A Blog Called Wanda

Funky Leaf Card!

Hi everybody!! How are you!? It was SUCH a busy week on the bloggy blog last week! Whew, what a lot of fun that TE release was. So much going on, but I didn't have the chance to check in and say hello…so I'm doing that today! Last Saturday's football game was really fun. A gorgeous day in Berkeley and the DH and I just had the best day together. Our team lost, but we're kinda used to that, so it doesn't stop us from having a good time! LOL. My work week went by in a flash….and now it's almost Sunday again. Do you ever feel like your life is flashing before you at warp speed? I'm trying to slow down and enjoy a little more, spend time with the people I love, relax….

Today's card features some lovely dies from Memory Box and an idea that's been rolling around in my head for a while. I used the Cottage Leaf Die and the Typewriter Lower Alpha Die in some funky, groovy colors. When I first saw the leaf die, I immediately thought of a cool, retro 70's vibe. So, in my head I imagined it in orange and brown and green. So, that's what I did! The card base and the main layer are cream, not stark white. The letters are in a dark chocolate brown….

Clean, crisp lines from these cool leaves…

The orange layer is popped up on foam tape for some nice dimension… I think I am loving this color combo for an early Fall look!

This alphabet die is the perfect size for cards – I am addicted to alpha dies!

Thanks so much for stopping by to see me! What are you doing this weekend? Are you gettin' crafty? Or watching football? I hope you are enjoying yourself! Talk to you soon.

September 8, 2012

Taylored Expressions Birthday Bash – final day!

At Taylored Expressions we are celebrating our 4th Birthday and you’re invited to our Birthday Bash! I'm kind of sad that this week is over! I hope you've had just as much fun as I have with all the great new items from TE.
All of the new products are NOW available for purchase. You'll find it all in the Fresh out of the Oven Department.
Lots of inspiration from the Baker's Dozen – just follow the link list at the end of this post.
Check out the Current Specials to find out how you can earn a FREE Belated Birthday A la Carte Stamp or a FREE You Take the Cake Full-size Stamp Set. Birthday Bash Specials will award you FREE stamps with purchases over $50 and over $150.

I have been dying all week to share this last card with you! I think it's my favorite for the week! I've used a new stamp from the *te* by Taylor VanBruggen line. It's called Graphic Greetings A la Carte – Halloween! We are kicking off a new line of on-trend A la Carte stamps. The graphic subway-style art will make for some quick and easy cards, treats and wraps, as well as scrap pages. The Birthday one is awesome too! Oh, and a perfect new Halloween die set!

The main white part has the stamp/graphic. It's all ONE stamp! Isn't it great? I stamped on white paper, embossed in black, and then distressed my edges with some grey ink…sppooookkky!

I made some cool graphic black-on-black spiderwebs for my background paper. I love how this came out. I also added some spiders and some black gems.

Here's the die, and my black cut outs…

I put versamark ink on them and then dunked them into my cauldron of clear embossing powder…

The end result is glossy black spiderwebs! EEEK! (Oh and there are my turquoise fingernails again!)

I'm sorry to see this week come to a close! You can now see and buy everything that's new for the month of September. I'm pretty sure it's safe to say there is something for everyone this time around! It's been really fun sharing with you this week! Have a wonderful weekend!

Links list for today:

September 7, 2012

The Party Continues for the TE Birthday Bash!

At Taylored Expressions we are celebrating our 4th Birthday and you’re invited to our Birthday Bash! Have you been having fun all week seeing the new items?
All of the new products are NOW available for purchase. You'll find it all in the Fresh out of the Oven Department.
Lots of inspiration from the Baker's Dozen – just follow the link list at the end of this post.
Check out the Current Specials to find out how you can earn a FREE Belated Birthday A la Carte Stamp or a FREE You Take the Cake Full-size Stamp Set. Birthday Bash Specials will award you FREE stamps with purchases over $50 and over $150.

Today I'm featuring the new stamp set from the Embracing Grace line by Emily Burger – Let's Chat! It's a full size set of 14 – Jami presented this concept all about keeping in touch and Emily executed in her signature adorable style. These stamps have a set of coordinating telephone dies as well. We introduced this set as part of a promo at the stamp convention in Cincinnati and it was a hit, so we're looking forward to it going out in wide release.

These stamps and dies are really cute! I love the old fashioned phone, and the perfect sentiment, for a nice card for a friend.

Today I'm using new papers from MME called The Sweetest Thing – Lavender. So pretty and feminine!

This little pink phone gets the perfect cut out using the new dies….Look at the awesome edges…LOVE this.

Each phone in the stamp set has it's own die! Nice!

It's totally time to shop! But first, we have more new stamps and dies to show you. We are featuring Let's Chat, Up a Tree, Mixed Blooms, Dial in Style Dies, Let's Chat Telephone Dies today. Here are the links for today's fun projects:

September 6, 2012

Taylored Expressions September Release Day three!

At Taylored Expressions we are celebrating our 4th Birthday and you’re invited to our Birthday Bash! This party just keeps going on and on!!
All of the new products will be available for purchase on Thursday, September 6th at 8am PST. You'll find it all in the Fresh out of the Oven Department.
Sneak peeks Monday through Wednesday and the party continues with spotlights Thursday and Friday – lots of inspiration!
Check the Current Specials on Thursday morning to find out how you can earn a FREE Belated Birthday A la Carte stamp or a FREE You Take the Cake full-size stamp set. Birthday Bash Specials will award you FREE stamps with purchases over $50 and over $150.
2 WAYS TO WIN!

1. You Take the Cake Contest Go to Taylor's blog to get all the details on how you can win two stamp sets of your choice by guessing which illustrator contributed each image in our You Take the Cake Sampler Set.

2. Join us on Facebook for an early reveal of all the new stamp sets Wednesday night beginning at approximately 6 pm PST. Leave comments during the party for a chance to win one of the gift certificates we’ll be giving away!

I'm soooooo excited to share today's fun project! It's the start of Halloween stamping! This new *te* stamp set by Taylor VanBruggen is called Fa-BOO-lous! It's a full size set of 13 – if you know me, you know how much I LOVE Halloween. I had so much fun designing this witchy set! I hope you have as much fun playing with it!

I made these fun giant sized tags – which I made the perfect size for the top of a candy bar…. You could also use them to glue on a package or onto a card front! TOOOOO FUN, especially when combined with the awesome new Spider Web Die that gets released this month! Squeeeee!

Here the are on top of some Hershey bars…. who wouldn't want to get this little treat?

I chose some really fun colors for this project – lime green and purple and orange….with hot sunny yellow. Really festive. And…is that the most awesome font ever on the sentiment??

Here are my Spider web die cuts. OOOOOOOOOH!

Here is my Copic color palette for today:

Today we introduce Totally Tags Halloween, Fa-BOO-lous, Graphic Greetings Halloween ALC, Trick or Treat Word ALC, Spider & Spiderweb Dies, Spiderweb Border Die, plus Project Pantry…so make sure to click around and look at all the other Baker's Dozen Design Team posts!

September 5, 2012

Taylored Expressions September Release Party!

At Taylored Expressions we are celebrating our 4th Birthday and you’re invited to our Birthday Bash! It's an entire week of crafty fun for you!
All of the new products will be available for purchase on Thursday, September 6th at 8am PST. You'll find it all in the Fresh out of the Oven Department.
Sneak peeks Monday through Wednesday and the party continues with spotlights Thursday and Friday – lots of inspiration!
Check the Current Specials on Thursday morning to find out how you can earn a FREE Belated Birthday A la Carte stamp or a FREE You Take the Cake full-size stamp set. Birthday Bash Specials will award you FREE stamps with purchases over $50 and over $150.
2 WAYS TO WIN!

1. You Take the Cake Contest Go to Taylor's blog to get all the details on how you can win two stamp sets of your choice by guessing which illustrator contributed each image in our You Take the Cake Sampler Set!!!

2. Join us on Facebook for an early reveal of all the new stamp sets Wednesday night beginning at approximately 6 pm PST. Leave comments during the party for a chance to win one of the gift certificates we’ll be giving away!

Today my card is featuring the new *te* by Taylor VanBruggen stamp: Word A la Carte – It's a Party – our Word A la carte series continues to be a best-seller. We think you'll love the 2 newest words!! I used some bright happy colors and the new Curly Border Die too!

How totally adorable is this stamp? I added some blings in my pink, yellow and blue color scheme and colored the image in with my Copic markers… That pretty curly border is a new die for this month!

My papers for today are from the new MME Happy Day 6×6 Paper Pack. So fresh and perfect for lots of birthday and other cards!

That's what I have for you today! The Birthday Celebrating continues as we introduce Party Monsters, Moka Madelyn, It's a Party Word ALC, Graphic Greetings Birthday ALC, Bake Me a Cake Die Set and Dial in Style Die Set. Whew. See, I told you there was a lot going on!

Be sure to check out all the other designers' work today too:

September 4, 2012

Taylored Expressions Birthday Bash! September Release Week Starts Now!

At Taylored Expressions we are celebrating our 4th Birthday and you’re invited to our Birthday Bash! Lots of fun in store for you this release week! This is our BIGGEST release ever and you are sure to find something you like!
All of the new products will be available for purchase on Thursday, September 6th at 8am PST. You'll find it all in the Fresh out of the Oven Department.
Sneak peeks Monday through Wednesday and the party continues with spotlights Thursday and Friday – lots of inspiration!
Check the Current Specials on Thursday morning to find out how you can earn a FREE Belated Birthday A la Carte stamp or a FREE You Take the Cake full-size stamp set. Birthday Bash Specials will award you FREE stamps with purchases over $50 and over $150.
2 WAYS TO WIN!

1. You Take the Cake Contest Go to Taylor's blog {insert link to Taylor's Monday post} to get all the details on how you can win two stamp sets of your choice by guessing which illustrator contributed each image in our You Take the Cake Sampler Set.

2. Join us on Facebook for an early reveal of all the new stamp sets Wednesday night beginning at approximately 6 pm PST. Leave comments during the party for a chance to win one of the gift certificates we’ll be giving away!

Today I'm featuring two cards that would be great for birthday celebrations! The first card was made using the adorable Belated Birthday a la carte stamps. Mine for today is "Oh Carp!" These little fishies are too adorable! What a fun card this was to make.

The Belated Birthday a la Cartes are from the Apple Doodle Ink line drawn by Doug Applegate. The newest Belated Birthday A la Cartes are as follows: A Little Slow, Elephants Never Forget, Oh Carp!, and Oh Rats! - Jami first presented this concept back in 2010 and we released 7 of these A la Cartes during our September Birthday Bash that year. (Gallery here) Each one includes a large image plus a pair of punny sentiments all for belated birthday wishes. Now we are adding 4 more to the collection. These will also be featured for one of our special Birthday Bash promotions!!

I told you they were cute! I added some tiny Stickles bubbles on the front of my card…

Here is a close up of a BRAND NEW Circles Big Background stamp from TE. LOVE this one! I thought it looked nice in aqua for a watery feeling! You can also see a peek at the inside of my card!

These gorgeous background stamps easily cover an A2 card front….so pretty and easy…

My bright and cheery Copic palette for this project:

And, here's the inside of my card! Used the always favorite TE Wave Border Die and a touch of Stickles. Each of the Belated Birthday a la Carte stamps comes with a perfect saying for the inside of your card.

Oh Carp! Hee hee. Now I need to forget someone's birthday so I can send out this card! LOL!

Here's the entire line-up of the Belated Birthday a la Cartes:

BIG NOTE: Customers will be able to get one of these stamps FREE with a $50 purchase through Monday 9/10- details will be posted on the current specials page on the TE Storefront! WOOOOO!

Okay, now for my second project for today I'm using the Brand New "You take the Cake" stamp set. This is our first ever sampler set showcasing the designs of all of our illustrators. Also – this set will not be available for sale until after the October release- for now it will be free with any purchase of $150 or more. This is THE must-have birthday set! Taylor's blog post will have some contest details – guess which designer contributed which image to be entered into a drawing for two stamp sets of their choice

You Take the Cake is a set of 15 stamps! - this is a first for TE – each of our illustrators has contributed images to this special celebration sampler set. It's perfect for our Birthday Bash! It will be featured in our free stamps promo AND we'll have a contest for customers to guess which illustrator drew each of the images. Fun, huh?

I used the Balloons image from the stamp set and combined it with some beautiful Cakewalk Designer Paper from October Afternoon. I also used the TE Reach for the Stars Border Die to jazz it up some!

Here's a fun trick to make a nice scallop border on a card layer….Just tape your Nestie to the front of the paper and then only run it HALF way through your cutting machine!

Voila!

I always like layers on my cards…oh, and foam tape! LOL!

Reach for the Stars Border Die

My goodness! Thanks for coming by today. Trust me, there is so much going on this week and so many fun projects to see. I hope you will pop over to everyone else's blogs too! Here's the link list for today:

September 3, 2012

GO BEARS! It’s time for Football!

It's the first Saturday of September, and the first day of Fall (in my book anyway) and it's the first Saturday of College Football Season!! Woooohooooooo! When you read this, we are probably already on the road headed to Berkeley for the first game in our newly renovated stadium! SO excited to see the old gal and see what they did to make her beautiful and modern! Our stadium was built in the 1920's as a memorial to WWI veterans and needed a face lift and seismic retrofitting. Interestingly enough, the stadium sits right on top of an earthquake fault. So, they've been working on updating it for over a year. Okay, I'm sure you've heard enough about that for now!

In honor of the football game and my team, I made a funny card using lots of my favorite Paper Smooches stamps. I used little bits and pieces from five different stamp sets to make a Go Bears scene! I hope you like it!

Our mascot, of course, is a Bear….and our colors are Blue and Gold….

Here are the five stamp sets I used…can you find all the different pieces I picked out? This was so much fun to pull together. I love Kim's stamps and style, and how everything can work together. I just bought the Swanky Snowman set too! EEP!

I used my Copics and some basic circle Nesties. I liked it really graphic and fresh

Here's a cool photo taken from the hill above the stadium looking out over the Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco. It's really such a breathtaking location. I've been going to games here for, ahem, 30 years now!

Here are some of my favorite pictures with Oski the Mascot. After DH and Buddy, he's my #3 man!

This is my crazy manicure I did for this weekend:

Have a wonderful, long, fun Labor Day Weekend everyone! GO BEARS!!!!

Wanda

September 1, 2012

Keep Calm and Stamp On!

Hi everyone! Hope you're having a fabulous week! Here it is Wednesday already…and that means only three days until FOOTBALL starts!!! Woo hoooooo! Cannot wait for this weekend and going to the first game of the season and enjoying the start of Fall activities! But, I have to make it through the rest of the week first! LOL. Today I'm sharing a card set I made with this AWESOME stamp set from Stampin' Up…Keep Calm! My dear sweet friend Patty sent this my way and I LOVE it! I have had it sitting on my stamp desk for a couple of weeks waiting for the chance to ink it up. I couldn't pick which image and saying to use…so I used 'em all!

A couple of weekends ago I found these great clear plastic cases for cards at one of the craft stores. They are so nice and I think I'm now inspired to do more of this kind of thing. What a nice little gift for a gal pal! It's also fun to decorate the front of the box!

I made six cards in all – two each of three designs. Kept it simple and clean….

Here's the stamp set:

Blings!

Of course, this one is my FAVORITE!

Enjoy the rest of your week my bloggy friends!!! Stamp on!!!

August 29, 2012

August Baker’s Dozen Studio Challenge!

It's time for the Baker's Dozen Studio Challenge!! This is a monthly opportunity for the Baker's Dozen Design Team to share what makes our stamping studios hum. Each month we will have a fun, crafty question so we can share our favorites, some tips and tricks, stamping advice and more.

The theme for August is:

PROJECT RUNWAY! Do you watch this show? It's perfect for creative types like us! On PR, the designers are given interesting challenges each week and asked to maintain their own personal style or point of view in their creation.

So, Taylor and Jami put this before us: What's your stamping style or point of view? For August's challenge, show us a couple of different projects using the same supplies. Show us one CAS card and one Fancy Fold card while still retaining your own personal style as much as possible.

I would say my stamping style depends on my mood. (Hey, I’m a woman after all!) That's kind of a non-answer, but it's true! I love all the different styles of stamping, and if you follow my blog, you've seen me do it all – from super shabby chic to very clean and simple. That's why I love stamping so much. There are so many great products and a million different ways for us to interpret them. I have seen my style change over the years and love that about stamping too. We can reinvent ourselves artistically all the time. I tend to go in phases, with colors and papers and different types of images. I love everything retro and vintage. I also love graphic images – like quatrefoil and chevrons. My favorite colors are the ocean colors; aquas, greens and blues. Right now I am in more of a clean and simple phase. But that could change at any moment…especially with Fall and Halloween coming! I can’t wait to see all the other designers’ blogs today….what fun!

I chose to make two projects using my favorite Fall set from Taylored Expressions…Thankful! And, I used the adorable mini leaves dies too! I am READY for Fall and Fall crafting!

This is my fancy fold card! It's a brand new technique for me! It's called a half-cut. You end up cutting just half of your die out of your z-fold card and you can use any shape! Here is the link to the tutorial I used. I posted a lot of pictures so you can see the card from different angles too.

I love cutting out leaves from different patterned papers…just looks so elegant…

Here are my supplies for today's cards:

My Copic palette for this card:

p.s. Did anyone notice my turquoise fingernails??? LOL!

Here is the blank card before I started jazzing it up….so you can see the fold/cut. It's really not hard, but the result is so cool!

Now…for my CAS card! I chose the pretty apples basket image for this one, and kept the same papers and cream card base. I stamped the image onto the cardstock first and colored it. Then I stamped and cut out a second basket image and colored that – and layered it on top.

I chose a CAS font for this card also. Aside from the image, the sentiment font can change the whole feel and look of a card. This one is serene and clean…

My Copic palette for this card:

These are all the stamps in this great set:

Please take some time to HOP around and see what the rest of the lovely ladies of the Baker's Dozen have in store for you today! Thank you so much for coming by my blog. Have a great day!

August 28, 2012

Papertrey August Blog Hop Challenge!

Greetings! Happy Saturday! I am so excited to be joining in today on my very first Papertrey Ink Blog Hop Challenge! WOOOOOT! I have always wanted to be part of this fun event and share the good times. I stayed up until midnight last night making my card just so I could participate!

I was sitting at my desk yesterday and the email about the blog hop came up on my iPhone. Lemme tell ya, I instantly fell in love with the challenge concept and the gorgeous inspiration images. I was hoping, hoping, hoping that my August PTI order would come yesterday and it did! I knew I wanted to use the new Herringbone Impression Plate for sure. So after dinner I opened my new box of goodies and then got out all my other PTI products to see what would speak to me….This is what I made:

I adore this PTI felt! I used the heart dies to make some bitty hearts for accents! The doily in kraft is very nice, dontcha think? For the herringbone texture, I used a piece of kraft core cardstock and then lightly sanded it to make the texture pop!

I made my pretty heart first, before making the rest of my card. I used PTI felt and stitched it using the natural twine. It's actually a pin! I made it so the recipient can remove it and wear it!

I tried to combine lots of shabby chic layers and textures. That bit of crochet trim was inspired by the challenge images too. I love teal for Fall – you don't always have to pick traditional colors…

I cut two cream felt hearts and stitched them with twine. In the middle is a little bit of kleenex to make it puffy. This was so much fun, I want to make more!

Here's the back…

I attached it to the card with a piece of foam tape. This way it will be easy to take off and wear! This one's going to need extra postage for sure! 🙂

Here are the GORGEOUS inspiration images…all about texture and textiles…

I cannot wait to see what everyone else made for today's Hop! CLICK HERE to go to the main PTI blog page and start looking at all the other projects. Have a wonderful weekend bloggy friends!

August 25, 2012