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

PTI Make It Monday #163 – Envelope Wraps!

Howdy! I'm popping in here today to share a super fun challenge project – Envelope Wraps! Awesome! I made these for the Papertrey Ink Make It Monday Challenge for this week. What a great idea – make our own envelope wraps. I have some store-bought ones that I like, but this is just too much fun. And, you know how much I love my envelope maker, so I made those too! Have a look!

I made two fun 'country' style wraps and then made my matching gingham envelopes! Howdy!

These came out so happy and cheery! It was weird to make a project without any layers or any die cuts. I hardly ever do 'one layer' stamping. Back to my roots! LOL.

Here are my strips of paper when I started. I made them 8 x 2.25 inches. I cut the banner edge by hand out of some nice thick white paper. I scored them at three inches.

The three PTI stamp sets that I used are: Simple Sunflower, On The Farm and Scent-imentals. I think these three sets work really nicely together.

Getting ready to make my envelopes….

And here is what they look like when they are wrapped around the envelope!

I hope you will try this yourself! Such a fun and interesting project. Another way to super personalize your cards to send out! XOXO Have a blessed day! CLICK HERE to go to the PTI Make it Monday Challenge page to see what everyone else made!

May 7, 2014
A pocket full of LOVE!

Cheerio! Hope you are having a smashing weekend! It's Sunday night and that means time to get dinner ready and prepare to sit down as a family and watch "Amazing Race" together! Even Buddy likes that show! The hubs and I never miss an episode. But first, a blog post! I've been home sick all weekend. BOO. I had a cold and then allergies hit me full force which then led to an asthma flare up. BOO. I have been trying to rest and be still so I can get better. Hope your weekend was better than mine!!

Saturday in the mail I got some brand new Paper Smooches stamps and dies from their newest release and I couldn't wait to use them. I hopped over to the Paper Smooches Sparks challenge blog to find that this week's challenge is "anything goes" which is right up my alley! I LOVE combining Paper Smooches with Retro Sketches so that's what I did here. I checked out the current Retro Sketches challenge and used that for my card layout!

CLICK HERE for the Retro Sketches blog and CLICK HERE for the Paper Smooches Challenge Blog. There's still lots of time for you to play along too. Won't you join me?

Here is my fun card made using the new Denim and Daisies stamps and dies!

This is seriously the cutest stamp set ever…Love the sentiment…

Here is the sketch layout….

I made a little tag with a teeny heart for my pocket! The pocket is stamped in Adirondack "Denim" ink. the pocket was stamped off once to make a lighter shade. Then I did the stitching in the full color. That is the most perfect shade of blue and I use it a lot.

The matching dies for this stamp set have flowers, flower centers, leaves and the pocket. I had tons of fun cutting out all these flowers. At first I was going to use yellow (I'm kind of obsessed with yellow right now) but then decided the red looks so good with "denim"!

I am currently also totally obsessed with Doodlebug Sprinkles enamel dots. They make me happy. And I have a lot of them. LOL.

I had extra flowers and banners left over so I put them on the inside! I always forget to jazz up the inside of my cards. It is such a nice surprise for the person getting the card though, and looks so polished.

Hope you like my happy card – and hope you enter the challenges too! Have a fabbie week next week and lots of love to you!

May 4, 2014
Buzzing by to say hello!

Hi peeps! I'm buzzing by with a fun little bee card and a happy hello! This card was made for TWO challenges for Simon Says Stamp! This card fits the bill for both the Monday Challenge – which is YELLOW and the Wednesday Challenge which is Anything Goes + Lawn Fawn! Yippeeeee! I got out all my fun and cute Lawn Fawn stamps, dies and papers and let it all speak to me.

Here's what I came up with! A sweet bee with a BIG hello!

I stamped the bee trail and the bee in dark Memento Ink and colored him with my Copics. He is from the Gnome Sweet Gnome stamp set. Then I cut the Speech Bubble Border from some Lawn Fawn grey polka dot paper. And then…that cute hello word die!

CLICK HERE for the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge – Mellow Yellow!

CLICK HERE for the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – Anything Goes + Lawn Fawn!

So thank you so very much for coming by! XO

May 1, 2014
LIVE. LOVE. CRAFT.

Hi friends! Popping in today to share a sneak peek at a FUN project I created for the Taylored Expressions Blog this week! I had the best time making this – and you can too – using fun products from Hazel & Ruby! And….Taylor is giving away a prize so you really do need to check out the entire post.

CLICK HERE to see the step by step directions on the TE Blog! Have a super day and remember…

LIVE. LOVE. CRAFT.

May 1, 2014
Seashells…

Hi crafty friends! I'm super excited to share my project with you this afternoon! I have been in the crafty cave creating a mess and having a good time! I am so inspired by the ocean lately! Today I'm showcasing some new stamps from Tim Holtz – stamps that I have been SO wanting ever since CHA back in January! Sketch images of sea life and sea shells! Can I get a woot woot!!?? So fabulous, really. I got out my new stamp sets and some watercolor paper, and ALLLLLL my distress inks… And this is what happened!

The #journey stamp is from a new Tim Holtz set called Hashtags! LOVE. I stamped all my images, including the sentiment, with dark brown Memento Ink. For the little banner, I hand cut it out, with a rough edge and watercolored it to match the rest of the card.

I found this cool new product at the most recent Rubber Stamp Convention….sand in a jar! I spread some around and let it dry at the bottom of the card. You might also be seeing a glimmer of "spun sugar" distress glitter! A pretty, soft pink. I put that on with my finger and swirled it around so it would be 'messy' like sand also.

Here is a side view so you can see how I layered my pieces. The sand dollar and sea horse are popped up with foam tape. Everything else is glued down with crystal effects.

Here is a close up of the sand….

I started this project by stamping everything on nice thick watercolor paper. Then I used a water brush and my Distress Ink pads to color all the images. After everything was dry, I hand cut out the smaller images.

Here is a shot of the sand container and the spun sugar glitter… yummy!

I like to call this "girly grunge" because I love the look of grunge but I loooooove color too! This is my take on combining the two styles. I probably used twenty colors of ink! I kept adding more and more and more! One trick with watercoloring – let it dry! Sometimes I will really not like how something looks, and then when it dries – I love it! Leave it alone for a minute and then come back to it.

Thank you for visiting my blog!
Best wishes for a happy week ahead!

April 27, 2014
It’s happy hour somewhere!!! Two challenges in one!!!

Hey friends! Woot woot! It's already Thursday, which is one day away from FRIDAY! Whew, this has been kind of a bad week and I have a head cold to add to the fun. I knew that I wanted to stamp tonight but I didn't know what I wanted to make. I started surfing some of my favorite challenge blogs and came up with a great combo to share with you! I combined the Paper Smooches Anything Goes Challenge and then used Retro Sketches #111 to make my card. YEAH!

So I went through all my Paper Smooches stamps and the "Happy Hour Somewhere" sentiment jumped out at me. I wish it was Happy Hour right now at my house! LOL. Anyway, I used lots of stamps from the "Get Outta Town" Paper Smooches set and came up with this fun card….

I looooove to color my Paper Smooches images with my Copics! They are the most fun and cute stamps. For my background paper I used the little palm tree and stamped it in Linen Distress Ink. I hand cut out my little drinks.

Here is the awesome sketch!

The drinks are popped up with a little foam tape and then you know I had to add some diamond stickles to the images! SO FUN. The papers are all from Lawn Fawn.

So, wherever you might be, and whatever you might be doing…. CHEERS! Best wishes for a great ending to your week and a fun weekend ahead! XO

April 24, 2014
Scenes from a nice weekend!

Hi friends!! I had the most fabulous weekend and I thought I would share some photos with you from it! I don't have a card made and ready to post at the moment, so I hope you won't mind a little photo essay instead. I seriously have not had any quality time in the craft room…and I need to remedy that situation! I am not sure where my mojo is? Have you seen it??

Anyhoo…on about my weekend… Maybe you saw my post last Thursday where I posted a blue and white wedding ensemble for my bride-to-be friend? Well, she is no longer a bride-to-be! Now she is officially a wife! The hubs and I went to the beautiful wedding this weekend in Carmel and we made a weekend out of it. Cool ocean breezes and rest and relaxation. We drove down on Friday morning and came home Sunday night. I did not realize how much I needed a change of scenery. Sometimes I need the ocean so much I can feel it in my bones. It totally restores and renews me. Do you have a place that does that for you?

Here are my ocean pictures from Saturday and Sunday. The waves were HUGE! Maybe the biggest I've ever seen here in these parts. The photos are from Big Sur and also from Pacific Grove. Enjoy. Wish I could make it to where you could hear the waves too….

The wedding was so nice and genuine and plain old awesome. I loooooooove weddings! What's not to love? Happiness, loved ones, food, dancing, flowers…it's all good! I captured just a few photos at the wedding. You know, you don't want to be THAT girl that snaps photos the whole time, right?

My favorite moments at a wedding are always THE kiss… And the moment the bride and groom walk away from the aisle and they are just soooooo happy that they are married. What are your fav moments?

I was lucky enough to snap this one as the happy couple were walking away from the ceremony. So sweet. I think I'm tearing up again!

And one shot of the gorgeous (and yummy) cake! The colors were blue and white and there were pretty shells everywhere…and hydrangeas. Sigh.

Here are some more ocean photos I took on Easter morning! See what I mean about those waves? Yowza! They are not normally curling at this spot! So awesome.

Have a most beautiful week my beautiful bloggy friends!

April 22, 2014
HAPPY EASTER 2014!

Best wishes for a joyous Easter from my family to yours!

I hope the peace and love of the season fill your hearts with happiness!

HE IS RISEN!

April 20, 2014
Wedding Ensemble!

Hello friends! Happy Good Friday! It’s Easter weekend and a time of reflection and peace. I love Easter and all that it represents to me as a Christian. I hope you and your family have a delightful holiday weekend. Tonight we will be going to church in Carmel for Good Friday Service.

We are on our way to a wedding weekend for one of my sweet and lovely friends. I’m looking forward to it very much. We’re driving down to Carmel today, the wedding is tomorrow, and then we’ll drive back home on Easter Sunday. I love weddings… It’s just a completely joyous and happy time, and I love getting dressed up and seeing the beautiful bride, and the flowers, and having some fun! Can’t wait!

My project to share today is the wedding ensemble I made for this weekend’s wedding gift. I made a card and matching envelope and gift box to bring with us – in the colors of the wedding. It’s so much fun to totally personalize something like this. Makes it even more special! The project also appears over on the Taylored Expressions Blog – since all of the stamps and dies are from Taylored Expressions! Nice!

Here are the finished pieces:

Here is their wedding card. How fabulous is this cutting plate?? It’s seriously the most gorgeous die I have ever seen. The PERFECT thing for wedding cards. I also love how it pops with the white and the bright clear blue underneath.

I combined two stamps for the sentiment on the inside of the card….

Did you know that you can make a box by using your scoring tool? Yep! CLICK HERE for the link to the tutorial I used to make it! Easy peasy!

Vellum is always nice for wedding items…

Here I am using my fabulous envelope punch board to make the matching envelope for my card…

And designing the label for the envelope….

Take care my friends!!! XOXO

April 18, 2014
Happy Easter Week!

Happy Sunday everyone and Happy Easter Week! I hope that you are having a great weekend and I hope that you have great plans for the week ahead and for Easter with your friends and families. I always try to get myself in the right frame of mind during this holiest of weeks. Try to slow down, ponder, and reflect on what is important, and the sacrifices made for me. My life has been so hectic (too hectic) the past couple of weeks. This afternoon I had some time in the craft room and thought it was about time I made an Easter project for this year!

My card for today features the awesome Bunny die from Sizzix (Tim Holtz) and a pretty new sentiment stamp I picked up at my local Paper-Source store. I used the grass border die from Taylored Expressions and a nice polka dot embossing folder…. Hope you like it!

I used this beautiful aqua blue paper and some bright spring green to offset the brown and white gingham. I used my tiniest oval from my Nestabilities to make the eggs and then used a speckle stamp and some Linen Distress Ink to make them look like robin's eggs!

I just totally adore this sentiment stamp! I used Rich Cocoa Memento Ink. I edged everything with Linen Ink. I made one version of the sentiment using lots of color but it just seemed too busy looking so I left it in all brown.

Thank you so so much for stopping by today! I hope to get back on a more regular schedule of blogging and crafting in a couple of weeks. My first Taylored Expressions Blog Team post will go live later this week too. XOXO

April 13, 2014