Have you all been to visit the blog called Deconstructing Jen?  I have been a big fan of Jen's for a long time. Her pencil coloring is OFF THE HOOK! She is an amazing artist! I've emailed back and forth with her a couple of times and I can tell you that she is also a very sweet person. Well, she announced that she is going to start doing a sketch challenge and I knew I wanted to be a part of her first "Deconstructed Sketch!" My card for today is for just that. It's a complicated sketch, which I like a lot. Check it out!

Here is the sketch image…I flipped it on it's side… 

I used papers from October Afternoon's Farm Fresh collection and a cute image from Penny Black. The solid papers are from Bazzill. Of course I used my Copics!  

I hope you will pop over and visit Jen's blog and…maybe even enter your own card for her very first sketch? It would be fun to give her a lot of support! Have a great week everybody! I'll be back on Wednesday with a card for the Taylored Expressions Blast from the Past Blog Hop…it has a masculine theme this month.

Happy Friday everybody! We made it! Doesn't it just seem like some weeks are forever? That was this week for me. Glad to be home and done with my work week. Looking forward to some R & R with the DH and Mr. Buddy. Hopefully some stamping time too. What are your plans for the weekend? Our weather is gorgeous…85 degrees today. But, I hear it's supposed to be raining by Sunday. Spring! Whatever you're doing, I hope you enjoy the weekend!

A lot of peeps have emailed me asking about the new photo in my blog banner/header. I took that photo back in March on my work trip to Florida. CLICK HERE to see the rest of my photos from that trip. That is Miami Beach in all its glory. Isn't it splendid? My favorite is that cruise ship off in the distance. And, I love that blue color. When I took that photo I took it intending it to be a blog banner! I'm trying to think of that when I'm out and about…what shots would look good long and narrow?

Today I'm posting the last card of "Butterfly Week!" I hope you've had fun seeing all my butterfly projects. Today's card is back to the clean and simple style…with a pop of red! Take a gander…

The entire background is one stamp…from Hero Arts! It's so pretty. It has that text and then the pretty insects mixed in. Yum. I used a swirl stamp from Judikins to pop some red in the corners. The butterflies are stickers I got at Michael's. Really simple… I had the sewing machine out for another card so I decided to sew this one too. That's it!

Here is the entire "Butterfly Week" collection! TOO fun!

Thanks for stopping by! Hugs!  

"Butterfly Week" continues here on the blog! I hope you have enjoyed my cards…I have had fun doing a theme and making things to share with you! It's Thursday already which means this long week will be over soon. I'm ready. Now. Anyhoo…we won't go there. Let's just share stamping and happy thoughts! Thanks for coming by today and I hope you are having a wonderful day.

I have two more butterfly cards to share…one today and one more for tomorrow. Today's card is back to the "more is more" kind of project! It's another shabby chic creation jam packed with all kinds of doo dads and things. Heck, I even got out the sewing machine! I had fun making some butterfly banners and then used this yummy paper from Bo Bunny. The paper gave me the idea for a color palette I probably would not have chosen…but I like it!

Here is the inspiration for my color paletter – this yummy orangey-peach color and a beautiful greenish aqua. The paper also has a mint green in it – isn't it delish?

Here's a close up of the top of my card. You can see I sewed my kraft layer right onto my aqua Bazzill card base. I tore the edges and added some distress ink. I put a small butterfly stamp in brown in the corner…again…more is more! The little doily is from Martha. The fleur de lis is part of that same Bo Bunny collection.

Here is the aftermath of making those banners! More layers = more yumminess! I enjoyed making them… Would I make 20? I don't think so! hahahaha.

You know I always have to add some pearl swirlys…I am in love with those! They just add a feminine touch to any project.

 
There's still time if you would like to join me for Butterfly Week by posting a card link in the comments! I know there are a lot of you who love them too and I would love to see your cards! Bye for now!  

Hi peeps! It's day two of my self declared "Butterfly Week" here on the old bloggy blog! If you read my post yesterday you know that this week I'm making all Buttefly projects! I'm trying to make cards of different styles and color schemes to keep it interesting. Today's card is made with one of my favorite color palettes: Light Blue, Pink and Red. I combined it with Kraft for a clean and simple design. I hope you likey! This card layout would work with flowers, circles, anything really….

I used my Martha Stewart butterfly punch to punch out different butterflies. I used the amazingly cute, fresh and pretty paper collection from Girls Paperie called Kitch. Love.

I first stamped the large Hero Arts Friends text in light brown onto one side of my Kraft card base. After punching out my butterflies I put three little pearls down the center of each one. When I mounted them to my card I used foam tape.

You can barely see the text. I wish I would have used a slightly darker color…or maybe white? I'll try it differently to see what happens next time. The words are stickers from that same paper collection. LOVE.  

 
Are any of you making butterfly cards this week too? One person left a link to hers already! Play along wtih me. C'mon…it'll be fun! You know you want to. Well, you know I want you to! Have a fabulous day all! Thanks for stopping by today!  

Happy Monday! How was your weekend? I had a nice weekend…weather was good, got in some crafty time… On Saturday some of my friends and I held a Crafty Garage Sale! It was a pretty good sale and I got rid of some old stamps and stuff and made a little cashola…to buy more! We had fun hanging out together and seeing our friends come by. The weekend went by in a nano-second. Do you guys watch Amazing Race? Finale was great last night!! Love that show…we never miss it at our house.

So yesterday I was rummaging around the craft room trying to decide what to make and generally picking up stuff. The card I posted last had some pretty butterflies on it… I started to see a theme emerge… I have TONS of butterly crafty goods! So…I am declaring this week "Butterfly Week" here at A Blog Called Wanda! All my projects this week have a butterfly theme. I had soooo much fun creating these projects! Butterflies are a sure sign of Spring and flowers. I thought it appropriate!

Here is some of my butterfly stash!!!!  

Here's my first card for the week. It's a shabby chic confection full of frilly, girly things. That gorgeous patterned paper is actually the packaging from some butterfly charms I bought! I opened the package and there it was…so nice!

Just a little bit of stamping…this card is mostly just paper crafting and combining elements together. That's one of my favorite things to do!

 
Do you feel like joining me for "Butterfly Week?" If so…put a link to your butterfly project in the comments section. I'd love to see what you're making too!  See you soon!  
 

It's finally here! RELEASE DAY at the Taylored Expressions Store! All new items now available in the TE Store.  Click here to go straight to the Fresh Out of the Oven section to see all the new goodies!  I hope you have had fun here with me this week! It has been wonderful working with Taylor and the gang doing these posts. It's been very busy – but the best kind of busy! 

I have one last Taylored Expressions card for you this week…and it's my favorite one! I'm using Moka Jenn again and you'll find the stamp set illustration below. She's so adorable! You can order her now too!

I LOVE this paper combination – from My Mind's Eye Stella Rose – Mabel! It's so yummy and Autumn-y! I knew I wanted her to be a boho chic mom-to-be! I gave her some faded jeans and a pretty paper-pieced top…put some pearls on her cute little flats! Isn't she cute?? 

Here is the stamp set image for Moka Jenn!

One final thing I want to talk about is the Taylored Expressions Project Pantry Papercrafting Kits!  They are a great value at $9.95 each. They are available in limited quantities, so scoop them up while you can! These kits are perfect for card makers since the papers come in a 4×6 size….and everything matches perfectly. You will LOVE Taylor's eye for putting these together. LOVE. You'll find those in the Fresh out of the Oven page too!

Please check out what the rest of the Design Team has for you on this release day!

Charmaine Ikach
Danielle Lounds
Jackie Pedro
Jami Sibley
Jodi Collins
Karen Giron
Karen Motz
Melissa Sauls
Regina Mangum
Sankari Wegman
Taylor VanBruggen
Tori Wild
Wanda Guess

Amber Hight – Guest Designer

Nancy McKinney – Guest Designer

Okay…it's been a really fun week full of baby cards and projects! Now…what to make next? Have a great day everyone! Hope to see you soon!  

  
Hello! Today is Sneak Peek Day #3 for the May Taylored Expressions release! All of these sets will be available for purchase on Thursday morning at 8am PST. You can get the full stamp set reveal on the TE facebook page Wednesday night: https://www.facebook.com/#!/tayloredexpressions. I hope you have been having fun here with me on this new Design Team adventure! Thanks for tuning in!

Today's release features the stamp sets "It's in the Bag" and "Moka Jenn."  My third post for the week has two projects, using both of these cute sets as well as some neat dies. Are you enjoying seeing me make some baby cards? Something I haven't done a lot of here on the bloggy blog! All my friends are in between having kids and having grand kids…so I don't make many baby cards right now.

Here is my first project – a baby shower card. I thought I would use some different colors – for that modern mom. Nothing says that you have to use pastels…right? I love the pop of red with the baby blue. This card could be for a shower for a girl or a boy. This is the SUPER cute Moka Jenn stamp! I'll be using her for tomorrow's card too…in a totally different way.

She is colored with my Copic Markers and the paper is from the Jillibean Soup Blossom Collection. I used my Nestabilities for the circles and popped the sentiments up with some foam tape.

Here is my second project for today…and this time I used the traditional pastel colors to make some baby shower place cards with ADORABLE gift bags attached! These are SOOOO fun to make! EEEEK! I can think of a billion things to do with these shopping bags! The stamp set is called "It's in the Bag" and there is a matching die to cut out the bags and tags. Trust me, you'll love this one. It's not specifically baby related either – very versatile! Can't wait for you to see the whole set tomorrow.

I used the Heart Frame a la Carte stamp with the Frame it Up 2 matching die to make the outer portion of the front. The frame/die perfectly fits a 2×3 photo if you want to use it for pictures. You know I had to get out some glitter and pearls! Jazz it up a bit! I cut some vellum and folded it to look like tissue paper!

 
"It's in the Bag" stamp set was concepted and illustrated by Nancy McKinney for the Whimsical Wishes line. It is a full-sized stamp set on a 5.75" x 8.5" full color sturdy storage panel and has 27 images (yay!). The Brand new MOKA Petite Collection was also illustrated by Nancy McKinney – these darling little girls will steal your heart.  The first two in the collection are: Moka Jenn and Moka Olivia and each has  5 images. Both of these sets come on a 3" x 5.5" full color sturdy storage panel, and they both coordinate perfectly with It's in the Bag. There will be more of these to come! Can't wait!

Check out what the other ladies are up to!

Charmaine Ikach
Danielle Lounds
Jackie Pedro
Jami Sibley
Jodi Collins
Karen Giron
Karen Motz
Melissa Sauls
Regina Mangum
Sankari Wegman
Taylor VanBruggen
Tori Wild
Wanda Guess

Nancy McKinney – Guest Designer

 
Hi Everyone! Today is Sneak Peek Day #1 for the May Taylored Expressions release! All of these sets will be available for purchase on Thursday morning at 8am PST. You can get the full stamp set reveal on the TE facebook page Wednesday night: https://www.facebook.com/#!/tayloredexpressions. 

This month's release is all about babies! Did you see Taylor's exciting announcement on Friday? She is expecting her first baby in September. I think you will see that she had babies on the brain when designing this release! All kinds of cute stuff in store for you this week. Here is my first card for the week, using the set called "Welcome Little One" and the super cool matching Bracket Die.

This adorable bracket stamp is part of the set, and has it's own matching Bracket Die to make it easier to mass produce and the get the images just perfectly cut out! I really recommend it! Cuts so nice and crisp!  

I used a very soft Copic color palette for this card…and matched the colors exactly to my patterned papers! The Paper Collections are: Jillibean Soup Blossom, and My Minds Eye Stella Rose Gertie!

"Welcome Little One" is the next set in the TE Giving Tree series of special stamp sets that help support various charities. For the months of May, June and July when you purchase this set you'll be helping to support Bethany Christian Services, the nation's largest adoption agency. Their services include adoption, foster care, counseling, and family support. Taylored Expressions will donate $7.00 to Bethany Christian Services for each Welcome Little One stamp set sold in the next 3 months. If you would like to learn more, here is the website link:  http://www.bethany.org/ 

 
"Welcome Little One" was designed and illustrated by Taylor VanBruggen as part of the *te* Collection of stamps. The set includes 26 images in high quality deeply-etched rubber on EZ-Mount.  This set is perfect for birth announcements, baby shower invitations, and baby congrats! Since it is part of the giving tree program, the stamps are not cut…this saves more money - to give to the charity. All of the other stamp sets come with the images already cut out!  

I hope you will take a look at what all the other DT members have for you today! I'll see you tomorrow!

Charmaine Ikach
Danielle Lounds
Jackie Pedro
Jami Sibley
Jodi Collins
Karen Giron
Karen Motz
Melissa Sauls
Regina Mangum
Sankari Wegman
Taylor VanBruggen
Tori Wild
Wanda Guess

Nancy McKinney – Guest Designer

I've been keeping a crafty secret…and today I can finally tell everyone! Starting with the May stamp release tomorrow…I am officially a member of the Taylored Expressions Baker's Dozen Design Team!

 
I am very excited to announce this big news! Not just excited, thrilled would be a better word. I have admired Taylor and her crew for a long time, and now I get to play with them every month! Taylor's stamps are so fun and such great quality. Her taste in embellishments is perfection. Don't even get me started about the other DT members…people I have blog stalked followed with admiration. Thanks, Taylor, for the opportunity to be a part of your great company! And, thanks to the other design team members who have welcomed me into their club! I am already impressed by the kindness and generosity shown to me!

In honor of this announcement, I thought a card would be in order! I got out one of my favorite Taylored Expressions stamp sets: Crafty Cuppie! Cuppie is the most darling cupcake, who gets into all kinds of situations! SO adorable! 

The next four days in a row I will be posting cards for the Taylored Expressions May stamp release! I hope you will come back and see what I've been working on behind the scenes!  
 

 

Hey! How is your week going so far? Easter has come and gone and now it's time to start looking towards Summer! We ended up having a very nice Easter day. A great sermon at church, great breakfast out and a movie! We went to see Water for Elephants. It was terrific! I loved the costumes, the animals, and all the action. I definitely recommend it and it is more of a girl movie. DH liked it, but not as much as I did. It was just a nice day out.

So, to get in the mood for the next change of season…I have a little nautical action for today. My card was made with the GORGEOUS collection from Webster's Pages called Yacht Club. Seriously gorgeous. The motifs remind me of New England Summers and Cape Cod (which is where we got married). I made a card that could be either masculine or feminine. Okay, enough blabbing…here it is!

The little banner flags were made out of the frame stickers that are part of the collection. I punched them out with my triangle punch and the used some twine to mimic rope. I had those little shells in my stash. I used a dark cranberry ink for my sentiment.

This is kind of a cool technique…Tear one piece of paper and put another piece underneath it and then fray the edges. These papers all go together so nicely! Love the anchor!

Hello and Easter Blessings to you and your family! We will be at church this morning and then out for a nice breakfast. Who knows…maybe even a movie! I'm dying to see Water for Elephants! Looks so good. I'm posting a hodge podge of things today. I have my last Easter card to share, some pix, and a shout out thank you to Hero Arts. Let's get started!

 This is a stamp from a set from Flourishes…called Spring has Sprung!

I used a very simple and soft color palette of blue and green and a touch of brown. I always love the soft pastels with brown. That never gets old.

For the brown border around my central image I used two Nestabilities at the same time in my Cuttlebug. I cut out a ring to place over the image instead of layering my image on top. Just wanted to try something different.

 I cut tiny strips of foam tape to put my ring of brown on top.

I wanted some more soft blue on the card so I made my own embellishment with seam tape, a flower and a gem. After I made the whole thing, as you'll see below, I distressed the ribbon and the flower.

Here are some pictures I took this week! They scream out SPRING! These daisies are planted in front of my office building and the pink flowers were on a tree in front of Starbucks. I really like both images for the fresh colors and the feel of the change of seasons…

 Lastly…you guys might remember that I won a prize from Hero Arts a couple of weeks ago (click here to go to that post)! I got to choose $50 in free product! Well, my package arrived and I thought I would show you my choices. Some of you had asked me what I would choose.  WOO WOO! SO cool. Thank you Hero Arts!

Wow. Friday. And a GOOD Friday it is! This has been a long stressful week and today I am trying to be mindful of the true and great significance of this day. My problems are small and I am safe. There is much to be grateful for. Amen. I hope you all have a nice Easter weekend! I have Easter cards to share today and then one more to share on Sunday. Be well and take care.

My Easter card to post today is also an entry for the Shabby Tea Room Challenge #58.  The theme this week at STR is pastels and stripes. That's fun, isn't it!? There are still two more days to enter your card into the mix…why don'tcha?

I'm mad about this plaid paper! PERFECT for Easter and Spring cards! The bunny stamp is from WhipperSnapper and the words are from Penny Black. The papers are We R Memory Keepers…

The coloring is very simple here…not too much shading or anything. I barely outlined the inside of the bunnies with a soft grey and then a soft pink for their ears. I went around the entire image with a light aqua to give a little more color and definition to the image. Nothing to it really.

Mr. Buddy was especially helpful in the making of this card and he wanted to make sure he received proper credit for ribbon oversight. So, I put this pic in just for him!

 
Happy Easter weekend Peeps! Get it? Peeps? Sorry, you know it had to be said. :-) 

Can you believe it’s been a month already since the last Taylored Expressions Blog Hop? I sure can’t! I have enjoyed making cards for these hops and I always “meet” some new bloggers in the process as we go from blog to blog to check out everyone’s cards. Well, today is the April Blog Hop Day! The theme for this month is “Clean and Simple” design. Yeah, I had to seriously curtail the use of ‘stuff’ on my card!! It’s good for me though, right? Hahaha.

Here’s my finished card. I used the adorable little pie stamp and setiment from the Sweet Treats stamp set. I also used the sketch from Sankari as you’ll see below. Have fun today hopping around. The list of all the cards and blogs is at the bottom of my post!

Here’s the sketch image. I kept is simple! Are you proud of me? hahaha. No layering, no ribbon, no blings, no pearls, no brads… But you know I had to add a teensy bit of glitter glue, right?  I do like how my card turned out, and this is a great layout to save for the future!

Hi friends! Been crafting up a storm allll weekend! My crafty mojo finally kicked in early yesterday afternoon and since then it's been non stop for me! The DH was busy with some stuff for work so I had uninterrupted crafty time. I got all my Easter projects done and started on some other things that are in the works for May. Since Easter is only one week away, I figured I'd better start posting my cards! I'm sitting down to watch The Amazing Race with the guys and blogging…perfect way to end the day. I hope a great week is in store for you! 
 

I started off thinking I was going to make an all white card, using different embossing folders and paper textures. I just wanted to use that pink bunny as the only color on the card. As I got into it, it just didn't look right to me. I decided to use some thin pink borders and then it looked better. The pink felt bunny is a Martha Stewart sticker!

Hi peeps! Saturday morning…feeling a bit melancholy today for whatever reason…trying to find some crafty mojo and some energy. Put the laundry in, now just looking at the giant hurricane aftermath on my stamping table. Not knowing where to start. But maybe I just want to go lay down with my kitty and take a nap. Ever feel that way? I will perservere and I know that something will kick in! I hope you are having a great weekend so far. Are you crafting this weekend?

Today I'm sharing a card I made for Eat Cake Graphics with their Summer Houses stamp. This is a big image and I had a lot of fun coloring it a while back. Reminds me of summers by the lake and easy breezy days. I hope you like it!

I colored the houses with my trusty Copic Markers. I made the roofs all the same color to give some uniformity to the image and also to "ground" all that color. I wanted the houses to pop off the page. I went back and forth on how to color the grass and ultimately decided just to add a little bit of green and leave the rest white. Don't you wish we were there right now?

Okay, I'm off to find my crafty mojo for today. Have you seen it?

THE END. Hee hee.

Bonjour mes amis! Greetings of the Spring…and today it's Springtime in Paris! I got this super adorable stamp set a while ago and finally got inky with it! Mimi in Paris…from Penny Black…Ooh la la indeed! Since France's colors are the same as ours, red, white and blue, I used that as my color scheme. Scrounged around in all my stash for some Paris related items…and voila! Here's a card to share with you today. Best wishes for a fabulous day!

Here's the stamp set! EEEEK, so cute! Sorry I couldn't get a bigger image!

I colored her with my Copics and kept the colors super simple and bright. I used the B21, B23, B24 combo for the blue, which is one of my absolute favorite color palettes. I used a very light gray for the little pooch.

 
 Au revoir!

Hi everyone! Happy weekend! I have had a blast this weekend so far. Yesterday was the big Rubber Stamp Convention in our town! Over the years I have become friends with the owner of A Stamp In The Hand – Kat – and her crew of FUN ladies. Kat puts on the RSC every year and starting about 7-8 years ago I began to work at the show. Sometimes I demo for one of the vendors, sometimes I will work the register, and this year I was at the front table taking admissions and greeting the crazy stamper stampede! Friday night we all went out for a nice dinner together and then yesterday worked the show all day and then had another nice dinner. Shout out to Kat for her generosity to me…she is such a cool lady. Now, in a flash, just like they arrived, they are back on a plane to LA. It was a good show – best attendance for the past few years. I reconnected with some stamping friends I hadn't seen in a long time and I look forward to getting together with them soon. There was a raffle for some amazing baskets full of stamping supplies and it raised $1600 for Japan Red Cross. Wonderful…

So this morning I had a little freak out moment realizing that Easter is in exactly two weeks! Now, normally Easter would have come and gone already…so I have had lots of time… But I haven't made my Easter cards yet! I made one this morning and wanted to share it right away. Kind of a shabby chic thing. I hope you have a fab day today!

This whole card was inspired by the pretty Easter banner with the chicks on it. I found this at Michael's a few weeks ago and stuck it in my stash. It is canvas and really thick. It had a wooden dowel through the top and a wire (so you could hang it on the wall) and I removed that part since I thought it was the perfect size for a card. I based my color scheme around the banner. I wanted to pop some of that pretty deep golden color and found a perfect match in some cardstock. Um, and yet again, me with the gingham paper. (I know what you guys are thinking – she really does need a 12 step for that!).

 
 Thank you for visiting me today here on the bloggy blog!