A Blog Called Wanda

Pumpkin Latte Anya!!

Hi everybody! It's late Thursday night...but I'm just gonna call it Friday! So...happy Friday! Another week has come and gone and it was our first week of Fall. It's been hot here still but the nights are cooling off and I'm in the mood for Fall things....like a pumpkin latte! This past weekend at the stamp convention, one of my purchases was the adorable new Latte Anya stamp from The Greeting Farm! I have been wanting her for a few weeks and was so happy to snap it up at the show. It's been on my mind all week. So....tonight I came home from work and got her inked up.

I thought she needed to be a Fall girl...so I have named her Pumpkin Latte Anya and I chose some of my favorite Autumn colors for the papers.

 

 

 

This is one of my favorite sentiment stamps for Fall. I like the happy font! I cut out some leaves from a Tim Holtz die to put on the card...

 

 

I haven't colored an Anya for a while and it's sooooo much fun to color these girls! The next one I want is this cute little witch on her broom. I need to find that one now!

 

 

I wanted her hat to be herringbone so I used this orange chevron paper and paper pieced it! I paper pieced the accents on her hat too. :-)

 

 

Here are my supplies...

 

 

And my Copic color palette...

 

 

Of course she had to have pretty chestnut hair!

 

 

 

Thank you so much for coming by my blog today! I hope you had a nice week. My company gives us one day a year off work to do community service so tomorrow all day I'm working at the Red Cross office. Should be a very nice and positive day - and a great way to start the weekend. Take care everyone!

 

Taylored Expressions September Studio Challenge!



 

It's time for the Baker's Dozen Studio Challenge for September!!  This is our monthly opportunity for us to share what makes our stamping studios hum.  Each month we will have a fun, crafty question so we can share our favorites, some tips and tricks, stamping advice and more. 

The question that Taylor gave us for September is:

Within Arm's Reach - What do you keep within arm's reach at your stamp table?  Show us what you have access to without leaving your seat.  What organization methods do you use?  Tell us which ones you love and which ones you'd like to change. So, the Baker's Dozen girls are going to share our stamping spaces today! I can't wait to see everyone's spot.

Here is my desk! This is where I sit for hours and hours stamping and dreaming my creative dreams! It's not super fancy, but it works! I am a neat-nik by nature and I always have to keep my main table clean. It seems like I can't think if it's crazy and cluttered. The rest of my room can look like a tornado went through (and it often does) but my main table gets cleared off at the end of every stamping session...

Here is a LINK to a blog post I did a while ago with pictures of my entire stamp room....check it out if you're interested!

You can see that I have my TV/DVD player right there, and my little drawers full of necessities, and then my paper trimmer and baby wipes close by.

 

 

 

 

I just got this pretty pink craft mat from Joann's a couple of months ago! It makes me happy...cuz it's pink!

 

 

 

My TV stand is actually paper drawers! LOL! I keep lots of kraft, cream and white cardstock handy so I can just grab what I need. The two binders have card layouts and there's my trusty Ott lite too...

 

 

 

My ink stash is in it's own five drawer rolling cart. I keep the ones I use the most on top where I can just reach over and grab 'em...

 

 

 

Here are my go-to drawers.... One is entirely full of scissors, and one has glue, adhesives and pens. Another one is all embossing powders. You know, the things we use all the time!

 

 

 

Here's a glimpse of my bulletin board...

 

 

 

Here is my cutting station... I keep my Nestabilities and TE Dies in DVD cases in that rack on the wall. I have my Big Shot and My Cricut right next to my ginormous paper cutter. I keep my scoring board here too...

 

 

 

COPICS!!!!!!!

 

 

 

Doesn't this make you happy? It does me!

 

 

 

This is my computer work station. I have my laptop and my printer set up so I can do all my blog posts and print out what I need.

 

 

If you have an iPhone and you've upgraded to iOS6....you can now make panorama shots from your phone!!!!! AHHHHH! How cool is that? This is my first try at it. You can see my whole room practically! The baskets on the table on the right have all my design team goodies in them so I can keep my projects straight. There are some very nice Taylored Expressions goodies in there for October! (Top Secret!)

 

 

 

This is my FAVORITE thing that is almost always on my stamping desk....A big furry orange cat waiting to be loved!

 

Here are all the links for the rest of the crew! I'm so excited to see all the posts for today! I hope you will hop around and have some fun with us. Even our guest designer Carolyn is joining in the fun! Have a great day everybody!

• Charmaine Ikach
• Jen Shults
• Jodi Collins
• Karen Giron
• Melody Rupple
• Regina Mangum
• Sankari Wegman
• Shannon White
• Shelly Mercado
• Stephanie Kraft
• Taylor VanBruggen
• Wanda Guess
• Carolyn King (Guest Designer)

 

Apple Spice cake in the house today!

Hi everyone! So much to share today from my house. Where to start?.... Had a most fabulous time yesterday at the Stamp Convention here in Sac-town. Saw lots and lots of my stamping friends (which is always the best part of the show) and maybe even made some new friends? I met some crazy gals from the bay area and maybe have a girl crush on them. We had such a good time laughing. The show was crowded and it was a really positive day. I didn't buy too much - I finally got my mitts on Latte Anya from The Greeting Farm and I'll be inking her up soon. A couple of other small things. I showed restraint.

It was kind of a bust football weekend... My Bears lost yesterday to USC and then the 49ers lots today. So, we won't talk football right now. Sigh.

I have had a recipe saved on my phone for about a week and thought I would try it out and share it with you. It's a recipe for apple spice cake and it was really easy to make! AND...so delicious! It tastes like Fall on a plate! (HERE IS THE RECIPE LINK)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I added just a dollop of cool whip with some nutmeg sprinkled on top! Made it just a bit sweeter and richer. Give this one a try for sure! You make it in a 9x13 pan so it's easy to cut into squares to share with a group.  

 

I also made a quick and simple card for today...a cute litle Hero Arts Owl and an adorable new thought bubble die from Kristina Werner's collection. I resisted the urge to add more to this one. I just like the cheerful green...and I left it the way it was!

 

 

 

I colored my little owl with my Copics and colored his tummy a few shades lighter to add some contrast. Isn't he fun?  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Okay, now it's time for the Emmy Red Carpet to start and I'm going to hunker down and start working on my TE projects for October. You guys are going to love the new stuff next month. I think first I need to move a big orange cat off my work space! Toodles everyone! Have a great week!!

Batty!

Hi there! Today I've gone batty! More Halloween fun here on my blog this week. I have so many ideas and I'm going to run out of time! LOL. Today's card is a slightly different variation of one of the cards I did in my classes at Paper Garden last month. I had left over supplies so I made the extra cards - now I have instant Halloween cards for people. This one was a favorite. Looks complex, but couldn't be easier - you'll see.

 

 

 

This card is very traditional...just orange and black. Such nice contrast! Usually when I cut out the super fab Tessatina Die I cut it in white. Well, here in black it takes on a very gothic and vintage look, especially against the orange. I rather like it in black too! The bats are from a giant EK Success punch, so making those is easy-peasy. The sentiment is brand new this season from Memory Box. Love it!

 

 

 

In case you haven't figured out...I'm crazy for those bumpy blings!

 

 

Once you get everything cut out, this card comes together pretty easily. I popped the bats up on foam tape. This is a great card layout too. Instead of bats, you can use butterflies, flowers, birds, or anything else!

 

It's getting closer to the weekend! Yippppeeeeee! My awesome friends from LA are coming up and puttin' on a big stamp show here in my town this weekend and I'll be working the show. If you're local, come on out...Saturday all day at the Scottish Rite Center by Sac State! Yahooooooo! Have a marvelous day bloggy peeps!

 

Trick or Treat...TE Style!

Hi bloggy friends! It's never too early to start the holiday crafting season, right? I have slowly started making Halloween cards so that it doesn't sneak up on me next month! You know how that goes!! As soon as September comes, it seems like ten days until it's Christmas! Have you started Fall crafting? I saw the Martha Stewart Halloween goodies at Michael's last week - that makes me happy! Our weather hasn't changed yet, though. Today is one of my days to post for Taylored Expressions and I wanted to ink up this cute Trick or Treat A La Carte stamp and use some fun accessories too!

 

 

 

 

I cut out the image with my oval Nestabilities and popped it up on some foam tape. I edged the white part with a funky lime green ink. Isn't that bat silly? Love that!

 

 

 

Here are my supplies for this project. I LOVE the Spooky Impression plate with the Spiderweb Border Die for Halloween. One side of the impression plate is spiderwebs and the other side is this cool harlequin pattern. It's fun and kind of retro at the same time.

 

 

 

Here's a close up of the harlequin pattern from the impression plate. I very lightly went over it with a sponge and some black ink, just to make the diamonds stand out a bit.

 

 

 

 

 

Here's an image of the impression plate:

 

Have a GREAT day and THANK YOU for coming by my blog today! :-)

 

Fall Saturday in the Studio....

Hi everyone! Happy Saturday! I'm in the studio today watching college football and gettin' my Fall craft on! I love everything leaves, pumpkins, owls....and the pretty colors of Autumn. I wanted to make a card for the current Hero Arts Contest, so that's just what I did! In the background, my team is playing the #12 Buckeyes on ABC national TV and they are NOT getting killed! LOL. We are making a good showing. I don't really have hope that we'll win...but it's nice that we're not getting creamed! Buddy is in here with me enjoying the day with mom.

My card features the pretty Maple Leaf Die from Memory Box, some yummy Distress Inks, Watercolor paper and Hero Arts stamps. Take a gander...

 

 

 

 

Here's a close up of the leaves...I'll show the steps later on in my post...

 

 

 

I curled the edges up after adhering them to the paper with foam tape...

 

 

 

I love how this word stamp has all kinds of different "gratitude" words on it. I used different parts of the stamp for each leaf, then used the entire stamp for my background.  

 

 

 

Both the leaves and the background layer are watercolor paper. It's thicker and holds up well to lots of inking. Here are my plain die cut leaves...

 

 

 

I added at least three colors to each leaf. Aren't these soooooo delicious!?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then I stamped the words onto the leaves in dark brown ink...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here'a picture of 'what's on my desk' today! LOL.

 

Best wishes to everyone for a WONDERFUL weekend! The DH and I are headed out for dinner together later and a trip to the mall. XOXO

Taylored Expressions Calendar Challenge...and an AWESOME new contest!

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 rest of the 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 is my September Calendar page....Cuppie is going back to school!

 

 

 

 

This little guy is smiling away...

 

 

 

My supplies for this project: Fruity Friends, Year of Sweets 3, Moka Gwen, and the great new Chevron Border Dies!

 

 

 

Here is my Copic palette....

 

 

 

Awwwww....Cuppie even has an apple for his teacher!

 

 

AMAZING, AWESOME, FUN, FABULOUS

NEW CONTEST FROM TAYLORED EXPRESSIONS!!!

 

Taylored Expressions is proud to announce the premiere of a new and exciting stamping talent competition, Last Card Standing. Based in part on very popular reality competitions such as Last Comic Standing, Project Runway, and Chopped, TE is looking for the very best and creative card-makers to stamp their way to the top. Each week, finalists will be challenged to create a themed card for a panel of celebrity judges in hope of avoiding elimination. Finally, the Top 5 Finalists will be voted on by the public, with the stamper receiving the most votes to win the title of Last Card Standing!

What’s at stake? An amazing prize package that includes a 3 month subscription to the Key Ingredients kit club plus 2 full size stamp sets of the winner's choice and a coveted Guest Designer spot for the November/December Release!

The competition begins today with the Open Casting Round. To enter, simply upload your best cards to your Splitcoaststampers Gallery using keyword: TELASTCARD. For this round, ANYTHING GOES -- Birthday, Thank You, Holidays, Get Well, Congratulations...the sky’s the limit! The only requirement is that you use at least 1 stamped image from Taylored Expressions. Do you have a card that you think could get you a callback to the next round? Go for it -- submissions do NOT have to be a new creation for the Open Casting Round and you may enter as many cards as you want! Both new and old projects will be considered.

Deadline for submission to Open Casting Round: Thursday, September 20, 2012 by 11:59 pm PST.

For contest details, visit the Taylored Expressions Member Company Forum at Splitcoaststampers. GOOD LUCK! I would be so thrilled is one of my cool blog followers won!  Cuz you know you guys are the coolest, right? Yup.

Here is our list of calendar players for today! Take a look!

• Charmaine Ikach
• Jodi Collins
• Karen Giron
• Melody Rupple
• Sankari Wegman
• Shannon White
• Stephanie Kraft
• Taylor VanBruggen
• Wanda Guess

Funky Leaf Card!

Hi everybody!! How are you!? It was SUCH a busy week on the bloggy blog last week! Whew, what a lot of fun that TE release was. So much going on, but I didn't have the chance to check in and say hello...so I'm doing that today! Last Saturday's football game was really fun. A gorgeous day in Berkeley and the DH and I just had the best day together. Our team lost, but we're kinda used to that, so it doesn't stop us from having a good time! LOL. My work week went by in a flash....and now it's almost Sunday again. Do you ever feel like your life is flashing before you at warp speed? I'm trying to slow down and enjoy a little more, spend time with the people I love, relax....

Today's card features some lovely dies from Memory Box and an idea that's been rolling around in my head for a while. I used the Cottage Leaf Die and the Typewriter Lower Alpha Die in some funky, groovy colors. When I first saw the leaf die, I immediately thought of a cool, retro 70's vibe. So, in my head I imagined it in orange and brown and green. So, that's what I did! The card base and the main layer are cream, not stark white. The letters are in a dark chocolate brown.... 

 

 

 

 

Clean, crisp lines from these cool leaves...

 

 

 

The orange layer is popped up on foam tape for some nice dimension... I think I am loving this color combo for an early Fall look!

 

 

 

This alphabet die is the perfect size for cards - I am addicted to alpha dies!

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks so much for stopping by to see me! What are you doing this weekend? Are you gettin' crafty? Or watching football? I hope you are enjoying yourself! Talk to you soon. 

 

 

Taylored Expressions Birthday Bash - final day!

 

• At Taylored Expressions we are celebrating our 4th Birthday and you’re invited to our Birthday Bash! I'm kind of sad that this week is over! I hope you've had just as much fun as I have with all the great new items from TE.
• All of the new products are NOW available for purchase. You'll find it all in the Fresh out of the Oven Department.
• Lots of inspiration from the Baker's Dozen - just follow the link list at the end of this post.
• Check out the Current Specials to find out how you can earn a FREE Belated Birthday A la Carte Stamp or a FREE You Take the Cake Full-size Stamp Set.   Birthday Bash Specials will award you FREE stamps with purchases over $50 and over $150.

I have been dying all week to share this last card with you! I think it's my favorite for the week! I've used a new stamp from the *te* by Taylor VanBruggen line. It's called Graphic Greetings A la Carte - Halloween! We are kicking off a new line of on-trend A la Carte stamps.  The graphic subway-style art will make for some quick and easy cards, treats and wraps, as well as scrap pages. The Birthday one is awesome too! Oh, and a perfect new Halloween die set!

 

 

 

 

 

The main white part has the stamp/graphic. It's all ONE stamp! Isn't it great? I stamped on white paper, embossed in black, and then distressed my edges with some grey ink...sppooookkky!

 

 

 

I made some cool graphic black-on-black spiderwebs for my background paper. I love how this came out. I also added some spiders and some black gems.

 

 

 

Here's the die, and my black cut outs...

 

 

 

I put versamark ink on them and then dunked them into my cauldron of clear embossing powder...

 

 

The end result is glossy black spiderwebs! EEEK! (Oh and there are my turquoise fingernails again!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm sorry to see this week come to a close! You can now see and buy everything that's new for the month of September. I'm pretty sure it's safe to say there is something for everyone this time around! It's been really fun sharing with you this week! Have a wonderful weekend!  

Links list for today:

• Charmaine Ikach
• Jami Sibley (DT      Coordinator)
• Jen Shults
• Jodi Collins
• Karen Giron
• Melody Rupple
• Regina Mangum
• Sankari Wegman
• Shannon White
• Shelly Mercado
• Stephanie Kraft
• Taylor VanBruggen
• Wanda Guess
• Nancy McKinney (Illustrator)

The Party Continues for the TE Birthday Bash!

 

 

• At Taylored Expressions we are celebrating our 4th Birthday and you’re invited to our Birthday Bash! Have you been having fun all week seeing the new items?
• All of the new products are NOW available for purchase. You'll find it all in the Fresh out of the Oven Department.
• Lots of inspiration from the Baker's Dozen - just follow the link list at the end of this post.
• Check out the Current Specials to find out how you can earn a FREE Belated Birthday A la Carte Stamp or a FREE You Take the Cake Full-size Stamp Set.   Birthday Bash Specials will award you FREE stamps with purchases over $50 and over $150.

Today I'm featuring the new stamp set from the Embracing Grace line by Emily Burger - Let's Chat! It's a full size set of 14 - Jami presented this concept all about keeping in touch and Emily executed in her signature adorable style. These stamps have a set of coordinating telephone dies as well.  We introduced this set as part of a promo at the stamp convention in Cincinnati and it was a hit, so we're looking forward to it going out in wide release. 

 

 

 

 

These stamps and dies are really cute! I love the old fashioned phone, and the perfect sentiment, for a nice card for a friend.

 

 

 

Today I'm using new papers from MME called The Sweetest Thing - Lavender. So pretty and feminine!

 

 

 

This little pink phone gets the perfect cut out using the new dies....Look at the awesome edges...LOVE this.

 

Each phone in the stamp set has it's own die! Nice!

 

It's totally time to shop!  But first, we have more new stamps and dies to show you.  We are featuring Let's Chat, Up a Tree, Mixed Blooms, Dial in Style Dies, Let's Chat Telephone Dies today. Here are the links for today's fun projects:

• Charmaine Ikach
• Jami Sibley (DT      Coordinator)
• Jen Shults
• Jodi Collins
• Karen Giron
• Melody Rupple
• Regina Mangum
• Sankari Wegman
• Shannon White
• Shelly Mercado
• Stephanie Kraft
• Taylor VanBruggen
• Wanda Guess
• Carolyn King (Guest Designer)

 

Taylored Expressions September Release Day three!

• At Taylored Expressions we are celebrating our 4th Birthday and you’re invited to our Birthday Bash! This party just keeps going on and on!!
• All of the new products will be available for purchase on Thursday, September 6th at 8am PST. You'll find it all in the Fresh out of the Oven Department.
• Sneak peeks Monday through Wednesday and the party continues with spotlights Thursday and Friday - lots of inspiration!
• Check the Current Specials on Thursday morning to find out how you can earn a FREE Belated Birthday A la Carte stamp or a FREE You Take the Cake full-size stamp set. Birthday Bash Specials will award you FREE stamps with purchases over $50 and over $150.
• 2 WAYS TO WIN!

1. You Take the Cake Contest  Go to Taylor's blog to get all the details on how you can win two stamp sets of your choice by guessing which illustrator contributed each image in our You Take the Cake Sampler Set.

2.  Join us on Facebook for an early reveal of all the new stamp sets Wednesday night beginning at approximately 6 pm PST. Leave comments during the party for a chance to win one of the gift certificates we’ll be giving away!

I'm soooooo excited to share today's fun project! It's the start of Halloween stamping! This new *te* stamp set by Taylor VanBruggen is called Fa-BOO-lous! It's a full size set of 13 - if you know me, you know how much I LOVE Halloween.  I had so much fun designing this witchy set!  I hope you have as much fun playing with it!

I made these fun giant sized tags - which I made the perfect size for the top of a candy bar.... You could also use them to glue on a package or onto a card front! TOOOOO FUN, especially when combined with the awesome new Spider Web Die that gets released this month! Squeeeee!

 

 

 

 

Here the are on top of some Hershey bars.... who wouldn't want to get this little treat?

 

 

 

I chose some really fun colors for this project - lime green and purple and orange....with hot sunny yellow. Really festive. And...is that the most awesome font ever on the sentiment??

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are my Spider web die cuts. OOOOOOOOOH!

 

 

 

Here is my Copic color palette for today:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today we introduce Totally Tags Halloween, Fa-BOO-lous, Graphic Greetings Halloween ALC, Trick or Treat Word ALC, Spider & Spiderweb Dies, Spiderweb Border Die, plus Project Pantry...so make sure to click around and look at all the other Baker's Dozen Design Team posts!  

 

• Charmaine Ikach
• Jen Shults
• Jodi Collins
• Karen Giron
• Melody Rupple
• Regina Mangum
• Sankari Wegman
• Shannon White
• Shelly Mercado
• Stephanie Kraft
• Taylor VanBruggen
• Wanda Guess
• Nancy McKinney (Illustrator)

 

 

 

Taylored Expressions September Release Party!

• At Taylored Expressions we are celebrating our 4th Birthday and you’re invited to our Birthday Bash! It's an entire week of crafty fun for you!
• All of the new products will be available for purchase on Thursday, September 6th at 8am PST. You'll find it all in the Fresh out of the Oven Department.
• Sneak peeks Monday through Wednesday and the party continues with spotlights Thursday and Friday - lots of inspiration!
• Check the Current Specials on Thursday morning to find out how you can earn a FREE Belated Birthday A la Carte stamp or a FREE You Take the Cake full-size stamp set. Birthday Bash Specials will award you FREE stamps with purchases over $50 and over $150.
• 2 WAYS TO WIN!

1. You Take the Cake Contest  Go to Taylor's blog to get all the details on how you can win two stamp sets of your choice by guessing which illustrator contributed each image in our You Take the Cake Sampler Set!!!

2.  Join us on Facebook for an early reveal of all the new stamp sets Wednesday night beginning at approximately 6 pm PST. Leave comments during the party for a chance to win one of the gift certificates we’ll be giving away!

Today my card is featuring the new *te* by Taylor VanBruggen stamp: Word A la Carte - It's a Party - our Word A la carte series continues to be a best-seller.  We think you'll love the 2 newest words!! I used some bright happy colors and the new Curly Border Die too!

 

 

 

 

How totally adorable is this stamp? I added some blings in my pink, yellow and blue color scheme and colored the image in with my Copic markers... That pretty curly border is a new die for this month!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My papers for today are from the new MME Happy Day 6x6 Paper Pack. So fresh and perfect for lots of birthday and other cards!

 

 

That's what I have for you today! The Birthday Celebrating continues as we introduce Party Monsters, Moka Madelyn, It's a Party Word ALC, Graphic Greetings Birthday ALC, Bake Me a Cake Die Set and Dial in Style Die Set. Whew. See, I told you there was a lot going on!

Be sure to check out all the other designers' work today too:  

• Jami Sibley (DT      Coordinator)
• Jen Shults
• Charmaine Ikach
• Jodi Collins
• Karen Giron
• Melody Rupple
• Regina Mangum
• Sankari Wegman
• Shannon White
• Shelly Mercado
• Stephanie Kraft
• Taylor VanBruggen
• Wanda Guess

 

Taylored Expressions Birthday Bash! September Release Week Starts Now!

 

• At Taylored Expressions we are celebrating our 4th Birthday and you’re invited to our Birthday Bash! Lots of fun in store for you this release week! This is our BIGGEST release ever and you are sure to find something you like!
• All of the new products will be available for purchase on Thursday, September 6th at 8am PST. You'll find it all in the Fresh out of the Oven Department.
• Sneak peeks Monday through Wednesday and the party continues with spotlights Thursday and Friday - lots of inspiration!
• Check the Current Specials on Thursday morning to find out how you can earn a FREE Belated Birthday A la Carte stamp or a FREE You Take the Cake full-size stamp set. Birthday Bash Specials will award you FREE stamps with purchases over $50 and over $150.
• 2 WAYS TO WIN!

1. You Take the Cake Contest  Go to Taylor's blog {insert link to Taylor's Monday post} to get all the details on how you can win two stamp sets of your choice by guessing which illustrator contributed each image in our You Take the Cake Sampler Set.

2.  Join us on Facebook for an early reveal of all the new stamp sets Wednesday night beginning at approximately 6 pm PST. Leave comments during the party for a chance to win one of the gift certificates we’ll be giving away!

Today I'm featuring two cards that would be great for birthday celebrations! The first card was made using the adorable Belated Birthday a la carte stamps. Mine for today is "Oh Carp!" These little fishies are too adorable! What a fun card this was to make.

The Belated Birthday a la Cartes are from the Apple Doodle Ink line drawn by Doug Applegate. The newest Belated Birthday A la Cartes are as follows: A Little Slow, Elephants Never Forget, Oh Carp!, and Oh Rats! -   Jami first presented this concept back in 2010 and we released  7 of these A la Cartes during our September Birthday Bash that year.  (Gallery here) Each one includes a large image plus a pair of punny sentiments all for belated birthday wishes.  Now we are adding 4 more to the collection.  These will also be featured for one of our special Birthday Bash promotions!!

 

 

 

 

I told you they were cute! I added some tiny Stickles bubbles on the front of my card...

 

 

 

Here is a close up of a BRAND NEW Circles Big Background stamp from TE. LOVE this one! I thought it looked nice in aqua for a watery feeling! You can also see a peek at the inside of my card!

 

 

 

These gorgeous background stamps easily cover an A2 card front....so pretty and easy...

 

 

 

My bright and cheery Copic palette for this project:

 

 

 

And, here's the inside of my card! Used the always favorite TE Wave Border Die and a touch of Stickles. Each of the Belated Birthday a la Carte stamps comes with a perfect saying for the inside of your card.

 

 

 

Oh Carp! Hee hee. Now I need to forget someone's birthday so I can send out this card! LOL!

 

 

 Here's the entire line-up of the Belated Birthday a la Cartes:  

BIG NOTE:  Customers will be able to get one of these stamps FREE with a $50 purchase through Monday 9/10- details will be posted on the current specials page on the TE Storefront! WOOOOO!

 

Okay, now for my second project for today I'm using the Brand New "You take the Cake" stamp set. This is our first ever sampler set showcasing the designs of all of our illustrators. Also - this set will not be available for sale until after the October release- for now it will be free with any purchase of $150 or more. This is THE must-have birthday set! Taylor's blog post will have some contest details - guess which designer contributed which image to be entered into a drawing for two stamp sets of their choice  

You Take the Cake  is a set of 15 stamps!  - this is a first for TE - each of our illustrators has contributed images to this special celebration sampler set.  It's perfect for our Birthday Bash!  It will be featured in our free stamps promo AND we'll have a contest for customers to guess which illustrator drew each of the images.  Fun, huh?   

 

 

 

 

I used the Balloons image from the stamp set and combined it with some beautiful Cakewalk Designer Paper from October Afternoon. I also used the TE Reach for the Stars Border Die to jazz it up some!

 

 

 

 

Here's a fun trick to make a nice scallop border on a card layer....Just tape your Nestie to the front of the paper and then only run it HALF way through your cutting machine!  

 

 

Voila!

 

 

 

I always like layers on my cards...oh, and foam tape! LOL!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My goodness! Thanks for coming by today. Trust me, there is so much going on this week and so many fun projects to see. I hope you will pop over to everyone else's blogs too!  Here's the link list for today:

• Charmaine Ikach
• Jami Sibley (DT      Coordinator)
• Jen Shults
• Jodi Collins
• Karen Giron
• Melody Rupple
• Regina Mangum
• Sankari Wegman
• Shannon White
• Shelly Mercado
• Stephanie Kraft
• Taylor VanBruggen
• Wanda Guess
• Carolyn King (Guest Designer)

 

GO BEARS! It's time for Football!

It's the first Saturday of September, and the first day of Fall (in my book anyway) and it's the first Saturday of College Football Season!! Woooohooooooo! When you read this, we are probably already on the road headed to Berkeley for the first game in our newly renovated stadium! SO excited to see the old gal and see what they did to make her beautiful and modern! Our stadium was built in the 1920's as a memorial to WWI veterans and needed a face lift and seismic retrofitting. Interestingly enough, the stadium sits right on top of an earthquake fault. So, they've been working on updating it for over a year. Okay, I'm sure you've heard enough about that for now!

In honor of the football game and my team, I made a funny card using lots of my favorite Paper Smooches stamps. I used little bits and pieces from five different stamp sets to make a Go Bears scene! I hope you like it!

 

 

 

 

Our mascot, of course, is a Bear....and our colors are Blue and Gold....

 

 

 

Here are the five stamp sets I used...can you find all the different pieces I picked out? This was so much fun to pull together. I love Kim's stamps and style, and how everything can work together. I just bought the Swanky Snowman set too! EEP!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I used my Copics and some basic circle Nesties. I liked it really graphic and fresh

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here's a cool photo taken from the hill above the stadium looking out over the Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco. It's really such a breathtaking location. I've been going to games here for, ahem, 30 years now!  

 

 
Here are some of my favorite pictures with Oski the Mascot. After DH and Buddy, he's my #3 man!

 

 

 

 

 This is my crazy manicure I did for this weekend:

 

 Have a wonderful, long, fun Labor Day Weekend everyone! GO BEARS!!!!

 

Wanda