Category: Papercrafting

Monday? Already? Truly, how is that possible? I guess there’s nothing we can do about it, but boy this weekend went by fast! Saturday we hung out with family all day (after getting our taxes done in the morning) and then yesterday was a Super Bowl pizza festivus at our house! I did get in some crafty time to make another Valentine to share on the bloggy blog. I got the idea from this month’s issue of Martha Stewart Living magazine. It’s a fold-out card – and I don’t believe I’ve ever made one before! 

 

 

Here is the inside of the finished card. By the way, it’s hard to take a photo of a fold-out card! LOL. I used some adorable paper from Amuse Studio, sent to me by my friend Teadub!

 

Here is the image from the magazine…and the papers….

 

I printed the template right onto my cardstock and cut it out, instead of making a template first and then tracing. Either way works. Here is the link for the template:  CLICK HERE!

 

 

 

I made a red card base – it’s 5×5 inches square – and then lined it with the white paper.

I added some Doodlebug rub-on letters to say I LOVE YOU…..

Here’s how I decorated the front of the card – very classic Valentine-y don’t ya think? Didn’t go too crazy with it. That bright red with white is so crisp and fresh.

 

 

Here’s one last view of the inside. You should definitely try this one! It wasn’t too hard at all, and you could really have fun with paper choices on this.

As always, thanks for spending a bit of your day with me! Have a great week! More Valentine’s to come…my craft room looks like a cupid expolosion right now! XO. 

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Hello! I'm so excited to actually be home and posting from my computer and hanging out in my craft room tonight! Whew…what a week! It was so great…all of it. I'm still trying to process and remember everything. I had more fun than a girl should be allowed to have at the CHA convention! Thanks for all the nice comments on my posts from my iPhone. It was great to share with you! Now, it's back to reality for me and lots of stamping assignments to get done! Valentine's Day is less than two weeks away! ACK! I need to get busy in that department.

I have a valentine card to share with you, but first, I have a video to share! You know how the DH is really into making videos? Well…I gave him my CHA photos and he made one for me! I hope you will watch it!

 

 

 

What did you think of the video!? TOOOO much fun! I love that he knows how to do that stuff. You might say he's the audio/video department here at A Blog Called Wanda! Okay…now on to my Valentine for the day… One trend I absolutely notice lately is CAS cards. Everyone's going there! I have a new board on my Pinterest just for CAS beauties. Being inspired,  I decided to keep it clean and simple today…and use one of my favorite tools. 

 

 

 

 

I am in love with my Epiphany shape studio tools!! This one is a small heart. At CHA they premiered two new shapes – a flower and a tiny banner! Yipppppeeeee! Those on on my list for sure. Here is my stash of supplies for this project.

 

 

 

This stamp is an old favorite from Hero Arts. I inked up just the stems, and not the cherries. The scale was perfect for those hearts!  

 

I colored the leaves in with my Copics (YG23, YG25 and YG17). The large heart shape is cut from a new die from Memory Box called Cupid Heart. The sentiment is a new one this season from Savvy Stamps. I stamped it on a strip of vellum.

 

 

 

Thank you so much for coming by today! The Taylored Expressions release for February was pushed back a couple of week since Taylor was at CHA. So, be on the lookout for new yummies from Taylor at the end of next week. You will love a new style she's trying out this month.  Have a fantastic weekend!

Hi peeps! Today I’m posting a super fun project that I’ve been saving to show you! I’m typing this before leaving for the convention…and when you read this, I will most likely be in my car somewhere on I-5 on the way home from LA. Since I was going to meet the Taylored Expressions Baker’s Dozen crew I wanted to make them something special. I made cute goodie boxes to leave at their hotels as a little check-in surprise! I was cooking up this idea for weeks and it was hard to keep a secret.

I used tons of my favorite Taylored Expressions Cuppie stamp sets and lots of sparkly glitter. I hope you enjoy looking at this project. There are lots of pictures in this post!

Here they are all ready to get loaded into the car:  

 

 

 

Here’s a close up of my coloring before I put any glittery parts on….

 

I used images and saying from all of these stamp sets. I kept the palette simple – pink, aqua and black. This let me play with a lot of images but still have a clean look.

 

 

 

Look at all those little candies….so cute!

 

Here they are all spark-a-lay!

 

I made little matching notecards to go inside the boxes. To make my mini cards (about 3.5 inch square) I used my Cuttlebug and a large scallop square Nestie. I love making little scallop cards like this. Somehow they seem more fun!?  

 

Here is my little stack of cards ready to go!

 

 

This is what I put inside for the gals….

 

 

Okay, these little cupcakes are the cutest thing ever! I found them at Bed, Bath and Beyond! They are meant to be little single cupcake holders….but I filled them with candy. Then the gals can use them later.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I printed the names out on my computer onto thick cardstock….

 

 

This is the back and side view…. 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for coming by today to check out my project! I hope you do something creative every day! Have a wonderful day….see you soon!

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Hi friends! Happy Friday! Whew…it’s been a week, lemme tell ya! I was in LA for two days for work and generally running around like a crazy person. Today is all about preparing for CHA! WAHOOOOOO! The CHA bus (my car) leaves tomorrow and I cannot wait! I am going to finally meet some of the amazing ladies of the Taylored Expressions Baker’s Dozen and also hook up with lots of my crafty friends from all over the country. Right now I’m in panic mode…what to pack? How much stuff to bring? What do I wear? Did I remember the gazillion chargers for everything? Do I have a big enough memory card for my camera? Tomorrow morning I’ll be on the road and leaving my cares behind and heading towards crafty adventures.

I am going to try to blog post via my iPhone from the convention. I’m not really sure how that’s going to go! You can’t format pictures or text…and you send your posts via an email! I will try it and I would be grateful if you guys would give me feedback along the way. Also, I’m going to post pictures from the floor onto my ‘A Blog Called Wanda’ facebook page. So, if you want to “like” me then you can follow along with me that way. This is all new!

I can’t believe I’m finally going to a CHA Convention! I want to say a big giant thank you to Taylor for inviting me as her guest. I am truly grateful to be a part of her team.

Okay…I do have a card to share today too! My sweet friend Teadub had a baby two weeks ago! This is her third little bundle of joy and he is super cute! She is such a cool mom – so mellow and patient with her kids. They are a bunch of cuties! So I made her a baby card and got that off in the mail to her last week.

 

 

All the patterned papers are from the My Mind’s Eye True Blue paper collection. I love it because it’s cute but not cutesy. Nice warm, happy colors, just right for a baby boy! That bear stamp is one of the first stamps I ever bought! The sentiment is from PTI. I layered my strips (1 inch wide) onto another sheet of paper. I love all the patterns together like that.

 

Don’t you love orange  and aqua together? I do! I used white core papers so I could sand the edges to make the color a bit softer.

 

Here are my Copic colors – just a few.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Please check back in with me over the next few days to see what happens! I hope that you all have a most wonderful weekend! Thank you for stopping by! Big hugs.  

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Hi friends! All month, I've wanted to get an entry together for the Hero Arts January Contest! I finally made my card this weekend and got it posted over on the Flickr group! Yay! I love doing this contest and seeing everyone else's entries. The themes this month were either 1) a color challenge or 2) Anything about LOVE! I chose the LOVE category, and used the super cool new cityscape stamp that's been sitting on my desk waiting to get inky! There is still one more day to get your entry in!

 

 

I inked the large cityscape first in light gray ink directly onto the paper. Then, I inked it a second and third time in darker gray ink and cut the buildings out.  

 

Here are the supplies…Isn't that the coolest stamp?

 

The sentiment is also from Hero Arts, but I forgot to take a picture of it! I used a border punch that had tiny hearts in it to get those little red hearts for the card. I popped it on some nice, bright red and then on gray Bazzill paper.

 

 

I think the card ended up having a "Sex and the City" vibe or "When Harry Met Sally" vibe! What do you think? This card would be good for a far away friend or love.

Thank you for stopping by here to spend a part of your day! I appreciate it! Have a great week and I'll see you soon.

Hi there! Happy Saturday! Whatcha doin'? I was supposed to be in class today with the lovely Julie Ebersole at Paper Garden…but she got snowed in in Seattle and never made it here! SO sorry she wasn't able to come this weekend! We will catch her soon though.

We finally got our rain here in Sac-town and I am enjoying a day inside in the craft studio finishing up some projects and reflecting on a roller coaster week. When I say roller coaster, I mean there were ups, and downs, and all arounds, this week. I know that a change is coming in my life. I can feel it coming, and I can feel the commotion and energy that comes before the calm of decisions made. I don't mind it actually.

This week brought me back in touch with people that I care about that I hadn't talked to in years. The week taught me that if you extend your hand and relax, people will be there for you. I loved that part of this week. Anyhoo, I think I'm rambling at this point, and I do have a card to share! I hope you are enjoying a very nice weekend.

I love using the negative space when cutting with dies. This is the new Darla Butterfly Die from Memory Box. It's the perfect shape and size in my opinion. I cut the butterflies out of watercolor paper! I hadn't done that before. I happened to have this scrap on my work table. I LOVE it now. The card is so sturdy and thick and rich because of the texture and weight of the paper.

 

 

The front (white) panel was mounted on foam tape over the pretty patterned paper. I distressed the corners and speckled some ink on the front also.

I think this layout would work with just about any color combination. You could use pinks for a Spring feeling or some pretty green…you might be seeing me make this card again! I added some red blings at the end for a bit o' sparkle.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Okay, so next week is going to be CA-RAZY! I'm going to CHA! WAHOOOOOO! I've figured out how to blog from my iPhone and so I might be doing some blogging straight from the convention floor if I see some stuff that I can't wait to share. I'm really over the moon excited to go and have some fun with my crafty compadres. That doesn't start until next Saturday…but I am already there in my mind! Bye for now.

Greetings! How are you this week? I'm doing just fine and eagerly awaiting some days of solid rain here in Sac-town! It hasn't rained here since November and the air is super dry and everything is brown and icky. I love the rain and the fresh air it brings with it. It's been far too long around here. This weekend Julie Ebersole is coming to teach at my friend Stephanie's stamp store and it's sure to be a good time! I will take a class and have some din din with the wonderful HRR. Cannot wait! I'll post pix from class on Sunday or Monday. Next week I'm off to my very first CHA Convention in Anaheim. Whew! LOTS of fun things going on for a January! I'll be so happy to share all of my adventures with you.

Today's card was made for a card swap with my dear Stampin' Up group that I've been meeting with for years. I don't know why I never got around to posting this one. I love the whole hot air balloon craze in stamping and this set is so sweet. These were fun to make!

 

 

My little gingham hill was just cut free form with a pair of scissors. The stamps are super easy to layer and mix and match.

 

 

The supplies…..

 

 

The assembly line in progress….

 

 

These are my go-to inks. You can always find them on sale at Joann's too! Even better!

 

 

 

My journey this year I think is going to be about control vs. surrender… I am working so hard on believing in the good things that can happen if you relax and let go instead of trying to hold on so tightly for control. It keeps coming up in conversation and in those 'a-ha' moments a lot. I'm really trying. So… this saying is fitting for me. The sky's the limit if you believe and allow things to happen! Hugs from me to you. Have a wonderful day everyone.

Hi friends! Today is my day to post on behalf of Taylored Expressions and the Baker's Dozen Design Team! I'm sharing one of my favorite sets from TE today – Kitschy Kitchen! It's one of the very first stamp sets I ever bought from Taylor and I love it. Hope you will too. Have a great week! Thank you for coming by today!

Here is my finished card! Is that sentiment just the ca-yutest thing ever?

 

 

I used Karen's awesome sketch this week from Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge! Why don't you enter too? Click on over to Karen's blog and check it out.

Here is a side view action shot! LOL! I cut out a few extra toast pieces and put them on foam tape to give it some fun and pop!

 

Here is my Copic palette – some "retro" olive greens and tans…nice and simple…

 

Here are the supplies I used. Everything is available from the TE Store!

 

 

I'm so glad you popped in! Har har har. I'm cracking myself up! Have a fabbie day!  

 

Hi! Me again…back with another card creation for the weekend. I've been in the craft room all day and now I'm watching the red carpet for the Golden Globe Awards. I definitely like the red carpet better than the actual show! I love looking at all the gowns and jewels and I like listening to the banter between everyone. It's been a mellow day around our house. The hubs is watching football…and Buddy is…what else…sleeping! I hope you've had a great weekend.

Today I'm sharing a card I made for a friend who moved into her new home this weekend! I'm so happy for her and hope that she has many good times in her new place! She likes antiques and pretty things, so I made her a shabby chic creation using one of my favorite stamp sets from PTI – Love Lives Here – and the matching dies. Hope you likey!

 

 

 

I had so much fun cutting out these tiny houses and picking out the different papers! I put some pretty pink pearls in the middle of the hears.  

 

 

Here's my supply list… The beautiful pink roses and pearls came from my sweet pen pal Holly in The Netherlands! Like I said, I adore that stamp set. I picked out some 6×6 paper pads and used some of each.

 

 

 

 

Here is the card and envelope. I also stamped the inside…but I forgot to take a picture of it!

 

 

Thanks for spending a part of your day with me! Have a good week ahead!  

Hi everybody! It's FRIDAY night! Whew. To quote my friend Kat…Lordy Be! We made it. This week was rough. I think everyone is finally back to work and possibly grumpy about it and work was just busy. But, now, it's the weekend. I stopped by The Paper Garden on my way home and saw the girls and got some stamping therapy and some laughs…and now I'm home in my sweats blogging and then getting ready to kick Mr. Buddy out of my seat on the couch.

Today is my brother-in-law's birthday and this week I made him a cool, kinda grungy, rock-star birthday card. Rock on Steve! Happy Birthday! I tried a fun new technique and I took lots of photos to share it with you. I will certainly be doing this again. I was going for an overall Ed Hardy kind of vibe because that's exactly what he likes!

 

 

 

LOVE this color palette. Nice darker aqua with grey undertones and a bright olivey green. It's difficult to photograph the shiny window plastic…makes quite the glare!

 

 

I used watercolor paper, my distress inks, my perfect pearls and a big clear stamping block.

 

 

First off, I smeared some ink pads directly onto the clear block. I've seen people do this with reinkers usually, but I don't have any…so I just used the pad.

 

 

Next up, I spritzed the clear block with water and smeared it around with my finger.

 

 

Then….I smashed it right onto the watercolor paper. Since the paper has a texture, the ink pools in different spots and I think it looks neat. I left it on there for a few seconds to let all the ink soak in.

 

Here's what I ended up with! You can see the brown, green and blue all ran together. I love the way the edge came out! No two of these will turn out the same. One tip – I liked it MUCH better after it dried. So, if you do this and don't like it right away, wait a few minutes.

 

I got out a sheet of Judikins window plastic and stamped some cool images with my trusty black Staz-on ink pad.

 

 

While my Stayz-on was drying I spritzed some pewter Perfect Pearls onto my main color block.  

 

 

I stamped the "Happy Birthday" words directly onto the watercolor paper so it would be a layer underneath the other images. Lastly I added some teal blings to the whole thing. I adhered the window plastic to the card using matte black brads.

 

 

What do you think? Will you try this? I like it very much and I can think of a bunch of other color schemes and images to use with it. I think it would be a nice clean and simple card to just do a color block and a pretty sentiment and leave it at that. Hmmmmm…not enough time and too many ideas!

I hope you all have a very fabulous weekend! Thanks for coming by! Mwah.

Hi! Today I'm sharing something kind of fun – and this is my first time making something like this! It's a cool new calendar product from Taylored Expressions and I am having such a good time making my pages for it. The Baker's Dozen Design Team will be sharing calendar goodies and ideas with you throughout the entire year, so be sure to check out everyone else's projects too. 

Refer over to Taylor's blog to get all the info to play along with us each month. There will be a linky at the bottom of Taylor's post and it will remain open all year, so you have the option to go back and catch up if you start playing late. For everyone who plays in 10 or more of these monthly calendar challenges in 2012, there will be a random draw for a TE prize pack valued at over $150!!! Click here to go to the TE Calendar Department and see all the goodies.

I chose to make the "Frame Your Imagination" calendar and use Cuppie as my theme! The stand for the calendar comes in raw wood and then you can paint it whatever color you choose. I painted mine kind of an antique white and then speckled some brown onto it to give it some character.

CLICK here for the calendar stand…CLICK here for the page protectors and CLICK here for the page inserts. I like this a lot because the finished pages are 6×6 and that gives a lot of room to stamp!

Here's my page for January:

 

 

Isn't that a neat stand? I like that it's big enough to stand out and be a desk decoration.  

 

Here are all the stamp sets I used! I used Cuppie of course, and then the sentiment from a Moka set, and the snowflake from another set…oh yeah…and then some banners…I like to mix and match my stamp sets so that each project comes out unique.

 

I added a pretty blue scallop border at the bottom of my page. Can you see the light blue snowflakes?  

 

 

 

 

I always use my trusty Copics to color my TE images!

 

 

 

Hope your week has been a great one! Thanks for coming by A Blog Called Wanda today! Take care! 

Now before you get started on your calendar project, you'll want to take a look at the fabulous calendar inspiration from the other Baker's Dozen gals:

• Charmaine Ikach
• Jodi Collins
• Melissa Sauls
• Sankari Wegman
• Taylor VanBruggen
   

Hello! Are you ready for some Valentine's Day cards? Hearts? Red? Well…then you're in the right place on this day! I am the guest designer over at the Penny Black blog today sharing some Valentine's goodness. I was super excited when Jenyfur asked if I wanted to play with some new images. Everything they do just rocks in my opinion. She asked me to keep it simple and elegant…not tons of layers and patterned papers…so that's just what I did!  Please click HERE to go directly to the PB blog. Have a wonderful day everyone!

I think this first one is my favorite of the bunch. Isn't that heart just a gorgeous image? When you do this watercolor technique you never know what you're going to end up with. You put the ink on and stamp and see what develops. I think in this case, the colors blended together very nicely. I added a strip of vellum and one of my favorite PB sentiments.

 

 

 

 

This second one is also made with the watercolor brushstrokes technique. This time in a more masculine color scheme. I shaded with a light tan color against the really vivid red. I added distress ink around the edges of the paper to make it look aged and worn.

 

 

 

These images are from one of the new clear stamp sets and I like the way they are drawn. That little envelope is the cutest thing. I know I will end up using that stamp a lot.

 

 

 

The image here is one big giant background stamp! I stamped the whole stamp in white ink and then went back over just the one heart with red ink. Kept it simple…

 

 

Have you started working on Valentine's cards yet? I am excited about all the new stamps to play with and hope to have mine done early this year! Have a wonderful week.

Hi everybody! Hope you are enjoying a nice Sunday! I'm in the crafty cave cooking up all kinds of things to share this week! You are probably able to tell that I am all about Spring right now. I'm ready for bright, happy colors and sunshine in my craft projects. It's been very dry here and windy and yesterday it was warm too. Very odd weather. I would like a spring shower….that would be nice. Anyhoo…I'm off track now. OH! Before I forget…I set up "A Blog Called Wanda" Facebook page this week. I would be very happy if you would "like" it. The link is in the blog left side bar.

Today's card is a cheery Spring birthday card made with what has to be one of my favorite paper collections of all time… October Afternoon Sidewalks. I could make 500 projects with this paper. The palette is wonderful and it works for so many types of cards. Do you have a very favorite paper right now? Share with us so we can check out your fav!

 

You know this paper just screams out to be matched with gingham right? The flower was cut with PTI flower dies. The center is a pin that matches the paper collection. Don't you love how it is perfectly matched to the paper? Um, I'm not OCD or anything….

I decided to pop some bright red to pick up that color. I used my Martha Stewart butterfly punches. I cut a window out of a Nestabilities die and put the text paper behind it.

I matched the green with Stampin' Up Kiwi Kiss paper, and popped my top layer up on some foam tape for more dimension.

I crumpled the flower in the palm of my hand to make it not so hard and straight. This way it has a gentle curve to it, like a real flower might.

Thank you so much for coming by to see me today! This week has some fun things in store. I am guest designer over at Penny Black (yay!) on Tuesday and I will post my cards here too. They are all new Valentine images. Thursday I will be back with a calendar project that we are all working on for Taylored Expressions. I'm making a whole calendar using Cuppie images! Have a fabulous day!

Hi peeps! Happy Friday! I hope you had a great week and that you're looking forward to a fun weekend! I'm super psyched that I get to have lunch tomorrow with one of my besties and get all caught up with her. Yay! I don't get to see nearly enough of Ms. Patty!  It was a crazy week here at the bloggy blog with the new Taylored Expressions release! I hope you found something you liked. That is such a fun whirlwind.

Today I'm sharing a card set that I entered in the Hero Arts December contest. One of the challenges was to make a set of cards….with no specific theme required. I went through my stash and found that cool typewriter set and decided to use that. I made a set of cards and each would be just a nice little note to pop in the mail to a friend. I have had these tins around the crafty cave forever…and figured it's time to use 'em up.

Here's my tin with the cards inside. I adore this paper collection from Basic Grey! I used only papers from that collection – Picadilly! I used corduroy distress ink for my type and typewriter and a light aqua for the lines on the paper.

 

Here are my cards. Each one is just slightly different. Aren't those sayings cute?

 

My supply list:  

 

 

I felt the need to add a few butterflies into the mix!

 

 

 

YOU are definitely my type of friend! Thanks for coming by today and have a great weekend! See you soon!  

 

 

Happy Release Day! Now the store is open and you can shop for all the fun new stamps, dies and papers we've been featuring all week. Have a great time looking around! I hope you find something you love. My one last card to share for Release week is another valentine. This image just reminds me of those cute valentine's we used to send when we were kids. I think it would also be a nice baby shower image.

 

The ribbon and the heart pin are from the Project Pantry Kit for this month. This is just the prettiest shade of pink ever! I combined it with the We R Memory Keepers "Love Struck" collection of papers.

 

 

Would you be mine?? Hee hee. This stamp is a single, from the Whimsical Wishes collection drawn by Nancy McKinney. Like the Scotties from yesterday, it's part of the Animals in Love A la Cartes: Dachshunds in Love, Giraffes in Love, Pandas in Love, are continuing the Animals in Love A la Carte series (see also Animal Love Sentiments). Last year TE introduced Animals in Love A la Cartes with the Elephants, Fish, Flamingos, Owls, Scotties, Snakes, Turtles, and Whales along with the full size set Animal Love Sentiments.
Special on these – Buy one of the three new Animals in Love and select any one of the eight 2011 Animals in Love for Free!! (yes, I said free!)

TE Release Day!

• All of the new products are now available for purchase! Check out the Fresh Out of the Oven Department to see everything in one place!
• More projects from the Baker's Dozen to inspire you. Just follow the link list below.
• Did you win one of the Mystery Baker's Dozen Blog Giveaways? Find the list of winners on Taylor's Blog.
• Buy one Animals in Love A la Carte and get one free/Select calendar products 50% off/Layered Doily Dies Special – get all the details on our January Release Specials by clicking here.

 

Ready to take one last hop around this week? Here's the list for today. Thank you for coming by!