A Blog Called Wanda: October 2013

Autumn Greetings!

Hi there! How can it be Monday already? Man, that weekend went by fast! Saturday we were out running around doing errands all day. Yesterday I was invited to one of my crafty gal pals' house to stamp and visit - and it was lovely! I don't know about you, but I always have the HARDEST time deciding what to bring over to someone's house, or to a crop night. The hubs came up with a great idea....just pack up my markers and color. That's just what I did. Packed up the Copics and some cute stamp sets and a couple of ink pads. It was super easy and no fuss. When I got home, I put this card together with one of the images I colored. SUPER adorable stamp set from Darcie's!!

I got this fun card layout from Pinterest! I do that a lot, go through cards I like and use the sketch/layout. This one is a keeper! I used some pretty bright yellow paper to set off the color in the leaves. At first I was going to use orange....but I've been overdoing the orange lately. LOL.

I added some little touches of Hero Arts Prisma Glitter to the leaves. It's really sweet - that glitter is so perfect for just a smidge of sparkle. Oh, and now it's covering my entire craft room!

Here is a side shot of my layers...

Autumn Greetings to you my friends in cyber-space! I hope that you have a wonderful week!!! I'm starting to celebrate my birthday today (it's on Sunday, but I'm starting now!!) and we are doing Boo Buddies at work. Should be a fun week. XOXO

Posted at 08:50 AM in Papercrafting | Permalink | Comments (12)

Papertrey Ink October Blog Hop - Tags!

Hi there! I know it's the week before Halloween, but I'm sharing Christmas Tags today for the Papertrey Ink October Blog Hop! The theme for this month is to make a set of five tags. Good thing about that is that now I have a head start on some packaging for presents! Here are my five tags....

Here is the inspiration image from the PTI website:

I stayed with a simple color palette of cream, silver, red and brown - for a vintage look. Yes, I'm still using that sparkly silver paper on EVERYTHING! LOL. The snowflakes are the new ones from last month and they are called Fancy Flakes! The ribbon and twine are also from PTI.

The tag die is called Tag Sale #3! It has a separate piece to use for the bale of the tag. The birch paper is brand new from Stampin' Up. It's very thin, so I adhered it to some cream cardstock first. Makes a nice homey and retro feeling I think.

Here is my 'in process' shot - trying to see how I wanted to arrange all my elements. The two stamp sets I used are Winter Penguin and Holiday Home. Beautiful fonts!

Thanks for stopping in! Are you going to make some tags and join the blog hop? CLICK HERE FOR THE DEETS! Hope so! I can't wait to see all the other tags. People are so creative! Have a great day everyone!

Posted at 10:00 AM in Papercrafting | Permalink | Comments (25)

Fall is in the air....

Hey peeps! How is your week going? My week is going great! I took a couple of days off from work and I've been stamping and relaxing and generally getting my loose parts all back together. You know how sometimes you just need a break from it all? Well, I was feelin' it. Luckily I have lots of vacation time saved up! I love Autumn and I love to be home just puttering and enjoying the season. Today's card was inspired by Autumn, and by a beautiful photo from Pinterest! My Aunt Sue loves Fall too, and we both have November birthdays! She emailed me THIS PHOTO FROM PINTEREST and it totally made me have an idea for a card!

Fall + Coffee = Awesomeness!

I combined a bunch of sets for my stamping...two sets from Stampin Up (Perfect Blend and Fall Foliage) and then I got the heart steam image from another stamp.... I had fun putting it all together. My stamping was done in Cocoa Memento Ink.

I took a light brown Copic Marker (E31) and gently edged my leaf punches and also added a touch of color to my coffee cup. My card base is cream cardstock.

The leaf punches are from Creative Memories! I've had that punch forever!!!

Thank you for coming by to check out my card today...Anyone want to join me for Pumpkin Spice Latte? Doesn't that sound divine right now? XOXO Have a great week!

Posted at 12:01 AM in Papercrafting | Permalink | Comments (7)

Taylored Expressions October 2013 Studio Challenge - Felt!

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Yay! It's time for our Taylored Expressions Monthly Studio Challenge! I love doing this every month with my fellow Baker's Dozen Team Mates! It's so much fun to see everyone's interpretation of the challenge. Each month Taylor and Jami come up with a fun question for us to answer or a neat theme, as a way for us to share tips and tricks and ideas.

The theme for October is:

Never Felt Better!! "Felt is all the rage in crafting. It's so thick and soft and gives that special warm and cozy feeling to fall and winter projects. TE has 21 yummy colors to choose from, but do you ever just stare at all that felt and think, 'Hmmmm...what should I do with it?' Show us a fun fall or winter project featuring felt."

I chose to use the pretty Taylored Expressions Felt to make a Fall card - or maybe it could be a Thanksgiving card! I used pretty green and gold for my Autumn color palette.

I let this pretty patterned paper be my guide for color...Don't you love that pop of teal?! I do! Full supply links are at the bottom of my post. The Mustard Distress Ink is the perfect match for our felt!

Here is your link list for today! Be sure to go and see what the rest of our Design Team has for you today....all using felt! Have a great day!

Pattie Goldman - Guest Designer

InLinkz.com

Posted at 07:00 AM in Papercrafting | Permalink | Comments (8)

You're Sew Nice!

Hi there! It's the weekend! Yippeeee! Another beautiful Fall day here in Northern California. Have I mentioned how much I love this time of year? Pretty sure I have, about a million times! Today is one of my days to post for Taylored Expressions! This month, the design team is featuring the super versatile line of stamps called 'Totally Tags.' CLICK HERE TO SEE THE ENTIRE LINE. There are tags for every holiday and every occasion you can think of.

One of my favorite sets is the Totally Tags Handmade set and I used that to make a shabby chic card for one of my girlfriends who loves to sew. There are matching dies for the tag shapes, so everything comes out so nice and clean.

The pretty Bonjour Couture set matched my tag perfectly so I combined images and sentiments for this one. I used a pretty color combo of pink and brown, with a little kraft thrown in. I distressed my edges with Antique Linen distress ink....

I found this perfect ribbon in my stash! It's pink with brown stitching! Loved that it adds another pretty shade of pink to the card. I added some buttons, too, to keep with my sewing theme.

My Tags were mounted on my card with foam tape for some dimension... Here is a side shot of my layers...

A full supply list with links is below. I hope you have a marvelous weekend everyone! Nice to see you here!

InLinkz.com

Posted at 10:00 AM in Papercrafting | Permalink | Comments (8)

Fall Leaf Tag - and some cool news!

Greetings on this fine and gorgeous Autumn Sunday! I've been in the craft cave alllllll day making a project to share with you! I have so much to talk about today! Thank you for coming by to visit me - it makes my day, really and truly.

So, on Friday THIS HAPPENED!!!!!! I was mentioned on the Tim Holtz blog along with some other wonderful crafty gals on his "blogworthy" post! I think I almost fainted! My friend Richele sent me a facebook message to tell me and when I saw it, I had to just go on and pick myself up off the floor! I was so excited and honored to get a shout out from one of my stampy idols! Made my whole year! LOL. As a result, since Friday I have 30 new blog subscribers! (welcome and thank you!) and I have had almost 6000 blog hits. Thud. I'm so happy to be sharing my blog with new friends. That's the best part of blogging!

So, in honor of the above, I decided to make a Tim-Holtz-Autumn-Inspired-Fall-Leaf-Tag! The hubs and I went up to Apple Hill yesterday morning, and the leaves and the light and the colors really have inspired me. I posted a few of my photos at the end of my post. But, before I get too long winded, here's my tag!

I inked, distressed, painted, crinkled, soaked, distressed some more! I used a warm and rich Fall color palette of red, orange, yellow and brown. YUM!

Today in the craft room, is was all about the creative journey! This tag took me all day, but I put on some music, relaxed, and just let it flow. Isn't that the best, when you have time to ponder and get inky? Here's a side view so you can see the dimension and layers.

I hand dyed the ribbon to match my tag. I put some "in process" photos a little later in my post. At one point I added some Perfect Pearls Mist! I just kept adding stuff!

This compass piece is a Tim Holtz embellishment. I put a red brad in the center of it for some color. The sentiment is from a giant word set also designed by Tim Holtz. I cut out my sentiment piece from a manila tag and didn't distress it too much - for some contrast.

I cut my leaves out of manila tags so they would have a nice weight to them and be able to stand up to lots of ink and water.

Here I am getting my craft mat ready! My new favorite color is wild honey distress ink!!

The aftermath....

To dye your own ribbon, take the Tim Holtz crinkle ribbon...and well...crinkle it! Soak it with water first too. Then just smush it all around in the ink/die/paint of your choice until you get the color you want.

I stopped here....could have kept adding color!

And, here's what it looks like after I dried it with my heat gun. SOOOOOO fabulous. I really love doing this part! Custom ribbon. Yeah.

So here are my pieces ready for the next steps....

First up, DISTRESSSSSS! Lots of Vintage Photo and Brushed Corduroy ink! I crumpled my leaves, too, to make them more realistic and pretty.

I hope you enjoyed my project and my creative journey for today!

Here are just a few of my Apple Hill photos - that inspired me today!

Have a great week everyone!

See you soon!

Posted at 04:26 PM in Papercrafting | Permalink | Comments (24)

Vintage Halloween Treat Bags!

Hello my crafty bloggy friends! How was your week? It's almost FRIDAY! Yippeeeeee! I am loving the Fall weather and I'm excited that Halloween is only three weeks away now. I'm getting in the spirit and trying to get ahead on some treats for my friends. I love anything that is vintage Halloween. Love it. So cool and retro and fun. I go crazy for this stuff! It just really recalls a mood for me. I have had the idea in my head for a long time about making some glassine treat bags for Halloween, and this past weekend I finally got my act together and made them. I'm excited to share with you! I made 12 and they are all different, so this post is pretty photo heavy. Grab some candy and take a look!

These were my four favorites! I used only black, orange and silver for my color palette. It's hard to see, but many of my accent pieces are sparkly silver glitter paper!

I'll show you below how I made these super cool bat pins! I am so happy with how they came out! Easy to make, too. Here you can see some of the pieces I used, and the washi tape accents.

I used Stayzon ink for my stamping to make the images super dark and rich black. This stamp is from a Martha Stewart Halloween stamp set in my stash. The pumpkin is from Martha too...

I love how the little tags look clipped with a pin and wrapped with some twine...

Here is my desk in full on production line mode! You can see how I just layed everything out in front of me so I could pick and choose my elements. I only had a package of 12 glassine bags, otherwise I could have made lots more! The owl and moon dies are from Tim Holtz.

Here is how I made my bat pins: I punched out the bats from black cardstock and glued two of them together on either side of a floral pin. Done! They look creepy and vintage at the same time.

Here is a close up of some of my pieces....

I found it easiest to put the candy in, then fold the bag over first. Then I stapled on a doily to cover up the top and make a nice base for everything else. The staple holds the bag shut, and it gets covered up by the 'toppings.'

Then I just started gluing stuff on!

Here are a couple more photos of the finished projects!

I hope I've inspired you, and maybe you'll give this project a try?! It was such a fun afternoon, just sitting at my desk thinking up combinations and putting them all together. I think this would be a great project to do with a group of friends, too. Maybe each person could bring some pieces and put everything out on a big table.... Hmmmm, that gives me an idea for Valentine's Day. But that's still far away! LOL. I hope you all have a lovely weekend and thank you for coming by to see what I'm up to!

Posted at 08:42 PM in Papercrafting | Permalink | Comments (9)

Spooky Trick or Treat!

Hellooooooo my friends! It's time for me to share a trick or treat with you! Today is one of my days to post for the amazing Taylored Expressions and I used some spooky stamps to create a spidery treat for you! I had some fun creating this one! I used traditional orange and black so the card is very graphic. I used gingham washi tape to create my diagonal pop of color....

I had this idea in my head for a while - to make a Halloween theme cupcake card...and I finally did it! I chose nice rich black cardstock for my card base and had lots of fun coloring my cupcake.

You can see here where I layered my rows of washi tape - this is a quick and fun idea that I'm sure I will use again. I put my spiderweb layer and my cupcake mounted on foam tape for dimension. I am loving these black glossy dots!

Here's a side shot to see my layers....

The spider is part of the spiderweb/spider die set. LOVE. You can see a tiny piece of the web - on the inside of the card - peeking out. It's a great size for cards.

InLinkz.com

Posted at 12:01 AM in Papercrafting | Permalink | Comments (5)

Hey Pumpkin! Retro Sketches #83!

Hey my bloggy friends! Are you ready for a fabulous sketch? I found an awesome sketch blog and I had to enter their cool challenge. The blog is called Retro Sketches (CLICK HERE) and I LOVED the layout for this week. This one is going in the repertoire for sure. A perfect clean and simple design...

I have had this adorable Hey Pumpkin stamp set from Simon Says Stamp on my work table for a couple of weeks and wanted to ink and color it. It worked perfectly! A sweet halloween card! I colored a second one so I could give you a tutorial on coloring pumpkins with your Copic markers too. Thank goodness it's Friday and I hope you have a wonderful Autumn weekend!

Here's my card! EEP! That stamp set is so cute! This is Kristina Werner's cat Mannie, and I'm sure a lot of you know him already!

Here's the sketch:

Isn't that crisp black nice against the gingham? Can't go wrong with a traditional halloween color scheme. I fought the urge to add glitter.... That was hard!

I popped the top panel up on some foam tape. I also trimmed my image and popped that up too for some added dimension and shadow. These glossy dots are a nice alternative to gems....

Here are all my supplies:

And my Copic Palette for this project....

I did a step by step tutorial for you on how I color pumpkins with my Copic markers. First I start with a super light orange YR01 and feather in the color from the top and the bottom, making sure to leave some white space in the center.

Next, i went over the same area with a slightly darker orange, YR04, feathering the color in a bit less than the other color.

I did the next two colors the exact same way. Adding less and less of the darker colors to give some depth and contrast. I also went over the lines of the pumpkin with the darkest color.

As the last step, I added a mid tone yellow color, Y15 to make the pumpkin warm and glowy. This is always a matter of preference and personal taste so there is no right or wrong way to color! The only rule is to...HAVE FUN!

After I had all my coloring done, I added my jack-o-lantern face with dark rich StazOn ink. This way it really pops!

Thank you to the lovely ladies over at Retro Sketches blog for the great idea for today's card. Take care, until we meet again! Mwah!

Posted at 07:01 PM in Papercrafting | Permalink | Comments (8)

Taylored Expressions October 2013 Spotlights - Snowflake Cutting Plate!

Another Taylored Expressions Release Week comes to an end....it all went so fast! Are you loving all the new products? I know I am all set for Winter now! So many great things to choose from. Today's the last day for the Bakers Dozen Design Team to share with you. I saved one of my favorite products for today...the beautiful Snowflake Cutting Plate. Yowza!

I cut this GORGEOUS cutting plate image out of some sparkly silver paper and then used a bright blue as the background. I wanted my card to look all icy and wintery! I did a simple treatment for my sentiment and strung some satin ribbon through to attach it.

The precise edges amaze me! This is so fab!

So, because the silver glitter paper wasn't enough...I added some gems! LOL! I attached the whole thing to a nice crisp white cardfront. You can see that the cutting plate is the perfect size to fit onto an A2 card.

Thanks for spending the week with me and Taylored Expressions! It's been a great week I think! Happy Friday and have a super weekend!

One last link list for this week:

InLinkz.com

Posted at 07:00 AM in Papercrafting | Permalink | Comments (3)

Taylored Expressions October 2013 Release Day - Christmas Doodles!

YEAH! It's officially Taylored Expressions October 2013 Release Day! Everything new is now available in the TE Store! I hope you have some fun shopping and thinking of pretty projects to whip up. There are many more projects today from the entire design team, and also one more day tomorrow. I know we all love sharing with you so much.

Today, it's back to sharing Christmas projects here on my blog. Some really cool and innovative new dies for you to check out. That Taylor is so creative! I have three things to share today and I hope you like them!

Like most people, I love to give gift cards for holidays and occasions! This new die is called "Sack it to You" and makes this perfect gift sack/bag! It's fantastic! Taylor has created different 'toppings' for it too, so you can make it into a reindeer, santa, etc. ACK! I used the uber cool new Mix and Match Bows dies to make a pretty bow for the front of my sack!

This card was made using three of the new Christmas themed stamp sets and the wonderful new Color Block Cutting Plate! The black portion is the outline of the cutting plate, and it makes perfect squares for stamping - or photos! This is a great tool for scrapbookers too!

I colored in everything with my Copics and then added my favorite- touches of glitter!

To give you a good visual, here is the graphic of the Color Block Cutting Plate. AWESOME!!! You see that all the rectangles and scallop shapes cut out too! I used the small scallop and plain rectangle for my gift sack. This is so versatile.

My next project for today has kind of a clean and simple, yet vintage feeling to it. I stamped my swirls and holly stamps in brown ink on cream cardstock and then distressed the edges. I stamped my sentiment on an oval of cream layered in a nice bright red...

I like this card because it would be a good one to mass produce for Christmas cards - it doesn't have too much coloring, and it lays flat for mailing. Maybe I need to crank out about 75 of these!?

Here is your RELEASE DAY links list!

Carole Burrage
Charmaine Ikach
Jen Shults
Joan Ervin
Kerri Michaud
Pattie Goldman
Regina Mangum
Sankari Wegman
Shannon White
Shelly Mercado
Stephanie Kraft
Tammie Edgerton
Taylor VanBruggen
Wanda Guess

InLinkz.com

Posted at 07:00 AM in Papercrafting | Permalink | Comments (6)

Taylored Expressions October 2013 Sneak Peeks - We Give Thanks!

Welcome back to day two of the Taylored Expressions October Sneak Peeks! Did you love all the new product sneaks yesterday? I know I did! There's more fun every day the rest of the week...and all the new products will be available for purchase tomorrow morning at the TE STORE! Wahooooo!

Yesterday, my blog was all about Christmas and today it's all about Thanksgiving! I have a Fall themed card to share today made with the new set called We Give Thanks. So nice.

I think this is my favorite project for this week! Because as everyone knows, I love Autumn. This cute Doodlebug paper just worked so nicely together - made the colors really pop. (Supply links below) I used the pretty Mega Leaves dies in pretty yellow and then made a nice rosette....

This font is so pretty for a Thanksgiving table or a card....

Here's a side shot showing all my dimension and textures... The pumpkin was colored in with my Copic markers. I edged the leaves with a bit of Antique Linen Distress Ink.

Thank you for joining along with us for this fabulous release week. Please click below to see what the rest of the Bakers Dozen Design Team has for you today! See you tomorrow!

Carole Burrage
Charmaine Ikach
Jen Shults
Joan Ervin
Kerri Michaud
Pattie Goldman
Sankari Wegman
Shannon White
Shelly Mercado
Stephanie Kraft
Tammie Edgerton
Taylor VanBruggen
Wanda Guess

InLinkz.com

Posted at 07:00 AM in Papercrafting | Permalink | Comments (9)

Taylored Expressions October 2013 Release Sneak Peeks - Baby it's Cold Outside & O Christmas Tree!

Hello my sweet crafty friends! Welcome to another week of extreme fun and new products from Taylored Expressions! Yep, it's Release Week again already! October's release is full of of lots of pretty things for your Thanksgiving and Christmas Holidays! I'm sure you will find something to fit your style. So much going on every day the rest of the week - and I'm looking forward to sharing it all with you. All the new items will be available for Purchase on THURSDAY morning in the TE STORE!

Today I have two winter projects for you. One is a set of little notes that you could use for package tags or as sweet notes for your friends and family. The other is a crazy pink/mod sparkly creation full of bling. Let's get started!

Here are my sweet note cards made using the awesome Bracket note card die. It makes perfect 3x3 note cards and I LOVE it in kraft with red for the holidays.

I colored my focal images with my Copics and then added some small touches of glitter! Can you see the tiny snowflakes at the top of the cards too?

This snowman is the cutest thing!

I thought I would leave them like this for now until I decide what I'm going to do with them. My other idea is to punch a hole in the upper left corner and thread some ribbon through it. Then the notes could be the perfect tie-on for a gift bag or a bottle of wine!!

Okay, get your sunglasses for this next card! I don't even know where the idea for a hot pink tree came from (my mind is a bit wonky sometimes) but I like it! This new O Christmas Tree Die is four pieces so you can mix and match colors. It has the shadow piece, the swirly piece and then the star and the bottom. Don't you love it already? ACK.