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