

 

 

 

Have a happy celebration!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

 

Happy Retirement Card!

Greetings! Today is one of my days to post for Taylored Expressions! Welcome! Today's card was made with one of my favorite TE Stamp Sets - Love Grows Here. I adore this set! I used it to make a masculine card today for my boss' retirement. I have a couple of tips for making this set look masculine. This idea for a layout has been in my head since this set was released. Hope you like it!

This was one of those cards I didn't want to make. My boss is awesome...caring and fair and kind. He is the rock of our department and he will be missed. He was in my original panel interview and then hired me. I wish him nothing but the best as he enters this new chapter of his life... I wanted to make him a special card.

I thought a "four seasons" them would be nice for a retirement. I stamped four of the tree images onto the same size cream cardstock base and then colored them with my Copics.  

 

 

Masculine colors of olive green and brown... You might notice that the tree trunks are all colored the exact same way with the same colors. This unifies the images. I also used the same greens on both of the green trees, for the same reason. I didn't get too crazy with the colors.

 

 

The "Happy Retirement" sentiment is from THIS SET...another one of my TE Favorites! I stamped it onto an oval and created my own embellishment. I curved the tips of the brown part up for some dimension. Copper brads also add a masculine touch.

 

 

 

 

 

This is how I color!

 

 

 

 

 

This card has LOADS of layers on it. Went through a lot of foam tape! LOL.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had a nice retirement luncheon for him and by next week, he'll be relaxing with his grandkids and doing good works in the world! I mailed the card to him because I knew if I gave it to him in person I would start crying. Best of luck to you CD! 

Thank you for coming by today! Be sure to scope out this stamp set in the TE Store!  

Sending love your way!

Hellllloooooooo! How are ya? I'm happy to share this card with you today! While I was away last week, my new Lawn Fawn goodies arrived in the mail! WOOT WOOT! I had all day Saturday to stamp and blog (and laundry) and I really wanted to ink up these little stamp sets.  My favorite one is called Critters in the Forest, and I like it the best because it has a hedgehog stamp....and those little mushroom stamps! EEEK! So cute. So I made this card:

 

 

 

How cute is that hedgie? TOO cute! I inked up the mushrooms, colored them, and cut them out. Two of them are popped up on foam tape for dimension. I added the grass with my Copics. Lawn Fawn also makes that awesome twine. It's not furry...love that.

 

 

I met Kelly and the gang from Lawn Fawn at CHA. They are all just as sweet and adorable as these stamp sets! I couldn't wait for the new ones to come out.  

 

 

Here is my Copic palette for this project: Turns out that E81 is the color of mushrooms! LOL.

 

 

I used warm greys for the hedgie and three shades of brown for the tree trunk. I thought about adding some clear glaze to the mushrooms, but left them as is.

 

 

 

 

This also came in the mail last week...this fun date stamp from Dear Lizzy!

 

 

While I was stamping and blogging, Mr. Buddy was chillaxing on the sofa... Don't you feel sorry for him, like his life is SO hard?

Carry on! Have a wonderful week. See ya soon!  

Shabby Blue Birthday!

Happy Weekend! YAY! Whew, this week was a hard one for me! I was out of town for work all week, with a nasty allergies-sinuses-cough thing going. Man, was I happy to get home last night and see my guys and sleep in my own bed. There's really nothing like that is there? This morning I got up early to take care of the laundry and unpacking and now it's crafty-bloggy time! How are you? Hope you all had a nice week.  

I can finally share this birthday card, now that it has reached it's recipient! I made this shabby chic birthday card for my wonderful pen pal Holly, who lives in the Netherlands. Her favorite color is light blue and so that was my starting point for her card. I have been saving that pretty Webster's Pages Cameo just for her! The sentiment and frame is from the new PTI Anniversary set for this year.

 

 

 

Shabby chic is alllllll about layers and lace and pearls! I adore all this blue together....it's so soft and sweet.

 

 

The blue flower is from my Prima stash. I am not sure, but I believe the patterned paper is also from Prima.

 

 

Machine stitching on a card, to me, always feels more home-made and nostalgic. Here you can see I distressed the corners and also crumpled some of the top layer of paper.

 

 

 

 

Holly's birthday was earlier this week, and she let me know that her card arrived safely, so many miles away... It was full of hugs and good wishes too. Happy Birthday Holly!

Thanks for stopping by here today - enjoy your weekend! XOXOXO 

Taylored Expressions Calendar Challenge - March!

Today it's time again for our cool new calendar projects from Taylored Expressions and I am having such a good time making my pages each month!  The Baker's Dozen Design Team will be sharing calendar goodies and ideas with you throughout the entire year, so be sure to check out everyone else's projects too.

Refer over to Taylor's blog to get all the info to play along with us each month. There will be a linky at the bottom of Taylor's post and it will remain open all year, so you have the option to go back and catch up if you start playing late. For everyone who plays in 10 or more of these monthly calendar challenges in 2012, there will be a random draw for a TE prize pack valued at over $150!!! Click here to go to the TE Calendar Department and see all the goodies.

I chose to make the "Frame Your Imagination" calendar and use Cuppie as my theme! The stand for the calendar comes in raw wood and then you can paint it whatever color you choose. I painted mine kind of an antique white and then speckled some brown onto it to give it some character.

CLICK here for the calendar stand...CLICK here for the page protectors and CLICK here for the page inserts. I like this a lot because the finished pages are 6x6 and that gives a lot of room to stamp!

Here's my page for March:

 

 

 

Isn't cuppie just too too adorable in his little green leprechaun tuxedo? You have to giggle at this! I added lots of ultra fine glitter to the rainbow!  

 

 

Here is my Copic Palette for this project:

 

 

 

 

Here is the image of this stamp set...I had to share, because I really love it so much! I used it for my January calendar page too.

We have been having loads of fun getting projects ready for our monthly calendar event. Please take some time and hop around to see what the rest of the Design Team has for you today!  

Charmaine Ikach

Jami Sibley )

Jen Shults

Jodi Collins

Melissa Sauls

Melody Rupple

Sankari Wegman

Taylor VanBruggen

Wanda Guess

Moxie Fab - Cure for the Winter Blues - Challenge!

Hi peeps! Today I'm posting a card I made for the Moxie Fab World Blog! I love their challenges, and it's been too long since I entered one. This month's challenge is Cure for the Winter Blues... The challenge was to make a project using navy blue as the predominant element. Right up my alley!

When I think of navy blue, I automatically thing navy and white, nautical, crisp colors, pops of yellow or red... I adore navy and white together. So that's what I knew I wanted to use. Next to decide what images and embellies. I was having such a hard time deciding....so I went with whatever was sitting on my desk! I rather like the result.

 

 

I had this brand new San Francisco Stamp from Penny Black on my desk and it called to me! I stamped it in navy blue ink and didn't color it. That was hard - to resist the urge to color! The fence die is new from Memory Box and that was sitting on my desk too. In the back of my head was a photograph I took last year in San Francisco....you can see the photo at the end of my post.

 

I wanted a sentiment that referred to leaving my heart in San Francisco. I had this stamp in my stash. I use it all the time. I got out my stamp-a-ma-jig to line up my words. I blocked off part of the stamp and inked it and then blocked off the other parts that I didn't want. Voila...this saying in a line!

 

 

Here's a close up of that teeny tiny fence!

 

 

I popped a bright red heart on the top using my Epiphany Shape Studio Heart 25 tool and some red paper. Added some grey clouds (a Memory Box die) to look like foggy San Francisco clouds and that finished it off!

 

Here is the photo I was referring to! Cool, huh? I took this from the top of Lombard Street looking out at the Bay Bridge and Coit Tower to the East.

Thanks for coming by my blog today! You have until the 11th if you want to enter the Cure for the Winter Blues Challenge! Join me? CLICK here for the deets. Have a wonderful day. 

 

A Simple Thank You...

Hi Friends! Whew....what an interesting week I had and so full! Today I believe I am what you call... exhausted! Yeah, I'm pretty sure that is what this is called. It was certainly a busy week here on the bloggy blog with all the wonderful new things from Taylored Expressions! Did you end up getting anything? Also, for work I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off. Two days at one location, one day in the office, one day flying to Los Angeles and back (in the same day!). Yup, I'm a tired girl. My boss is retiring and we had a really nice luncheon for him on Wednesday and emotionally that was hard. He is the heart of our department and we'll miss him. I made him a nice Retirement card that I'll share with ya next week sometime.

Today I'm sharing some CAS (Clean And Simple) Thank You cards made with Memory Box and Poppystamps dies and papers. I used two of my favorite colors too. It's nice to have the need for Thank You cards! I'm thinking of making more of these as a set for a present! 

 

 

I used cold-press watercolor paper for both my background and my word cut out. It's not stark white - but creamy white and has a wonderful weight and texture. I thought it was nice with this natural image cut out.

 

I made the cards so that they could face either way....with the 'thanks' going either vertical or horizontal. I can't decide which way I like it best. I added just one little bling to each, in the matching shade to that great Memory Box gingham paper....

 

 

 

 

My little craft room assistant is patiently waiting for me to go back out in the family room and serve as his human couch. Until then...he's perusing the new Cards magazine and scoping out my new Distress Markers! Hee hee. What a good boy!  

Thank you so much for coming by today! I hope your weekend is fantastic! Are you feeling creative today? What are you working on? I would love to know. XOXO

Taylored Expressions March Release Day!

TE Release Day!

• All of the new products are now available for purchase! Check out the Fresh Out of the Oven Department to see everything in one place! WOOOOO WOOOOO!
• More projects from the Baker's Dozen to inspire you.  Just follow the link list below.
• Be sure to check the TE Current Specials page for Release Weekend Specials and Bundle Deals! 
• Did you win one of the Mystery Baker's Dozen Blog Giveaways? Find the list of winners on Taylor's Blog.

 

Today I am featuring the Grace A La Carte stamp and also I added a sentiment from the Faith in Bloom set! Embracing Grace is by Emily Burger, and Emily has lent her unique fun style to these Bible verses and words of encouragement and combined them with lots of cute and quirky blooms.

There are three new A la Cartes from the *te* Collection also, and I'm using Grace a la Carte. These all nicely coordinate with Faith in Bloom.

 

 

 

Today I went full-on shabby chic! I got out the flowers from the KI Kit from February (awesome) and some pretty lace and some favorite papers from My Mind's Eye! Used the color palette taken straight from the paper. I adore aqua and red together!

 

Here is my Copic palette....

 

I used my wonderful small doily die from TE!!! I distressed everything with a little amount of Fine Linen distress ink.

 

 

The papers are My Mind's Eye Lost and Found - Rosy 6x6 collection pack. I also used the KI February Kit for the flowers. MMMMMMM.  

 

 

Thank you for playing along with us this week!! Be sure to see if you won anything by going to Taylor's Blog. Have a wonderful day! Happy Shopping in the TE Store!  

Here are your links to the projects for Release Day!

Charmaine Ikach

Jami Sibley

Jen Shults

Jodi Collins

Karen Giron

Melissa Sauls

Melody Rupple

Nancy McKinney

Regina Mangum

Sankari Wegman

Stephanie Kraft (guest...woot!)

Taylor VanBruggen

Tori Wild

Wanda Guess