A Blog Called Wanda

Merry Christmas 2022!

 

MERRY MERRY CHRISTMAS!

FROM MY HOUSE TO YOURS! BLESSINGS AND LOVE!

WISHING YOU ALL THE JOY OF THE SEASON!

 

 

A Cup of Christmas Cheer! Cross Stitch Project!

Hey hey hey! I finished my cross stitching and I actually framed it and am getting it posted! Yippeeeeee! Okay, this is definitely the last crafting post for Christmas 2022! Whew. I made all I could make.... Left some things not started or half started, but it is what it is! Time to step away from the Christmas crafts. LOL. It has been my pleasure to share with you all season and show you my projects and fun things. You guys bless me with your enthusiasm and support and I'm grateful for all of you! 

My finished piece is sitting on our entry way table for now... Not sure if that's where it will end up next year or not! The pattern is called Cup Of Christmas Cheer and it's by Brenda Gervais. It's a new pattern from last year so you should be able to find it anywhere. I used 14 Count Aida from my fabric stash. The frame is from Hobbly Lobby and the holly paper embellishments are from Anna Griffin. I used Anchor Threads from Joanns.... I did not use the exact colors on the patter, because I just used what I already had!! The frame is an 8x8 so that will give you a sense of the size.

 

The cutest little pink house with snow dripping off the roof! Love it...and absolutely love those tiny candy canes in front!! 

 

Here's when I first started it... It was a while ago!!

 

 

 

I mean who doesn't love a Santa Mug!!! I'm pretty sure there's peppermint cocoa in that mug!! I used a green pom pom for his hat to pull in some of that green from the Jolly word... There is so much white on this pattern so I didn't want to add a white pom pom....

 

He has those rosy cheeks and cute red lips! Blue eyes and a bit mustache too!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for stopping by friends! It's Christmas Eve Eve! Sending love your way and good wishes for a Merry Christmas! I already have received some cute Valentines stamps and dies in the mail so we'll be on to something new very soon. Thanks for crafting with me. XOXOXO

 

Christmas Houses & Candy Canes! Ready for Christmas 2022!

Hi everyone! Just a few more days until Christmas now! It's almost midnight here and the house is totally quiet... Lucky is curled up next to me... We just got home from a wonderful church program full of beautiful music and lots of cheer and laughter! The hubs went to bed and I came in to the craft room to share a project! I wasn't sure I was going to make anything else, but I had a little time Tuesday so I made some cute things! Got the photos done before we went out today. Whew! I am still trying to finish up a cross stitch Santa piece before the end of the week. It's about 90% done and I think I'm gonna do it! LOL. I'll share that too when it's done. After a nice dinner out and a lovely time at church, I feel super peaceful and ready for the winter solstice change tonight, and for the celebration of Christmas.... I hope you are having a good week and feeling some peace too! Thank you from the bottom of my heart for keeping me encouraged during this crazy year. I wish you and your families a very Merry Christmas!

I made projects with new to me Stamp Market Dies! No stamping today, just die cutting and snow! I used the 3D Little House Dies to make two houses. I ran out of time, but I want to make a whole village! I will use these as place setting decorations for our Christmas dinner... They are small and so so cute! Some little candies will fit inside or a small gift. I assembled mine and then put battery operated tea lights inside for that warm glow... They came together easily and it was a really fun project.

 

I made the boxes from pink and aqua cardstock and then put on silver roofs! Just a bit of sparkle, ya know. After I cut the windows out with the dies, I added vellum behind them to look like frosted glass. I made the wreaths from bright cardstock in Christmas colors....

 

You know I like to add a little heart to all my projects so I used some enamel shaped hearts to add over the big windows on the front. I used lots of texture paste and glitter to make it all look pretty and snowy! To put the white texture paste on, I used a small, stiff paint brush and kind of dabbed it on, messy. 

 

I adore that small scalloped edge detail on the roof! 

 

I took a photo of the houses without the tea lights inside - the vellum is nice in case you are trying to hide the candy or present!! 

 

Here is a side view of the smaller windows. I put a set of them on each side of the houses. You don't have to do this part - you can mix and match the windows for your desired look. 

 

 

Here is one of the houses in my hand so you can see the size and scale!

 

 

This really makes me feel all cozy inside!! I am going to make a bunch more of these to put on our entertainment center next year! Maybe in all the rainbow colors???

 

 

I also had purchased the Jumbo Candy Cane Die so I whipped up a couple of candy canes to use as present tie ons! They are fat and delicious and sparkly. I loooooove candy canes. I used texture paste and lots of chunky glitter on these sweets!

 

 

Okay, friends, that's it for today! Squeezing in those last Christmas projects! How are you doing with your holiday prep? Are you all done shopping and wrapping?? I've been volunteering for gift wrapping with our church and it's been fun. I love to wrap presents. I think I am pretty much done... And I'm vowing once again to start earlier next year so I don't run out of time!! (Someone remind me!) I hope you are doing great. It's 11:59 so I'm gonna finish this and get it published! Love you. XOXO

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

Doodlebug Candy Cane Lane Shadow Box Project! Ho Ho Ho!

Hi guys! Happy Monday! Happy Christmas week! So, I had big plans to make allllllll the things for Christmas and I had stacks of pretty things in my craft room on the counter..... And it started giving me stress. The holidays totally got away from me this year and to be honest, I'm really exhausted and burned out. I was putting so much pressure on myself to make more cards and make cookies and make presents. I literally shut down. When I get anxious like that, nothing creative will come out. I've tried. LOLZ. So this might be the last Christmas project for 2022... I will write all my ideas down and try again next year. I just needed to relieve the self induced pressure. So on Friday I cleaned my craft room and put all the Christmas crafty bins away (five of them full!), vaccumed, cleaned all the surfaces and hung up some twinkly lights. I called it and decided to focus the rest of the year on the reason for the season, and gratitude, and church and cocoa and looking at lights and all that good stuff. The past few years have been so hard and I'm struggling as we come to the end of the year. I will renew myself and set my goals for 2023. I sincerely hope that you have enjoyed a wonderful holiday season with your friends and families. You guys are like family to me and I am so thankful for you and your support! Sending blessings your way as we come into Christmas week.

And so, my Doodlebug loving friends... I'm here today to share my final Doodlebug project for the year! My project features the super fun Candy Cane Lane Collection!  My shadow box I am sharing today is up on the shelf in my craft room to bring some Christmas joy and cheer. But, it would also be great in the entry way or any room that needs fun and joy! And would also make a great gift!!  I used the new Candy Cane Lane Shadow Box Kit and the brown frame to put this together. If you haven't made a Doodlebug Shadow Box yet, I really recommend it! I guarantee you will have some fun crafting! I've made five so far and I love changing it out for the season!! Now they make one for every new collection!! 

Here is my finished shadow box. I splattered on some white paint to make it look snowy and artsy! I used some stickers and embellishments to add a bit of extra interest to the bottom of the frame. I always like to add some matching decorations to my frame! It's hard to see, but I backed the vellum panel with blue snowflake 12x12 paper from the Candy Cane Lane Collection.

 

I just adore all the little houses in this kit!! I want to live in a pretty Christmas house! You can see that I also splattered white paint onto my finished panel. I used Diamond Stickles to add glittery accents to the rooftops and other areas. 

 

So many pretty, sparkly gems in this kit - it makes it come alive and shimmer!

 

The color palette in this kit is just so cheery and sweet. I do love a pop of pink or aqua in with my Christmas colors! No one does it better than Doodlebug.

 

Here is my insert before I put it in the frame. The kit comes with a sheet of thick vellum and you place the vellum over a pattern and put the stickers and gems, etc down onto the vellum. It's genius and really fun. Some of the elements are popped up with foam squares and some are flat. 

 

 

Thank you for spending a little time with me today!! I hope you will make one of these shadow boxes!! My next Doodlebug project will be for New Years Week!! They have a brand new collection for planning and for calendars and I can't wait to show you. I'm waiting for mine to be delivered and I'm so excited! Have a great week! Love you! XOXO

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

A vintage card for my vintage husband!

Hi friends! Last week was SO busy. Gosh. Christmas is coming at me at lightning speed. Can we hit the pause button so I can catch up for a minute?! Are you feeling that way too? There are just so many fun things to do this time of year and I want to do everything!! Happy Monday!!  I have something different and fun to share with you today! It's a birthday card I made for my husband! He just celebrated his 60th birthday!! Gosh, we are both kinda freaking out about it.... I met him when he was 30! How does that much time go by so quickly?? Jeez!! He is a pretty low key sort of guy so he didn't want a lot of fanfare... We enjoyed some fun activities together over the weekend to celebrate him! I made him a vintage inspired card (since now he's vintage) using lots of cool Tim Holtz supplies!! I almost always grab my TH supplies when making masculine cards. Especially the Blueprints stamps....

The finished card is a 5x7 card base made from kraft, then layered with black and cream. I kept the color palette muted and masculine using kraft, grey, black and gold. 

 

I started by stamping the background panel using the mini blueprints of some of his favorite things: cameras, party hats, stars and skulls.... I used grey ink to make the background more muted. Then I stamped some of the same icons in black and cut them out by hand. I used gold metallic watercolor paint to paint on the icons.

 

I used Tim Holtz Label Stickers for the sentiments... I think they look cool and graphic. I used black and gold splatters for this card.

 

Here are some of my supplies as I was laying out my card idea. The number dies have been in my stash forever - they are Papertrey Ink By The Numbers. Unfortunately they are discontinued now. I used gold paper layered with black paper for the numbers. 

 

 

I attached a strip of vintage text paper across the card. Then I layered the icons around the numbers....

 

I used a large jump ring to hang a little camera charm from the bottom of the zero... 

 

The last step was to add a few mirrored stars, since he is my super star!!

Hope you're doing great today!! I'll be back soon with some more Christmas projects!! Thank you SO MUCH for shopping my affiliate links! I am SO GRATEFUL and it makes a huge difference to me!! I think I will have enough stash to do another giveaway in January!! I hope that sounds good to you too. Take care!! XOXO

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

Doodlebug - Candy Cane Lane Collection - Mitten Ornament Gift Card Holders!

Hi crafty friends! Happy Holiday Season to you all! Happy Monday! It's Doodlebug Monday, too! Did you have a good weekend? We were busy doing fun holiday things - putting up the tree, buying poinsettias, getting coffee, church.... It was a good weekend! I'm here today to share a project made with the brand new Candy Cane Lane Collection from Doodlebug! It's so holly jolly and cute and fun! Everything you could want in a winter paper collection... I was smiling the entire time I was making this project to share with you. I am always looking for cute handmade gift items to give out to friends, neighbors, and coworkers this time of year. I decided to make some paper mitten ornaments that hold a coffee gift card tucked inside. After the recipient takes out the gift card, they can hang the ornament on their tree! I will put the date and name on the back of each one too. 

I started by using the gorgeous 12x12 papers from the Doodlebug Candy Cane Lane collection. I die cut out two mittens in each color and then glued them together back to back. I die cut two cuffs and did the same, being careful not to glue the top shut. I used the Gingham 6x6 paper pad to make the cuffs. I tucked a little bit of tissue down inside the mitten to make it puff out just a little.  The mitten shape is a discontinued die set from Taylored Expressions called Mitten Garland. But, you could easily find a mitten template online or an SVG file of a mitten. I thought this idea would also be cute with coffee mugs instead of mittens. I might try that too! 

I used silver brads on the cuffs and put some Doodlebug Chunky Twine through the brads to act as the ornament hanger part. Then the really fun part - decorating the mittens with stickers and ephemera! I tucked a bit of tissue, the coffee cards, and a small candy cane into the top opening. Super festive. I can't wait to give them away! I think they will be cute hanging on the tree!

Here are my three mitten ornaments...

 

 

I used lots of stickers (Icons) and gems and all the good things from the Candy Cane Lane Collection. If you look closely, can you see those super cool clear acetate snowflakes? Love them! I used my favorite Bearly Glue to glue around the edges. They are of course, open at the top.

 

 

 

 

 

Here is one of the mittens in my hand so you can see the size and scale. 

I adore this happy jolly snowman! He's holding his Christmas tree, and I added lots of rhinestone ornaments to it! I do love the sparkle! Regular stickers and Puffy Stickers and gems....oh my!

 

 

 

 

 

I am kind of obsessed with snowmen and candy canes right now!

 

 

 

And lastly, my home for the holidays mitten!! I love this holly patterned paper - and paired with green gingham - so cute!! This would be a nice gift to bring to someone's home as a hostess gift!

 

 

 

 

 

More of those adorable puffy stickers!!

That's it for today!! We are doing something really special tonight at church and I am excited! We are attending a dinner and tour of Bethlehem. We have our own tour guide via video conference walking us through all the holy Christmas sites and showing us everything. All the while we will be dining on traditional food from that region. It should be an amazing time and definitely get us more into the reason for the season. Also, this week my husband turns 60!!! I'm not sure which one of us is freaking out more, me or him! I met him when he was 30!!! I made him a cool card that I'll share later in the week. I hope you have a wonderful and happy week! Thanks for spending some time with me today. XOXO

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

Christmas projects with new Taylored Expressions! Stamps, Stencils, Glitter, and an Elf!

Hi everyone! Happy December 1st! Can you believe it? Another year, another holiday season, another winter.... Wow, this year went fast! I hope you have a delightful, happy and peaceful December. Our month is so full of activities I have two different calendars going. There are so many fun things to do this time of year. I like to volunteer a lot and there are so many things happening at church, and work and of course craft fairs and Christmas festivals. Looking forward to a lovely month. Oh, and it's raining here today - yay! Lucky and I are all cozy in the craft room with the candles going and the twinkle lights...What a nice day. 

I have some projects to share with you today - both projects were made with awesome new supplies from our friends at Taylored Expressions! Yippeee! One classic card, and some bright and cheery tags. Supplies are all listed at the bottom of my post - including my ink colors for stenciling! Let's get to it!!

First up is a classic Christmas card, with kraft, red, green and gold. I used the new NOEL stamp/stencil combo and it is such a nice suite!! My finished card is an A2 red card base. I layered cream and then my top layer is kraft with the stenciling on it. I added snowflakes and splatters of course...

 

The NOEL stencil/stamp combo is soooo pretty. It's a set of four stencils and then a set of tiny accent stamps to add the leaf details. It's perfection. I used shades of greens and then the new Lumberjack Red Distress Ink!! The final stencil does the lines inside the words and I chose to use glitter gel/paste as my accent. Tip - make sure all your inks are 100% dry before you add a paste!!! I used both my small and large sized blender brushes to get a nice even coat of ink onto my paper. The colors look different on Kraft paper - and I love this look. I used Distress Inks - colors are listed in the supplies!

 

Here's a close up of all the details. I used a TE die to make a set of vellum snowflakes which I added to my card and also my other project for today. I love a pretty vellum snowflake, don't you? 

 

 

 

This is such a nice idea for a one layer card and would be great for mass production.... 

 

Next up is the Holiday Squad!! I made three tags using the new Holiday Squad dies/stamp set! The die set makes Santa, Mrs. Clause, and an adorable elf. All die cut from whatever color cardstock you want! I again stayed with traditional red and green.... I added snowflakes to my tags also...and snow splatters... There is a small stamp set that comes with the dies - for the eyes, cheeks and glasses. So easy and fun! I used the Joyful Season stamp set to add the small words on each tag.

Remember last year I made this card with the Snow Squad Dies! I'm so happy TE is adding to this fun collection of 'squads!'

 

Sweet Mrs. Claus with her smiling face and cute holly barette!! I added white gel pen accents to all three tags. I attached the figures to some postage stamp die cuts before adding them to the tags.

 

OMG how cute is this elf with his pointy ears!!! Instead of white for the hat brim and pom pom, I used silver glitter paper....

 

And of course Santa with his fluffy beard and cheerful smile....

 

 

 

These were so much fun to make!! I tied some twine at the top of each tag in a matching color. Added snowflakes and some tiny hearts...

 

 

 

Here's a photo I took the other day of a delicious drink I made in my new W mug! I love coffee mugs and I have a bazillion coffee mugs! But I always buy more! There never is a W so I had to get it, right??? I made hubs and I some peppermint mocha coffees the other day. He found peppermint flavored whipped cream at Whole Foods!!! So I mixed coffee, milk, chocolate, and peppermint syrup. I put on the whipped cream and some crushed peppermint candies. And WOWZA, sooooo yummy.  On a side note - have you ever had the peppermint milkshakes at Chik-fil-a???? OMG so good! I haven't had one yet this year, but I'm going to take care of that this weekend! Ha!

That's it for today! What are you working on!? Are you looking forward to a fun December too? I am sending out big hugs and good wishes for a happy holiday season to everyone. Love you guys. XOXO

CLICK HERE or on the graphic below to see all the supplies used in today's projects (Affiliate Links Used)