A Blog Called Wanda

Happy Grams Cards - fun stamps from Tammy Tutterow & Spellbinders!

Hi crafty friends! How is your week going? It's finally cooled off here in Sactown, and I could not be happier! I'm having a very creative week! Getting caught up on projects in the studio and feeling good about things. Waiting for my PTI design team box for July to arrive so I can get inky on it all (AWESOME things to come)! Before too much time goes by I want to tell you all about our event we went to last Saturday night. A few of you have asked me about it, and I really want to share it, too. My husband and I looooove watching the TV show Long Island Medium. We watch it together, always, and love seeing peoples' stories. So, my husband found out that Theresa Caputo was doing a live event near our house, and he surprised me by getting us tickets to see her! It was really a great evening! It was at an outdoor venue of about 5000 people and we sat pretty close to the stage! She is just as genuine and funny and adorable as you would think she is. Totally the real deal. Plus, she is absolutely hilarious!!! Kind of a smart alec with a big heart and she laughs a lot. I love people who laugh a lot!

Theresa came out and introduced herself and then played the national anthem while we all stood up. At the end of the anthem, after everyone else sat down, she had all the veterans in the crowd stand up and we all cheered for them. What a nice touch. She said that all of the money from her readings now goes straight to charity - she has the person write the check out directly to charity. And her fan club started making money, so she takes the profit and randomly sends people in the fan club gift cards! How refreshing in this day and age! She talked about her 'gift' and how she reconciles that with her strong Christian faith - which I found very interesting. After she spoke for a little while, she came down off the stage and walked around in the crowd and started reading people - just like on her show. One other interesting thing - she said absolutely no photos, cell phones or video and asked everyone to turn off their phones. And, guess what? People actually did it!!! When was the last time you went to an event where everyone wasn't holding their phone? That was really great, and made for a much more intimate experience. HERE is one photo from her Instagram from the evening. Her hair is high and she was wearing sparkly spike heels! She did readings for about 20 people I would say - and it seemed like she was able to give people some peace about certain things. There wasn't a time when she was off - every person agreed with what she said. It's quite amazing. The whole crowd was silent listening to her talk to the people. Wow. I'm so glad we got to do that! 

Okay, so on to my cards for today!! At CHA in January I was able to see my friend Tammy Tutterow's new line of stamps, dies and embossing folders. Well, I loved it ALL. I wanted it ALL! Her style is pretty, artsy, happy, and a bit girly vintage! All of her stamps are cling mount on red rubber and they stamp like a dream. She is an artist for Spellbinders. A couple of weeks ago a giant box of goodness arrived on my doorstep courtesty of Tammy and Spellbinders - and I am so grateful to have been given such nice products to play with. Tammy's line of stamps is called Happy Grams!!! Isn't that the best? Can't help but smile! I couldn't wait to stamp 'em up! So this weekend I made two cards to share with you today! One is bright and bold and the other one is a bit more vintage! One I colored with Copics and the other one I water colored with Distress Inks. Let's look!

 

Oh, man, was this a fun card to make! Everything except the yellow flowers is one big stamp! Sized perfectly for the front of an A2 card! Brilliant! I made my card base out of kraft and added a layer of red to match the ladybug. I went to town coloring everything with Copic Markers (colors listed below). Even though this is a big stamp, the coloring went pretty quickly. I used happy and bright colors to make it pop. The writing is so beautiful...

 

The yellow flowers are from another, smaller stamp. I cut a few of them out to add to my card because I wanted another bright color and, I'm loving yellow right now. I stamped the main image onto a white paper layer. Then I stamped a second ladybug onto another piece of paper and cut the wings out. The second set of wings was attached with foam tape slightly off center from the bottom ones. I love the dimension from that! In this photo you can see that the ladybug heart dots are raised up. I did that with a Clear Glaze Pen and I really like the effect. I also added accents of white gel pen. 

 

The yellow flowers were attached with foam tape. For the writing I used two shades of aqua Copic markers for an ombre look. You can see that I outlined the ladybug and parts of the letters in C1 Copic Marker to add depth. This is a super easy trick! 

 

Now, the two hardest colors to color with Markers are red and black!! I hardly ever use jet black for black items - instead I used very deep cool greys. Your eye sees black, but it makes the project less heavy. 

 

Here are my Copic choices for this card...

 

 

 

My next card for today is shabby chic vintage fun! I started with a Kraft A2 card base again and then layered some gingham paper for my bottom layer. All the flower images, the heart and the tag are all cut from cream cardstock instead of bright white. I used brown ink instead of black ink also.  I water colored everything with Tim Holtz Distress Inks in some of my favorite colors using the mini ink pads and a water brush. This is one of my go to techniques! The flower stamp set has matching dies included in the package all together - I love that. 

 

I stamped and die cut all the flowers, leaves and the flower pot. Next I colored them with a loose water color technique! I set them aside to dry while I prepared the tag and the heart pieces. 

 

 

For the heart, I stamped the sentiment onto cream paper and die cut it out. I used Distress Inks to watercolor it and then edged it in more distress ink using a sponge dauber. I speckled water and brown ink onto it to make it look even more vintage. BTW Rusty Hinge Distress Ink is the perfect color for terra cotta pots!! 

 

These beautiful tag dies!!!!! The tag set comes with the large tag (perfect size for cards or mini books), a circle for the reinforcer, and several border pieces for the bottom! Genius! I chose to use the small scallop border at the bottom of this tag. It was cut out of cream cardstock. Then I used the Dear Ruby giant background stamp and stamped the text onto it using Antique Linen Distress Ink. OOOH LA LA. This background stamp will easily cover an entire A2 card front! It's amazing.  Then I speckled green and brown ink onto it, and edged it with Vintage Photo Distress Ink and a sponge. F-U-N! 

 

Here is a close up of that pretty die cut border, and my inking! 

 

So you knew some twine was gonna be on this card, right??? Of course!!! My favorite accents - twine and enamel dots - to finish off the card. 

 

 

CUTEST stamp set EVER!! I'm kind of obsessed with these Tiny Sentiments stamps!! I'm going to keep them on my desk for stamping on envelopes! And they are the perfect size for cards. I hope Tammy makes more sets of these in her beautiful writing!! 

 

AHHHHHHHHH.... One of the things in life that makes me super happy. Markers!!! 

BIG GIANT thank you to Tammy and Spellbinders for the beautiful stamps and dies. XOXOXO Big thank you to everyone for stopping by today! Enjoy the rest of your week and I'll be back on Saturday with something new and cool to share. 

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Modern Peonies! Guest Designing for WPlus9!

Hellllllooooooo and Happy Monday! Monday??? Dang this weekend went by fast! I am really happy to share with you today that I am the guest designer for WPlus9! Yeah! Gosh, I have been a fan of WPlus9 forever! Gorgeous images and great techniques. I love their style! I am excited to have been invited to stamp along with Dawn and the rest of the talented crew there. For my card, I knew exactly what stamp set I wanted to use - Modern Peonies! I have had this set for a while, but never inked it, and I've had an idea brewing too! I got out my beautiful Zig Clean Color Brush Markers to use for watercoloring. I love how this card came out! Thanks for joining me today. Be sure to pop over to the WPlus9 blog to get even more inspiration! 

I started my card with a crisp white A2 card base folded at the top. I die cut a smaller white rectangle for the focal point and layered pretty lime green cardstock around it. This gave me my foundation of the card. All of the coloring for today was done with Zig Clean Color Brush Markers in pretty shades of pink and green for summer.

 

I stamped and die cut three big peonies, three small peonies and a bunch of leaves. The matching dies for this set cut like a dream. When I’m making an arrangement like this I always stamp and cut out lots of images to play with - so I can get it just the way I want it to look. I ended up coloring just some of the images, and left the rest black and white and graphic. I love this look!

 

I stamped the small ‘beautiful’ sentiment in the lower right corner of the white layer, and then glued on the ‘hello’ die with a glue pen, using my tweezers. I did this first so I would know where to place the flowers. SO crisp with that pop of black in the gorgeous font!

 

I used foam tape to place the top layers of flowers and leaves. The bottom flowers and leaves were attached with tape runner adhesive. I like the difference in dimension with the layers. I did a very loose watercolor wash with the Zig Markers, a tiny paintbrush and water. I used two shades of green and two shades of pink on the images. You could use any colors, though! I think this would be very pretty in red too!

 

 

Big thanks to Dawn for having me as a guest today at WPlus9! Thanks for stopping by today! Best wishes for a beautiful week ahead! XOXO

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Company Spotlight on Tonic Studios!

Happy Weekend!! Are you crafting this weekend? What do you have planned? Are you working on Summer projects? I'm having fun stamping with all kinds of bright colors for the season! I thought I would do something a bit different today, and do a spotlight feature post on one of my favorite craft companies. As I look around my studio lately I'm noticing that so many of my tools that I use every day are from Tonic Studios. They have really come on strong recently with amazing and fun new products, beautiful packaging and high quality studio tools. Most of us know Tonic from our collection of Nuvo Drops (LOVE) or Gilding Flakes (LOVE)...but they also make gorgeous stamps and dies. Today I've made a fresh and happy hello card using Tonic Studios supplies. Everything is listed at the bottom of my post. 

I started with the color palette on this card as my inspiration. I bought some of the new Tonic Aqua Flow watercolor pens at the last Scrapbook Expo and hadn't tried them yet. I used only the colors in the one set I had = Summer Holiday. These pens are so fun! It's like watercoloring with the paint already in the pen. I found them so easy to work with and they dried fast and pretty. It was easy to layer colors and add more of the same color for a deeper shade. My card ended up having a Spanish flair, which is perfect for Summer I think! Red, yellow and teal! Yes!

 

I used the English Picnic Die Set to make the GORGEOUS white background layer! WOW!!! And, it cut like a dream perfectly the first cut. I knew it would look beautiful over red, so I made my card base from red paper. I stamped the Floral Flourish stamp three times and then heat embossed with Tonic White Embossing Powder. Then I colored them in with the pens. Then I cut them out by hand. The 'hello' die is from Concord & 9th, because I wanted a big bold die across the top of the card. In this close up you can see how nicely the pens work and flow together. I just used the three colors but it looks like more. To achieve a darker color, I simply went back over the area a second or third time. 

 

Here is a close up of the beautiful white layer! SO crisp!

 

After I cut out the three floral images I put down one of the images first. Then I used scissors to cut the other two images apart into smaller pieces. I used foam tape to tuck the extra flower parts and leaves behind the main image. I love doing this with die cuts! Especially flowers! Now it looks like a big bouquet on my card! This is a great way to get more mileage from your stamps. I added just a few shiny sequins at the end - now this card looks like a party! 

 

Here are some of the supplies I used - and some other things I had already! Tonic makes great embossing powders - and they come in their signature jewel topped packaging so they look pretty in your studio. 

 

This is one of the reasons I came to love Tonic!!! OH MY!!! Jewel drops in the rainbow!!!! EEK!!! 

 

 

 

This is the pretty stamp set I used today! I like that they are high quality red rubber and they stamp very clean!!

 

I didn't end up using these dies today - they are called Strip Dies and they make pretty decorative indentations anywhere on your project. They are 8.5 inches long, too, so you can use them on any size card or scrapbook page even! 

 

This is how the strip dies look after you put them through the Big Shot!! Pretty! 

 

 

 

I used the 'rubber' side of my Tonic Stamp Platform to do my stamping today. This new product will be available shortly!! It's awesome!!! See my post about it by CLICKING HERE. 

 

This is how the painting looked after one pass with the watercolor pens. I ended up working the yellow a bit more since I wanted it darker - so I did about four 'coats' of the yellow. Such pretty vibrant colors! One other great thing about these pens is that they did not destroy the paper. I used regular Neenah Solar White cardstock and the paper did not fray or buckle under the paints. 

So that's it for me today! Hope you have a beautiful and happy weekend!! I'm excited for Monday's post - I'm guest designing for a cool company! See you then! XOXO

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Papertrey Ink Throwback Thursday featuring Enjoy the Ride!

Hi crafty friends! How is your week going? Today I'm here to share another fun Throwback Thursday feature from Papertrey Ink! A couple times a month, we feature an older stamp set. I love doing this! Today's stamp set is Enjoy The Ride! I remember when I bought this set! Many years ago - I made loads of cards with it! It's a cute little car with awesome sayings and teeny tiny sentiments to go inside the license plate. SO adorable. I found some paper in my stash that matched perfect and created a clean and simple card for today.

I started with an A2 white card base. I layered two of the patterned papers across the bottom of the card (supplies below). Then I stamped the car and the clouds and die cut them out with the matching dies. The car is two stamps, so you can choose the color, and then put the black outline over the top. Perfect. 

 

The car, the clouds and the banner were attached with foam tape to the card. I added some Stickles to the windshield and the headlights of the car! The fonts are so pretty.

 

 

 

 

Thanks for popping over today! Take care until I see you soon! XOXO

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Fill Each Day With Gratitude!

Hey there my crafty girl squad!! How are you this week?? I have another post going up tomorrow, but I really wanted to pop in and share some things today before too much time passed by. I wanted to tell you about the Nor Cal Planner Meetup I went to this past weekend! And I found an amazing new paper collection to share with you also (and it's all on sale too). So, I had a wonderful three day girly weekend with friends last weekend. I left on Friday morning and came home Sunday afternoon. It was entirely too much fun and really good for my soul and my spirit.

My amazing, sweet, kind, talented and all around awesome bloggy friend Audrey was in California visiting so I got to spend the entire day with her on Friday. We had lunch, and shopped and laughed; and talked about important stuff that you can't talk about when you're emailing and texting. SOOOOOO good to see her in person and HUG. OMG we talked for eight hours straight and my cheeks hurt from smiling. She is very special. We met about seven years ago through blogging! Somehow we ended up finding each others' blogs and leaving comments, and then emails, and it has led to a wonderful friendship. We have seen each other grow through new opportunities and watched our projects and styles change. That is the number one best thing about blogging - the people I've met.

Saturday was the giant Nor Cal Planner Meetup that was held at The Island's Creative Escape in Los Gatos. This is an AMAZING place and you have to go here!!! Laurie, the owner, is the nicest person and so generous and gracious too. I kinda love her. So there were FIFTY planner girls!!! I had no idea what to expect since I'd never been to a planner event before. Basically, everyone brings all their planner gear, stickers, stamps, washi, embellishments, etc...and you sit around and work on your planner(s) together. WHAT FUN. Okay, so planner girls are awesome! So happy, and funny, and welcoming! I went by myself but after about ten minutes I had a whole table full of new friends. Everyone likes to share what they're doing and talk about new ways to organize and plan. It was an 8 hour event that went by in about five minutes. Laurie had pizza and salad dinner for us. Layle from Simple Stories was the facilitator/teacher of the event and she showed us all kinds of fun new things to make. Really just a wonderful day. I will go again in a hot minute! 

It has been VERY VERY hot here in Northern California and it will not let up. I was going to do some errands and things in the bay area on Sunday but decided instead to just take my time and drive home the long way via the ocean and the Golden Gate Bridge. Trying to soak up a few precious moments of ocean cooooool air before hitting the heatwave at home. So I was at the beach in the morning (64 degrees) and at home in the afternoon (109 degrees!!!) I had a nice day and a nice drive home. 

So one of the things you do at a Planner Meetup is buy all kinds of stuff!! LOL. Laurie's store is pretty freakin' awesome and I spent a LOT of money! EEK. It's been a while since I shopped for paper crafting things like that. Turns out I am the only person there that only had ONE planner! Almost everyone has several! I ended up buying some Prima planner things that are beautiful (and some traveler notebooks), some great stickers, and one fabulous paper collection. Now, normally I would hoard this new paper collection, but I decided to make a card with it today to show you instead!! Ha!! It's from Pebbles and it's called Girl Squad!!!! It's been a LONG time since I went gaga over an entire collection. It has everything you might want: cute girls, adorable sayings, coffee, gingham, gold foil, flowers!!!! I bought two paper pads and one of everything else! I hope you love it too! 
 

 

So this is another 'no stamping' card! Sometimes it's fun to make a quick and easy card with just paper and die cuts and embellishments! All of the papers are from the new collection. It all came together so easy. I used the stitched banner dies to make a banner down the front of the card. The sentiment is cut from the 12x12 sheet that has a ton of beautiful cards on it. The felt flower was in my stash and I have no idea where it came from! 

 

I thought this was a beautiful sentiment for a card today, because I am truly feeling filled with gratitude for the fun and uplifting weekend I had! I adore these colors together. So FRESH and pretty at the same time. 

 

It's hard to see, but the patterned floral had touches of gold in it! Squeeeee! 

 

 

 

Here is a photo from the Planner Meetup! I didn't take too many pictures, because I was having too much fun!!! Everybody was so friendly and kind. See how huge the store is? Yeah, you gotta get here sometime!! 

 

One of the fun things we did was make a Planner Stack! This is allllllll of our planners all lined up together! I love all the color and the flowers, and dots, and pom poms. Really fabulous! We all took turns taking pictures of it! You can see there are so many different kinds. I use an Erin Condren Planner - spiral bound ones on the left. There is truly something for everyone. 

 

A close up of that beautiful Planner Stack!

 

You guys know that coffee makes me happy, right? Well, Philz Coffee makes me VERY happy! They make this drink called a Mint Mojito Iced Coffee. We don't have Philz Coffee in Sacramento (but we're getting one finally!) so every time I'm near one I have to stop. This drink is creamy, minty, sweet, coooool, perfection! I'm dreaming of it again right now....

 

 

Happy, crafty, blogger girls! XOXO

 

 

I took a picture of this flower while Audrey and I were walking around the mall. It's a Dinner Plate Dahlia! OMG it is actually as big as a dinner plate! I wish I had put my hand in the photo or something for scale. I've never seen these before. WOWZA!!!! 

I had a great business breakfast meeting on Monday morning to discuss joining forces with another local creative to do some photography work. Please say prayers for me about this opportunity! I have a really good feeling about it and I want it to work out! Send some good vibes!! Tomorrow I will have a blog post for Papertrey Ink - for Throwback Thursday! Hope to see you then. Have a wonderful day! XOXO

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More Papertrey June 2017 Release: Introducing Petal Box Dies & Cutaway Tags Summer!

I have TWO blog posts today! Yowza! Happy Monday! I had the best weekend! I'll write more about it later, I promise. I have too much to share today that I'm excited about. I'm showing you the last two projects I made for the Papertrey Ink June 2017 Release. I have one card to share, and one treat box idea (I love making treat boxes!) Have you enjoyed the new release? Everything is available now in the PTI store! Today's products being featured are the Petal Box Dies and the Cutaway Tags Summer stamps and dies. YAY!

Papertrey Ink has some of the coolest dies for making treat boxes and bags. And I love them all. The newest one is called Petal Box and it creates a cute box that kind of looks like a purse. It's big enough to hold candy, small gifts or even a gift card or money. I can see using it for wedding favors, bridal shower place cards, Halloween treats, or birthday party decorations. The possibilities are endless. Since it's Summer, and because I wanted to use the Beautiful Berries stamp set, I created some picnic themed treat boxes to show you!

 

To make one treat box, you need to cut out two of the die shapes. Then you glue the bottoms together and fold the sides up to go over the handles. So easy really! They come together very quickly. You can get one treat box out of an 8.5 x 11 inch sheet of paper. The Petal Box Dies set comes with the main die to make the box, and then three different tags to use with your boxes. I used the Beautiful Berries Summer stamp set to decorate my gingham boxes and tags. 

 

My go-to topper for boxes is ribbon + twine. I love the look of shiny ribbon with natural twine or cord. Just makes it look a bit more fancy I think. I used gorgeous Berry Sorbet polka dot ribbon for this project. The stamps on the tags are from the Berries set as well. I stamped the words in two different colors and added a leaf to the top! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My second project for today is a card I made with the latest addition to the Cutaway Tags series of stamps and matching dies. I love red and white for Summer so I die cut the main die out of bright white cardstock and layered it over some Pure Poppy Cardstock. YUM. My finished card is a 4.5 x 4.5 inch square card made from kraft cardstock. I added pretty vellum leaves and a few enamel dots as my accents for this card.  

 

I stamped the sentiment in True Black ink onto a Double Ended banner die to make the words go all the way across the center of the main die. Don't you love that teeny scalloped edge around the circle? Swoooon. 

 

 

Okay, well, I think that's it for me for PTI June Release Week! My first post was on the 13th featuring Garden Party and Ways to Say Hello stamps if you want to check that one out again. I have so enjoyed sharing all the new items with you! CLICK HERE to see everything and shop! Have a good week! I will see you soon! XOXO

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Happy florals with Waffle Flower!

I have two blog posts today! It's Monday! I'm excited about being the guest designer for Waffle Flower again today! Thanks for the nice response to my last post for them! I simply adore everything from Waffle Flower! I think I've pretty much bought everything since getting home from CHA. Can't wait to see what they do next! Today's card features some big, bright, and bold florals from the Pretty Wings stamp set. I used warm Summer colors of red, orange and yellow!

My card started with an A2 card base made from wood grain cardstock. Then I used the Lacy Layers Dies to cut a rectangular window into the front of the card. I layered white cardstock on the bottom of the card to show through the window. Next I stamped and die cut all the flowers! The flowers are all from the Pretty Wings Stamp Set. The matching dies are super easy to line up to the flowers, and cut like a dream. 

 

 

I layered the flowers in bunches in the lower left corner and upper right corner of the opening. I used some foam tape to attach them. At the end I added a few white pearls. 

 

I stamped the sentiment on the white panel that sits behind the opening. Very clean and simple. 

 

I used the beautiful Greenery Dies set to die cut a few leaves. I wanted a pop of Summer green in there with the other colors! 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for stopping by today! I have sure enjoyed my guest designer stint with Waffle Flower! Thanks to Nina and Channin for the lovely invitation to join you!! Have a great day everyone! XOXO

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More Papertrey Ink June 2017 Release: Introducing Herb Garden Mini Kit & Quoted True Friends!

Hi! I'm back with more projects from the June 2017 Papertrey Ink new release! It's been a fun week showing you everything! And, Happy Father's Day to all of you as well! And Happy Sunday! I'm still away on my little getaway to the Bay Area and I'll be home tonight. Can't wait to tell you about it. Hope you're having an awesome weekend. It's going to be over 100 degrees every day this coming week where I live. Yikes! I wish we had a swimming pool at our house!! 

Today I'm sharing two cards - One made with the fabulous new Mini Kit called Herb Garden, and one with the newest Quoted stamps - called True Friends. All of the brand new release products are available in the PTI store now. Hope you found something you like! CLICK HERE to see the new release. 

The newest addition to the Mini Kits is gorgeous! It's called Herb Garden, and, as you would expect, has beautiful herb images and pretty words, beautiful linen papers, and awesome matching dies... Sigh. I think that gardening themed products are perfect for so many occasions. We all have that one friend who has a brilliant green thumb! And we all need serene images of greenery for hard occasions. I have so many ideas for this set. I used the stamps and dies today, but the matching papers are GORGEOUS! I'm going to have to try to not hoard them. LOL. 

My card started with a kraft woodgrain card base. Then I layered beautiful green paper - just a sliver. Then I stamped the herb images onto a white panel to create my own patterned paper. Then I stamped and die cut my main image and placed it on a crisp tag. Some twine finishes it all off. Because, heck, gardening cards must have twine!  

 

I used several shades of green and brown to create a natural feel to the card. When I put the parsley onto the tag, it kind of got lost. So I stamped some background images in a soft brown tone to ground it. I stamped the words in darker brown. 

 

So elegant and classy!!! I love that each of the herbs is different and unique, but they all look good together mixed. 

 

 

 

My next card uses the brand new Quoted: True Friends stamp set! I also decided to pair it with the fun camping images from the Hello Mother, Hello Father stamp set. I started with a rich green card base and layered kraft cardstock. You can see that I used the woodgrain stencil to make my kraft layer have some interest. I stamped all the images in brown, and colored with my Copic Markers. 

 

For the front piece, I rounded the corners of the paper. This is cream cardstock, not bright white, for a natural look. I splattered some light tan paint over the images once they were all colored in. I laced some twine around the top of the kraft layer. 

 

 

THANK YOU for coming by each day to see more Papertrey Ink inspiration from the new release. LOTS more coming tomorrow! CLICK HERE to see the entire new release and shop. Have an amazing day. XOXO

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More Papertrey Ink June 2017 Release: Introducing Land That I Love and Textile Impressions!

Hi crafty friends! Happy Saturday! I hope you're having a nice weekend! Today I'm going to my first ever Planner Meet Up! I have no idea what to expect, but I know for sure it will be FUN! I can't wait to hang out with happy crafty girls all afternoon and evening (and eat pizza too!). Looking forward to seeing everyone's amazing planners, doing some creative things, and laughing. I'm also excited and looking forward to meeting one of my online crafty friends in person too. It's at an awesome store, owned by a totally awesome lady - called The Island's Creative Escape! YAY!! Are you a planner girl?? Have you ever been to a meet up??? Tell me!! 

Today, as part of the June Release Week Festivities for Papertrey Ink, I'm introducing two more projects with two more new stamp sets! One is a beautiful set perfect for 4th of July (Land that I Love), and the other is a fresh and funky set of design elements (Textile Impressions)! Everything for the new release is now available in the PTI online store! 

First up, a 4th of July card! Yeah, 4th of July is coming soooooon! How is that even possible? Okay, never mind about that. Hahaha. I love kraft and red, so I started with that as the basis for my card. I used the new Mix and Mat Pretty Brackets Die to make the focal point of the card. Then I used white ink, and red, blue and yellow inks to randomly stamp the fireworks all over. I added the beautiful sentiment in black. All of the stamps are from the new Land That I Love stamp set. 

 

I used Vintage Photo Distress Ink to edge around the center die piece. This makes the top kraft part stand out against the bottom kraft base. I added some clear rhinestones for the centers of some of the fireworks. 

 

I felt like the card needed one big pop of color so I added a bright gold star at the bottom! 

 

 

 

The next card was made with the new Textile Impressions stamp set. It's a set full of textures and graphics that you can mix and match to form design elements. Very creative! There are also a few perfect sentiments. I used the one chevron image and some fresh colors to stamp randomly onto a little note. The note was cut from the PTI Spiral Notebook Die. I thought it was nice with that sentiment!! 

 

 

I layered some pretty PTI patterned paper and added a bow and a pin to the card for accents. This is very clean and simple and I kinda like it!! 

 

 

 

Just a note to say HELLO! :-)

Thank you again for coming by today! Have an awesome weekend! See you tomorrow! CLICK HERE to shop the new PTI release! XOXO

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More Papertrey Ink June Release: Introducing Humming Along!

Hi everyone! The June 2017 Papertrey Ink Release is now live, and all the new items are available in the PTI Store! What is your favorite new item from the June release?? It's hard to pick a favorite this time around (okay every time). For the next few days I'll be sharing all of my projects with you and I can't wait for you to see everything. I posted on the 13th with my three projects for the Garden Party set (scroll back to see those)! Today I'm featuring and introducing the set called Humming Along. It's so unique! I don't think I've ever seen a stamp set with fuchsia flowers in it. Fuchsias remind me of my grandmother. She always had these beautiful plants right by her front door of her house and I have that memory firmly in my mind. Also, this set has morning glories and sweet little fluttering hummingbirds. 

My card today is very colorful!!! Get out your sunglasses! Bright green, pretty pinks, and gorgeous turquoise....ahhhhhh. There are matching dies for this set, so creating a card is easy as 1, 2, 3. I started with a green card base and used the A2 Scalloped Noted die to make it into a pretty scallop card. Then I layered a piece of bright white. If you look closely, you can see that I misted on some aqua paint mist for a little interest in the background. 

 

I stamped and die cut out two fuchsias and one hummingbird. I used my MISTI to line up the stamp color layers. I added pretty Diamond Stickles over the top to look like the sunshine is hitting the flowers and the bird wings. 

 

How sweet is that hummingbird? This is the small one, there is a larger one too!! You can stamp the birds and the flowers in so many color combinations.

 

The sentiments in this set and unique and beautiful and meaningful. I will pull this set out to use with other sets - just to use the sentiments. Lovely. 

Thanks for popping in today! CLICK HERE to see the new release! I'll see you tomorrow, right back here. Have a lovely day! XOXO

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4th of July Giveaway and a fun Doodlebug card!

UPDATED 6/19/17: MY LUCKY WINNER IS DANIELLE DIETZ!!! Email me if we haven't already connected! Thanks everyone!

Hey friends! I'm squeezing a post in this afternoon because the mailman just dropped off something fun I ordered for a giveaway! Woot! So I ripped open the box, and made a card really quickly to share. Most of all, though, I want to share some fun new Doodlebug supplies with YOU!! I pretty much buy every single Doodlebug release - like the entire release. (I might have a problem, but more on that later!) I also collect the AMAZING Doodlebug Collectible Pins! CLICK HERE for a pic of my growing collection. When I saw the newest release - called Yankee Doodle, I wanted it all, especially the new pin, because it's an American flag. CLICK HERE to see ALL the pins!! So I did my order and thought - let me order two of things so I can share with my fabulous blog readers! YAY! Details on the giveaway are at the bottom of my post. 

For my card, I started with an A2 card base in a pretty shade of medium blue. Then I layered white cardstock. The rest of the card is all papers from the 6x6 paper pad! I cut out some of my favorites, and then cut out the little pictures that were on one of the sheets. Easy Peasy! I think it took me about 30 minutes to make this card. No stamping! I added a few accents of sequins, twine and a pin. All in pretty tones of red, white and blue! 

 

I loooooove that little paisley print! It's the absolute perfect scale for a card! 

 

GIVEAWAY!!!

To win the giveaway, leave a comment here on my blog and tell me what you're doing for the 4th of July this year! Or tell me a favorite memory of a 4th of July in the past! That's it! I can't wait to read your answers!! The prize includes a Limited Edition Flag Pin, a 6x6 paper pad, American Flag washi tape, and the card I made! Please leave your comment by Sunday the 18th at 9pm EST. I'll pick the randomly drawn winner on Monday the 19th and email you to get your address. GOOD LUCK! 

 

Last night I went to a fun blogging meet up and on the way in to the event I spotted these flowers. I got my camera out of my purse and took a quick photo! Don't they make you happy?? Nothing is happier than bright yellow flowers! They look like Summer to me....

Thank you for popping by! Good luck with the giveaway! See you tomorrow! XOXO

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Papertrey Ink June 2017 Release Week: Introducing Garden Party & Ways to Say - Hello!

Hey there! I'm back already! Because...it's June Release Week for Papertrey Ink! I love release week! I will be sharing TEN projects in the next week all made with the new items from the latest release from PTI. Are you ready? I'm excited to share, and always shocked, at how fast a month passes by. The June products are a great mix of everything good for Summer, flowers, 4th of July, innovative dies, and beautiful sentiments. Can't wait to show you everything - so hope you visit often in the upcoming days. Be sure to visit the Official Papertrey Ink Blog for ALL the details of release week, and the fun activities that go with this time! All of the new products will be available for purchase on the 15th at 10pm EST. Woot!

Today I'm helping to introduce two new stamp sets - Garden Party and Ways to Say: Hello! They worked so perfectly together, that all three of my cards for today use both stamp sets. I've also used the matching dies for both sets. And, on my third card I used the awesome new Edgers Dies!  I tried to shake it up and show you some different ways to use the sets, and some different color combinations, too. Thanks for visiting today! 

First up is a super bright and colorful one layer stamped card. It was really fun to use vivid and happy colors to create floral clusters on a crisp white layer. My card base is the beautiful Bright Buttercup paper. The sentiments are in rich black for contrast. 

 

I'm going to use this Hello stamp A LOT! I know it. It's the perfect size for cards and also for the front of envelopes. Sure to cheer up anyone! You can see that I added just a couple of pearls to the finished card for shimmer and shine. 

 

I did just a tiny bit of masking on that big flower. The rest was freehand stamping. This would make a pretty tropical party invite! Aloha!

 

 

 

Next up, I went for a more muted color palette, some gingham, and a country feeling. I love a good kraft card base! I layered the PTI gingham paper onto my card base then cut a smaller white layer with a touch of Pure Poppy. I stamped the flowers into one big bouquet off to one side. I'm all about yellow right now... 

 

The sentiment was stamped and heat embossed on a strip of black cardstock and cut into a banner by hand. I layered it onto the card with foam tape. 

 

 

 

 

 

And lastly, I used kraft again, but this time with white and Hawaiian Shores paper! Pow! Look at that pretty Hello die! So fun. Here is one of the new Edgers Dies in action too. I stamped and die cut a few of the flowers and leaves and made an accent in the V created by the edger die. 

 

 I used PTI Snow White Ink on kraft paper for the flowers and leaves.

 

 

That's it for me today! Remember, everything new is for sale on the 15th at 10pm EST. I'll be back on Friday with more (much more) inspiration from the new release. Until then, have a great week. Thanks for stopping by! 

 

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Feelin' a heatwave today with Waffle Flower!

Hey everyone! Happy Monday! OH MAN, I have been through so much in just a few days. My husband and I came down with the seriously worst stomach flu EVER at the end of last week. I feel so lucky to even be able to sit here and type and say hi. That thing was brutal. BRUTAL. I slept all day Thursday and Friday and most of Saturday too. I have never been so grateful to eat a bowl of Cheerios in my life as I was on Sunday morning. I'm back, and lived to tell about it! Good thing, because this week has a lot of good stuff going on. Just a few more days until I get to spend the weekend in the Bay Area hooking up with my sweet friend Audrey, and going to a fun Planner Meet up at the stamp store. YAHOO. Girl stuff. Cannot wait. Also, this is PTI Release week - good stuff there too.

But first, and exciting, is what I'm sharing today! I am the guest designer on the Waffle Flower Crafts Blog today! YEAH! I am so in love with every single thing Waffle Flower is putting out lately. Truly unique and fun. I was very happy when they invited me to craft with them! :-) CLICK HERE to see the Waffle Flower Blog! 

For my card today I'm using the new stamp set called Heat Wave! It's uber cute clothes and accessories perfect for any summertime gal. I adore this set! I combined it with the pretty Waffle Flower Greenery Dies and a cool retro color palette of mint and pink. We're havin' a heat wave! Thanks out to Nina and Channin for the lovely invitation. I'll be guest designing today, and again next Monday. Best wishes for a great week. 

My card really started with the stamp set and a color idea - how about if I make the card with a retro chic Palm Beach vibe from the fifties?? Lovely shades of minty green and ice cream pink paired with soft grey! YUM. So I made an A2 card base with grey cardstock. Next I layered on a beautiful scallop rectangle made with the Lacy Layers Dies. (LOVE). Then I stamped and die cut out all the clothes. Like paper dolls!  

 

I wanted a way to frame the sentiment so I used the gorgeous Greenery Dies and die cut some pastel green leaves. I speckled them with a bit of white spray mist from my stash. You could also use white paint for this. 

 

I used a bit of twine and some enamel dots to add texture and shine to the card. All the elements are attached with foam squares to pop them off the paper. 

 

 

 

I think these stamps could be used for so many cute ideas! I'm thinking bridal showers, birthday parties, bridesmaid luncheons, all kinds of fun things! For all our girly girl friends! And how many fun color combos can you think of??? If you did the same card in red, yellow and lime green it would have a whole different vibe. 

Thanks for stopping by today and sharing my enthusiasm for Waffle Flower Crafts! I'll have another Waffle Flower card next Monday. In the meantime, please check back tomorrow for my first post for the June PTI Release. XOXO

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Reverse Confetti Creative Hop & June Sale!

Hi everyone!!! This week is going by so fast. How do I know that? Because I still have way to much to get done!! I hope you are having a great week so far. We are having wonderful weather where I live and allergy season is finally over. We've been catching some rays at the pool at the gym this week. It's nice to be outside doing things - especially in the evenings. My favorite time of day is dusk, when the sun sets and it's not quite dark. Since I am a night owl, that is like the beginning of the second part of my day! 

Today I'm posting as part of a Creative Blog Hop for Reverse Confetti! Yahoooooo! I love Jen, and her beautiful stamps, and I'm so happy she invited me to take part today. We're hopping - with no theme - and just celebrating a big sale going on over at the Reverse Confetti Store. The full blog hop list is at the bottom of my post. Welcome here from my uber talented friend Laurie's Blog! 

I went through ALLLLL my Reverse Confetti stamps to see what would strike inspiration for this hop today. Well, that cute little grinning alligator caught my eye. I love him! I've made a lot of cards with this stamp set (Later Alligator) and it pairs perfectly with the Weather it Together stamp set. I created a sweet scene and had fun coloring with my Kuretake Zig Brush Markers!

 

I started with a crisp white A2 card base and layered lime green cardstock and another layer of white. I popped in a bit of gingham in the middle for some visual interest and cuteness! I colored everything with Zig Clean Color Markers in bright rainbow shades to make the card happy. The matching die cuts work like a dream. 

 

Isn't he so adorable??? Can alligators even be cute?? Well, he is!! I colored the gator with two shades of green and used water to move the colors around. Easy peasy to color all these images quickly. 

 

I couldn't resist some bits of sparkly Hero Arts fine glitter on the umbrella, clouds and sunshine. Just makes a bit of a pretty shimmer on everything. I use a glue pen, and it dries very quickly so you don't have to set it aside for long. 

 

 

 

Rain or Shine, you're always on my mind, friends! 

Thanks for popping and hopping by today as part of this awesome blog hop! Don't forget the sale code is good through the 11th: SUMMER20 for 20%off your entire Reverse Confetti order. Enjoy the rest of your day, and enjoy the hop! Next up is the sweet and wonderful Susan and her amazing blog! 

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FULL BLOG HOP LINK LIST! 

 

Reverse Confetti blog

Amy Kolling

‘Fetti Friend, Tricia Barber

Heather Pulvirenti

Lisa Henke 

Melissa Phillips 

Amy Rohl 

Heather Hoffman

Amy Tsuruta

Kathy Schweinfurth

Audrey Tokach

Amy Sheffer

Leigh Penner

Jeanne Jachna

Laurie Schmidlin

Wanda Guess (you are here!)

Susan Liles

My Monthly Hero - June Card Kit Blog Hop - Wild About You!

Hi friends! Welcome to the Hero Arts "My Monthly Hero" June Card Kit blog hop! I'm so happy to see you today! Happy Monday! Happy Summer! Best wishes for an awesome week ahead! The Hero Arts Kit this month is full of Safari themed products to get us ready for the jungle! The Kit features awesome stamps, loads of dies, cool and interesting papers, and ink pads too! The add-ons give you even more versatility with the safari theme. My card for today was inspired by the awesome Tiger layering stamps. OMG they are so great! Two colors - orange and black - but the way the stamp is made, it looks like their tummies are white. Perfection! I had a blast making this card. 

You may have arrived here from the lovely Jennifer McGuire's Blog!  If you want to start at the beginning of the hop, CLICK HERE to go to the Hero Arts Blog. Lots and lots of inspiration for you today. I am always so grateful to join these fantastic crafters in this monthly hop. If you're new to my blog -welcome! Have fun!  

My card started with a white A2 card base. I knew I wanted to use kraft paper so I made a pretty border using the large background stamp and some Versamark Ink. Came out so nice and clean. Then I used the grass die cut to make three olive green layers for my tigers. I die cut that pretty (and giant) sun out of bright yellow paper. Next I stamped and die cut the tigers. 

 

The sentiment is from the main kit, and I stamped it in deep black onto kraft cardstock to match the background layer. 

 

These tigers are so amazing! I will use these stamps again for sure. I'm already thinking of Chinese New Year cards next time it's the year of the Tiger!! They are perfect. I love how the little one is looking up. They were very easy to line up also. 

 

 

The kit is available NOW! Yippeeeee! Below is a photo of ALL THE STUFF that comes in the main kit. Awesome jungle and safari stamps with matching dies, inks, papers, and more! This is a great value for $34.99! The items sold separately retail for $73.00 or more! Hero Arts is VERY generous with their beautiful kits! The other supplies I used are listed below in my links.  

PRIZE ALERT!! Hero Arts is giving away one kit as a prize to one blog reader – selected from the comments across all of the blogs in the hop. Giveaway closes June 11th, at midnight, and the winner will be announced the following week on the Hero Arts Blog. If you've already purchased your kit, and you win, you will be reimbursed! 

 

The kit is available for a limited time only – once it’s gone, it’s gone. Kits begin shipping from Hero Arts on Friday June 9th! These have a habit of selling out fast! So don't wait if you like this one. 

 

Next up on the blog hop is the amazing May Park! The full hop list is at the bottom of my post. Have fun hopping and have a happy, creative day! XOXO When you make something with your new card kit, be sure to use the hashtag #mymonthlyhero on your social media! TO START AT THE BEGINNING OF THE HOP - CLICK HERE!

 

MAIN CARD KIT CONTENTS:

 

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Keepin' it Tropi-cool today!

Happy Saturday creative and lovely friends! Before I start my post and share my card for today I have to really take some time to say thank you THANK YOU for the amazing love and support everyone has shown me since I wrote my last blog post. I seriously had no idea that there would be such a huge response and such an outpouring of kindness and love. I have read every comment (and every email) each of you sent me. I was moved to tears many times. I read some of your comments to my husband and he was also moved to tears. Wow. I have no words really. I was so down when I wrote that blog post, and God must have know exactly what He was doing. My cup is now filled and brimming over. I am totally feeling the kindness from people. Just when my faith was so low and I really want to hibernate. You guys have shown me that there is SO MUCH GOOD in the world. Taking the time to write me long, heartfelt, lovely comments is so kind. I'm forever grateful and I have no way to explain how much. Thank you really - you made a difference to me. I also have the feeling that all of us reading each other's comments did not only lift me up. We all lifted each other up. What a wonderful thing. You guys are the best. I am sure of that. 

I think a big part of my problem lately has to do with peri-menopause and (not) sleeping. The hubs and I started back the the gym this week and I'm hoping that being physically tired will help me sleep better and be more mentally strong. Heck, I even made homemade almond milk this morning! (Clearly I have been kidnapped). It was quite delicious. Summer is in full blast here and we sat outside in the sun as well today. Then I was feeling so tropi-cool that I had to make a card to share. 

You know I am crazy for tiki-tropical-Hawaii-pineapple stuff. Well, I have had some really awesome new wood mount stamps sitting on my desk for a week or so. Today I inked them up and made a clean and simple card that reflects Summer. I realllllly love the Hero Arts Neon Ombre Inks. The colors are super hard to photograph. I'm not sure why. Trust me, they are much more vivid in person, and truly neon-y. I used two of the Neon pads for the leaves and the pineapple. I paired the bright neon with lots of bright white paper and just a pop of black ink. 

 

The card base is white - A2. Then I stamped the leaves on a white piece of paper and die cut out that part with a Stitched Rectangle Die. Next I stamped the Pineapple and cut that out by hand (super easy). I made a white tag, and a white circle to complete my elements. Tip: with the gradated ombre ink pads be sure to touch your stamp to the ink pad a few times, barely overlapping the colors on your stamp. This will give you a smooth color transition instead of harsh, obvious lines in the colors. 

 

The tag, pineapple and circle were attached to the card using foam squares. I added some ink splatters (with a stamp) to the circle since it looked too plain with just the words. Isn't that the cutest sentiment stamp? 

 

 

 

I am SUPER super OCD about storing my photographs. So I always know how to re-find a photo. While I was making this card I was fondly remembering when the hubs and I went to Hawaii in 2007. I went and got the SD card and looked through all the pictures and it made me happy. I love this picture of us (I wish that guy's butt wasn't in the background!) This trip was the very first time I used a digital camera. I was such a holdout - kept my film camera for a lonnnng time before going new school. SO ALOHA from younger us! 

Thank you, everyone, for visiting today. And every day. Hope you are having an amazing weekend! XOXO

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Checking in and catching up! This post is from my heart today...

Hi everyone! Happy June! Happy Summer! No card today, only photographs and writing! It's been a long time since I sat down and wrote something meaningful here, and spoke from my heart about life and what's going on with me. Today seemed like the right day for that. I went to a great local blogger meet-up event a couple of weeks ago here in Sacramento and everyone was talking about writing. It struck me hard - how much I love to write and how much I've missed it. I've been caught up on posting lots and lots of cards but not really writing.

I've been going through a depression of sorts and when that happens to me, I tend to lay low and hibernate myself at home and isolate myself from people and places. I have been keeping to myself and watching too much TV. It's not the best thing, but it is my coping mechanism for times when I feel like I need to sort things out and regroup and mend myself. I've distanced myself away from people. Some things have happened to me in the past six months or so that have really thrown me for a loop. I'm having a hard time - there I admitted it. I have always been the person who says "I'm fine, I'm fine" when I'm just not. That's my past telling me that no one cares if I'm fine anyway, so just keep it in and don't risk it. I think it's so much a part of my personality that people don't even ask me how I am. The assumption is that I'm fine. The funny thing is, usually I am fine - great even. Mostly because of my strong faith.  However, this time around I'm just struggling to boost myself back up and out into the world. It's taking me a lot longer than normal to reach my evening out point and it's been sort of scary. It's harder to be creative when I'm in this state and I've been struggling there too. So I've been organizing a lot and putting our house in order. This helps the chaos in my brain!!! I do love to organize. Heck, and now our house is clean. There's that. 

I'm not sure I totally love working from home. I always used to tell people I didn't think it was for me, and turns out I was right! I am lonely here all day when my friends are at work or taking care of their kids. I miss the office life - even though that life was very hard at the end for me. I miss catching up with people and having someone stop by my office to say hey. I really miss working with other people as a team. Like really miss that. If you ask my former work friends they will say that I was the social butterfly of the office. And just like that after 30 years of being in a huge office full of people, I'm just sitting here by myself all day. It's weird! And I always feel like I'm bugging someone if I interrupt their day with a text or email while they are working. I think I'm still adjusting to this different life. I am super grateful for what I have...and it is an adjustment. Everything in life is about balance right? I'm definitely out of balance. Working on that as we speak - made some plans with a fellow blogger for next week to hang out. I love to share ideas with people. It's almost been two years since I left my corporate job and I'm not really making enough money yet being on my own. I'm trying not to panic yet. I have faith it will come. It takes time to build up enough clients and enough work.

What's up with me? A couple of things happened in close succession and knocked me down. Recently, for the first time in my entire life, I was bullied. I really do not want to talk about the specifics of what happened, but the results of that situation are astonishing me. I now realize how lucky I was to never have been through that as a child or young adult. Because it is awful. I'm an old girl, and I've been through a lot of tough times in my life. But this? Shook.me.up. Hard. You know how you have those moments in life where you know that after that moment you will be a different person? And there's no going back, nothing you can do about it? That. Shocking. My entire life has been a series of things in which I have had to overcome obstacles, and take care of myself. I am very proud of that. And through it all, I've stayed an optimistic and happy soul. I am fearful that part of my world view is gone and I will not be the same optimistic and happy soul. Maybe it will come back?? Time takes care of these things. But I've been through a lot of things and always managed to stay optimistic and it's hard for me right now - to not become cynical and jaded. I never want to be one of those people who is closed off, but man, I totally get it now. A lesson in compassion indeed. 

I've also gone through something else at the same time - and it's something we don't really talk about - having your heart broken by a friend. I've had my heart broken. There, I said that out loud too. Has this happened to you? Someone you were so connected to, just waltzes right on out of the picture and you're just standing there. I feel like a cartoon - shaking my head with that weird wobbly noise. WH-ATTTT happened? So I tried to ask them in emails and even in person what happened and this friend just said - nothing - everything is fine. When it so obviously is not fine. OBVIOUSLY. It's one of two things: either I did something that hurt or bothered the person, or they just don't like me anymore. Either way is terrible!! What do you do with that? Especially when the person denies you the answer.  I think that part is worse than the break up. Don't ever do that to someone - make them feel like they're crazy when they put their heart on the line to ask. Tell them. It was interesting (no coincidences) that right after this happened to me, not one, but two, of my friends from the past spoke to me about why we are not friends anymore. I was super honest with both of them and tried to ease their burden. I told them my side of the story in love and honesty. And now we all can have clear communication and healing. Best outcome. It is so hard to confront someone about this. I'm so so so sad. It has been just like a break up. Thinking about it every night before I go to sleep, wondering what I did. I'm so afraid I will never open up to another person in friendship like that. Like maybe that was the last time I will make a new friend. Sounds dramatic, to be sure, but I feel that wonky about it. I know with certainty that God has a plan and that each relationship has a specific purpose. Some people are friends and some people are lessons. Some are both. This whole situation has made me even more aware of how I treat people. Life is HARD. So if I can make someone's day easier I'm all about it.

Of course everything is not all negative!!! I'm just struggling. Finding my new me. I feel like I can't trust my judgement about people and I don't want to get hurt again (at least not any time soon). After things happen that change you it feels weird. Like trying on a new pair of shoes. They're gonna give you blisters for a while. Feel uncomfortable until they're broken in. I'm a different Wanda than I was a year ago. I don't know what to make of it all yet. Growth and change almost always equals pain and tribulation. I know that the master silversmith is refining me daily.  It helps for me to write, that's for sure. I hope you can relate and I hope maybe it helps to know that whatever you're going through - you're not alone out there. If you ever want to talk to me, you email me or Facebook message me. I don't want anyone to be sad alone. I've been blogging for almost 8 years now and you guys lift me up all the time. ALL THE TIME. Your comments and your sweet words, and some of you have become friends. It's so wonderful. And I thank you!! You guys are the reason I blog - for the human connection we can all find here. If I can facilitate that, then I am super happy to do so. Crafting is very personal and can be such a great way to connect with others. 

I have been blessed with a wonderful life partner and husband who takes care of me. THANK GOD. It's coming up on our 24 year anniversary and the hubs surprised me by buying us tickets to go see Theresa Caputo in person. I LOVE her. I cannot wait for that (the 24th) and I'll be sure to share all about it. Do you guys love that show too??? I cannot wait to see what happens live.

I've been hanging around with a group of fellow creatives here in town lately too - over the past few months. Sacramento is really starting to have a budding, organized creative community and it is so awesome. Most everyone is younger than me, and their energy and enthusiasm is infectious. We do meet ups, and lectures on topics that apply to business and creating. They are also non judgmental as a whole. No one cares what you wear, or how old you are, or what you're blogging about. No one is competing - we are all trying to network, to help each other be our best, and find work, get paid for our work, and make our city a better place.  

Lots of you might not know that in addition to being a professional crafter/blogger, I am also a professional photographer. I have been a photographer since I was 15 years old (and that's a long time)! My first job was at a camera store and I worked there all through high school and during college breaks. I know how to develop B&W and color film and B&W and color photographs too, and slides!! Photography is in my blood!! I can't even remember a time when I didn't have a camera in my hand. My uncle owns a camera store, and my cousin is a cinematographer. Currently I take photos for websites, stores, shops and restaurants to use in their social media, their print ads, catalogs, and websites. I've wanted to be a professional photographer my entire life. It's finally happening. This is what I'm focusing on (pun intended) to get me through this difficult time I'm going through. My camera and my photos are how I interact with the world. It brings me great comfort. 

Dreams can come true at any time in your life so stay ready. God will take care of it according to His perfect plan for your life. I believe that. That is where my strength comes from. Thanks for reading this post today. Thanks for supporting me. 

So with all of that being said, I want to share some recent photographs I've taken of the beautiful place I call home. Spring and early Summer are  gorgeous here in Northern California. The earth is in full blooming color and it is magic. Time to be outside in the fresh air, planting flowers, and eating delicious fresh food - straight from the farm. There is nothing like eating warm, juicy, strawberries that were picked five minutes ago and still smell like the earth. Enjoy!

Lake Tahoe at Emerald Bay - still snow in late May!!  

 

Bridalveil Falls at Highway 50, El Dorado County.

 

Squaw Valley Meadow - early evening

 

These are my favorite Nikko Blue Hydrangeas that are planted in my front yard! One bush is already TEN feet tall this year and the other one is about six feet tall. There are hundreds of mopheads already. I love to bring them inside and have them all over the house and in my studio. We got married in Cape Cod and I had hydrangeas in my wedding bouquet. I planted these as a reminder of that time and place. I definitely left my heart there! 

 

The most handsome cat in the world - just getting up from a nap! BUDDY!!

 

A favorite restaurant of mine - Selland's on Broadway in Sacramento.

 

Burgers & Brew on R Street in Sacramento

 

The rest of these photos are from local Farmstands, the Nursery, and the Farmer's Market!!  

 

 

 

 

 

 

I will be back on Monday with a card for the new Hero Arts Monthly Card Kit! Thanks for coming by today! XOXO