A Blog Called Wanda - Photography, Paper Crafting, and Life from Northern California!

I {heart} Fall!

Hello! I'm back today with more Fall crafting craziness! I stayed up late last night stamping and relaxing. Really what I needed. I worked so many hours this past week and I was brain dead Friday night when I came home from work. The one sure fire way to get me back in my groove is to spend the day (and night) crafting. (And watching college football) I have some cool things in the works to share later. I started Bible Journaling and did my first page yesterday. (You can see a sneak peek on Instagram) I will probably write an entire post about that and all the blessings that have come from this new art form… I am also going to be a guestie somewhere very fabulous at the end of the month. lots of good things to come!!

For today I have a cute and happy Lawn Fawn Fall card to show ya! I got my new Lawn Fawn goodies in the mail last week and wanted to use them quick. One of the things I'm working on is just using stuff – not hoarding it, or looking at it! LOL. Do you do that too? Well…I'm trying to reform! (Please do not look at the 30 Iris cases full of 12×12 paper that are behind me)….

Here's my card for today!

How cute are these stamps??!! ACK!!! I used the critters from the Sending Hedgehugs stamp set and the Joy to the Woods stamp set! The sentiment is from the Into the Woods set from last year. Yep, those are the Stitched Leaves dies again too… They are my favorite!

EEEP! Critters in the Autumn Forest! I used the same brown tones as the patterned paper for coloring my animals. I tried making them different colors, but then they clashed with the paper. This way they blend in nicely. I wasn't planning it, but I kind of like the effect of having the animals soft in color – against the bright paper…

Squirrel!!!

This paper collection is called Sweater Weather and I ADORE it already. The flair is also from that collection. The paper has the traditional colors of orange and yellow for Fall, but then pops in a nice soft teal with a raspberry color. Nice!

Happy Autumn Weekend my bloggy friends!

Take care until I see you again!

September 7, 2014
12 Tags of 2014 – September – Fall Memories!

Hey friends! What's shakin'? Hope you're having a great week. It's flying by, isn't it, with the holiday this week and all. I'm ready for another weekend – how about you? One of my favorite things to look forward to at the beginning of each month is the new Tim Holtz Tag! I love the 12 Tags of 2014 so far, don't you! I couldn't wait to see the one for September, and Mr. Holtz did not disappoint! I made my tag right away this month, because last month I ran out of time and never got it done….

I put my interpretation on the tag, and made it a Fall tag (of course) and used some different products because I do not have all the exact same supplies. That's what makes us all different and why I love looking at everyone else's tags they post.

So here's my….drum roll…12 Tags of 2014 September Tag!

Hoooooot! Embrace Fall Memories says Mr. Owl! The owl stamp is from a brand new set for this year! The stencil is brand new too! Yay for new stamping supplies!!

This tag has lots going on! Lots of layers, and ink, and stamping, and markers, and glitter, and ribbon, and a key…. LOL.

You guys know I can never resist dying my own ribbon to match! It comes out differently every time, and this time I got the prettiest shade of golden orange. I added a metal key at the end!

This new Gothic Stencil is already a fav-o-rite! I am going to use this one a lot! In the example tag on Tim's blog he uses alcohol inks to make a ghost image for his backgroung green layer. I do not have any alcohol inks so I used a tried and true technique instead. It gives the same look! First I took the Versamark ink and pushed it directly through the stencil on to my tag. Then I clear embossed it. You can see the pattern here…

In lieu of alcohol inks, I smushed (yes that is the technical term) some green inks onto my craft sheet and then spritzed a lot of water on them. Then I slightly wet my tag too and then ran it through the inks…

I could not have been happier with the results! I looooooooove this! After I made this cool tag I didn't want to put anything on it! Hahaha.

So here's the cool part! In the top photo you see that the embossed parts are still raised and shiny right? Well, look here….the shiny parts are gone and now my tag is perfectly smooth and flat! WHAT happened!? I ironed my tag! Yep, I sandwiched the tag between two paper towels and ironed it with a dry iron. This melts the embossing into the paper! So now you've basically made your own paper! See what I mean about that stencil? Ooh la la. Yes ma'am.

Now I started adding things! Some black text stamping, and my owl….and then I inked around the edges of my tag with some Corduroy ink…

In Tim's tag he uses butterflies and unfortunately I do not have that die (already added to my wish list). And I wanted to use a Fall theme, so I chose the mini leaves dies. I used the same technique to color the paper for my leaves. I smushed yellow, orange and red inks on my craft sheet and wet them and ran them together with my finger (no one said this was a clean project)!

After I colored my tag, I dyed the ribbon with the same inks… Dry everything off with your heat tool…

I die cut my leaves and then stamped the text onto them…

And then I just thought we needed some glitter! After I added my leaves and my stickers I just went through and put on some glitter accents. Loving the Vintage Photo Distress Glitter!

Will you make a tag this month? I hope so! You have all month to enter! CLICK HERE to go to Tim Holtz's blog post and you can see his gorgeous tag, enter your own, or just take a look at the tags everyone else made. Until we meet again – go make some Fall memories! XOXO

September 4, 2014
Happy FALL 2014! Rainbow leaves project….

Howdy friends! Hope you're having an awesome Labor Day weekend! It's September 1st, so I'm gonna go ahead and call it Autumn! YEAH! Happy Fall everyone!! If you've followed me for a while then you KNOW that Fall is my very favorite time of year. I love the cooler weather, cozy sweaters, apples, leaves, hot coffee drinks, football, my birthday, my wedding anniversary, pumpkin flavored anything…you get my drift! So, as soon as the calendar turns over from August to September I say it's time to start Fall crafting!! If it wasn't 98 degrees here yesterday, I might just bust out and wear a sweater….but that part will have to wait…

I spent some time in the craft room on Saturday watching college football. Oh, that does my heart good. Especially since my college (who had a very bad season last year) won our first game!! So now we have an undefeated season going! LOL. What is your favorite season? Are you a Summer beach girl, or a toasty mittens Winter girl?

Did you notice my new blog header? Yep, even turned that over for Fall! I picked out a few of my favorite orange/yellow/red photos and made a new somethin somethin for you to see right when you pop in. Hope you like it!

My cards for today started out as a fun and colorful project with some leaves dies and pretty wood-grain paper and some (many) distress inks… I made the leaves a week or so ago and let them sit on my desk… I ended up having enough leaves to make three similar but kinda different cards. Here they are…the first official projects of Fall 2014!

Here are my three cards together. Basically the same exact supplies on all three, but different shapes and different sentiments. The leaves dies are the Stitched Leaves set from Lawn Fawn. The swirl stamp is a very old set from Autumn Leaves designed by Rhonna Farrer… The raindrops clear gems are from Papertrey Ink….

I think this one is my favorite! Not sure though…. This finished card is 8×4 which fits in a standard legal envelope. I like to make this bigger size from time to time. Gives ya room to spread out… I used vellum on all my cards, and black Staz-on ink.

This sentiment is from Papertrey Ink… I put some of the leaves straight onto the vellum and some were popped up with foam squares.

I just love the rainbow look here with the bright leaves! The gems were glued on with glossy accents which dries glossy and clear so you can't see the glue once it dries.

Sorry, you guys know I go overboard with the pictures! I love to take pictures, too! Sometimes I don't know when to stop myself!

I hesitated about using the purple and teal, but I'm so glad I did!

Okay, so here is my little leaf assembly line… I cut all the leaves out of the woodgrain paper because I just love the texture!

Here's a close up – that's why they are called Stitched Leaves! See the pretty stitches? LOVE.

I used three shades of ink on each leaf color. Here you see the red ones…

Maybe I am a little obsessed with my mini distress inks. But that's okay right?

How perfect are these leaves for the current Curtain Call Challenge!? I loooooove this inspiration photo so much! Check it out and enter your card too! I love this one Stacey!!

One last group photo!

Thanks for coming by and thanks for always being so supportive of this crazy crafty girl. It means the world to me when you leave me a comment and they all uplift me so much! I have some really fun things in the works to share in the coming months. I'm so happy you are along for the ride with me. Fall to me is a time for reflecting and for gratitude and thanksgiving. Thank you for being you! Many many blessings to you this Autumn season. XOXOX

September 1, 2014
One last Summer project…Sweet Strawberry Basket!

Hi friends! I am SO super excited to finally share this set of projects today. I've been working on this post for a couple of weeks because I was having so much fun and just kept adding things! Fall is just around the corner (yay!), so this will be my last official post of Summer. I thought it was fitting to end the season with sweet summer strawberries in a basket! Don't strawberries just scream "Summer" to you!? Where I live there are little strawberry stands on the corners and you can eat so many you could burst. We've been enjoying them in our smoothies especially this year!

As I was getting ready to post this, I popped over to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Blog to see what the challenge was for this week! Guess what? It's anything goes! So, my project will be entered there for a chance to win a gift certificate! That is such a fun forum to share. So many great projects from everyone. You should join too….After all, anything goes!

This project all started with the super cool and inventive Berry Basket die from Papertrey Ink. Yes, my aqua basket is made from paper!! You cut four of the dies and then glue them together into the basket. It is much bigger than I thought it would be and it can hold a lot. I am seeing many treat ideas coming from this one!! Once I made the basket I decided to fill it with some gingham strawberries made with the Lori Whitlock (Sizzix) Sweet Strawberry die set…

After my pretty basket was filled with berries….I decided to add a tag. Then I decided to add a card… You see how this all went!! Hahaha. I really just couldn't stop! Okay, I'll quit blabbing and show you some pictures!

Everything in my projects is from Papertrey Ink, with the exception of the strawberries dies. Here is a close up of my tag. I used the Parisian Lace Doily die to add some white to the front of the basket. I used the Strawberry Patch stamp set for the strawberry images… The sentiments on the tag and the card are from the Bold Bouquet Anniversary set. Can you see the pretty scallop border at the top of the basket? Genius really.

The strawberry dies come with the leaves and the little flowers. I added some enamel dots in the centers of the flowers and some twine. SO cheery right?

Here's my card to go with this project. I kept the entire thing cohesive by using the same colors and same font on everything. I love how this came out. The green swirl on the card is part of the strawberry die set also. This butterfly die from PTI is probably the most used thing in my craft room! It's so perfect – with a heart in the center.

Here's a side view to show my layers….

Here are my parts! Ready for assembly… You can see that I edged the leaves in a darker green ink to add dimension. The berries are held together with a brad at the top – that also goes through the leaves.

Strawberry – ready for your close up! LOL.

I wanted to show you the detail on the basket. My head is already full of more ideas…Can't you see it in black for Halloween candies? Or kraft paper for a rustic Christmas wrapping??

SMILE!

You're simply the best. Oh yeah, I added a strawberry to the inside of my card too! One little trick I do whenever I'm die cutting something or stamping something…I do an extra one. Then I can either put it inside the card or put it on the envelope!

Whew! Thanks for hanging in there all the way to the end of my post! I hope you have fun plans for the long weekend and Labor Day. I'm excited about the anticipation of Autumn and feeling the cool breeze in the mornings. Here at the bloggy blog, Fall starts on September 1st! Because I can't wait any longer! I'm working on a new blog header for Fall and also have been working on a leaves project for Monday's post (sneak peek on Instagram). Until then, go out and have some fun! XOXO

August 27, 2014
Mama Elephant August Challenge… Watercoloring + Birthday!

Happy Weekend! How's it going? We just got home after watching our nephew play football this afternoon. It was a wonderful day out at the park and he played really well. He has worked so hard all Summer and we are so proud of him in his starting position this year. He is twelve and already has a good head for the game. Can't wait to watch him grow into his own… We came home and made dinner, and now I'm finally getting around to posting the card I made this morning!

I made this card for the Mama Elephant and Me August Challenge! The theme for August is Watercoloring + Birthday! I used the free set I received last month called "In My Heart" and made a cheery birthday card. I popped this card with lots of red accents and I always love red and aqua together. Here ya go….

I think this would be a good 'across the miles' birthday card! All the supplies are from Mama Elephant except the tiny 'happy birthday' stamp, which is from PTI. All the dies and other stamps are ME. So much fun to make this one!

I colored the images with my Gansai Tambi 36 Watercolor set. I loooooove the shades of these paints and they are so creamy and dreamy to work with. I made my girl a blondie like me!

You can see that the white watecolor tag has a row of hearts across the bottom of it. I did that by taping the row of hearts die onto the same paper as my tag, as you see here….

Voila! I used watercolor paper since I love the texture and I knew I was going to stamp my girl directly onto the paper.

I cut a second tag out of bright cherry red paper. Here are all my pieces…

I have been trying lots of different inks with my watercolors and have finally determined that (for me) Versafine works the very best. It doesn't bleed or smear when you are painting. The Memento Inks really were not working for me… I use my glass stamping mat to watercolor – you can see my paints on the right side. It's so easy to clean up.

I like how the red paper shows through the heart cut outs…and I adore these fonts! My layers are cut using the Femme Frames dies.

After the card was done I had the idea to add some itty bitty red hearts coming out of the envelope! That tiny envelope has a lot of love! The letter is from the Panda set.

A little bit of twine at the top and we're done!

There is still time to enter the Mama Elephant and Me August Challenge! Join in the fun! CLICK HERE to go to the page for the challenge! Have a wonderful day! XOXO

Oh, wait, one quick last thing….Some Instagrams! YEAH! You know I love me some Instagrams! First up is a photo of a card I made our nephew to give him at the game today. I had bought him a football tee shirt and, you know, it needed a card!

And here's a shot from the sidelines this afternoon!

Okay, now I'm really done! Bye!

August 23, 2014
Warm thoughts…and a cuppa joe! Paper Smooches Anything Goes Challenge!

Hi everyone! How's your week going? I got some rare time in the crafty cave after work today. Yay! So I searched around for a fun challenge…. And, wouldn't you know it, The Paper Smooches Challenge for this week is "anything goes!" Double Yay! I went and got out all my fun Paper Smooches stamps and went through them until an idea hit me! Bam! Coffee…. I made a clean and simple card using a fun layout. Hope ya like it! I used three different stamp sets. One of the very best things about Paper Smooches is that the stamps all mix and match so well! Warm Thoughts to you friends….

I stamped and cut out the three coffee mugs and then colored them to match my patterned papers. I stamped my sentiment vertically on the edge and added the heart. Here you can see I added some spots of Prisma Glitter too…

Here's a side view….lots of foam tape going on…

CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE CHALLENGE PAGE!

I thought some twine would be cute and I added the twine and an enamel dot for a small accent…

Coffee anyone!?

I hope the rest of your week is amazing!

Thank you for visiting!

August 20, 2014
Texture and Color…

Hello my friends! What a nice weekend I'm having! Whew – too much fun for one girl. Friday I left work early and the DH picked me up from the office to go to a concert! We went to see Counting Crows at the Greek Theater in Berkeley. What an amaaaaaazing show! Wow. They have been on my concert list for quite some time and I was so happy to see them here at (their/our) home. (Fun fact – I actually went to college with the lead singer of Counting Crows!) The weather was gorgeous, the beer was cold, the show was fantastic! We got home at 2:30am! OMG I am WAY too old for staying up that late!

Saturday we went for a peaceful drive up to the mountains to visit my friend Steve who was camping out. We needed to help him celebrate his 50th birthday. YAHOOOOO! It was a glorious day up at Union Valley Reservoir! We took our chairs down by the water and gabbed the day away. So nice to relax and catch up with friends, isn't it? We don't do that too much these days, because everyone is going 100 mph all the time. I really tried to be in the moment, just sitting there in the sunshine with a nice breeze. Looked up at the skies to say "Thank you Lord!"

Today I'm in the craft room, mostly organizing some things… I had no idea what to make today and then I saw this piece of text paper that I had in my stash. I decided I wanted to use it, and pick up some of the pretty colors in the text. Well, the project turned into a nice mix of textures and colors…

The yellow and teal paper are the Swiss Dot paper from Bazzill. Lends a very nice and subtle texture to the card. Yes, I am still using wood grain paper on everything. I'll try to let it go….

The tag die is from My Favorite Things, the butterfly dies are from Papertrey Ink, the leaves are from Memory Box and the frame dies are from Mama Elephant! I think that pretty red heart is an old embellishment from Wendy Vecchi??

Can you see all the pretty colors in the text paper? Love that!

I didn't really feel like adding a sentiment. I stamped Happy Birthday on the inside though. You can never have enough birthday cards, right?

You guys probably know that I'm kind of (a lot) obsessed with Instagram! Do you have an account? Leave a comment with your user name and I'll follow you! Mine is stampcatwg. Thought I would post a few of my Instagram photos from the weekend to share.

First up – arrival at the show! Perfect antidote to a long week in cubicle land!

Counting Crows! OMG they are a million times better in person than on a recording!

The birthday card I made for my friend's birthday. Lots of watercoloring and Distress Ink goodness going on there! This was a fun card to make!

Ice House Road, off Highway 50 on the way to Lake Tahoe. Hard to believe in about 30 minutes from home you can be in the middle of nowhere! So lovely.

Union Valley Reservoir where we sat the day away…. I used a cool iPhone app called Distressedfx to make this one look like a painting.

Okay, I think that's enough for one day! Hope you've been having a lovely Summer weekend! XOXO

August 17, 2014
Thank You Butterflies – Watercolor technique

Hi everyone! Okay, here's what…. I'm STILL addicted to watercoloring everything! ACK! I can't stop myself. That's okay, though, right? And, I'm also currently (re)addicted to my woodgrain paper! LOL. Do you go in phases with your supplies like that? What are you obsessed with right now?

Today I'm sharing a clean and simple butterfly thank you card that I watercolored. I need to give a shout out to the super talented and sweet Dawn from WPlus9. She is so generous with her knowledge and her amazing videos. Seriously…whew. CLICK HERE to see her video page. I sat in my craft room Sunday afternoon just watching her and learning all kinds of cool tricks. This card's for you Dawn! XO

This butterfly stamp is an oldie! It's from Impression Obsession, and it's been in my stash for years….and now I gave it new life with a new technique! I stamped the image first in Antique Linen Distress Ink onto the flat side of a piece of watercolor paper. That gave me a really nice soft image. Then I watercolored my butterflies with shades of blue, olive and yellow… The sentiment is from a pretty set from WPlus9. That font is gorgeous. You can see I also colored the background with a blue wash and then spattered some brown too. The brown makes it have a 'natural' feel to it and ties in the wood paper…

I cut out one extra butterfly and mounted him near the sentiment for some dimension. You know I am not capable of making a flat card! Here again is that pretty sentiment. The watercolor paper is mounted on foam tape.

Here is a side view of the watercoloring – I think it's easier to see in this shot.

I want to make some more of these in different colors. I think they would make a beautiful gift box set of thank you cards!

Here is a shot of my supplies and ink colors….

Before I go for today – Just wanted to put out another reminder about the Taylored Expressions Stamp Joy event taking place in Iowa on October 11th! I am already so excited about this cool event. Early bird registration closes this Friday – and it's such a great deal! Space is limited and classes are filling up quickly!! I would LOVE to see you there. I'm teaching a Fall Favorites class with Halloween and Autumn Inspired cards. CLICK HERE to see all the class descriptions! Let's Stamp Joy together!

That's it for me for today!

Have a fabulous day! XO

August 13, 2014
Be Strong & Courageous!

Ahoy there my friends! Summer is winding down…so I figured I would keep on sharing some more Summer projects while there's still time! LOL. It will be time to start thinking Fall here before we can blink an eye! You know I love some nautical shabby chic, and that's just what I have for you today! Flowers, pink, anchors, sequins…yay! And a beautiful Bible verse too.

I was rattling around in my craft room this morning, organizing and what not. Nothing would come to me…I had no idea what to make today. Then, I spied this gorgeous Webster's Pages paper sitting on my desk…and the card came to me! The stamp is part of a gorgeous set called Safe Harbour Sentiments from Waltzingmouse. All the patterned papers are from Webster's Pages Ocean Melody collection.

I really love the contrast between the woodgrain and the floral and the twine… All those different textures and colors together. And blue and pink is always a winning combination. Stripes too. Yum.

I stamped my sentiment in Nautical Blue ink from Memento – the perfect match to the navy in the papers. This is one of my favorite Bible verses. How nice of Claire to make it into a stamp for me!! And the little ships' wheel? Awesome.

Here's a side shot ot my layers. Foam tape – you know me by now! The sentiment panel is wrinkled – I just kind of wrinkled it in the palm of my hand for some added texture. I also distressed the edges of the papers.

Be strong and courageous indeed! Great message!

Thank you for spending part of your weekend with me!

Have a fabulous day! XO

August 9, 2014
Fabulous Flamingos!

Cheers! Hope you're having a great week! It's already Wednesday?! Our heat wave has broken here in Sacramento and that makes me happy again. Also, I can feel the very slightest hint of Autumn in the air,and that makes me VERY happy. Last weekend I had a fun time at my friend Sharon's scrapbooking/crafting event. At the event, I made a cheery card using some brand new stamps from Reverse Confetti. Fabulous Flamingos is the name of the stamp set, and it literally just came in the mail last week. I looooove it! To me, flamingos just say - Florida and Palm Beach! So I used the preppy colors of Lily Pulitzer to make a happy flamingo card. This old preppy girl loves pink and green!!

Here's my card….

These flamingo stams ARE fabulous, don't ya think? They are perfection! For the front of my card, I forgot to leave room for a sentiment! So, I stamped parts of a larger sentiment to say "you are fabulous" and then stamped the entire sentiment on the inside. I kind of like how this 'accident' turned out! To do this, simply put washi tape over the parts of your stamp that you don't want to show, then ink it up. Remove the washi tape and stamp your words! Easy peasy!

I love that the flamingos come in two pieces – their body and their wing. This gives such a nice dimensional flair to them. And, their wings are polka dots!!! CUTE!

Here is the inside of the card – using the entire sentiment. I like how it pulls together! I also added one more little guy down in the corner.

Pink + green = happiness!

Go out and be fabulous!

August 6, 2014