A Blog Called Wanda

Botanical Shadow Box Project! TGIF - The Greetery Inspiration Friday!

Hi there my sweet crafty friends! Happy Friday! I hope you had a great week! I am beyond excited to share this project today! I finished it a couple of weeks ago and I've been waiting for the day to come to finally show you! My project is for TGIF over on The Greetery Blog today (The Greetery Inspiration Friday!) Woot! Please grab some coffee or tea because this post is long and has tons of photos! I think this is in my top ten favorite projects I've ever made!! The idea was in my head and when I sat down to make it, it came out exactly like I imagined! It was a joy and pleasure to make this! All the stamps and dies are from The Greetery and everything all worked together like a dream! 

I made this project as a present for Betsy, actually! I really wanted to make her something special to show my gratitude and love for her as a friend and mentor. It has safely been received at The Greetery HQ so now it's time to share! I hope I inspire you to make different projects besides cards with your beautiful Greetery stamps and dies! The sky's the limit!

Today's make is a botanical/entomological shadow box frame, filled with bugs and plants and wonderful things from nature.... Only it's all paper! The shadow box frame is 9"x9" and I bought it at Michaels. I used dark kraft tags as the basis for the project scale, and amount of things to put into the box. It worked out perfectly to make eight different tags. I used loads of dies from The Greetery curio collection, and pretty stamps and labels. I used the new Honey Bees and Honeycomb Corners Dies for one of the tags....and the postage stamps....and two of my other favorites - the Toadstools and the Mighty Oak!! Basically, I dumped out all my Greetery Dies and picked out all these fun things! Here is my finished box....

 

Here's a side view of the finished box under the glass. I reeeeeeeeeeallly love how it came out!!! Each tag is like it's own little art piece in the frame. 

 

 

To start this project, I die cut everything out of watercolor paper first. I really wanted an illustration type of feeling. And watercolor paper always looks so rich. I laid out all the plain pieces on the tags to decide which items to use. Once I had my layout set, I used my favorite watercolor paints to color all the elements. It was really fun to paint all the die cuts, and bring them to life! Every tag has a bit of green on it to tie everything together. 

Here are some of the tags before I placed them in the frame. I got the dark kraft tags at Michaels also. (All my supplies are listed at the bottom of my post)...

 

How adorable is that tiny snail?? I used the Plucked Dies for the greenery on some of the tags. I think it made it look nice to start with all white watercolor paper + watercolors instead of die cutting the pieces from colored cardstocks.

 

I set the all painted elements aside to dry and went to work on the tags themselves. I splattered on some black and white paints. I used Pretty Postmarks, Destination and Curio Labels stamp sets to stamp on the tags and also stamp the small banners. I let everything sit overnight to dry, and finished the project the next morning. In this photo you can see all my tags lined up on the frame backing - so I could make sure to get them all lined up correctly. I used a clear sewing ruler to lay them out as pictured. 

 

I can't decide which tag is my favorite one....but it might be this bee one! I am literally obsessed with these Honey Bees Dies!! And I love those golden yellow watercolor tones. It just makes me happy!!

 

And what about these Toadstools??!!! OH MY. Betsy gives us such amazing things to play with, doesn't she?? For this one I used lots of vivid red paint!

 

This tag has bits and bobs of stamping, and a tiny word banner....

 

And that sweet bird's nest...

 

Here is the finished frame standing up straight. It would look so nice on a bookshelf or hanging on the wall. Maybe I'll end up making another one for my studio?  I used foam tape to attach the bugs and plants and other pretties to the tags. I also used foam tape to attach the tags to the shadow box backing piece. I added a few clear drop embellishments onto some of the tags and also a few bits of twine. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These Mighty Oak Dies get used a lot around here. I always use olive green tones for these dies, to mimic our mighty California Oaks in my neighborhood. Heck, my town is called Fair Oaks! The oak trees have a special place in my heart.

 

Just a wee garden snail rolling by....

 

Beautiful feathers and more oaks.... Some twine, and a compass from the Destination stamp set!

 

And this moth from the curio collection....

That, folks, is my project! I hope you liked learning about how I made it! And I hope I've inspired you to get out those watercolors and play! So... I'm totally laughing because I want to say "think outside the box" but I literally made A BOX! Ha. If you don't want to make a shadow box, you could definitely make some of these watercolor tags and put a few on a card front, or into a scrapbook, or tie onto a gift!! No limits on art!

Thanks for spending part of your day with me! Have a wonderful weekend, and happy crafting. From my studio to yours! See you soon! XOXO

CLICK HERE FOR TODAY'S SUPPLY LIST -

OR CLICK THE GRAPHIC BELOW!

 

Pinkfresh Studio July 2022 New Release Blog Hop! Fall Foliage and Pretty Florals!

Hi everyone! Hope your week is going GREAT so far! Guess what? It's still hot here! LOL!  I've been staying inside and laying low.... Like a cat laying on the hardwood floor!! Soon it will be August, and then it will be FALL!! I can't wait! Our first fall out of lockdown and I am excited to get out do some fun seasonal things! Thank you for all the nice comments and stories on my last post! It was so fun to read about your favorite places!!

Today is the date for the beautiful brand new July new release from Pinkfresh Studio! Another gorgeous release, with touches of pretty Fall stamps, dies and stencils... We are doing a big fun HUGE blog hop today and I can't wait to share some projects with you. The new release is available now. The blog hop link list is at the very bottom of my post! Enjoy the hop - thanks for stopping by! 

My first card features the new Fall Foliage Stencils and Dies and the new Gazebo Die! OOOH LA LA! The die set up for this is genius!! You stencil an entire panel of the wonderful leaves, then die cut them all out at ONCE! One bit die does all the leaves together. Pinkfresh is always innovative and creative. My finished card is a white A2 card base, layered with white cardstock and vellum.... I love to pop a little teal with my fall colors! Supplies are at listed at the bottom of my post!

 

 

 

My sentiment was made using the Perfect Sentiments Hot Foil Plate and dies... I used gold to accent my card - both by using gold paint splatters and by making my sentiment in gold foiling... My stenciling was done with warm tones of Distress Inks and blender brushes.

 

I die cut the Gazebo twice from dark brown woodgrain cardstock and glued them together. I layered some vellum around my card and glued the gazebo onto the front. The die cut background was made with the pretty Sparkling Diamonds Coverplate! Just a hint of texture and interest. I also layered in some vellum leaf clusters.

 

I added some brown gems as accents onto the finished card. Here's a close up of the leaves.

 

 

 

My second card today features the brand new Inky Floral Stencils and Stamps! A pretty Summer Floral with a big background stamp and stencils to fill it in. It's very modern and classic at the same time. I think this suite would be beautiful for weddings, showers and other girlie cards. My finished card is an A2 white card base, layered with the stenciled panel, a wrap of aqua, and some circles.

 

After I stenciled the panel, I splattered on some white paint over the florals. I used the Pinkfresh Studio Ink Cubes to do the stenciling. I used my MISTI to stamp the big background stamp. I die cut the pretty Intricate Stitched Ovals background die with aqua cardstock to make a wrap of color around the top panel.

 

 

 

For the sentiment, I die cut two circles (vellum and white cardstock). I inked some yellow ink on the top circle and then stamped the sentiment in rich black ink. I added black jewels also. 

 

 

Thank you so much for joining me today on this fun blog hop day! 

Pinkfresh Studio will be giving away the full release on the Pinkfresh blog & YouTube channel! They will also be giving away a total of TEN $25  gift cards along the hop. As per usual with blog hops - the winners will be picked from the comments left on each blog!! Pinkfresh Studio will pull the winners & post them on August 5, 2022 on their GIVEAWAY PAGE. Remember, you must check that page & claim your prize within 2 weeks. GOOD LUCK!

CLICK HERE TO SHOP THE NEW PINKFRESH STUDIO RELEASE!

CLICK HERE or on the graphic below to see the supply list for today's card (affiliate links used)! 

 

CLICK ON THIS LINK TO SEE ALL THE BLOG HOP PARTICIPANTS!!

 

Honey Bee by the Sea!

Hi friends! Happy Sunday! Hope you are enjoying a wonderful Sunday afternoon.... Today is so peaceful at my house! We got up and went to early church because of the heat and got some yummy breakfast.... Now everyone is hanging out quietly and peacefully. Oh, and having ice cream too! My husband was in Los Angeles all last week for his work, and he got home late last night. Lucky is so happy to see him! (Me too!) Our little family is back together and all is right with the world again. I got some much needed time to myself last week to think and read and study and rest, and NO news or emails. I'm sure lots of you can relate - the hubs and I have been together in our house 24/7 for two and a half years!! Like not even one day apart. I needed a moment shall we say. Hahaha. Twenty Nine years and counting, and we're still best friends! I'm very fortunate to have such a good husband! (I'm the weird one for sure!)

When we came home from church today I came in the craft room and just started playing with no plan in mind. Well, I ended up making something pretty and thought I would share it with you, and maybe some stories too. I live in Sacramento California, which lately is as hot as the surface of the sun for lord knows how many days in a row. I'm delirious and my brain is melting. Whenever we get a heat wave like this all I can think of is OCEANNNNNNNN. I am an ocean person through and through. I started thinking about it, why do I have such an attachment to the ocean?? I guess lots of reasons. Everything good for me in my life happened at the ocean! I was born on the ocean to a dad who was in the Navy (Norfolk, Virginia). My family is from Carmel, California and I started my school years there. I got married (twice) at the ocean (One Pacific - Carmel, and one Atlantic - Cape Cod). I lived in Half Moon Bay for a while and saw the ocean every single day.... I went to college near the ocean... I worked in San Francisco for several years... When we go on vacation we always end up at the ocean or on a boat!! So many good times! My childhood got kind of wonky when my mom left for a new life, but I always had my grandmother's house in Monterey. Every good and pure childhood memory I have came from there and it was always misty and foggy and salty at her house... and I can easily conjure up the most wonderful scent in the world: Fog + Eucalyptus Trees. I wish I could bottle that scent and share it with you!! If I ever win lotto, I'm buying a big beach house and you can all come and craft with me! Doesn't that sound amazing!?  Anyhoo, I'm rambling and sharing, probably over sharing. But dang it, it's hot, and like I said all I can think about is the ocean!!! We are only about 75 miles from the ocean here, a day trip really, but it's been hot there too! I keep checking the weather for a good 50 degree foggy day and I'm outta here! LOLZ. 

Where do you feel the happiest? The Lake? The Desert? The Mountains? Ocean? Leave a comment and let me know what your favorite place is!! I'd love to know! 

Which finally leads me to my project! Ha! Last week I received the most wonderful and generous package of goodies from my friends at Honey Bee Stamps and guess what? It was full of Ocean-y Things! It's like they read my mind! Honey Bee has wax seals and wax melts now!! And Layered Dies of Seashells! OH YEAH! Everything is so pretty and I'll be making some more projects. But here's the first one! I have always loved wax seals. I have acquired a pretty good collection over the years and I have maybe 25 or so. I really love the look of them and the pretty designs and the details you can put on your projects... I created a plain card with a pretty vellum and paper wrapped envelope....sealed with a kiss shell. I used the new Wax Melts and Wax Stamper along with the new papers and dies. All the supplies are listed at the bottom of my post. 

This is an A6 envelope in Kraft from Paper Source. I splattered on some white paint and let that dry. I cut an A6 notecard (my letter is on the other side). I wrapped the envelope with the new Vitamin Sea Paper and also some vellum. I wrapped twine around it. This part is like a belly band. It comes all the way off. I just have it like this for the photo. I die cut some sea grass from the new die set and then made my wax seal...

 

The sea grass is cut from green paper and then gently inked with Green Distress Inks. Here's a close up of that gorgeous seal and the paper. I'M IN LOVE.

 

I made three different wax seals in different colors.

 

I used the Vitamin Sea Wax Melts! Have you ever done a wax seal before? It's so easy! These little melts are so much easier than using the stick kind that has a wick. I put 3-4 of these little pieces into my melting spoon and hold it over a small tea light candle. They melt nice and evenly and you can see they make such a nice appearance. I encourage you to try it sometime! It's fancy! 

 

 

 

 

That's it for this Sunday afternoon! So nice to see ya! This week we have some fun projects coming up! A new release blog hop from Pinkfresh Studio on Wednesday and a Greetery project on Friday! I have to say that my project for Friday is in my top ten favorite things I've ever made!!! I cannot wait to share it with you!!! Have a good week and I'll see you soon! Love you guys. XOXO

CLICK HERE or on the graphic below to see the supplies used for today's project! (Affiliate Links Used).

Doodlebug My Happy Place - Easel Card! You Brighten My Day!

Hello my creative friends! Happy Doodlebug Monday! Hope you have a great week this week! Today I'm sharing a fun easel card made with the Doodlebug My Happy Place collection! Cheerful colors and a cheerful message on this card. Perfect for a thank you or a just because card. It folds flat for mailing! Have you ever made an easel card? I like it because the recipient can easily display it and it can cheer them up! This is a super simple card with one score/fold but it packs a punch in impact. To find directions - Google "easel card" and many links will come up. You can make a round one, square one, or in my case an A2 size. The ideas are endless!

My card base is white cardstock folded into the easel. Then I added lots of papers and stickers from the My Happy Place collection. I also added Flower Garden Doodle Pops and some gems for good measure. This card folds flat and fits in an A2 envelope! It's been a while since I made this type of card, but I need to do more!

 

The key to a good easel is that you have to place something on the bottom part for the card to 'hook' onto. I used a pretty sticker and mounted it to the card with foam tape. You need a bit of height to hold the card up. I added a word sticker and some hearts to the bottom also.

 

Here's a side view so you can see the logistics! I added pretty gingham to the bottom part.

 

A close up of my little embellishment cluster...gems, flowers, stickers...all the good things!

 

The main image is a rectangle cut from the 12x12 My Happy Place paper pack. I added a heart to the vase and I also splattered on some white paint. I layered black and pink, and a wrap of the same gingham from the bottom panel.

 

 

My friends - YOU brighten my day! And I thank you! Cheers to Monday and a fantastic week! I'll be back soon with some more fun stuff. Until then, happy crafting! XOXO

CLICK HERE or on the graphic below to see the supplies for today's card! (Affiliate Links Used)

Spellbinders Parcel & Post for Christmas!

Hi friends! I've been missing a bit here on my blog! So I say howdy! And I hope your July is rolling along nicely. I just needed a little break. I've been working a lot at my part time job and generally just feeling tired and crabby from the extreme heat we've been having here. Trying to take care of myself and get some rest. I've learned over the years to not try to create when I feel this way. There are some really good crafty things coming and I'm feeling the urge to create again. Today has something really cool that I loved making!!

With this post I wish you a Merry Christmas! LOL! Christmas in July has officially started in the craft room! This is the time of year when all the craft companies start rolling out their gorgeous holiday releases! It's strange to shift over to jingle bells right after 4th of July but the good thing is that my Christmas cards are already started!! Today's project is made with WONDERFUL and BRAND NEW items from Spellbinders (Just released today!) I will tell you that if you like this suite of products (Parcel and Post) then get your order in now! Spellbinders tends to sell out! I just bought the Pie Perfection products after waiting months for them to come back in stock!! 

I used the new Parcel and Post mailbox and additions, and hot foiling to make a pretty red mailbox, just ready for all those Christmas letters! My finished card is an A2 white card base. I layered woodgrain cardstock, some gingham and a white oval. Then I featured the mailbox and greenery. 

 

I started by die cutting out all the pieces from red, green and white cardstocks. I used two shades of green for the branches and holly to make it more rich and layered. On the red pieces, I used Barn Door Distress Ink around the edges. For the sentiment I used matte silver hot foil with my Glimmer System. It looks so pretty!! 

 

Here's a close up of the top of the mailbox. I put in some festive candy canes, envelopes (with hearts of course), holly and peppermints!

 

I splattered on some white snow and also added white gel pen accents.

 

I inked the edges of the holly with distress inks, and then added some red gems to finish off everything. The mailbox is attached to the card with foam tape.

 

Here's a better view of that silver foiling! OOH LA LA!

 

 

That's it for today! Are you ready for Christmas in July?? Personally I am ready for Autumn! Ha! I couldn't resist making this card early though because it's so fun. I can't wait to also think of some Valentine ideas for that cute mailbox! 

CLICK HERE TO SHOP THE NEW SPELLBINDERS RELEASE!

CLICK HERE or on the graphic below to see all the supplies I used for today's card! (Affiliate Links Used)

 

Doodlebug My Happy Place Shadow Box!

Hi friends!! How was your 4th of July? I hope you enjoyed a lovely and fun holiday! It was nice here and the hubs of course had the day off so it was a nice long weekend together. We went to the zoo and I visited my favorite - the flamingos! We did some other fun running around in the amazing weather. After the heat wave of last week, it just felt so good to be outside! We are pretty low key about things for the 4th. Our neighborhood does a lot of fireworks so we can pretty much stand outside and see tons of them! Ha. Our church had everyone wear red, white and blue to services and that was super cool - to see everyone unified like that. It was awesome. And now, it's somehow July!! Another year rolling along so quickly. I hope you are doing well!! 

I'm here today to share another fun Doodlebug project! I made another Shadow Box Insert - with the new My Happy Place Collection!! It's SO freaking cute. You guys already know how much I love this one!! Guess what? A new collection is on it's way to me right now - Seaside Summer!! I about lost my mind when I saw the previews from Doodlebug. I CAN'T WAIT! Sea animals and beach houses and the prettiest colors....  Anyhoo, back to today's project! If you haven't tried a Doodlebug Shadow Box - please make one! I guarantee you will love it! Get some friends together, get everyone a kit and just enjoy an easy project together...

Here is my completed and framed shadow box! It's on our entry way table right now with some cute home decor items. The frame is re-used of course from my other shadow box project (LINK HERE). 

 

The next photos are of the finished box and also of the insert before I put it behind the glass, so you can see all the details. The kit comes with the stickers, and the gems, etc. that you need. I always add a few heart sprinkles in there too. Because that's my fav. 

 

 

 

I added a sticker here on the bottom of the frame. I used temporary tape runner so I can peel it off when I switch out the insert.

 

 

 

 

That's it for today my friends! Thanks for popping by to see me. It's always nice to have you here in my little creative space. Wishing you a great week. XOXOXO

CLICK HERE or on the graphic below for the supply list for today's projects (Affiliate Links Used).