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

Anchors Ahoy! It’s the first week of Summer!

Hi peeps! Today is my Friday since I am off work tomorrow! WAHOOOOOOO! What's better than a three day weekend? A three day work week! Yeah, this old girl has been working hard and tomorrow she is ready to party!!! The hubs and I are going to the Bottlerock Napa Music Festival and we are really excited. Do you have a 'concert bucket list?' I do! It's my list of bands that I really want to see in concert. One of those bands has eluded me for a long time, and guess what? They are playing tomorrow night… The Cure! (Yes, I'm a child of the 80's for sure) I'll be Instagramming from the festival tomorrow if you want to follow me!

I have some fun nautical cards to share with you today. This anchor card was inspired by a store window we passed by while shopping this winter. I snapped a quick pic with my iPhone to remind me of the idea and then just now finally sat down to make this card…

The anchor die is from Memory Box, and the beautiful stamp is from Waltzingmouse Stamps. Love the font combination. And, you can't go wrong with crisp white embossing…

Here is my iPhone pic. Sorry it's so bad. It was pouring rain and I was trying to juggle my purse and my umbrella along with my phone. You get the idea though….

I simply lined up all my pretty anchors in rows on some bright blue paper and that was it! Nice and easy card (well, after you cut out all those anchors).

Is anyone else as obsessed with nautical as I am??? Cannot get enough!!

This fun and happy card was up on the Taylored Expressions Blog this week! All the supplies are from TE and I LOOOOOOVE that whale! But you know what I love more? His teeny sailor hat!!!! Yes, that is a die that comes with the stamp set! OMG.

Okay my friends! Have an excellent day and an excellent weekend. Time to kick off Summer and have a good time! XOXO I would love to hear who is on your concert bucket list!

May 29, 2014
Watercolor Bird Card – for the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge!

Hi! Flying by today with my entry for this week's Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Card! This week's theme is "The Artsy Stamp" and I chose a pretty bird stamp from Judikins as my 'artsy' starting off point. I'm sharing a fun technique today too – hope you like it!

Here is my finished card, with a watercolor bird, some hand dyed ribbon and a pretty sentiment!

The bird and the sentiment were both watercolored with stamps! Have you done this yet? The "enjoy" word is from Papertrey Ink. I stamped it in Corduroy Distress Ink and then gently put water over the ink to blend it together!

The bird was done the same way. It's stamped and then blended! More photos below of my steps. Here is a close up of the final bird I chose. I made a bunch, and each one came out slightly different. Nice surprises when you watercolor…

Here is my stamp after I colored it with some Distress Markers….

It doesn't look very pretty yet…I stamped it onto watercolor paper so you get the outline of the image, but not all the details…

Next up, take your water brush and wet the image very sparingly. You can always add more! See how the colors blend together? Love that!

After I stamped my bird, I had to wait for him to dry, so I made my own dyed to match ribbon using water and Distress Ink pads in the same colors as the bird. I like to match ya know!!! Dyeing my own ribbon is one of my very favorite things to do.

I put the whole card together by adding my ribbon in the corner with a pretty Tim Holtz charm. I added some light speckles of brown all over the main part of the card too.

Enjoy YOUR day! And thank you for coming by my blog!

CLICK HERE TO ENTER YOUR CARD INTO THE CHALLENGE!!!

May 27, 2014
Happy Memorial Day Weekend 2014!

Hi friends! Happy Saturday and Happy Memorial Day Weekend! Hope you have loads of fun things planned for the weekend. I worked six days in a row this past week and so I am beyond ready to have a few days at home and some crafty time! Before I get too far I just want to say, THANK YOU for your service to our country if you are a Veteran, a miltary wife, sister, mom or friend! My husband and I are both the children of veterans and we always try to be very patriotic and thankful that we live in America. And we try to acknowledge the meaning of this holiday!

Update about Gallery Idol – I didn't make the top 20… But some of my blogger friends did, so I'm more than happy to sit back and watch what they create and enjoy the process of choosing the next Idol! Thank you again for giving me so much encouragement about this! XOXO

First thing this morning I could not wait to get crafty! I went straight in the craft room still in my pajamas. Just put my hair in a scrunchie and grabbed the cat! The hubs was nice enough to make a Starbucks run so I have creative fuel. I decided today to make Patriotic cards.

This card was super quick and easy and I love how clean and graphic it is. Can't go wrong ever with the red, white and blue! The flag is a new cutting plate from Taylored Expressions! LOVE. The sentiment is also new from Taylor this past month. I stamped the sentiment with Stayzon ink on vellum. SO crisp!

I added some tiny silver Doodlebug stars so I could put some glue under my vellum -that's a good trick! Then I mounted the whole flag onto some kraft cardstock. Easy peasy!

HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY!!!

May 24, 2014
Scrapbook & Cards Today Blog Project!

Hey friends! I have a fun announcement today! Five of us Taylored Expressions crafty gals have teamed up to feature some of the awesome TE Cutting Plates! And, guess what? Our cards are all being featured over at the Scrapbook & Cards Today Blog! WOO HOOOOO! You will loooooove what everyone made, I assure you. AND, if you pop over there tomorrow there is a HUGE + AMAZING + FABULOUS prize giveaway worth over $150!! Yep, you read that correctly!!

CLICK HERE to head over to the Scrapbook & Cards today blog!

And, here is a little sneak peek of my card – I used the beautiful In Flight Cutting Plate!

May 22, 2014
Botanical – gone wild!

Hello everyone! Nice to see you here with me today! Before I post anything else I just want to say a big giant thank you for all the love that has been coming my way! Thank you all for the nice comments here on my blog, on Facebook and on Instagram – regarding my entry for Gallery Idol. (see post below) Wow, I am so touched by how sweet everyone is. I think it was worth it to enter – just to read the nice things people said. Now I don't even care if I make it to the Top 20! (well, maybe I care a little LOL). Sincerely – THANK YOU! When people ask me why I craft and blog I always say – the people! We will know if we made it to the next round sometime on Friday. YAHOO! So many of my fun and talented blogger friends entered cards – the creativity blows my mind. Good luck everyone!

Today I'm sharing a POP of color and a pretty flower I made! One of the things I HAD TO HAVE from CHA was this gorgeous Brenda Walton (Sizzix) Camellia Die!!! OH. MY. WORD. Had to have it. I live in Sacramento and we are known as the Camellia City – and I have three giant Camellias in my front yard. Okay, I totally digressed right there with trivia. Well….the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge this week is BOTANICAL! Okay – right up my alley. I got my hands on this die and got inky!!

Here is my finished card and below are step by step photos:

POW!!! Did I not tell you it was a POP of color!!?? I adore this Raspberry Distress Ink. Yummmy. The Hello Die cut and the Sweet Friend sentiment are from WPLUS9. I stacked three green die cuts on top of each other to get the dimension off the page. (As if this card didn't have enough dimension)…

Here is a view from the top down. I made the flower first and then designed the card around it. I stamped the giant word stamp (Impression Obsession) in the matching Shabby Shutters green ink and then edged the paper in brown.

I thought this card needed a pearl, too. The card base is a 5×5 square….

Here are all of my die cut pieces – cut out from Watercolor Paper. This is how many pieces you need to make the flower as shown. Of course you can always add or subtract according to the look you want. I think in this form, they look like Dogwood blooms!

One of my favorite techniques – watercoloring with Distress Inks…. What a mess, but oh, so worth it. You can see I'm not super careful with this process – just have a good time!

While the petals are still wet, gently curve them up with the palm of your hand and let them dry like this.

OOOOOOOH. Pretty!

Glue it all together and this is what you get! Yay!

Um, I'm pretty sure this one won't fit in an envelope! I'll have to deliver this one in person! Have a very happy day and thank you again for being a part of my creative journey! XOXO

CLICK HERE TO ADD YOUR ENTRY TO THE CHALLENGE!

May 21, 2014
Washi Tape cloud….and a big deal for me….

Hello sweet bloggy pals! I overcame a fear/phobia yesterday and decided to try something I've always wanted to try…but was too chicken to do! I made and entered a card into the Gallery Idol 2014 Contest! Yes, me, who is totally afraid to submit her cards to magazines… I did it! Wish me luck!

Today I'm sharing the card I entered for Gallery Idol, which also was made with the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge in mind. Two birds. One stone. (One card)

I am possibly a little obsessed with cute cloud stamps and dies right now. That's okay, right? LOL. Here is my HAPPY HAPPY card!

The Gallery Idol Round One challenge is washi tape! And, the Simon Says Stamp Challenge this week is "Die Crazy." So I used a pretty Simon Says Stamp exclusive die (Heart Rainfall) and some fun washis…

Here is how I made my card…. First I cut out my die from wood grain paper and set that aside. Then I used rows of washi tape (the polka dots are from Doodlebug and I don't know where the red one is from) to line up with my die cut.

It took me a while to decide which washi to use….cuz I have about a BAZILLION rolls of it!! I decided to go with the rainbow look….

After I mounted my lower layer to the top piece I stamped a sentiment onto some vellum. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink and I used Stayzon ink on the vellum for a nice crisp image. Then I added a couple of small strips of tape to finish it off.

Wish me luck with Gallery Idol! There are soooo many amaaaaazing entries! The first round winners get announced on the 23rd of this month. Doing this put me out of my comfort zone and I'm proud of myself for even giving it a try. Have a marvelous day my friends!! XOXO

May 18, 2014
Color Throwdown #292 – Rain or Shine!

Happy Friday everybody! We made it through the week – now it's time to have some relaxation time and some crafting! Did you have a good week? Mine was busy but fine. I had a really lovely visit with an old friend one night and that did my heart a lot of good. So, another week is in the books. The heat wave here broke and tomorrow it will be in the 80's and all is right with the world again….

Right when I came home from work tonight I went through my stash trying to come up with an idea for this week's Color Throwdown #292. I saw the challenge colors the other night and knew I wanted to play… Lime Green, Hot Pink and Silver. What's not to love about that?? My first thought was silver flowers….and then that was just weird… And then I saw a new Avery Elle set in my {ahem} pile of unused stamps and made my card. The set is called "Weather It" and it's totally adorable.

So, I'm completely crazy about this font! Right? Stamped it in crisp black ink on white…and made a banner. Then the super fun part – sparkly silver clouds! These clouds really do have a silver lining!

Here is the cool graphic for the challenge! CLICK HERE to see the other entries and to put your own card into the mix! Don't you love this combo???

I made my umbrella from hot pink and white gingham and mounted my top layer onto a hot pink card base. The heart rain drops were stamped in grey ink…

The umbrella is mounted on some foam tape, as is the sentiment banner….

I am here for you…rain or shine!

Thanks a bunch for popping in to see me!

Best wishes for a great weekend. XOXO

May 16, 2014
PTI Make It Monday #164 – Cluster Stamping!

Hi friends! WHOOOO DOGGIES! It's 100 degrees here today. Yikes! SO not ready for the heat. It's gonna be a long hot summmmmmmer. Good thing the A/C is blasting away and Buddy and I are in the craft room gettin' busy. (Well actually he is passed out in front of the A/C vent and I'm gettin' busy – LOL). All day at work I was trying to come up with an idea for the Make It Monday challenge this week. I think it's a super cool idea…. Here's what I came up with!

The challenge is to cluster some tiny stamps around your sentiment. Totally fun, right? I chose a pretty "celebrate" word. For my card, I first stamped all the dots and stars in Mustard Distress Ink. I tried gold ink but it just wasn't working. Then I heat embossed my sentiment in nice rich black. And then added some gems. At first I was thinking it would be a birthday card, but now it sort of looks like a New Year's card?? What do you think?

I used three Papertrey Ink stamp sets for this card. My card base is cream cardstock from Papertrey Ink also. The stamps sets are: Think Big Favorites #15 (sentiment), Birthday Style (dots) and Balloon Bash (stars).

To finish off my card, I mounted the top layer on a black card base with some foam tape. Won't you try it? You still have time to make a card! CLICK HERE to go to the post to enter – or to check out everyone else's cards!

Have a fabulous day….and celebrate!

May 14, 2014
Inspired by two of my favorite card makers – a Butterfly hello!

Hello! I have a bit of a buying/hoarding issue with word dies right now…and I'm sort of embarrassed at the number of dies I have that say "hello!" Too funny. Oh well, at least I know they won't go out of style! LOL. Hope you had a marvelous weekend and hope you're ready for some crafting fun with me today!

My card for today was completely inspired by two of my favorite card makers: Debby Hughes and Joy Taylor. Aren't they the best? Their work is beautiful, creative, clean, and just plain awesome. They both use lots of white space and they both have the amazing knack for combining lots of different elements – but having it come out perfect. These are two things that I struggle with. So, I set myself a goal to make a card that captures the essence of these two ladies' styles…. I'm happy with the result and hope you like it too!

The first thing I did was go around my craft room and choose some of my favorite supplies – wood grain paper, vellum, and AC Pow Silver Glitter Paper…. Then I gathered some dies. The "hello" die is from Simon Says Stamp. The butterfly and leaves are from Memory Box and the Pinking Circle and the Bow are from Taylored Expressions!

I LOOOOOOVE this mini bow in silver! ACK! I had the perfect shade of green flower in my stash and I love the bright color against the silver too.

I cut the leaves out of Vellum paper and mounted them on the bottom of all my other layers. At the end I added a few white Doodlebug Sprinkles dots. I was going to use pearls at first, but the glossy white looked better.

Here is a close up of my layering…. I used Glossy Accents to glue everything down nice and secure.

As always, thank you so much for coming on by to see me! XO

May 12, 2014
Hope is an anchor for the soul…. Moxie Fab Hip on Handwriting Challenge card!

Hello friends! I'm here today to share a card I made for Moxie Fab World's "Hip on Handwriting" Challenge! Sunday is the last day to enter! It's been on my mind all week…what to make…what stamp to use? What technique? So I went through all my new stamps that I haven't inked up yet, and found this beauty from Neat and Tangled and I knew this was the one!

This stamp, and this sentiment, are so beautiful and touching to me. I love the handwritten font, and love it especially when paired with that stronger font and a gorgeous anchor. Perfection!

I got out my watercolor paper pad, and some pretty distress inks (Peacock Feathers, Broken China and Shabby Shutters) and went to town! First, I stamped the sentiment in Versamark Ink and heat embossed it with white embossing powder. Then I got out my water brushes and splashed the colors around until I had it just the way I wanted it. This is such a simple and yet beautiful technique! It would have looked good in pink too!

After my card was all dry and trimmed down, I added some pretty aqua sequins and some pearls to the front. I don't know why, but I think that they make it look ocean-y??!! Just needed some pizazz…

CLICK HERE to go to the Moxie Fab World Challenge and enter your own card…or just take a peek at what everyone else made!

Simple and clean.

I was thinking about the Bible verse that this comes from the whole time I was making this card. And, I realized that today to work I wore my big chunky anchor necklace. Hmmmm. Someone is definitely speaking to me today. The verse that this saying is from is Hebrews 6:19 - This HOPE we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast. As a Christian, this hope acts as an anchor for my soul keeping my heart at rest so I cannot be tossed about or dislodged from a place of peace. Amen.

What is better than that on a Friday night after a long and crazy week? Blessings to you – have a great weekend!

May 9, 2014