A Blog Called Wanda

A Great big THANK YOU – and an announcement!

I don't even know how to start to write this post…I am filled with mixed emotions and some real sadness… This month is my last month as part of the super fabulous Bakers Dozen Design Team over at Taylored Expressions. I have been a part of the TE Design Team for three years! 36 wonderful release weeks! The time always flies when you're having a great time! Taylor is making the announcement on the TE Blog today also. The demands on my time at my job are increasing and I do not have as much crafty time as I used to.

But, with this sad news, comes some happy news! Whew. I will be transitioning into a fun and cool new opportunity with Taylored Expressions starting this month. I will be one of the members of the newly formed TE Blog Team! YAY! This is a new challenge and a great new way for me to showcase all the TE products that we love. I'm very excited and really looking forward to this new chapter. My projects for April are already done and I know you're going to like them!

Before I get too far, I want to say a few public words to my sweet friend Taylor. THANK YOU for the opportunity to be on this amazing team, with these amazing women. THANK YOU for ALL the wonderful products you have so generously given me. THANK YOU for letting me design stamp sets and dies and see them come to life. THANK YOU for your kindness and friendship and support. THANK YOU for being you – because you are just plain awesome. My time on the Bakers Dozen has been a completely positive experience. I am so grateful!

I thought it would be fun to post some photos of my projects over the years with this post! Three years is a LOT of projects! LOL. Thank you to all of you who have been fans of my TE work! Your comments and emails truly uplift me!

This was the card I made in April 2011 to announce on my blog that I was going to be on the Baker's Dozen Design Team! I still love cuppie after all these years…

Remember Fruity Friends? I designed this stamp set!

I also concepted Moka Wanda – a stamp named after me!

The Beach Border Die was also my idea! YAY! Love how it came out. On this card I cut it into sections to put amongst the sand dunes…

One of my very favorite TE stamp sets….

Thank you for strolling along memory lane with me today. I can't put into words how much the past three years has meant to me. Every ending is a new beginning….let's see what happens next! Mwah!

April 10, 2014

Crafter’s Companion – Spectrum Noir Markers and Paper Review – and a Birthday Card!

Hello my crafty friends!! I'm here today with a fun and cool thing…a product review! The people at Spectrum Noir were kind enough to send me a set of their Spectrum Noir Art Markers to test out. WOWZA! They were very generous and gave me lots of choices in ink colors, and also some wonderful paper. These markers are alcohol based so the colors blend easily and nicely. They come in color families also, so you can buy one color family at a time, which is a neat way to package!

I got out one of my favorite images from Taylored Expressions to color – the pretty pansies in a teacup – and went to town! I found that the markers were very easy to match and use. They come with a bullet tip and a large, broad tip. You can buy brush tips and change them out if you like. I found that I liked the small bullet tip for getting into those tight areas of coloring. And, I LOVE the paper they sent! The ink sort of glides on top of the paper for a second, so that you can blend before the ink dries. Very cool indeed.

Here's my finished card:

The pansies were colored with a few shades of purple and lavendar and I chose a nice aqua shade for the cup and saucer. The sentiment was stamped onto vellum with Stayz-on ink for a crisp look. When I color, I put down my lightest shade of color first. Then I go back over that with at least one other darker shade. Then, I use the lightest shade to blend over the image.

I cut and colored a second one of the big flowers and popped it on some foam tape to add dimension and interest. I thought about adding glitter, but decided no… Can you see the nice blending of the marker colors?

I hardly ever use purple….and every time I do I think "why don't I do this more!?" Such a soft and feminine look. I added some Doodlebug Sprinkles to finish off my card.

Here are all the markers in their stand (the greys are in the smaller package) and the paper pack…

The Spectrum Noir markers come in color families for easy blending. The FS colors will all have the same shade and depth of color…so will the CG, and so on. This is a great system for beginners or experts both!

I always use Memento ink pads when I color with Alcohol based markers…

Here is my color chart – I do this often when I am trying to pick colors for a project…

And my final marker color selections….

Thank you so much for coming by today! Have a great weekend! We are busy as little bees in our hive this weekend. In between some things we have planned, we are turning our guest room into a home gym! We ordered our treadmill last night and also picked out paint color… The hubs is in there right now getting the room prepped. Can't wait to have it done! XO

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April 5, 2014

Taylored Expressions April 2014 Sneak Peeks – Stroke of Genius & When Your Heart Speaks!

It's our final day of Taylored Expressions Release Week Sneak Peeks! Tomorrow is RELEASE DAY! We have lots more fun to share with you today and tomorrow, you know, to keep this party going! Are you enjoying all the new stuff? This is an awesome release.

I have two more projects to share today and they both have kind of an 'artsy' theme. There are some great new art-themed stamps sets this month and I used them today. LOVE.

First up is a cream and brown monochromatic card using the set called When Your Heart Speaks. I was going for an old fashioned look with this…and you guys know how much I love text paper!!

I used an impression plate on cream paper to make my background. I wanted a little something back there instead of plain paper. I layered my main piece onto some text paper. It was HARD not to color this image!! I'll be coming back to do that on a different card later!

These flowers are the perfect size for cards! I added Doodlebug sequins for the centers….

My next project today is a cute and fun mini canvas and easel and a matching note card. This is a fun little gift for a crafty friend I think! The mini easels are already in the TE Store (CLICK HERE) and you could make all kinds of fun things with them! I was thinking they would be really cute for place cards at a dinner or something….

Here's a side view so you can see that adorable mini easel and canvas!

I want to shout it! Art!

The paint spatters in this stamp set are sooooo cool! These could have so many fun uses! I stayed with a primary color palette to make it seem more artsy. Really had fun with this project.

Taylored Expressions is celebrating Release Week with some fabulous giveaways! Visit the TE Blog Sneak Peek Day this week for details on how you can enter to win.

Hop around and see what the Bakers Dozen has to share with you today!

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April 2, 2014

Taylored Expressions April 2014 Sneak Peeks – Sunshiny Day!

Hi friends! Welcome back to Day Two of our Release Week party for Taylored Expressions! More fun and sneak peeks today and tomorrow, followed by Release Day on Thursday! YEAH! Thanks for joining me here to see what I have for you!

I'm very excited to share today's card – this was SOOO fun to make. This new stamp set is called Sunshiny Day and all the stamps in my card are from that set! I also used some of my favorite TE scene borders – the grass and the fence. (Are you humming the Brady Bunch Sunshine Day song yet???)

I wasn't sure how the final card was going to come together, so first I stamped and cut out all my pieces. Then I colored them in. Then I played with the pieces like Colorforms! Haha. I rearranged everything and finally came up with this layout:

My trees and almost everything else are popped up with foam tape squares. And, yes, I cut everything out by hand!

In order to give some 'shape' to my trees I swept the brush tip of my Copic Marker around the rounded parts of the outline. Can you see that? For the clouds I put just a bit of B21 on them and then swirled the color around with my Blender marker (0).

Here are my pieces while I was still deciding on my layout…

Hello Mr. Birdy!!

Thanks for coming by for Day 2 of Sneak Peeks! Be sure to click over to the TE Blog to see what's up over there! Have a great day!

Taylored Expressions is celebrating Release Week with some fabulous giveaways! Visit the TE Blog each Sneak Peek Day this week for details on how you can enter to win.

Here are your fabulous links for today!

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April 1, 2014

Taylored Expressions April 2014 Sneak Peeks – Sketched Blooms & Various Vases!

Yowza! How fast is this year flying by? You know how I know how fast a month goes by?….because it's time for Taylored Expressions Release Week again! Yep, it's time for four days of fun and sneak peeks and contests and all kinds of good stuff, courtesy of the Bakers Dozen Design Team and Taylored Expressions! Are you ready?

Today I am sharing two cards with you. They are totally different in styles, and showcase at least six new products that will be released on Thursday morning. (All the April Release items will be available in the TE store at 7am on Thursday!)

First up is a clean and simple watercolor card made with the new Sketched Blooms Stamp Set and new Labels Stacklets 8. I am really into watercoloring right now…and these flowers were the perfect thing to watercolor with Distress Inks.

Pretty and sweet and feminine! I love these flower stamps. I used the new Labels Stacklets 8 to make my layers. I popped the focus layer on some foam tape instead of doing the traditional layering. I kinda like it. Here you can see that my watercoloring was free and messy. No need to be a perfectionist here. I used my Distress Ink Pads and a watercolor brush.

This would be pretty as a set….so maybe I need to make some more of them! LOL. Perfect for any occasion with that sweet sentiment.

My second card for today features the cool new Various Vases Dies…. It's funny…when I get ready to sit down and make all my Design Team Projects each month, I lay all the new products out on my table and kind of stand there and see what 'speaks' to me. As soon as I saw these vases and the new Silhouette Stemps dies…a whole Palm Springs, Mid Century vibe came to me… That's what I tried to create in my card – a retro vibe. What do you think?

I used the Spotted Cutting Plate to make a cool background and then made the vases out of fun and funky 70's colors.

I layered two vases in order to avoid them being bumpy because of the circles layer. I put foam tape in between my layers. I lightly inked the edges of my vases with some Linen Distress Ink. This helps them pop off the page a bit more.

Taylored Expressions is celebrating Release Week with some fabulous giveaways! Visit the TE Blog Sneak Peek Day this week for details on how you can enter to win!

Here are your links for today's Sneak Peeks! Have FUN!

InLinkz.com

March 31, 2014

Super Sized Hug!!

Hey!!! I'm here today to share a SUPER fun card with a SUPER sized hug! LOL! Last weekend I had time in the stamp room to sit and color and it was wonderful! I made this card to enter the Paper Smooches Sparks Challenge CLICK HERE. I love it when the theme is "Anything Goes" and I got out all my Paper Smooches stamps to see what I wanted to make. Well, with the warmer weather, I thought picnic! I got out the "Think Fast" set and the "Alfreso" set and colored up some cute food!

I am loving this trend that I'm seeing on blogs and Pinterest – to set your top layer of your card at an angle – and decided to give that a try. Of course I chose some red and white gingham to go with my picnic theme. I kinda like it all together! Clean and Simple and FUN. My food images are mounted with foamt tape onto the card. If you look close, you can see that I added touches of glossy accents to parts of the images.

Um, yeah, I used a LOT of markers on these!! It is so therapeutic for me to sit and color and concentrate. I really love that.

SUPPLIES:

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March 25, 2014

With enough caffeine…

Hi Friends!! It's time for my Taylored Expressions Die Focus post for this month…and this month I'm featuring the versatile and fun File Folder Die! It's perfect for all kinds of work projects, top secret memos and other things. I work full time, and I like to make cards for my co-workers so I love mixing and matching the office related stamps and dies. (Full Supply List at the bottom of my post). And, of course, I love coffee! LOL.

Here's my card:

I made a stack of files and mounted them on my card with foam tape. Then I did some paper piecing with the coffee mugs…and added a notepaper!

The papers are perfect for work! They are from the March Key Ingredients Kit!

I love this sentiment! Now…off to get a cup o' coffee! Have a great day!

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March 23, 2014

Go with the flow! And…Winner Announcement!

Hi there my sweet crafty friends! How are you today? Hope you're been having a great week so far. I am here today to share a fun card and also to announce the winner of the awesome prize package from Ellen Hutson that went with Saturday's blog post!

Let me tell you…the winner of this prize package is LUCKY! So…without further ado…the randomly selected winner is….Comment number 14 – which is Sharon Hayes! I will be passing on your email address to Ellen Hutson so she can work out the details with your address, etc. CONGRATULATIONS SHARON! WOOT WOOT WOOT! There were 104 total comments – thank you everyone!

I have to really take a minute to reflect on the very lovely, kind and wonderful comments you guys left for me here on my blog and also in the CLASSroom. It was so touching to me to hear from so many people, and I read EVERY comment. You guys sure know how to make a girl feel good! And I thank you from the bottom of my heart. This is why I blog – right here – kindness and creativity. Thank you for taking the time to write and I will be working on some of the ideas you suggested. Guest Designing for Ellen was such a nice experience.

Without further ado…I have a fun and whimsical card for today made with a CUTE new stamp from Hero Arts as the focus. A whale! You guys know I loooooove nautical, anchors, whales, shells, etc. etc. I combined all that into one card! (I even have a separate area in my craft room that has all my nautical stuff!!)(Maybe a little obsessed) This little whale carries a good message too…go with the flow…

I had so much fun combining papers and textured on this card! The whale was embossed with a dark gray embossing powder and then cut out and mounted with foam tape on some circles. The layout is a sketch by the wonderful Jen Shults and I used it to enter her Deconstructed Sketch #142 challenge!

I adore these teeny tiny word stickers from Studio Calico! I edged everything with Linen Distress ink, including the stickers.

I made a bow out of some thicker twine and then glued a pretty silver shell on the top! The shell is an old embellishment from Making Memories.

Here's a side view to show how I mounted everything onto the card…

My supplies! Isn't that stamp the CUTEST thing ever??

Here is the sketch layout – it's a keeper for sure!! Thanks Jen, for always making such great sketches for us…you ROCK!!

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March 20, 2014

TE Stamp of the Month – part 2!

Hello! Welcome back for another installment and creation for the Taylored Expressions March Stamp of The Month! All month long, the Design Team will share projects with you on our blogs to showcase the newest edition to the Stamp of The Month! Today I'm sharing a birthday card! I am really into anything with arrows right now – no particular reason why either – I just think they're cool! LOL. CLICK HERE to go to the information page to learn about SOTM!

Here is my funky birthday card! (I LOVE that heart paper don't you?)

Now the arrow die isn't really that long, so I created an optical illusion…. I cut the arrows in half and then glued each half just underneath the circle!

I also really like this new skinny striped washi tape from Doodlebug! Comes in every color of the rainbow all in one package. Yummy…

SUPPLY LINKS!

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March 18, 2014

St. Patrick’s Day Cards – CAS style!

Top O' the morning to you my crafty friends! I hope that you find a pot o' gold at the end of your rainbow today! Best wishes for a fun and Happy St. Patrick's Day!

My St. Pat's cards for this year were inspired my lovely and talented friend Shannon White, who is one of my fellow Design Team gals at Taylored Expressions. She made THIS CARD for release week and I just loved it! Today I'm sharing my version of her cute card!

Here is my card:

The cute little shamrock die and the Lucky word die and the tiny leaves are all from Taylored Expressions! The ADORABLE little pocket is from WPlus9!! EEEP! I popped the pocket on some foam tape and then added my greenery, then glued the word partially on the pocket. SO fun!

Well, I made a bunch of cards….so I was die cutting teeny pieces for quite some time! Here are my die cuts all ready for assembly.

And you know my trick for perfectly matching pearls….get your Copics out! These are YG25! Color them right on your backing piece and then they are easy to just peel off when you're ready.