A Blog Called Wanda

Big Fun – I’m the Guest Designer in the Ellen Hutson CLASSroom!

Today is an exciting day for me! I am the Guest Designer in the Ellen Hutson CLASSroom! How fun is that? Big fun – that's what I say! My project and tutorial feature fabulous products from Taylored Expressions and I think you're going to like it! A bright and cheerful card for Spring. If you're hopping on over to my blog from the CLASSroom – thank you, and welcome! I'm happy to see you here!

If you didn't come over from the CLASSroom, here's a sneak peek at my card:

To see all the photos of my card and the tutorial about how to make it – CLICK HERE to head over to the CLASSroom!

AND, in honor of my guest designer gig, Ellen Hutson has very generously allowed me to have a contest for an awesome product giveaway so you can make your own window card! Thanks Ellen!

All you have to do to be eligible to win the prize package is leave a comment here on my blog any time between now and midnight on March 19th. On the 20th I will announce the winner here! Sound good? For your comment, I would love it if you would let me know what techniques or tips you would like to see me post here on A Blog Called Wanda. Thank you and GOOD LUCK!

Here is a photo of the prize:

I hope you have a wonderful day my crafty pals! Don't forget to leave a comment to win! Thank you!

March 15, 2014

Hey Sugar!

Hey Sugar! Hee hee! What's happening? Spring is in FULL bloom here in Northern California and I have the itchy eyes to prove it! I'm not complaining, though, because it's been so gorgeous outside the past few days. Last weekend I organized a little stamping shindig at my local stamp store. Well, I never show up empty handed to see my crafty friends – so on Saturday I decided to make some lemon cupcakes to bring. Well…I also never make anything without decorating it! LOL.

I knew right away I had to decorate my cupcakes with some super cute stamps from Paper Smooches! I picked (get it) this adorable lemon from one set and the sentiment from another set (supply list at the bottom)! I use cake pop sticks when I make my little cupcake decorations. I like using those because they're white and they're sturdy. They are also inexpensive and available at Michael's!

Seriously…how can you NOT smile when you see this stamp? It's fruitastic! I'm smiling again just writing this right now.

Here are my little cuppies just out of the oven in all their goldeny goodness. Man, I love me a cupcake. Don't you?

Stamping and cutting….

And coloring….

And coloring some more…

Here are my Copic color choices for this project…

EEEEEP! A sweet lemon with some red lips! I cut the white circle out of a punch and then mounted my lemon and leaves with some foam tape. I used yellow circles for the back side of the image and then glued them together around the sticks.

Oh…and then you know I had to add some sparkly stickles!

I used my fabulous cupcake wrapper die from Taylored Expressions to wrap the bottoms of some of the cupcakes. SO easy…cut and wrap! No gluing needed.

Here is the die and some of the cuts… Perfect, right? Love this die!

And I leave you with a shot from our front yard right now! The tulips are blossoming and they make me so happy with their cheery faces each morning. They don't last nearly long enough and I'm enjoying them while I can. Have a sunny day my friends!

SUPPLIES:

InLinkz.com

March 12, 2014

Taylored Expressions March 2014 Stamp of the Month Blog Hop!

It's that time!! Taylored Expressions Blog Hop to introduce the newest, latest and greatest Stamp of the Month and Key Ingredients Kits! This month is a cute spinner stamp set with matching dies. Oh, and I adore the paper collection for this month too! TOO fun! I made an easel card which is always a favorite and it's just a happy, cheery hello card! Hope you are having a great day and hope you enjoy our combined Bakers Dozen and KI Team Hop today!

The Key Ingredients Kit comes with these neat wooden pieces. I stamped right on the word bubble one and I really like how it looks! These colors are awesome and everything matches so nicely.

Here are the links for today to everyone's amazing blogs! I know I'm excited to see what everyone else made! Have a good time checking 'em out…and take care until we meet again! XO

InLinkz.com

March 11, 2014

Retro Sketches #104…I like you!

Hi there my crafty friends! I'm so glad you came by today! it's FRIDAY! WOOT WOOT! Every chance I get I try to do a card challenge, and one of my favorites is Retro Sketches! I LOVE their sketches and get so much inspiration from their awesome team. The other night I was sitting at my stamping desk surrounded by my F-U-N new stamps and dies and papers from Lawn Fawn and I saw this sketch – and a card was born! CLICK HERE to go to the Retro Sketches blog to see all the other cards! I am just getting mine in under the wire….whew!

Here is my entry!

And here is the awesome sketch!

In this close up, you can see that the sun and cloud dies have stitch marks! EEEP! I put a sweet smiley face onto the sunshine!

I created my own sentiment using one of the stamps from the "Let's Roll" stamp set. (Stamps, dies and papers are from Lawn Fawn – click the links at the end of my post)…. I do that a lot – customize word stamps. It's so easy with clear stamps.

The stamp says I like the way you roll! I stamped just the I like you part! Use a small ink pad to get just into the area you want to stamp.

You would never guess that the stamp set is sushi! LOL. I used the tiny smile, the heart, and the sentiment. This set is totally adorable.

Trying to figure out my card, based on the sketch…and here are all the pieces. AND how cute are those teeny rainbows on the paper!!!

This makes me happy….

Have a super fantabulous day my friends! XOXO

SUPPLY LINKS!

InLinkz.com

March 7, 2014

Taylored Expressions March 2014 Release Day – Welcome Home!

It's Taylored Expressions March Release Day! WOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOO! Everything is now available in the TE Store! I hope you will go and shop and buy some pretty new stamping things to inspire you! I'm ending the week with one last project – made with new dies and stamps. The stamp set is called Welcome Home and the new dies are called Build a House. OMG tooooo adorable!! I made a sweet scene for a housewarming card and used some bright fresh colors from Doodlebug.

These dies are entirely too adorable. You can make an entire village! Trees, fences, houses, lamp posts, eeep! The stamps match the dies too.

I stamped and die cut my sentiment banner and then added some soft matching color with my Copic markers. Lots of foam tape on this card!

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.

Okay friends! That's it for me for Release Week! Here is your link list for today. We have our fabulous guest designer Jami joining us this week!! Yay! Have a marvelous day!

InLinkz.com

March 6, 2014

Taylored Expressions March 2014 Sneak Peeks – In Flight Cutting Plate and Big Bold Thanks!

Hello friends! TE March Release Week rolls on! It's day three of our fun week and tomorrow is the BIG DAY! All the new products go for sale in the TE Store tomorrow morning. Are you excited? What are you liking the best? Today I'm using my favorite product from this release – the In Flight Cutting Plate! OOOOOH, you know I love butterflies and this is the coolest thing ever! The new cutting plate has matching butterfly dies so you can add colors and patterns to your card.

I cut out the cutting plate in nice thick white cardstock and then cut out lots of colored butterflies with the matching dies. Then I had fun creating a butterfly rainbow! How neat is it that the cut out butterflies pop off the page. I think Taylor knocked it out of the park with this one.

The sentiment is from the Shade Tree Sentiments set. It is a long sentiment so I masked off each word separately and stamped them on top of each other so it would fit in that spot. And, then you know I had to add some bling! LOL.

In keeping with the bright and colorful theme for today, here is a second card using new flower dies called Bloomin' Stacklets 2. These are going to be a staple for sure! I love this citrus green with black – so graphic. This was a fun card to put together. HAPPY!

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 is your linky list for today – be sure to check out everyone else's blogs!

InLinkz.com

March 5, 2014

Taylored Expressions March 2014 Sneak Peeks – P&P April Script!

Welcome to Day Two of Taylored Expressions March Release Week! More new products to showcase and more projects from the Bakers Dozen Design Team! Yeah! Today I am sharing a happy Spring card made with the new Bloom Where You're Planted Dies (LOVE) and the new script word dies for April – from our Pockets and Pages collection.

I made this cute and funky flowers with the new dies and popped them up on some foam tape. The Doodlebug sprinkles make the perfect flower centers! Don't you love all this color!!?? I combined part of a word stamp with the script die…fun!

Here is a side view of my layers. I gently turned up the flower petals with my fingers to make them pop! This paper pad is a new favorite! It's from Pink Paislee and it's already available in the TE Store. All the new stamps and dies go for sale on Thursday morning!

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 link lists for today! Hop around and see what's up on everyone else's blogs! Have a great day, and thank you for joining us for TE Release Week!

InLinkz.com

March 4, 2014

Taylored Expressions March 2014 Sneak Peeks – Shade Tree Scripture and Chunky Alpha!

Hi and Welcome! It's time to kick off another fun and fabulous Taylored Expressions Release Week! We do this every month – four days of sneak peek projects brought to you by the Taylored Expressions Design Team. On Thursday, all the new products will be available for purchase in the TE Webstore! I hope you will come back each day and check out all the projects!

Today I'm sharing two projects made with new items! The first project is a sympathy card made with the beautiful Shade Tree Cutting Plate and new Shade Tree Scripture sentiment stamps. I love this new font and you'll see more of it during the week.

I love to watercolor with my Distress Inks! Just put a little ink on your craft mat or on a stamping block, add water, and paint! It's that easy! I used watercolor paper here. In order to get my sentiment I embossed it first in clear embossing powder. That way it will resist the color! Easy and fun!

When I finished the card I thought it needed just a tiny pop of color – so I made this pretty pink butterfly with the new dies.

My next project is a clip board that I made for one of my friends. She has lots of stamping ideas so I made her a pretty clipboard to keep in her stamp room! I just took a plain clipboard and covered it with some red cardstock. I added some of the awesome new Chunky Alpha letters and a flower! Such a cool project.

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.

That's it for me today! I hope you will hop on around to all the other designers' blogs and see their projects too. Lots of inspiration today – and the rest of the week.

InLinkz.com

March 3, 2014

Roses and Hugs!

HEY!!! How's it going? How was your week? Did you get crafty this week and have some fun? I hope you did and I hope that a fun weekend is coming your way too. I spent some quality time blog surfing late this afternoon and came upon an awesome blog post by Kathy Racoosin. I am such a big fan of hers and pretty much love anything she makes. She gave a tutorial on a technique that I have been trying to figure out… And once I read her post it was like a giant light bulb went off! Then, I had to scurry in to my craft room and make my own version of this neat technique. Thanks Kathy – you're the BOMB! CLICK HERE to see her blog post and tutorial…

Here is one of my finished cards (I had to make TWO!)…

HOW COOOOOOL is this? You stamp your images and then die cut out of the center…. Then layer a bunch of die cuts on top of each other to make it pop!

I adore this vintage/antique look of roses in tone-on-tone pinks. It's so shabby chic. The stamp set is from Papertrey Ink (Rosie Posie 1 & 2) and the Hugs die is a Simon Says Stamp exclusive! The colored cardstock is also from Papertrey Ink.

After I made my pink version, I had to make another one! This time in yellow. The only thing that stopped me is that I have to get up and go to work in the morning, so I have to get some shut eye.

I ended up stacking five layers of die cuts including the top/colored one. I could have done more, but I like the subtle effect of this.

Here are my steps… First, I stamped the images on my cardstock. This is two stamp sets that compliment each other in layers…

Here are my roses stamped in two shades of pink and green…

Now this is the part where I had my light bulb moment!

Isn't this soooo pretty? ACK!

Side shot of my layers!

I'm so happy you came by and I hope this project inspires you to try this too! It's really fun and just think of all the ideas we could come up with! Toodles for now! XO

February 26, 2014

Spring Flowers – Papertrey Ink February Challenge!

Hello! It's time again for the Papertrey Ink Customer Blog Hop Challenge! This month's theme is…SPRING! Any project with a Spring theme. Yep – right up my alley right now, cuz I am totally in that mode already. I decided to ink up a new set that just came in the mail… And I tried a technique I've been wanting to try for a while too. Hope you enjoy it!

CLICK HERE to go to the Papertrey Ink Blog so you can enter your own card in the challenge. You have all day to link up your card. I can't wait (as always) to see what everyone else made. This theme is so broad that I know the entries will be amazing.

Here's mine!

Here is the inspiration image for the blog hop challenge:

I really have been wanting to try this white on white embossing with Copic Coloring! I stamped my images in Versamark Ink and then embossed with white embossing powder. The white really pops when you put the Copic color down on top of it!