A Blog Called Wanda

Witch way to the candy?!

Helloooooo there! How are you? How is your weekend going so far? Mine has been pretty busy and fun actually! I cannot believe it's almost five o'clock Sunday night and another weekend is almost over. Dang. How does time go so fast? And I have to go make dinner after this.  Anyhooo... Yesterday among other errands I picked out new eyeglasses. That is so hard, isn't it? Such a big decision. I had about 20 pairs all laid out in front of me...and finally myself, hubs and the sweet lady at the optician's chose these frames. They look like lace! Very cool and just enough funky! Hahaha. Friday night I went out for dinner and drinks to celbrate a friend's birthday...and today I am crafting (and chores too). It's gorgeous Fall weather outside - love it! 

So, my blog this week is going to be kinda all over the place! The rest of the week I'm posting Christmas cards for two guest designing spots I'm doing! So I figured, what the heck, let's post a Halloween card today! LOL. I colored in these images two weeks ago and they've been sitting on my desk waiting to be made into a card... Witch way to the candy!? 

 

 

 

 

I seriously LOVE coloring this MFT images. This one is Birdie Brown as a little witch! ACK. I colored in lots of images and then played around with them. I wanted to use them all! There are matching dies to cut out everything just so. I used my Copic markers and then at the end, added some touches of prisma glitter. 

 

 

 

This crazy bat cracks me up! I am loving the kraft paper with the black....really crisp. My card layout was done using some brand new dies, also from MFT. They are called Blueprints 14. They concept is that the pieces of the die set make card sketches. This is my first set of these but I think I am going to get some more. Made it really easy to put everything together. 

 

 

 

Lots and lots of foam squares on this card! LOL. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Can you see that I used a Stampin' Up Embossing Folder with stars for my kraft background? This photo shows the touches of glitter...

 

 

All day today in the craft room, Mr. Buddy was right by my side - either sleeping or just generally supervising the whole situation. I caught him in the window, and the light caught his pretty golden eyes, so I grabbed my iPhone and snapped this photo! If I do dare say so myself, he is quite the handsome chap! I love that cat!! 

 

 

I will see you back here on Wednesday for the first of my fun guest designer posts. Until then, have a blessed week! Mwah. 

 

 

 

 

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Papertrey Ink Blog Hop for September - Autumn Roses!

Howdy! It's time for one of my favorite things! The Papertrey Ink Customer Blog Hop! Yeah! I missed last month's hop because I was so busy and never got the time to make a project. So, this month I am all over it! I instantly loved the inspiration image and the pretty colors (see photo below). And, this truly was a color 'challenge' for me - combining lots of colors that I don't normally put together. This hop gave me the perfect chance to use the gorgeous Make It Market Kit with the watercolor roses stamps. OOH LA LA. 

I have a dear friend who celebrated a work anniversary this week and I made this card for her because I knew she would love the colors, and she is so feminine - like a pretty rose - herself. I gave it to her yesterday! 

Here's my card:  

 

 

 

I stamped the flowers with distress inks directly onto watercolor paper. These stamps come in layers so it's perfect to combine different shades. After I stamped the images I went back with a wet paint brush and gently blurred the ink to give a true watercolor effect. I made all different sizes of flowers and leaves. The big flower is the bottom layer directly onto the paper. 

 

 

 

Here's a side view of the card...

 

And, here is the GORGEOUS inspiration image! Love the blue and grey contrasted with the pretty pinks... This picture is so happy! 

 

And here is the color recipe I used.... 

 

 Another close up of the flowers so you can see the inks...

 

 

 

The friends sentiment die is also from Papertrey Ink and I cut it from a pretty matching pink shade. And, lastly I put on some rainstones!

 

 

 

 

Here is the inside of the card - I had to make that pretty too! One tiny little rose in the corner to finish it all off!

 

 

 

I have a giant (I mean GIANT) stash of envelopes in my craft room...and I found one in the perfect matching color! 

Hop on over to Papertrey Ink and see the rest of the cards people made today - and you have all day to enter your own card! Have a most blessed day everybody! XOXO

Simon Says Stamp - Stamptember Color Challenge!

Hey everyone! Today I have something really fun to share with you! (and welcome to new readers today!) I am one of the guest designers for the Simon Says Stamp Color Coordinates Recipe this month! I am so happy to be part of all of the awesome Stamptember festivities happening at Simon Says Stamp! You need to pop over to the Simon Says Stamp Blog and see the other cards - and enter your own fabulous project. The prizes are great! The color coordinates recipe is soooo perfect for Autumn! Here is my card, and the inspiration board is just below. Have a super fab crafty day my friends!

 

 

 

Here is the inspiration board for the challenge this month. Simon Says Stamp wants to see what you're working on so be sure to enter your card inspired by these SSS exclusive colors! I can't wait to see what everyone else makes! 

 

 

Here is a close up of this fabulous patterned paper from Echo Park! The colors match perfectly! I matched up some pretty burnt orange copic colors for my pumpkins. The stamps are from a brand new set from Simon Says Stamp called Thanksgiving Table. Love. I stamped my images using the rich Dark Chocolate ink pad from SSS and then put on my green accent with SSS Olive ink....

 

 

 

 

I'm crazy about this Folded Banner Die! I stamped my sentiment in Dark Chocolate ink and then distressed the edges with Antique Linen Distress Ink. For my full supplies with links - please go to the Simon Says Stamp post! 

 

 

 

 

Here you can see my layers. I made two cream circles as my focal point and popped one up with foam tape squares. Then I added my little bunch of pumpkins... This is going to be perfect as a Thanksgiving card! 

 

 

 

I used my Tim Holtz Spritzer tool and a Corduroy Distress Marker to add some speckles to the cream paper. Lastly I added some gorgeous gold Doodlebug gems....

 

 

 

 

In case you want to match your Copics to your project for the challenge...here are the colors I used! 

 

 

 

 

My supplies! 

 

I'm so happy you came by today! Be sure to enter your card in the Stamptember/Work it Wednesday Color Recipe Challenge. Until we meet again - have a blessed day! XOXO

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Fall Bouquet Card - Happy Autumn Weekend Everyone!

Happy Saturday! WOOOO HOOOOOOOO! Yes! I'm all about sleeping in, crafting, and college football today! OMG I needed a weekend. How about you? Hope you had a good week and that your weekend is off to a smashing start. You know I have been in the Fall mode lately - lots of leaves and seasonal themes. Today when I sat down to make something I thought 'how can I maybe make something a little bit different for Fall?' So it came to me! A Fall bouquet of flowers! I love it when people make those pretty arrangements with flowers and leaves mixed together...and that was the inspiration for my card. 

 

 

 

 

I started off by making a background using the awesome Tim Holtz Harlequin stencil and some distress inks. For this technique you stamp the ink pads directly onto the back of the stencil and then spritz the whole thing with water.... Then you smush it down onto some watercolor paper. The ink soaks in and leaves uneven edges - very cool! 

 

 

 

After I made my background, I had fun using different inking techniques - some wet and some dry - to color in the Tattered Florals flowers dies and Leaves dies (All from Tim Holtz too). I just played around with everything until I got a nice rich color combination... 

 

 

Here's a work-in-progress shot! 

 

 

 

This is the best part...assembling everything! I stamped the FALL letters using some Hero Arts letter stamps. The font is perfect! I used a nice rich brown ink. Here I am just gluing down my leaves as the bottom layer. 

 

 

 

I crinkled everything gently with my fingers to look worn and crisp - you know how fall leaves look when they fall to the ground.... Added some brown buttons to my yellow flowers. 

 

 

 

I used some pretty off-white confetti paper for my card base. I left a big border around - kind of like that clean look it gives. I mounted my panel on foam tape as well. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I reallllllly like how all this texture and color came together! I hope I have inspired you to get your craft on today! Now I need to scurry off because I have a lot of projects to make! (So many fun things coming up on the blog!)

 

The absolute highlight of my week was this little beauty that arrived yesterday! YEEEESSSSSS! My old iPhone was three years old and dying a slow death. Now I have a pretty, brand new gold and shiny iPhone 6! YEAH!!! I stayed up until 2:30am last week pre-ordering it so it would come yesterday. I AM SMITTEN! Oh yes, we are going to do great things together! LOL. 

Coffee Gift Card Box!

Hi everyone! Thank you for all the very kind words, comments and emails you all sent me after my last blog post. This crafty community fills my soul with love and joy. Thanks for being you! I'm so grateful to know that people care. Sometimes that is all a person needs, right? XO

Just popping in to share a quick and easy project I made last weekend! A Starbucks gift card holder box all jazzed up! 

I haven't had time to stamp this week - still super busy at work... But, I had a fun day with my friend Sharon (CLICK HERE FOR HER BLOG) stamping all day on Saturday. Her sister is one of my dearest friends too, so what a nice day we all had! I needed to make a gift card holder for someone and I knew Sharon would be able to hook me up with a cool box. She used THIS TUTORIAL to make a neat pop out box...and then I decorated it. Good teamwork! (Thumbs up)

 

 

 

So now I'm pretty sure I need this bow die from Stampin' Up! The paper is from American Crafts - perfect with the little coffee cups! I just took a three inch strip of patterned paper and wrapped it around the box. Then I made the bow and glued it on the top! Easy-Peasy! 

 

 

 

Then I used some SUPER cute new stamps from Lawn Fawn to make the tag to go on it... Colored with a few Copics... The stamp set has matching dies too! Perfection!

 

 

 

Here is the inside of the box with the Starbucks card inserted. Sorry I didn't take a better photo, but you get the general idea! COOOOL, huh? 

 

 

 

Assembly line... The bow comes in pieces and then you just glue it together.

 

 

 

My images are stamped in brown ink for a coffee tone!

 

 

 

 

Okay guys, I hope to get in some Fall crafting this weekend! And, next week I have a really fun thing that I'm a part of and I'm super excited to share on Wednesday. I hope your week is going well and I'll catch ya soon! XO

Happy Autumn...with a pop of aqua!

Where do I begin today.... I'm tired? No, that's no good. But it's true. I'm a little worn down around the edges lately and trying to get my groove back. It's just a phase I guess, and we all have 'em. I am a really happy-go-lucky sort of gal who always likes to keep it positive and optimistic. This past week has tested me, though. I'm walking on through it, with the help of God. He is forging me into something stronger and I feel it as sure as anything I've ever felt. So, today I'm keeping it low key...stayed in bed too long...and now I'm crafting with the world's most adorable cat by my side. Yesterday I was lucky enough to spend the day with one of my dearest friends hanging out crafting also. Creating makes me happy (of course!)

I was surfing around on Pinterest this morning, and found a cool Fall card that used light blue as an accent color. POW. Love that. So I got out some papers and die cut some leaves... The rest sort of happened. What do you think of this color combo for Autumn??

 

 

 

 

 

I picked out a nice golden yellow, a burnt orange color, and then aqua! Interesting... The leaves dies are from Impression Obsession. The stamp is super old and I don't know who made it. Do you remember this AWESOME birch paper from Stampin' Up?? OH MY - totally hoarding it! The polka dot paper is from Lawn Fawn and the gold enamel dots are from Doodlebug. 

 

 

 

 

I edged all the leaves using Antique Linen distress ink and a dauber. I also gently edged around my birch paper and my banner. 

 

 

 

 

Some of the leaves are mounted on foam tape and others are placed directly onto the paper. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have some crafty friends out there who need a pick me up and a shout out! Thinking of you Julie and Larissa, with lots of love for fast healing and comfort. Get better soon! In a crazy world, we need to all remember to be kind and compassionate to each other and use our womanly power for good in the world. Thanks for stopping by to see me and have a great week ahead. 

More Watercolor Butterflies!

Hi peeps! We interrupt this regularly scheduled Fall programming to bring you some more watercolor butterflies! LOL. I know it's not really an Autumn thing, but I really wanted to share this card with you! I made it a while ago, but I had to wait to post it until the person got it in the mail! Hee hee. Super stealth right? You know that I'm seriously crazy for WPlus9 stamps. Well, these new butterflies are a MUST HAVE! I had a great time coloring these pretties.... Remember to go check out the WPlus9 channel on YouTube to see how Dawn coaches us through the techniques. (Thanks again Dawn!)

So here's my card!

 

 

 

 

My card base is kraft paper, then a layer of creamy watercolor paper. My butterflies are made from the same watercolor paper. I colored them with my distress inks and a brush....The butterfly stamps and the sentiment are all from WPlus9... You can see where I splattered some color spots on the bottom layer too...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's hard to photograph, but I added some shimmer using a Wink of Stella clear brush pen! YUUUMMMM. This is a good shot to see the different colors I layered on each butterfly. There are bits of grey and brown in the wings to give some depth! Lots of blending and playing went into these. I colored one of each of the three sizes. To mount them onto the card, I gently bent them with my fingers and then glued them in the center using some clear Tombow glue. One trick - hold them down for just a minute using your Bone Folder! 

 

 

 

 

I also made a matching envelope!

 

 

 

 

Hope you don't mind a little break from the Fall action! Don't worry I'll be back soon with a new Fall project (oh yeah, as soon as I make something!) What are you working on? I've already seen some Christmas crafting going on! EEEP. Not ready!  Until I see you - have an awesome day! XOXO

I {heart} Fall!

Hello! I'm back today with more Fall crafting craziness! I stayed up late last night stamping and relaxing. Really what I needed. I worked so many hours this past week and I was brain dead Friday night when I came home from work. The one sure fire way to get me back in my groove is to spend the day (and night) crafting. (And watching college football) I have some cool things in the works to share later. I started Bible Journaling and did my first page yesterday. (You can see a sneak peek on Instagram) I will probably write an entire post about that and all the blessings that have come from this new art form... I am also going to be a guestie somewhere very fabulous at the end of the month. lots of good things to come!!

For today I have a cute and happy Lawn Fawn Fall card to show ya! I got my new Lawn Fawn goodies in the mail last week and wanted to use them quick. One of the things I'm working on is just using stuff - not hoarding it, or looking at it! LOL. Do you do that too? Well...I'm trying to reform! (Please do not look at the 30 Iris cases full of 12x12 paper that are behind me)....

Here's my card for today!

 

 

 

 

How cute are these stamps??!! ACK!!! I used the critters from the Sending Hedgehugs stamp set and the Joy to the Woods stamp set! The sentiment is from the Into the Woods set from last year. Yep, those are the Stitched Leaves dies again too... They are my favorite! 

 

 

 

EEEP! Critters in the Autumn Forest! I used the same brown tones as the patterned paper for coloring my animals. I tried making them different colors, but then they clashed with the paper. This way they blend in nicely. I wasn't planning it, but I kind of like the effect of having the animals soft in color - against the bright paper...

 

 

 

Squirrel!!!

 

 

 

This paper collection is called Sweater Weather and I ADORE it already. The flair is also from that collection. The paper has the traditional colors of orange and yellow for Fall, but then pops in a nice soft teal with a raspberry color. Nice! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Autumn Weekend my bloggy friends!

Take care until I see you again! 

12 Tags of 2014 - September - Fall Memories!

Hey friends! What's shakin'? Hope you're having a great week. It's flying by, isn't it, with the holiday this week and all. I'm ready for another weekend - how about you? One of my favorite things to look forward to at the beginning of each month is the new Tim Holtz Tag! I love the 12 Tags of 2014 so far, don't you! I couldn't wait to see the one for September, and Mr. Holtz did not disappoint! I made my tag right away this month, because last month I ran out of time and never got it done....

I put my interpretation on the tag, and made it a Fall tag (of course) and used some different products because I do not have all the exact same supplies. That's what makes us all different and why I love looking at everyone else's tags they post.

So here's my....drum roll...12 Tags of 2014 September Tag!

 

 

 

Hoooooot! Embrace Fall Memories says Mr. Owl! The owl stamp is from a brand new set for this year! The stencil is brand new too! Yay for new stamping supplies!!

 

 

 

This tag has lots going on! Lots of layers, and ink, and stamping, and markers, and glitter, and ribbon, and a key.... LOL. 

 

 

 

You guys know I can never resist dying my own ribbon to match! It comes out differently every time, and this time I got the prettiest shade of golden orange. I added a metal key at the end! 

 

 

 

This new Gothic Stencil is already a fav-o-rite! I am going to use this one a lot! In the example tag on Tim's blog he uses alcohol inks to make a ghost image for his backgroung green layer. I do not have any alcohol inks so I used a tried and true technique instead. It gives the same look! First I took the Versamark ink and pushed it directly through the stencil on to my tag. Then I clear embossed it. You can see the pattern here...

 

 

 

In lieu of alcohol inks, I smushed (yes that is the technical term) some green inks onto my craft sheet and then spritzed a lot of water on them. Then I slightly wet my tag too and then ran it through the inks...

 

 

 

I could not have been happier with the results! I looooooooove this! After I made this cool tag I didn't want to put anything on it! Hahaha. 

 

 

 

So here's the cool part! In the top photo you see that the embossed parts are still raised and shiny right? Well, look here....the shiny parts are gone and now my tag is perfectly smooth and flat! WHAT happened!? I ironed my tag! Yep, I sandwiched the tag between two paper towels and ironed it with a dry iron. This melts the embossing into the paper! So now you've basically made your own paper! See what I mean about that stencil? Ooh la la. Yes ma'am. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now I started adding things! Some black text stamping, and my owl....and then I inked around the edges of my tag with some Corduroy ink...

 

 

 

In Tim's tag he uses butterflies and unfortunately I do not have that die (already added to my wish list). And I wanted to use a Fall theme, so I chose the mini leaves dies. I used the same technique to color the paper for my leaves. I smushed yellow, orange and red inks on my craft sheet and wet them and ran them together with my finger (no one said this was a clean project)! 

 

 

 

After I colored my tag, I dyed the ribbon with the same inks... Dry everything off with your heat tool...

 

 

I die cut my leaves and then stamped the text onto them...

 

 

 

And then I just thought we needed some glitter! After I added my leaves and my stickers I just went through and put on some glitter accents. Loving the Vintage Photo Distress Glitter! 

 

 

 

 

Will you make a tag this month? I hope so! You have all month to enter! CLICK HERE to go to Tim Holtz's blog post and you can see his gorgeous tag, enter your own, or just take a look at the tags everyone else made. Until we meet again - go make some Fall memories! XOXO

 

Happy FALL 2014! Rainbow leaves project....

Howdy friends! Hope you're having an awesome Labor Day weekend! It's September 1st, so I'm gonna go ahead and call it Autumn! YEAH! Happy Fall everyone!! If you've followed me for a while then you KNOW that Fall is my very favorite time of year. I love the cooler weather, cozy sweaters, apples, leaves, hot coffee drinks, football, my birthday, my wedding anniversary, pumpkin flavored anything...you get my drift! So, as soon as the calendar turns over from August to September I say it's time to start Fall crafting!! If it wasn't 98 degrees here yesterday, I might just bust out and wear a sweater....but that part will have to wait...

I spent some time in the craft room on Saturday watching college football. Oh, that does my heart good. Especially since my college (who had a very bad season last year) won our first game!! So now we have an undefeated season going! LOL. What is your favorite season? Are you a Summer beach girl, or a toasty mittens Winter girl? 

Did you notice my new blog header? Yep, even turned that over for Fall! I picked out a few of my favorite orange/yellow/red photos and made a new somethin somethin for you to see right when you pop in. Hope you like it!

My cards for today started out as a fun and colorful project with some leaves dies and pretty wood-grain paper and some (many) distress inks... I made the leaves a week or so ago and let them sit on my desk... I ended up having enough leaves to make three similar but kinda different cards. Here they are...the first official projects of Fall 2014! 

 

 

 

Here are my three cards together. Basically the same exact supplies on all three, but different shapes and different sentiments. The leaves dies are the Stitched Leaves set from Lawn Fawn. The swirl stamp is a very old set from Autumn Leaves designed by Rhonna Farrer... The raindrops clear gems are from Papertrey Ink.... 

 

 

 

I think this one is my favorite! Not sure though.... This finished card is 8x4 which fits in a standard legal envelope. I like to make this bigger size from time to time. Gives ya room to spread out... I used vellum on all my cards, and black Staz-on ink. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This sentiment is from Papertrey Ink... I put some of the leaves straight onto the vellum and some were popped up with foam squares.

 

 

 

I just love the rainbow look here with the bright leaves! The gems were glued on with glossy accents which dries glossy and clear so you can't see the glue once it dries. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sorry, you guys know I go overboard with the pictures! I love to take pictures, too! Sometimes I don't know when to stop myself! 

 

 

 

I hesitated about using the purple and teal, but I'm so glad I did! 

 

 

 

Okay, so here is my little leaf assembly line... I cut all the leaves out of the woodgrain paper because I just love the texture! 

 

 

 

Here's a close up - that's why they are called Stitched Leaves! See the pretty stitches? LOVE.

 

 

 

I used three shades of ink on each leaf color. Here you see the red ones...

 

 

 

Maybe I am a little obsessed with my mini distress inks. But that's okay right? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How perfect are these leaves for the current Curtain Call Challenge!? I loooooove this inspiration photo so much! Check it out and enter your card too! I love this one Stacey!! 

 

One last group photo! 

 

Thanks for coming by and thanks for always being so supportive of this crazy crafty girl. It means the world to me when you leave me a comment and they all uplift me so much! I have some really fun things in the works to share in the coming months. I'm so happy you are along for the ride with me. Fall to me is a time for reflecting and for gratitude and thanksgiving. Thank you for being you! Many many blessings to you this Autumn season. XOXOX