A Blog Called Wanda

Sweet Summertime!

Hi everyone! It's the last week of July already! WOW! I can't believe it. It's definitely Summer. It was over 100 degrees here this weekend and that always makes it seem more like July. We had a fun and relaxing weekend. We took a mini road trip to the ocean on Friday and I'll share some pictures below from our trip. We are so lucky to be able to drive to so many places in one day. Saves money on hotels and such. We love to escape to the water when it's hot here. We have our routine all set. Chairs, towels, sunscreen, cooler....all piled in the car and ready to go. My husband and I travel so well together. It's a joy to have long conversations in the car and get a change of scenery. 

My post today is alllll about sweet summertime. My card is full of ice creams! I colored these images for National Ice Cream Day a week or so ago. Now I've made them into a card using a technique I've been wanting to try for a while - inlaid die cuts. The stamps are from Avery Elle. I didn't do a supply list, since unfortunately the stamps are discontinued now. The set I used is called "The Scoop" if you want to look for it! It's so fun, I was surprised when I couldn't find it to make a list. You could easily make this card with any other ice cream set though. The finished card is A2 sized.

 

First I stamped four ice cream cones and stamped their little faces on them! Then I die cut them out with the matching dies, and colored them with pastel Copic Marker shades. I added white gel pen highlights too. I love the soft colors!! 

 

The sentiment was stamped and heat embossed with white embossing powder onto black cardstock. I like the contrast of this!! I used some pink and white gingham from my stash to completely cover the front of the card base. I die cut a stitched rectangle from white cardstock for the top layer. 

 

I used washi tape to tape the dies to the stitched rectangle and die cut out four matching shapes to the images I colored. Then I mounted the top layer to the card using foam tape. The final step is putting the colored images into the cut outs! Reminded me of playing the "Operation" game! LOL. Makes a nice look, don't you think??

 

Here are my Copic Marker Choices!

 

You are SO SWEET! 

 

For our mini road trip on Friday we drove down Highway One through Half Moon Bay to Capitola, Moss Landing and Santa Cruz! It was a glorious day, perfect cool weather and a nice mix of fog and sun. Had the sun roof open on the car and the tunes blasting! NOTHING makes me happier than being by the ocean. I'm attaching some of my favorite photos from the day....Hope you enjoy them!

This is Capitola Beach from up above looking down on the wharf and town. This is the cutest town! It was really crowded! 

 

We drove down to the Moss Landing Wildlife Sanctuary and guess what??? SEA OTTERS!!!! There were about ten of them swimming around, playing and eating. We watched them for a long time! SOOOOO cute. One of them was jumping in and out of the water like a dolphin! And they were wrestling each other. You can kayak there and the kayakers were able to get super close to them! We were on the shore and they came about ten feet from us. OMG I was smiling so big!! 

 

 

 

We drove back to spend the rest of the day in Santa Cruz. We grabbed some early dinner and then headed over to the Boardwalk. I have soooo many good memories from the Beach Boardwalk here. I actually started crying when we walked in. All these memories just flooded me. My family is from the coast and my Aunts and Uncles used to bring me here and let me ride all the rides and spoil me! Some of my best childhood memories. I hadn't been here in ages. 

 

First stop....DOLE WHIP! YUM!

 

The sunset on Friday night was mixed with a perfect layer of fog, and it was the most beautiful purple/pink color. I love fog and usually you don't get fog AND a sunset, but we got both. Magical light!!! 

 

We tried some fun long exposure photos on the rides. This one was my favorite of those. Captures the action!! 

 

 

The Big Dipper!

That's it for me today! Have a wonderful happy week! One of my favorite people is flying in from Florida this week and on Wednesday we're going wine tasting and champagne sipping in Napa all day. I am SO EXCITED!!! Take care my friends. I will see you back here real soon. XOXO

Vintage Florals with the July Mini Release from The Greetery!

Hi everyone! I'm popping in with a vintage feeling card made with the July Mini Release from The Greetery! I'll be teaming up with Betsy and The Greetery once a month or so to feature a project made with the brand new releases. YAY! So excited about this partnership with one of my favorite crafters! This past week The Greetery did a Mini Release! Just a few carefully selected products to go along with the rest of the Summer release. Gorgeous new dies that I used today (Sunflower Botanicuts) and the pretty new Crimped Rectangles. I chose to make a vintage vibed card with watercolors and old music...it was such a joy to create, and now I get to share with all of you!

CLICK HERE to go to The Greetery to see all the pretty new items! I used some new and some previously released stamps and dies. You know I love to combine lots of different things on my cards! The water coloring and inking was done with Mini Distress Inks. I found the perfect ink combo to use with the mason jar stamps too! Let's get to it! The finished card is A2 sized and a white card base. I shot my card photos at the nursery! My entire card was inspired by my love of Black Eyed Susan flowers!! SO instead of making sunflowers, I made BES! 

 

I started with a white card base. Then I layered a kraft layer die cut with the new dies. SO pretty! I have this old book of sheet music that I use for projects, so I tore off a page of that and layered it. Then a crisp and pretty white doily. Everything vintage!

 

I stamped the mason jar (this is three step stamping) onto Bristol Smooth Cardstock. And used the matching die to cut it out. Then I die cut several flowers and leaves pieces out of the Bristol also. I used shades of yellow, green and brown Mini Distress Inks to color all the pieces. To achieve the look I wanted, I cut some of the assembled flowers in half!! I love how that looks!

 

The red heart was colored with Distress Ink. It's a VERY VERY old hand punch from my stash. I still have a few of those left!! I splattered brown and white ink over everything. I inked the edges of all the pieces too.

 

I used a pretty basics die and the Birthday Suite stamps to make a tag for my flower bouquet! 

 

Here's a close up of everything!

 

 

 

And, finally, my inspiration for today's project!! I am obsessed with rich, golden, Summer yellow right now! I bought three shirts lately and they are all this color!! It's the perfect transition from Summer to early Autumn...SO beautiful. God's hand over all of it!! 

That's it for today! Pop over to The Greetery Website or The Greetery Blog to see more projects made with these fabulous new products. CLICK HERE to see the Supply List for today, or CLICK the graphic below. (Affiliate Links Used) Have a fantastic weekend everyone! I will see you soon! XOXO

Sending Happy Mail with Pretty Pink Posh Stamps!

Good Day friends! I'm popping in with some Happy Mail for you today! How are you? I hope you survived the giant heat wave this past week. I can't believe the temperatures we were seeing on the news. Here in Sacramento it is often over 100 degrees, but this month we haven't had any days over 100 yet. I think we will today though. I hope my East coast friends are doing fine. Yuck!! I had a quiet weekend at home. I didn't feel good for a few days and just took a break and slept and relaxed with my husband. Lucky the kitty is the very sweetest nurse cat. OMG he would not leave my side for one moment. He knew I didn't feel good. And it was just adorable. I'm feeling better now and trying to get caught up. I colored the elements for this card as part of the 30 Day Coloring Challenge, and now I have the card to share!

The stamps and dies are from Pretty Pink Posh! SO CUTE! I used Copics as my coloring medium. The finished card is A2 size white card base. Lots of white space and a pop of red on that cute mailbox.

 

I used the super cute Happy Mail Stamp Set for the focal images. Then I added a flower and a bee! I wanted to create a happy scene! This is how I feel at the mailbox when I receive happy mail! I stamped directly onto a stitched circle and then colored with Copic Markers. 

 

How cute is this sentiment!!?? I stamped and cut out a bunch of extra letters to arrange around the sentiment.

 

I die cut a second set of letters and popped them up with foam tape. I also stamped some little trails behind the birdie and the bee. 

 

I layered one pop of red polka dot paper to ground all the white space. The circle and the word banner are popped up with foam tape also.

 

 

 

 

 

EEEEEK. I love those teeny tiny letters!!!

 

 

That's it for today! I'll be back on Friday with a card I made with the new release from The Greetery! I just need to photograph it now! Can't wait to share it with you! CLICK HERE to see the supply list for today. Or CLICK the graphic below (Affiliate Links Used). I will see you on Friday! XOXO

Hey Lady! Sassy Ladybugs!

Hey Lady! That's something I say all the time to my friends! It's a term of endearment and excitement, usually when I'm greeting a friend! I am not a quiet person, so it's like HEY LADY!! Followed by a big ole hug! (I'm a hugger, and I'm squishy too)... So when I went to make this card, I had that in mind. I love these adorable ladybugs stamps and dies from Honey Bee Stamps. They are so much fun to color! Happy Saturday my little ladies! I hope you have a fantastic weekend planned. 

This card has a lot going on, so I needed more real estate. The finished card is 4" x 8" and is made from red cardstock. They I layered white cardstock just a 1/8 inch smaller as my top layer. I went back and forth a bunch of times about what color to make the letters. Eventually I ended up with black letters with white paint splatters. It makes quite a statement! LOL. 

 

For the bottom of the card, I die cut a fence and some grass and attached those straight onto the card. I cut, colored and painted the letters and put them on the card so I could arrange the ladybugs around them. These are by far my favorite letter dies. I use them a lot!!

 

I colored the ladybugs with Copic Markers and added white gel pen accents. I also colored one sweet daisy flower. 

 

The ladybugs were colored a couple weeks ago for the 30 Day Coloring Challenge! 

 

The letters are mounted onto the card with tiny strips of foam tape. The ladybugs are also attached with foam tape.

 

 

 

This card fits into a business size envelope. I have tons of envelopes at my house, and I had a red one. So I stamped one ladybug on the front of the envelope too! 

 

 

Thanks for flying by today! Have an amazing weekend! CLICK HERE to see the supply list for today's card. Or CLICK on the graphic below. (Affiliate Links Used). I will see you soon! XOXO

I like the way you roll! Fun card with Lawn Fawn stamps!

Hi friends! Are you hungry? Do you like sushi? I have a cute and funny card for you then! I'm still sharing cards made with the images I colored during the color challenge and this is one of them! Adorable stamps and dies from Lawn Fawn, with a clean and graphic card layout. Oh, and lots of Copic coloring! Yes! I hope your week is going along great! 

I used these fun sushi images from Lawn Fawn, and a little bit of gingham paper....lots of white space.... The finished card is A2 size. 

 

I started with a white card base, then layered a second layer of white paper that was wrapped with a strip of green gingham. That layer was attached with foam tape for dimension. That top layer is a stitched rectangle of (also) white paper. All the stamping and elements are on that layer. How cute is that sentiment?? Love it!

 

I stamped the sentiment and the pink cherry blossoms directly onto the white top layer and set it aside. I stamped and die cut the sushi rolls, the wasabi (so cute!), the soy sauce, the tray, and the chopsticks... Then I used Copic markers to color everything. I added white gel pen accents after the coloring was done.

 

Here are my Copic choices for this project!

 

The stamp set has three or four different facial expressions that are separate. I love that because you can add different ones to each element!! Or have the elements alone without faces. Perfect. 

 

 

 

The images were affixed to the card with foam tape. I put the tiny wasabi in between the chopsticks, and tucked the soy sauce behind the tray.

That's it for today! I'm off to get lunch now! LOL. I love sushi, and we are lucky because the best sushi house in our area is only about two miles away! So we can go any time. YUM. I like the way you roll, my friends! I'll be back on Saturday with some super fabulous ladybugs!! CLICK HERE to see the supply list for today or CLICK on the graphic below. (Affiliate Links Used). Take care! XOXO

Summer Sea Life Banner - Under The Sea Kit from Queen & Company!

Hi crafty pals! I'm going to have you humming 'under the sea' by the end of this post! Happy Monday and a happy Summer Monday it is! We hit 100 degrees over the weekend, and the State Fair started, so, yep, it's Summer! I'm already starting to get Fall and Winter stamps in the mail for design assignments, but I'm holding on to Summer crafting for a little bit longer! I like to start thinking about Fall in August! Do you agree?? I hope you had a nice weekend! 

Today I'm sharing NOT a card! LOL. I made a cool banner out of the newest and coolest Queen & Company Shaker Card Kit! I had SOOOOO much fun making this project! It's been a long time since I crafted a banner... And I got out my eyelets too! It was a nice day in the craft room creating this for a friend. If you're not familiar, I really recommend that you pop over to the Queen & Company website and check out their fabulous kits. I made this entire banner from one kit, and didn't even use half of the items!! Shake, shake, shake! Lots of photos in this post! Grab a coffee! 

Here is the finished banner! EEK. So cheery and festive! I looooove all those colorful sea animals!! (this is not an easy thing to photograph. LOL. My hubs is standing up against the wall on the right! HA) There are nine banners total. The one in the center is stamped. I'll show lots of close ups.

 

 

 

 

 

ALL the papers and shaker shapes are from the kit. This paper pack has the prettiest colors! Here is a close up of the mermaid! I used a few copics to give her face some cheeks and a chin. 

 

A happy dolphin against that bright yellow!

 

I bought these chipboard banners in a set from Hobby Lobby. They are already cut in the right shape, and have the holes punched in them. Nice and easy! I used glue to glue the paper to the front of the banner shape and then used my exacto knife to trim off the center pictured here.

 

I sort of laid out my color scheme and my shapes before I made it all. Here is my in process on my desk... It's a good photo to show the dies. They are so nice and cut a perfect crisp edge every time. ALL the dies, an entire paper pad, a full stamp set, the acetate, the foam, the shaker bits....ALL included in the kit.

 

 

 

The included stamp set has the cutest sentiments for your ocean cards!!!

 

I had to rummage through a few boxes in my craft studio to find my Crop-o-dile! Sheesh! It's been a minute since I set some eyelets!!! I really think they eyelets finish off the banners so nicely. Makes it look super professional and polished. Plus, the Crop-o-dile is so easy to use. Anyone else remember when we used to put eyelets on EVERYTHING??? 

 

 

 

 

 

After I had all the banner shapes made with the ocean elements, I used Chunky Doodlebug Twine to string them together. PERFECT!!

 

Those little shell sequins are SO pretty!!!!

 

Here's a close up of the stamped banner in the center of the big banner! I used the gorgeous new Mermaid Sea Stones as accents!! Ooh la la.

 

I'm pretty sure the little crab guy is my favorite!!!! Or maybe the shark....

 

 

 

I made a small note card to enclose with the banner to send off to my friend! I used the pretty scalloped square from the Foundation Dies and mounted it over a folded sheet of white cardstock. Makes a nice little card!

Thanks for coming by to see my project today! Are you singing all the songs from Little Mermaid yet?? I am! I hope you have a blessed and happy week ahead! 

Christmas in July with Scrapbook.com! Vintage Holiday Card!

Updated 7/15/19 PRIZE WINNER SELECTED! PATT H! THANK YOU EVERYONE!  Ho Ho Ho! Happy Holidays!! Yikes, yes, it's time for Christmas in July already! Today I'm sharing my first Christmas card for 2019! I'm showing you brand new stamp sets from Scrapbook.com just perfect for Winter Holidays!! I combined the stamps with a brand new paper collection from Authentique to create a vintage feeling holiday card. I hope you're ready for Christmas! LOL. CLICK HERE to see the brand new stamp release from Scrapbook.com. Something for everyone!! 

I love everything vintage for Christmas, and this new paper collection had beautiful postcard like images. I chose this image of the little girl to be the focal point for my card. The finished card is an A2 kraft card base. Kraft, red, and light blue are a favorite winter color palette for me!

 

My card uses the beautiful Heartfelt Christmas stamp set. It has pretty sentiments in classic fonts, and also this little graphic of the snowflake that says "handmade" around it. I loved it as an accent over the image. You can see that I splattered brown ink and white paint over all the elements to look like snow. This photo shows all my paper layers. Everything is edged in Distress Ink with a sponge dauber. 

 

I heat embossed the sentiment with white embossing powder onto rich black cardstock. I love that look! There is a pine bough and a metal snowflake to complete the look.

 

Here's a photo of the stamp set I used today!!

 

This pretty pine bough is from the Holiday Greens die set from Tim Holtz. I die cut it from watercolor paper and then used daubers and green Distress Inks to paint it. Then I splattered 'snow' on it!

 

I really like this snowy look... It's giving me some more ideas! Ha!

 

 

 

 

 

I used my finger and white paint to add some white snow onto the metal embellishment from Tim Holtz.

 

GIVEAWAY! GIVEAWAY! GIVEAWAY!

PRIZE ALERT! FUNNNNNN! Scrapbook.com has very generously donated a FULL SET of the new stamps to one of my fabulous blog followers! Yippeeeee! There are SIX beautiful stamp sets!! One lucky winner gets them all! To be entered to win this cool prize, please leave a comment below and tell me what you do for Christmas cards! Do you hand make them? How Many? Have you started for this year yet? I want to know all the details! Please leave  your  comment  here  by Sunday the 14th  at  Midnight PST!  I will  email  the  winner!

Thank you for stopping by today! Merry Christmas! CLICK HERE to see the supply list for today, or CLICK on the graphic below. (Affiliate Links Used). I will see you on Monday with a truly Summer themed project that is not a card! Take care friends. XOXO

Penny Black Watercolor Butterflies!

Greetings Special Friends! How are you? Are you crafting anything fun this week? I hope you get in some creative time - I feel like that's so important. Even if I don't create, I make sure to come in my studio every single day. Sometimes I just organize or look through things, sometimes I don't think I'm going to create, but the mood strikes me once I'm in here! I've thoroughly enjoyed doing the Daily Marker 30 Day Coloring Challenge this time around. I didn't make something every single day, but I tried!! It's coming to a close in a few days... I'm getting around to posting the cards I made with all the elements I colored along the way. Today's card is just that! I colored these gorgeous butterfly stamps a while back...happy to share the card with you today! 

The stamps I used today are Butterfly Garden and Special Friends from Penny Black. I heat embossed everything with gorgeous gold and then watercolored with my fav water color set. I used to do gold embossing all the time, but it's been a while. I'm so happy with how this turned out. The finished card is an A2 white card base. 

 

I started by stamping/embossing the butterflies and the banner. It was all stamped onto watercolor paper. I die cut them out with the matching dies. I die cut a stitched rectangle, also from watercolor paper. I stamped the pretty leaves directly onto this panel.

 

Next, I watercolored all the elements! I chose pretty, bright shades! I let everything dry, and then added some splatters. 

 

Here's a close up of the embossing and watercoloring...

 

The gorgeous butterflies! I have some extra saved for another project some day!

 

 

 

To assemble the card, I added a pretty layer of blue cardstock and then my stamped panel. The butterflies and the banner are affixed with foam tape onto the card.

Thanks for coming by today!! I hope you have a blessed, happy and creative day! XOXO CLICK HERE for today's supplies, or CLICK on the graphic below. (Affiliate links used) See you on Friday with the first Christmas card of the year, and a GIVEAWAY!!! Yeah!!!

Catherine Pooler Hello Sunshine Collection!

Hi everyone! Happy Monday! I hope you had a fun weekend! I got in lots of crafty time and relaxation. Not too much going on around here actually. The weather has been amazing lately. I'm looking forward to a good week. Getting my hair done and meeting up with some friends...Tuesdays Together Meetup, Crocheting... Good stuff. Thanks for stopping by today! Hope you have an awesome week!

For today's post I'm featuring the brand new, gorgeous, Hello Sunshine Collection from Catherine Pooler Designs! I was sent this awesome collection as part of my design work for Scrapbook.com. I'm new to Catherine Pooler products and I can honestly say everything was wonderful! (I did an unboxing video you can find over on my Instagram Stories). The patterned paper is GORGEOUS and thick! Wow, so unusual to see cardstock weight patterned paper in 6x6 size. Love that. The stamps were perfect and crisp right out of the package and the dies cut a nice edge. I would definitely recommend these products. Maybe you will check them out too! I'm looking forward to trying out other collections. 

I made a fun, colorful, summer card! This card makes me smile. Lots of ice cream colors and lots of layers...and ICE CREAM! The finished card is A2 size and a white card base. 

 

The focus of my card is that adorable ice cream truck image! It's really cute and so fun to color. You could make it so many different color combinations! I chose Copic shades to match the colors in the plaid paper. My layers here are: White card base, dark pink printed paper, plaid paper, vellum, white stitched rectangle, and green paper stitched circle. Whew. Yes, I love me some layers!

 

I stamped the sentiment onto a stitched rounded rectangle and used the Catherine Pooler Inks for all the stamping. I used a few pretty pink sequins as accents.

 

I thought you might want to see what the sequin mix looks like! It's sooooo pretty! I can't wait to make a shaker card with it! 

 

 

 

I stamped a second ice cream truck and then cut out a second ice cream cone and a second awning. I put them over the other ones for dimension. This is a fun trick I use a lot - selective dimension is what I call it.

 

 

 

Stay cool my friends!!

 

 

 

 

Thanks for following along with me! I hope you're inspired to check out the pretty collections from Catherine Pooler!! CLICK HERE for the supply links for today, or click the graphic below. (Affiliate Links Used). Have a fantastic week! See you soon! XOXO

Happy 4th of July 2019!

Hey everyone!! Happy 4th of July, Independence Day! Happy Birthday America! What are you doing today to celebrate? As of right now, writing this post, I'm not sure what we're doing! It's going to be perfect weather and there are lots of things going on around town... We just haven't decided! I hope you and your family have a perfect day! 

I have a very patriotic and festive card to share today. I always love vintage Americana style...So that's just what I did here for today's project. The finished card is A2 size made from woodgrain paper from my stash. LOTS of distress inks, gold splatters, and rhinestones complete the look! 

 

I started with my card base, and then layered dark red cardstock as the next piece. The top layer, the circle, the USA die, and the flag, were all stamped onto cream cardstock instead of bright white. I used Barn Door and Faded Jeans Distress inks to color the flag stamp. I used the mini inks so it was easy to put straight onto the stamp. 

 

I used an old Adirondack Ink Pad in Butterscotch to stamp the fireworks on that top layer. I splattered everything with brown ink and edged everything with brown ink too. Looks old and cool I think. It's hard to see in the photos, but I also splattered gold ink over the pieces. It's really pretty in person!!

 

Close up of all the stamping, inking and splattering!! LOL. The words were stamped in brown ink instead of black ink, again, for a vintage look.

 

 

 

Can you see the gold paint there in the corner??

 

All the pieces are attached to the card using foam tape. The rhinestones work nicely for the centers of the fireworks - just a bit of shine to it all...

SUPPLIES....That's hard for today! All of these stamps are stamps I've had for many years in my collection. All of them are discontinued and I looked online for resources...but couldn't find any... The USA Die and the brown words are from Taylored Expressions. The flag is from Art Impressions. The fireworks stamp is from Rubber Soul... And the postage one didn't have any label at all! Sheesh. Have a great day!! See you soon... XOXO