A Blog Called Wanda

See you in a couple of weeks! We're on vacation!

Hey hey hey! I'm here with a quick announcement! I won't be blogging for the next couple of weeks and didn't want you to wonder what was up around here! The hubs and I are going on a road trip and I'm so super excited! I get to have him to myself! Yay - no work, no stress, no responsibilities. CANNOT wait. Our road trip is one of the celebrations of our Silver Jubilee this year. We haven't been on vacation in quite a long time. We'll be taking a road trip up through California, Oregon and Washington. Cool temps, crisp Fall air, waterfalls, coffee, whales...everything we love to see. 

Usually when I've been away for a time for work or play I have continued scheduled blog posts for my design teams. For ten years I haven't missed a week of posting! Dang. This time around I decided to schedule myself free time too. A creative break and a blogging break. I will definitely be sharing on Instagram and Instagram Stories along the way!  I'll be so inspired to create when I get home I'm sure. 

See you soon, friends! XOXO

 

 

You're the caramel apple of my eye! Lawn Fawn cards!

Helllloooooooo! There's a lot going on around the old bloggy blog lately! So many fun and cool opportunities...and I've been on a creative roll! Just getting around to posting some cards I made a little bit ago. Sometimes, when I get new stamps, I can't wait to color them! So I sit down and stamp and die cut the images, color them, and enjoy that part of the process. Then I'll come back around and make the cards. That's what happened with this adorable new Caramel Apple stamp set from Lawn Fawn! EEEK. It's from their brand new release. It makes me smile! Those little caramel apples with their smiles and cheeks. What a fun thing to color. I've been working on my Copic coloring lately - trying out some darker colors and getting a bit more bold with things. I really like how these guys (and gals) came out!  I ended up with a clean and simple card design to feature them apples! LOL.  

 

The background die is one of my all time favorite Lawn Fawn products. I use it a lot. It's clean and classic and just the perfect touch when you don't want plain white paper as your background. This card started with a Juicy Pear (my favorite green paper) A2 card base. Then I layered colors to match the apples. 

 

For their chubby pink cheeks I used Doodlebug Glitter Sprinkles! I love that tiny bit of dimension instead of flat coloring. I used my white gel pen to add accents over my coloring and to the red heart in the scene. How fun is that sentiment? I love it when Lawn Fawn separates out the sentiments so you can easily use different colors of ink. 

 

 

 

You're the caramel APPLE of my eye indeed! Can't wait to give these cards out! Maybe I'll have to make some caramel apples to go with them! I haven't made caramel apples in a long time. Man, does that sound gooooood right now!

Thanks for popping in today to see my card! Do you love these little apples as much as I do?? Too fun! Have a fabulous day, my fabulous crafty friends! XOXO

 

SUPPLIES FOR TODAY!

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Mama Elephant 6 Year Anniversary Release Stampede! Holiday Treats!

Hello and welcome to Mama Elephant's #celebrating6years Anniversary Release Stampede with some wonderful crafty friends and designers! What is a stampede? A blog hop! Yay! The wait is finally over! The new Mama Elephant release is now live and available for purchase in the shop!  CLICK HERE to shop mamaelephant.com! I'm super excited to be part of the fun here with the gang from Mama Elephant and some of my favorite designers. I'm introducing, and using the new Yappy Woofmas stamps and dies! SO adorable! I think this might be my first holiday project??? Is it?? I'm just dipping my toe into Christmas for now. I knew I wanted to make Favor Bags because that is one of my favorite products ever from Mama Elephant!  

 

To start at the beginning of the hop and see all the inspiration and details CLICK HERE to go to the Mama Elephant Blog!  Please read this post all the way to the end for special sale information, prizes and the rest of the hop list! XOXO 

 

    

 

 

 

For my project to share today, I made sweet treat favor bags and decorated them with all kinds of cute Mama Elephant Christmas goodies. The center images on both favor bags are from the brand new Yappy Woofmas stamp set. SO FUN. I made the favor bags from Kraft cardstock and then put on a layer of patterned paper before my top layer of stamping and die cutting images.  

 

 

 

How cute is the doggie wreath and kitty snowman! LOVE. 

 

 

 

 

I cut a white layer with the ME Basic Set dies and used the Landscape Trio dies to make a hill for my snowcat! I edged the hill in blue ink. Next I stamped and die cut the images and the banner and colored with my Copic Markers. I added glitter too!  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The super tiny and adorable bow dies make me happy. :-)

 

 

 

 

I used blue ink to stamp snowflakes onto the main panel to make it more festive! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

To celebrate with you, MAMA ELEPHANT has an amazing sale and promotion and giveaway! Keep reading to the end! 

 

 

 

 

From 9/15 - 9/17

10% off entire store! No code required!

 

From 9/15 - 9/30

Spend $100* - receive 1 free 'Color Me Letters' 4x6 stamp set.
Spend $150* - receive 1 free 'Color Me Letters' 4x6 stamp set and 'Hilly THANKS' dies.

Spend $200* - receive 1 free 'Color Me Letters' 4x6 stamp set, 'Hilly THANKS' dies, and 'Hilly HELLO' dies.

 

Please read all the fine print carefully! :)

*Subtotal amount must be met before any shipping fees/tax/customs.
Free item(s) valid only a single order/transaction.
Limit one of each free offer per order.
Orders cannot be combined. New orders only.
Limit one free offer per customer/order.
We reserve the right to cancel/modify orders.
Free offer valid 9/15-9/30 or while supplies last!

 

 

To celebrate this mega anniversary release, we are giving away of ten $25 ME gift certificates throughout the 3 day stampede! Winners will be chosen at random from the collective blogs in the Stampede. Winners will be announced on the last day of Stamp Highlights. You have up to 4 chances to qualify to win!

 

» 1. Leave a comment on this blog post «

 

» 2. Like/share us on Facebook: facebook.com/mamaelephant ;«

 

» 3. Follow/tweet us on Twitter: twitter.com/heymamaelephant «

» 4. Follow/comment on Instagram: instagram.com/mamaelephant «

 

Each action qualifies for one entry, max 4 entries per stampeder please!

 

Joining Mama Elephant on this wild ride of a stampede are some favorite crafty designer friends!

Please visit each blog to see what we all did with the new goodies!

 

Laura Bassen
Anna Kossakovskaya
Vera Rhuhay
Lisa Spangler
Wanda Guess
Rina Galit
Francesca Vignoli
Joan Ma
Kathy Racoosin

 

 

  

 

SUPPLIES FOR TODAY!

 

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Guest Designing for Sunny Studio Stamps with some happy, cheery Autumn projects!

Hey everyone! Happpppyyyyy Weekend! I'm excited to share some projects with you today! I am guest designing for AWESOME Sunny Studio Stamps today! YAHOOOO! You know I love Sunny Studio and I always love it when the kind and generous Mendi invites me to stamp with her gorgeous stamps and dies. I had a blast making today's card and treat bag to show you. Of course... as you've suspected... More Fall projects! The latest release from Sunny Studio is so great. I am especially smitten with the adorable Nutty For You acorn die set! EEP! A smiling acorn?? Yes please! Sign. Me. Up! CLICK HERE to go to the Sunny Studio Blog to check out all the other inspiration and projects! I used several new stamp sets - all the supplies are listed at the bottom of my post. Enjoy!

 

First up a pretty Autumn greeting! I featured the Happy Harvest Stamp set and then the sentiment from the Beautiful Autumn Stamp Set! I started with an A2 card base and layered beautiful Sunny Studio Gingham paper in pretty teal, and then vellum... Yeah, lots of layers on this one! The background was made with Distress Inks in Peacock and Honey - such a pretty combination! 

 

All of the images were colored with Copic Markers. I LOVE to color! Looks at those cute crows on the pumpkins! And that tree with a heart carved into it??? 

I die cut the top panel using Stitched Rectangles dies. Then I used an ink blending tool and two shades of distress inks to ink the background. I also splattered some Copic Opaque White ink over the blended ink. I stamped the sentiment in black ink directly onto the panel. 

 

 

 

After all the images were colored and die cut out with the matching dies, I layered them onto the card with foam tape. I used clear Nuvo drops to add a few sprinkles of dew around the card. Such a fun accent!

 

And next up I have a cute and sweet treat bag! I really like to make glassine treat bags for presents or place settings for a party or dinner. A glassine bag is a great blank canvas to decorate for any occasion. I put some gold almond Hershey's Kisses inside the bag before decorating it. 

 

 

I used all kinds of mix and match patterned papers in Autumn hues for this project. Since the scale is small and the patterns are simple, it all just kind of works! I used yellow, brown, orange and marroon from the new paper packs from Sunny Studio. I'm quite sure I've mentioned about a million times how much I use these awesome papers!! You need them in your life. Trust me. I used the veins part of the stamps from the Autumn Splendor stamp set to stamp directly onto the leaf die cut shapes. I really like how this looks. The Nutty For You acorn dies set has all the pieces to make this cutie pie! 

 

I wrapped maroon paper around the glassine bag first. Then I put the acorn together and glued him on with foam tape. I added twine to his little top hat! I die cut a circle and stamped the sentiment and some leaves onto it. That part is also attached with foam tape. I used Doodlebug black sprinkles for the eyes. Like, don't you want to give him a hug? LOL.

 

 

 

 

Okay! That's it for today! Thank you to Mendi for her kind invitation to guest design! I'm such a fan and always enjoy teaming up with Sunny Studio Stamps! Already looking forward to next time. I hope you have a wonderful weekend! XOXO I'll be back TOMORROW with something else super fun and fabulous! See you then!

 

SUPPLIES FOR TODAY!

(Affiliate Links Used)  

Spending the day at Beautiful Palladio Shopping Center in Folsom!

Greetings Friends! It's getting close to the weekend now! I hope you have some fun things planned for your Fall weekend. I'm here today with a different kind of post - a photo essay of the beautiful Palladio Shopping Center in Folsom, California. This shopping center is close to my house and it's one of my favorite places to hang out with Mark and with my gal friends. I was invited recently to participate in their guest blogger program and I gladly accepted. Last Friday Mark and I spent the entire day at Palladio - shopping, dining, going to the movies, and generally enjoying the beautiful surroundings. I hope you saw my Instagram stories from our trip! Palladio is conveniently located right off Highway 50 at the Bidwell Street Exit. 

Palladio is a gorgeous outdoor destination. It's like walking through a European village. There are lots of benches and cozy places to sit down and chat while you're exploring. In the Summer they have free concerts and we have enjoyed several of them in the past couple of years. The center offers free yoga on the plaza and now coming into Fall, family game nights. There is always something going on here! CLICK HERE to go to the center website! 

I was happy that our shopping trip coincided with the change of the seasons. All the stores right now are stocked with wonderful Fall decorations and pretty things to buy for your home. The restaurants are all switching to their Fall menus too. The weather is perfect so now is the time to go! I love looking at all the home stores here - my favorites are Kirklands and Rod Works, but there are so many more! So today I'm doing a photo essay to share with you the shoppping center. I'll share stories as we go along....

This is the beautiful main plaza area - complete with gorgeous metal sculptures and waterfalls and benches. The perfect place to meet up! 

 

It was a beautiful day for our trip! Palm trees everywhere create a great vibe - so pretty. 

 

 

The shopping center has TWO movie complexes! the Palladio 16 Cinemas and the Palladio Luxe Cinemas. I've been to both and they are fabulous and new and clean! Great place to catch a flick! 

 

One of the views down the shopping area. VERY pretty and inviting!

 

This is the beautiful fountain in front of the Barnes and Noble store. This Barnes and Noble has a full coffee bar, but also a full service restaurant inside. It's beautiful! It's a great spot to meet a friend. I've even been to some of my photographer meet up groups here. It's a busy hub with books and even vinyl records! Love that. I'm going to take a minute and share a story about one of the main reasons I love to come to Palladio. I consider this a great date destination - either for a day time date or an evening date. You can park your car one time and go to lunch or dinner, to a movie, grab a drink after, do some shopping. I love that!! Parking is free and plentiful and I always feel very safe here. Great place to meet with girl friends for the same reasons. 

 

There are beautiful flowers everywhere you turn!

 

 

 

 

 

We started our day off at Barnes and Noble Cafe with tasty treats and lattes, and magazines! It's a delicious way to begin your morning. The almond croissant was DEElicious! They have a big magazine section - and I love to read magazines!

 

Right around the corner from Barnes and Noble is the awesome Kirkland's Store. ALLLL decked out for Fall! Pumpkins and leaves everywhere! I bought a cute pillow for our family room and some photo props for my upcoming assignments. They have beautiful farmhouse decor and even Rae Dunn items! Kirkland's is one of my favorite stores in the entire center. Be sure to sign up for their emails - they have great sales! 

 

I bought this beautiful wreath for our front door too! It's never too early to start giving thanks. 

 

This pillow is now on our couch! 

 

A fan favorite is always See's Candies! It's right next door to Kirkland's. We popped in and bought some candy treats decorated for Autumn. See's is the best! It's my favorite candy in the world. I love the Almond Buds especially. Mark is a fan of the Peanut Crunch. 

 

Such pretty Fall packaging. Perfect to bring over to a friend's house for Thanksgiving! And, they have awesome Halloween treats too - for all your ghosts and goblins!

 

The Painted Studio is soooooo cool! Pop in to create a painting and have a cocktail with your friends! What is better than that?? And, you can reserve the studio for your private events. Wouldn't it be fun to have a birthday party here? They are so nice and friendly. You can choose which painting you want to make. Right now they have cool Fall crafting projects too. Totally a place to hang out and have a blast! The space is bright and fun and cheerful. 

 

Another place I frequent at Palladio is the Whole Foods Market. Time for another story! Since the center is close to our house, it's my go-to place for gift shopping. It's so easy to pop in to Whole Foods and buy a gorgeous bouquet of flowers and a bottle of wine - if you're going over to someone's house. They have cards too - in case you're going to a party. Makes it so easy to accomplish your errands. See's is next to Whole Foods too. Palladio is my gift destination! I can always find a special present here at one of the stores.  

 

 

 

On our day trip, we definitely had to stop for a yummy lunch! We chose Panera as our lunch spot. They also just switched over to their Fall menu items. This Panera is huge! It has a fireplace and a pretty outdoor patio. Plenty of seating and fast service. Park in the adjoining parking lot and you're right there! I meet my friends and work clients here often. 

 

I had the Vegetarian Squash soup and the awesome Ancient Grain Salad. YUM. Mark had a delicious turkey sandwich. They also now have Mac and Cheese with Bacon! I'm going to get that next time. YUMMMY! 

 

We continued our shopping spree at the beautiful Rod Works Store. This place is another of my favorites... Pretty, on trend, cheerful home decor sure to make you smile. This photo below...sigh... I want everything in this entire display!!! They have cool Halloween decorations out right now too. I bought a cute pumpkin spice coffee mug and a wooden tray for our living room. I could have bought the entire store! I can't wait to come back at Christmas time. 

 

 

 

 

 

We finished shopping by taking a peek into Chico's. They always have the most unique and special accessories. (Another place I like to buy gifts)... This Chico's is very large and so nicely merchandised. It's a treat to stop in here. 

By this time it was around 4pm and we decided it was time to catch a movie in the cool theaters. So we walked over to the Luxe Cinemas and finished out our date day. This post was sponsored by Palladio Shopping Center and I was compensated. All of my opinions and views are my own and my honest take on a place that I love!  I hope that you will plan a day or evening trip over to Palladio and explore for yourself. I know you're going to love it here too! Maybe we can meet up? Many thanks to Palladio for this fun opportunity to be the guest blogger for September!

LINKS:

PALLADIO SHOPPING CENTER

PALLADIO SPECIAL EVENTS

PALLADIO DINING

KIRKLAND'S

SEE'S

WHOLE FOODS

ROD WORKS

BARNES AND NOBLE

PANERA

PAINTED STUDIOS

CHICO'S

PALLADIO LUXE CINEMAS

 

Wishing you pumpkin spice and everything nice! Fun Coffee cards for Fall!

Hi crafty people! How are you?? What's new? Are you enjoying the beauty of the changing seasons? We are! I am totally loving the change over to Fall. And you know I've been Fall crafting up a storm! Pumpkins, apples, leaves, and coffee! It's the best time of year! Mark and I are going on vacation in a couple of weeks and hoping to see lots of Fall color up north in Oregon and Washington. Can't wait. 

A couple weeks ago I got this awesome new stamp set from Pink and Main called Pumpkin Spice! OH MY! It's all kinds of pumpkin coffees and treats. You know that's right up my alley! I had so much fun coloring these images! And now, I finally made them into a couple of cheerful cards to show you! I loooooove teal/aqua/blue with the warm oranges of Fall. It just pops! So I used kraft, orange and dark aqua for my color palette. Lots of glitter too! 

 

 

This card started with a kraft A2 card base. Then I layered the aqua paper. My top white layer was die cut with the circles trio from Sunny Studio (link below). This die makes three circles at once and it's cool for featuring small images like these. I attached the white layer onto the top of the card using foam tape. 

 

I stamped and cut out the images and colored them with Copic Markers. I added Diamond Stickles accents to make them shimmery and sweet! I placed the coffees and the cupcake onto the circle openings using foam tape also. The circle trio die comes with stitched hearts and I die cut those out of orange paper. CUTE!

 

I stamped the sentiment in black ink over on the right side of the card. And, added orange and white enamel dots as accents and shine!

 

Happy Pumpkin Spice Season! 

 

Here's a close up of my coloring with the Copics.

 

 

 

The next card is very clean and simple with a graphic design. I started with a white A2 card base and layered orange and another sheet of white.... I wrapped pretty orange striped paper and twine around the top third of the layers. I die cut a circle from woodgrain paper...

 

 

The three images were attached to the circle with foam tape. I stamped the sentiment in black at the bottom and splattered some black ink!

 

 

 

 

If you're a pumpkin spice lover like me - you need this stamp set! It also has a donut!!! LOVE! I hope you have a great day, and a wonderful week! See you soon friends! XOXO

SUPPLIES FOR TODAY!

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Reverse Confetti New Release Blog Hop! September 2018!

Hi my crafty friends! Happy Saturday! I'm back today with another fun blog hop! Today we're hopping to launch the brand new September product release from Reverse Confetti! Gorgeous new stamps and dies release today! The September release has a little bit of Fall, a little bit of Halloween and a little bit of Christmas! Truly something for everyone! CLICK HERE to SHOP the entire new release! Full blog hop list and shopping links are at the bottom of my post. Enjoy the hop! You should have arrived here from Laurie Schmidlin's fantastic blog!

I made two cards to share and both were done with my favorite new Polychromos Colored Pencils. I am really loving the different effects I can get with these lovely supplies. One card is soft and subtle, colored on kraft, and the other is bright and bold! I used the brand new Fall Foliage Stamps and Dies and the brand new Cotton & Thistle Stamps and Dies! Yeah! 

 

You know how much I love Fall, and leaves! When I saw this new stamp set I was thrilled! The leaves are so beautiful, and the dies make a perfect, crisp cut. Perfect for any and all Fall craft projects. I had a lot of fun coloring all these leaves! I started with an A2 horizontal card base with paper from my stash. I layered watercolor paper die cut into a rectangle... and then LEAVES! Bright, bold, pretty leaves. I stamped and die cut a bunch of leaves and then colored them with my pencils. I love to put on some relaxing music and color...ahhhhh. 

 

The sentiment was heat embossed with white embossing powder onto a midnight black cardstock strip. I put the sentiment across the paper first and then arranged the leaves by tucking them into the black strip. Everything is attached with foam tape. The leaves were splattered with Copic Opaque White and then I added some Diamond Stickles. More is MORE! LOL. 

 

 

 

The Polychromos pencils are very soft and waxy and blend easily. I did not use gamsol or anything to blend the colors - just kept going over it with more and more color. 

 

 

 

This next card was made with the sweet and pretty Cotton & Thistle Stamps and Dies. Such a pretty set. I am in LOVE with the sentiments and that pretty font. So feminine and beautiful. This is a very clean and simple design. I started with a kraft A2 card base and then layered more kraft and then white paper. I inked the white paper background with Broken China Distress Ink to ground the image.  

 

I stamped the image onto kraft cardstock and cut it out with the matching die. I used a soft wash of colored pencils to color the cotton and thistles. I used twine to wrap around the stems like a fresh bouquet and then attached the little tag from the Floral Wrap die set. 

 

I stamped the pretty sentiment in black ink directly onto the top layer. 

 

 

 

 

Thank you SO much for joining me today on my stop on this awesome blog hop! YEAH for the new Reverse Confetti September Release! LOVE IT! The entire new release is available for shopping now! Woot! What are you most excited about? Enjoy the hop! Next up is the talented and fabulous Heather Hoffman! Full Hop list below!

 

BLOG HOP LIST FOR TODAY! ENJOY!

Reverse Confetti Blog
Amy Kolling
Laurie Willison
Crystal Thompson
Melissa Phillips
Amy Sheffer
Lydia Fiedler
Tricia Barber
Kelly Lunceford
Lisa Henke
Yana Smakula
Amy Rohl
Lea Lawson
Laurie Schmidlin
Wanda Guess
Heather Hoffman
Amy Tsuruta
Kathy Schweinfurth
Michelle Short
Audrey Tokach
Jeanne Jachna
Therese Calvird
Olga Moss
Maria Sabina

 

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Taylored Expressions 10th Birthday Bash Mega Party! Happy Unicorns!

Hey everyone! I'm very excited today to share this card and share about one of my favorite companies - Taylored Expressions! TE is celebrating TEN YEARS of crafting awesomeness. And, they are celebrating in style today with a giant (mega) birthday bash blog hop! Over forty designers are participating in this awesome hop - we are all former or current design team members who have a special place in our hearts for Taylor. I was on the TE Design Team for four great years and it was a wonderful experience to work with Taylor and Jon and all the other designers. Truly a sweet and kind group of creative people. So - here's wishing TE a HAPPY BIRTHDAY! And here's to many many more years of business! Congratulations! XOXO

Please CLICK HERE to go to the Taylored Expressions Blog to see all the details and the list of blog hoppers! Also, there are some brand spanking new birthday products that are being released today just for the celebration! CLICK HERE to see the new stamp sets! 

For my card to share today I'm featuring some already released birthday theme products from TE. For my card I used the Dreamer stamp set (with matching dies), the Rolling Clouds Dies, and the Sprinkles Embossing Folder. I combined these items with bright and cheerful colors of lime, aqua and purple! SO fun! I am wishing you a very magical day! Enjoy the Blog Hop today!  

 

 

My card started with an A2 card base in bright white cardstock. The Rolling Clouds dies are three different cloud borders. I used the dies to cut out a bunch of clouds from lime, aqua and purple paper and also vellum. Then I just played around with them until I got the combination of clouds that I liked. I trimmed them all the size - one step down from the A2 size card. I used foam tape to attach them together to give dimension in between the layers. The vellum layer was wrapped around the bottom. 

 

I stamped the sentiment with Stazon ink - works the best on vellum! I added a few rhinestones at the end of the process because it just seemed like this card needed sparkles! 

 

I stamped and die cut out those adorable unicorns and colored them with Copic Markers to match the papers I used. I added bits of glitter glue to the wings, tails and horn! EEEP. The layer underneath the clouds was embossed with the beautiful Sprinkles embossing folder. Such a nice touch of texture instead of flat white paper.

 

 

 

 

 

I want to take a minute to talk about something that is really important to the TE family - The SHARE JOY CAMPAIGN! At the heart of Taylored Expressions is a mission to share joy through the gift of handmade cards. As part of their 10th birthday TE is continuing that mission with the launch of a special Share Joy campaign focused on providing birthday cards to those in nursing homes and assisted-living facilities across the U.S. To make as deep an impact as possible TE is inviting card makers everywhere to join the campaign. Will you join us? Find out how to participate by viewing their Share Joy page here: https://www.tayloredexpressions.com/share-joy-birthday-2018

THANK YOU for coming by today and for hopping with us in celebration of Taylored Expressions 10th Birthday Bash! CLICK HERE to see the entire hop list and all the fun details over on the TE Blog! Enjoy your day! See you soon! XOXO 

Happy September! Celebrating Autumn with Watercolor Apples!

Hi friends! This past week went by in like five minutes! Wow! But, I'm so happy, because here we are at September! And I'm officially calling it Fall here on my blog! I LOVE FALL and live for it all year long! I am so happy to celebrate the next few months with pumpkins, coffee, apples, football, leaves....All that good stuff. Yeah! College football starts today too. And the weather has been perfect - cool nights and dark mornings.... Okay, yeah I'm excited! I've been Fall crafting for a couple of weeks already and that's going to continue. I hope everything is going great in your neck of the woods! Sending you some good wishes today. 

I went back and pulled out some of my favorite dies from Taylored Expressions to create my apple cards to share today. These apple dies are PERFECT for Autumn cards and I chose to watercolor them with my favorite watercolor paints. This project started out with some water color playing... I just die cut some apples and enjoyed painting. Then later I turned them into two cards. Sometimes I begin with a card design already formed in my head, and sometimes I just color pieces and see what happens later. So, let's take a look at the cards! How do you like these apples??!! LOL. 

 

No stamping on either of these cards today. Only die cuts and watercolors! I used a wet on wet watercolor technique to color the apples. Some red and one green one. I added in some deep golden yellow accents to the painting. The leaves were painted with three or four shades of greens. Apple leaves have that gorgeous deep green color. I colored the stems brown and then generously splattered gold paint over all of them. 

This first card started with a white A2 card base. Then I chose some woodgrain paper from my stash and splattered it with gold Finetec paint. I LOOOOVE GOLD SPLATTERS! Lol. Can you tell? I die cut out the AUTUMN letters from a Taylored Expressions alphabet set. I painted those deep golden yellow. The rest of the card came together fast. I used foam tape to attach the apples to the card and clear glue to attach the letters. A piece of pretty twine at the top finished it off. Oh, and a few gold Doodlebug Sprinkles too! Simple and pretty. 

 

Here's a close up of the leaves and painting!

 

I staggered the letters this way because they wouldn't fit across the card. It's kind of playful and fun this way though! Happy accident!

 

 

 

 

 

I turned the card for this photo so you can see all that yummy gold paint!! MMMMM.

 

Next up is another clean and simple design I made with the last apple die cut. I just bought the brand new Lawn Fawn Reverse Scalloped Circle Dies and wanted to use those! This is an A2 white card base layered with gingham from my stash. Then a pretty deep red layer die cut with the circle die. It creates the perfect frame for the apple! The 'hello' die cut is from Simon Says Stamp and I die cut it from watercolor paper (The same paper I used for the apples). 

 

 

 

 

The red paper layer was attached to the card with foam tape - and the apple was also. I added some glitter sprinkles in red and gold. Because I like sparkly things!! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Near where I live we have an apple growing region called Apple Hill. It's only about 25 miles from our house and in the Fall it's so fun to go up and see the orchards, get apple donuts, see the arts and crafts and generally hang out in the fresh air. CLICK HERE to read about Apple Hill! The weather was sooooo fresh and nice when I woke up yesterday I got the idea to drive up to Apple Hill for a photo shoot and some donuts! This is the last few days before the crowds and craziness starts. I went up super early and guess what? I was the ONLY person there! Gosh, it was magic! I got the first batch of hot donuts (am I mentioning the donuts a lot?? LOL) and I had the whole place to myself. Up amongst the pine trees and the orchards. Here are some of the photos I took! Hope you enjoy them! 

 

 

 

 

When you take pictures of things like fruit and flowers you really notice how many individual colors there are in them. I like to save this type of photo for reference when I'm using my Copic Markers or my watercolors. God is the master artist and no one paints like Him! I can try though! These apples were so pretty and you can actually smell them on the trees in the cool air. MMMM. 

 

 

 

 

 

As a photographer, I am a life long student of light. Photographs are all about light... Not your camera or your photo editing software. LIGHT. Pure and simple, taking a picture is using the light to create something beautiful. The light changes with the seasons. Summer and Winter light is very strong and harsh and bright - with hard shadows. As we turn into Autumn, the light becomes warmer and a bit softer. I felt that yesterday - the coming of the light of Fall. AND I LOVE IT!  

 

That's it for today! Have a super wonderful weekend! Labor Day Weekend! YAHOO! Are you doing something fun this weekend?? Tell me about it! I will be back on Wednesday as part of a fun celebratory blog hop! See you then! XOXO

 

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