A Blog Called Wanda

If you like pina coladas....and flamingos!

Hi friends! Happy Friday! I hope you have a great weekend planned. It's been three weeks since I left my corporate job and I think I am finally starting to relax a little. Gosh, I really didn't realize how completely stressed out I was. It's very hard for me to sit still, so I've been keeping myself busy with spending time with friends, and crafting and organizing. Getting my studio ready to be open and creative again in a new way. It feels really good to have some down time, and I am so fortunate. 

It's very gross and smoky here where I live because there are some giant wildfires burning. It's so sad to see the drought take its toll on our lovely area. Since we can't really be outside today, and because we have some free movie passes.... We decided on a movie double feature date today! Minions and Trainwreck! I can't even remember the last movie we went to see. (Maybe Gone Girl???) So I'm excited to be going. 

I want to say another giant thank you to everyone who has contributed to my Go Fund Me page! What an awesome outpouring of support for which I am so grateful. THANK YOU!! I'm getting closer to my goal! 

Now, on to today's creative post! I have had the idea for today's project rattling around in my brain for a couple of months. And, I finally had the opportunity to execute it! My friend's birthday celebration was last Friday and I thought these would be the perfect thing to bring to the party. Pina Colada Cupcakes! Say what??? Oh, yes! Super delicious and fun to decorate too! 

 

 

 

 

 

CLICK HERE for the recipe for the cupcakes. I made the recipe exactly as outlined, with one exception. i left out the rum extract. These came out super moist and really tasty. I am definitely putting these in my cupcake rotation as a favorite. The pineapple in the cake mix just makes them melt in your mouth. And, I love anything with coconut. 

I made two different cupcake topper decorations, flamingos and pineapples. (I'm pretty obsessed right now with anything with flamingos or pineapples). A perfect tropical accompaniment to pina colada cupcakes! 

 

 

 

 

I used some of my FAVORITE stamp sets from Reverse Confetti. I added some blings to them also. The stamped images were glued onto white cake pop sticks, which are from Wilton. I got those at Michael's. 

 

 

 

 

Once the cupcakes are cooled and frosted, I coated the tops with fresh sweetened coconut flakes. MMMMMM. I like that one little flamingo leg in the picture! LOL. 

 

 

 

 

For the cupcake wrappers on the bottom I used some fresh tropical inspired papers. At first I was going to make everything really 'matchy matchy' but then found this paper in my stash, and I liked that some other colors were put into the mix. Makes it really festive. 

 

 

 

 

Here is my stamping assembly line! 

 

 

 

 

And all of my completed decorations. The flamingo stamp set has two flamingos - pointing both ways, so I made some of each. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CLICK HERE FOR THE RECIPE

CLICK HERE FOR THE STAMPS

Click HERE and HERE and HERE for some of my other favorite cupcake projects!

Have an amazing weekend everyone!

Color Pop #5!

Hi everyone! Hope your week is going great so far. Summer keeps rolling on and there's no stopping it! EEEK, but if you go to Target, I think it's Fall already! LOL. I'm not ready yet.... Still enjoying those lazy days of Summer with lots of daylight and Farmers Markets and sunshine....   

Today is installment number five in my fun Color Pop series. I love sharing this with you each month! I have with some news and updates about my this feature over at the fabulous Simon Says Stamp Blog! Today is the post for new ink color #6, which is the dark and mysterious Hickory Smoke! I have to tell you that this color stumped me at first, but then as soon as I started using it I realized that, yes, I love this color too! It's the perfect cool grey... Like steel or fog or sterling silver. YUM. Then, how to decide what colors to "pop" with it! I decided on a retro fifties color palette (using Spun Sugar and Squeezed Lemonade inks) and created a gift box that would be great for a wedding present, a birthday gift, or Mother's Day gift card. (jewelry would fit perfectly inside!)  

You know if it's Simon Says Stamp, then there must be cool prizes...and there are! Leave a comment over on my SSS Blog Post post for some Tim Holtz swag! Sweet! Big thanks to Heidi and the rest of the crew at SSS for giving away such great prizes all the time. 

Here is a very sneaky peek at my project: 

  CLICK HERE TO SEE THE ENTIRE PROJECT!

 

 

Here is my color swatch for this month. Hickory Smoke fits very nicely into the bluish grey color family. It is very moody and cool. A soft grey that will work for so many different projects. Click on the photo below to see all the different mediums it comes in!  

 

 

 

 

In case you didn't see it - CLICK HERE to see last month's project tutorial. It features the lovely Twisted Citron Ink! I used it with some bright Summer colors to create a beachy themed card. 

 

Coming up next month is the super awesome Blueprint Sketch! It is the exact color of blueprints. A gorgeous true blue with just a slight hint of purple undertones. You're gonna love that one too. I've already made a project or two.... Thanks for following along with me on this Color Pop adventure! Have an awesome day. XOXO 

 

Papertrey Ink Customer Blog Hop - Floral Butterflies!

Hello and happy weekend! I hope you are all doing well and enjoying the peak of Summer time! Since leaving my job two weeks ago I have really been concentrating on resting and slooooooooowing myself down to a normal pace! It's been wonderful. And, because God is good and knows what I need, He sent me all sorts of friends to hang out with - - friends I hadn't seen in years! All of a sudden, friends are showing up in Sacramento for one reason or another...from Pennsylvania, from Oregon, from LA. Yes indeed. I am blessed. I can feel my stress fading just a bit and that's a good thing. I hope all is well in your corner of the globe today. Let's get crafty now! 

It's the 25th of the month, which means it's time for the Papertrey Ink Customer Blog Hop! Yeah! You know I LOVE my PTI products and love to join this challenge whenever I can. This month's inspiration image is seriously so gorgeous and so much inspiration. I had about a bazillion ideas after I saw the photo. I ended up using several ideas in one card. 

Here is my finished shabby chic, watercolor, butterfly card! All stamps and dies are from Papertrey Ink and all the inks are Distress Inks from Ranger/Tim Holtz. The gems are from Doodlebug (Gold Sprinkles). 

 

 

 

 

Here is a close up of one of the butterflies. I cut my butterfly dies out of watercolor paper and then stamped onto them with distress inks using the Bitty Bouquets stamp set. Then I used my water brush to soften around the stamped lines and finally watercolored the rest of the butterfly. 

The background was made in several layers, on watercolor paper. I first got the paper entirely wet with a spray bottle. Then I 'painted' Antique Linen and Corduroy Distress Inks onto the wet paper. I dried that with my heat tool. next I used my Tim Holtz Spritzer Tool and spritzed Distress Markers in shades of brown onto the paper. Then I sprayed it with water until the dots bled and faded. Next I dried it again with my heat tool... Finally, I doused the entire thing with Heirloom Gold Perfect Pearls Mist! OOH LA LA! 

Below is the inspiration image! Gosh, isn't that gorgeous?? So you can see that I was inspired by the touches of gold in the photo, that amaaaaazing wall, and the floral patterned butterflies. I chose a slightly cooler color scheme using the same color families. Um, and yes, I want to live in this room. Dreamy! 

 

 

 

 

I liked how the butterflies were arranged in rows in the photo, so that's how I arranged mine here on my card. Three butterflies all stamped slightly differently with the same colors. They are mounted on some foam tape too. you can see I used the big clock die to add some gold elements.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was trying to get a good close up photo of the gold shimmer on the paper from the Perfect Pearls Mist. No easy task, evidently! I think you can see it here though! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The blog hop is live all day! Won't you enter a card, too, and join the fun!

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE CARDS, AND ENTER YOURS! 

 

Have a lovely weekend! XOXO

Happy 10th Blogiversary to my friend Jenn Shurkus!

 

Hey everyone! I'm here today with a fun post - helping my sweet, crafty friend Jenn Shurkus celebrate her TEN YEAR Blogiversary! WOO HOOOOO! Way to go Jenn! I was so delighted when she wrote and asked me if I would like to be part of her celebration! What did I say? Heck yeah! Jenn and I share the love of the ocean, distress inks, and our crazy felines. I truly hope that I can meet her in person one day... But for now she is my lovely blogging friend.

The 'challenge' from Jenn was to CASE one of our favorite cards of hers and make our own version. I had a hard time picking which card to CASE because there were so many good ones to choose from. I ended up choosing the card I did because the pretty, bright colors just really called to me! CLICK HERE to go to Jenn's post that talks about her celebration, and find out how you can be part of things too! AND...there are some very cool prizes! 

Here is my card for today....

 

 

 

And here is Jenn's card that I chose to CASE! I loved the vivid colors and the pretty butterfly in flight...oh and the watercolor effect!  Actually, I pretty much loved everything about this card! CLICK HERE for Jenn's original blog post about this card. 

 

 

 

I used some pretty floral stamps from WPlus9 along with my trusty Distress Ink pads.... I stamped my florals onto watercolor paper and then took a water brush and lightly wet the ink to soften all the edges. I also made some green spatters on my paper. 

 

 

 

 

The butterfly die and embossing folder is from Tim Holtz for Sizzix...LOVE. I colored the butterfly with distress inks and then added some clear Wink Of Stella pen over it. I had that pretty center resin flower in my stash...and the color matched really well.

 

 

 

 

The word stickers are from Ideaology by Tim Holtz and I just chose a bunch of words that spoke to me...I am still loving the trend of graphic black + florals. On my card I added just the thinnest layer of black paper around my watercolor piece. 

 

 

 

 

I gently curved up the butterfly wings with my fingers and then glued it to the paper with Glossy Accents. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Below are the lovely sponsors for Jenn's Blogiversary celebration....and where the swweeeeet prizes are coming from. Yes! 

Splash of Color! Simon Says Stamp New Release Blog Hop!

 

 

Hi there! It's time for another awesome release blog hop with Simon Says Stamp! Today we are celebrating the newest line of Summer stamping products, with the lastest SSS release called Splash of Color! Guess what? TWELVE more new ink colors! (YAY) Stamps! Dies! Everything you need to keep on craftin' in the good old Summertime. We have loads of fun projects to share with you today on this great hop. 

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE ENTIRE NEW RELEASE - AVAILABLE NOW! 

I'm the last stop on the hop this time around! So, be sure to click to the Simon Says Stamp Blog to see ALL the blog hop participants and links,  and to enter for all the chances to win. Every stop has a prize package to give away! Make sure to leave comments everywhere! Winners will be selected on July 21st and notified via email by Simon himself! 

I have three beachy, happy, summer cards to show you today....so let's get started!

First up is a Nautical card made with the new Sail Away Stamp Set and matching dies, and the new Border Waves Dies. YUM. I also used the Stitched circles and rectangles dies....and those sweet little fishies from the Pool Play stamp set. Everything just works together like magic. And you all know how much I LOVE nautical! 

 

 

 

 

Some pretty layers, in one of my favorite color combos - aqua and red! I used the SSS Audrey Blue Ink Pad to make my splash and my fishies. The fonts in this set are outstanding! Love the sentiment...

 

 

 

 

You can see that one layer of waves is cut flush against the white part of the card. Then I layered another wave over the top. To add dimension, I took a white gel pen and added some dots. Finished off with a few blings! 

 

 

 

 

Next up is a sailboat card using the amazing new Summer Greetings dies along with the Sail Away Stamp Set and dies. I used my Copics to match some bright cardstock colors. And another fabulous sentiment stamp! 

 

 

 

My little boat is popped up off the page with some foam tape. I love using my Copics to exactly match my cardstock. Makes a nice polished look when everything matches. (my OCD tendencies showing!) 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last, but not least, a clean and simple design with some pretty shells! I used the AWESOME new Wavy Scallop Stitches dies along with the Sail Away Stamp Set and the sentiment from the Pool Play stamp set. Again, I can't stress enough how well all the products coordinate together! Makes stamping so much fun. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  PRIZE PACK GIVEAWAY!!

Each stop on the hop will have a winner that will receive a Simon Says Stamp Prize pack! The winners will be randomly selected by Simon on July 21st. Be sure to comment here, and on each post along the way for more chances to win!! Gotta play to win!

CLICK HERE to start at the beginning of the HOP! 

HERE is the link to see the entire release!

I'm so happy to have you visit today for this fabulous mega-hop! 

 

Sweet Stamp Shop - Hedgies!

Hi crafty friends! Before starting anything else today I really have to say a super big heartfelt thank you for all of the wonderful comments you left on my last blog post. I literally can feel the love and support coming through the computer. You guys are such a blessing to me!!! And thank you for believing in me and being there. Wow! So much kindness in the world - renews my soul! THANK YOU! 

This month I am the guest designer over at the lovely Sweet Stamp Shop Blog! I'll be posting one card a week using their SUPER cute stamp sets. If you haven't seen this company before - you gotta check it out. Really fun and whimsical and silly in the best possible way!

Thank you to Nicole and the rest of the gang at Sweet Stamp Shop for the lovely invitation! 

My first card for the month was made with the Hedgehog Kiss stamp set. These little hedgies are too adorable. I made a clean and simple card, and colored them with my Copic markers. 

To see more photos and details, please CLICK on over to the Sweet Stamp Shop Blog! 

 

 

 

 

A big announcement & a fabulous project too!

Hi friends! This is going to be a very long post! So I hope you have some time to sit down and visit with me. I have so much to show and tell you! I have a big announcement to talk about and I also have a wonderful project to share. I took an amazing creative workshop yesterday, and I took lots of pictures! You'll see why, later in my post. I am so super grateful to have this blogging forum and to have all of you as my friends and colleagues to share my life with. 

I quit my job on Friday....I have to say it again because it doesn't seem real....I quit my job on Friday. I am super proud of myself for choosing happiness and peace over negativity and chaos on a daily basis. Like, wow, I did what??? Most of you might not even know that I had a full time job, because I have always kept that separate from blogging. I worked in the Insurance industry for 28 years...until Friday. It was a hard decision, months in the making. Planning, praying, brainstorming and generally freaking out. Trying to get up the courage to take that big leap of faith. I have had a job since I was 15 years old. 35 years of working with never more than two weeks off (our honeymoon). It is going to be very strange to not have to get up in the morning, and go to a workplace. I think I will get used to it though!

My Insurance career gave me so many wonderful opportunities. I got to travel a lot, I learned so much, and I met so many great people who have been my life long friends. I will always be grateful for the jobs I had and the people who helped me, and that I was able to help, along the way. It seems like the industry has changed...or maybe work in general is different now....or maybe I'm different. It is definitely the right time to make a change and follow a dream I've had for as long as I can remember. A creative life. 

I have been a photographer since I was a freshman in high school - when I learned how to shoot on my Nikon FE using a light meter, how to develop film and how to develop photographs. My first job was at a camera store. It's in my blood to be creative! I am truly happiest when I am making something (anything!). 

I am not a big risk taker by nature so the fact that I left the security of the 'known' shows just how much I've grown and changed over the past couple of years. SOOOO many lessons and trials. I am not afraid anymore. I feel so at peace with this decision. 

I am the luckiest girl in the world. I have a husband who supports me, friends who believe in me (often more than I believe in myself), and a God who blesses me. Every single day. 

I've pretty much been crying for a week - tears of gratitude. The tears keep sneaking up on me. When I see something beautiful. When I think about the fact that I no longer have to wake up at 5am and be completely exhausted on a daily basis. When I grasp for a fleeting moment that I am in charge of my life again and I can make it what I want. When my friends make me laugh so hard I snort. All of it. 

So stay tuned for what's to come! I am going to be a creative professional living a creative life, and I will have much more to share with you. I will be so happy if you will support me in my new adventure! First, I am going to take some much needed time to rest, relax and regroup mentally. Then I am going to start my own business. I'll be off and running soon. I have at least ten notebooks full of ideas and projects and business stuff. Now I will sort it all out and make something happen. Some amazing things are already happening! Yay! Go me! I literally cannot even believe I'm typing this right now. 

So, now I'm dying to share this project with you! Saturday I was so happy to be able to go to Cathe Holden's Inspired Barn Workshop Space and take an amazing class with two of my most favorite crafty friends (Brenda and May). I have been wanting to take one of Cathe's classes for so long, and have also wanted to see her beautiful space in person. The stars aligned and we were all free to go this weekend and take the Mason Jar Luminary Cloche Class! (There are still openings for her other dates for this class). 

Well.... Cathe is just as fabulous and sweet as I thought she would be! And, her space is crafty girl heaven. Like, we literally died and went to heaven. OMG. For my first day of 'freedom' from work, it was the perfect thing to do! Brenda, May and I sat at a table together and laughed and laughed. My stomach actually hurt when I got home. Boy, is laughter good for the soul!! Laughter and Creativity filled my soul on Saturday. Thank you to these lovely and amazing women!

I'll show you my photos of her Inspired Barn workshop space first and then share my project photos after that. Hope you're still with me!

Here is a long shot of Cathe's workshop and there is sweet May smiling in the corner!  

 

This is our most lovely hostess Cathe Holden. She made us feel so at home and so welcome. Her designer eye is AMAZING. Anyone who can envision space in this way is a complete genius in my book. Wow. Thank you Cathe, for such a fun day and a great project! XO 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A sweet photo of Cathe and Brenda - looking so lovely! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cathe's husband came in and took this photo of all of us with our projects! What a nice bunch of women! I say that you never meet a stranger when you go to a craft class! #craftygirlsrock

 

 

Here is my finished Mason Jar Luminary. I posed it next to some of Cathe's vintage beauties! 

 

 

Don't we look so happy? Brenda, me and May at our crafting table! 

 

 

The rest of these photos I took at home to give you some more details. The little house is mounted onto a cardboard ring and then it fits inside the mason jar. The top of the house is not sealed so you can turn on the tiny battery operated tea light inside. GENIUS. CLICK HERE TO BUY THE TEMPLATE FOR THE HOUSE from Cathe's Etsy Shop! 

 

 

The whole house/base is glued to the lid of the mason jar and then the entire thing fits inside and you screw the ring on. 

 

 

 

 

I couldn't resist adding vintage silver glitter to my house. The base is a kraft color, and I added white wash with a little acrylic paint. Here is the back of the house. 

 

 

As part of the class, Cathe taught us how to make these teeny tiny bird nests out of wire and beads. OMG are you kidding me?? EEEEP. 

 

 

There is even a tiny chimney that glues on top of the roof! 

 

 

 

Whew! Okay, so that's enough blogging for one day! Thank you for hanging in there until the end and for coming by A Blog Called Wanda. I would absolutely LOVE to hear from you this week! I could use your encouragement and love and happy thoughts as I start this new path. Have a wonderful week! XO

Hello Little Prince - A special baby card!

HEEEEYYYYYYYY! I'm back! Where did I go? Who knows? Whew, been super busy and not crafting a whole lot. But here I am. And I have a really fun and special card to share today! There is so much going on in my life right now. Dang. I'll share more, but let's just say that I'm inside a Ninja blender the past couple of weeks. But things are going to calm down here soon and that's a good thing. Plus, this weekend I'm going to an AWESOME crafty class with two of my very favorite crafty gurlz. I'll be sure to post about it too! 

Anyhoo, today's card! One of my very dear and sweet friends had a baby on Saturday! A 4th of July baby! How cool is that? I met her 7 years ago when we used to work together and all she really ever wanted was to find a good guy and be a mom. I have seen her date, then we went to her wedding and now she has a beautiful baby. The circle of life! (Anyone have a lion cub to hold aloft?) LOVE it. And her dreams have come true! I am so very happy for her and she is going to be such a good mom. I cannot wait to meet the little man soon. But, until then, I had to send a card (of course!)

I busted out this adorable stamp set from Lawn Fawn and my trusty baby blue gingham paper....and my new Kuretake Clean Color Markers and made this card. I make tons of cards and I love doing that - design teams, blog hops, etc. But, what is the BEST about being a stamper is to make a special card filled with love for a specific person. It fills my heart and reminds me of the purity of what we do. Send hugs in the mail. 

 

 

 

 

 

It's been a while since I made a circle card. I used a big scalloped circle die from Sizzix (From Stampin' Up) and cut out three gingham circles. Two are glued back to back for the bottom piece of the card and the other one is for the top of the card. The circles are held together with a brad. I stamped my frog and colored him with Kuretake Clean Markers. The cat tails and lily pad were stamped with Distress Inks. 

 

 

 

 

Here are my two pieces before I hooked them together with a brad. And, you can see the inside of the card. For the blue background behind the frog I gently sponged some Salty Ocean and Tumbled Glass Distress Inks and then swirled the color around with some water on a paint brush. Nice and soft. 

 

 

 

 

The stamp set has matching dies....of course. Here you can see the brad up close. The card just sort of swings apart on the brad, like a hinge. 

 

 

 

 

I made a matching gingham envelope with my Envelope Punch Board. I cut out a stitched rectangle in white and stamped the baby's name on it. The alphabet stamp set is from Lawn Fawn and it's called Violet's ABC's. The tiny stars are part of the stamp set. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The envelope is 5x5 inches square, so that gives you some scale as to how big the card is. Can't wait to get this in the mail tomorrow. Yay! 

 

Thanks for stopping in to see me and see what I'm up to. Hope you are having a fantastic week so far. Sorry to be so silly in my post. I had A LOT of coffee today and I've been up since 4:30 am. Yikes. Love you guys. XOXOXO

 

4th of July Treat Bags! Happy Summer!

Happy 4th of July Weekend! I get tomorrow (Friday) off work, so it's almost the start of a lovely Summer long weekend for me! How about you? What are your plans? I hope you have a wonderful time - whatever it is that you end up doing. I would love to barbeque and hang out and just enjoy the sunshine. We don't have any real firm plans, and I kind of like it that way. Life has been kinda hectic, so whenever I can grab some quiet time - I do! 

I have a really fun project today - I made some treat bags using the amazing Sweet Treat Bag die from my friend Brenda Walton (by Sizzix)! This die has matching movers and shapers to cut out a window in the front. LOVE. I used some vintage Americana type papers and went to town! I filled them with cheery Hershey's Kisses of course! 

 

 

 

 

 

I cut out some ovals with a punch and stamped in nice deep red for my titles... The I lightly inked the edges of the ovals with Antique Linen Distress Ink. 

 

 

 

This totes adorbs pinwheel die is from The Cats Pajamas Rubber Stamps. It's soooo cute! I love to make little pinwheels using double sided papers. The are too fabulous. To add to the vintage vibe I used glittery brads for the centers of my pinwheels. I added a little banner made with silver glitter paper underneath the pinwheel. 

 

 

 

 

I used acetate sheets to cover my windows before assembling the bags. The bags come in two pieces and they are super easy to put together. This is such a great project for any occasion. I really had fun mixing and matching patterns....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some Announcements to share! 

I am very happy to be a contributor to the super awesome CAMP SCRAP 2015 with May Flaum! Classes just started and there is so much content! Truly a great value. CLICK HERE or click on the graphic to learn more! It's card-making, mixed media and scrap-booking all in one! 

Sweet and talented Jenn Shurkus has invited me to be part of her 10 year Blogiversary celebration! And you can join too! Lots of fun, and prizes. We'll all have a fun time CASE-ing our favorite Jenn project. CLICK HERE or click on the graphic to learn more. 

And THIS happened!!! I was one of the winners for the Tim Holtz 12 Tags of 2015 contest for my June coffee tag! Yeah! 

 

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!!