Tag: brenda walton

A lovely crafty weekend retreat! (And some prizes!)

UPDATED 5/7/16: THE LUCKY WINNER IS TRICIA BARBER! Thank you for all the lovely comments everyone!

Gosh, how is it Wednesday afternoon already? WOWZA! I was in a crafty time warp for a few days and it was wonderful! I spent four days at a lovely craft retreat hosted by my amazing friend Brenda Walton. She invited a few of her crafty friends for a marvelous time in her studio from Friday through Monday. I've never been to a retreat like that before. It was great to be able to slow down and know that we had plenty of time together…. We crafted, stayed up really late, ate great food, laughed, took lots of pictures, went on a road trip, laughed some more, crafted some more… It was really such a nice time. Brenda and her awesome husband are truly gracious hosts. They make you feel so welcome. I am so very grateful to have been invited. I really want to share photos of our time together with you. Each crafty gal brought a project, or projects to share and that was really fun. Somewhere along the way I stopped and thought to myself "how did I get so lucky?" It's now been ten months since Crafting and Blogging became my full time job. I am blessed well beyond what I deserve!

I brought my Idea-ology Charm Bracelet project to share with everyone and they loved it. All the bracelets came out pretty and unique. Tim Holtz supplied the products for us – huge shout out to Tim and Mario for that. And, they sent enough items so that I could share one of the bracelet kits with one of YOU as a prize! (Read to the end of my post to find out more). I'll just start with some photos and share more as I go along….

Sharyn brought Brenda some beautiful Lilacs from Washington – on the plane! The smell was divine…

Here we are so giddy to be at the beginning of our long weekend….waiting for everyone else to arrive. That's me in the back, Sharyn, Brenda and Debi.

This is how I packaged everyone's bracelet project kits. I got the gable boxes at The Container Store and stamped them using stamps from Simon Says Stamp and Concord & 9th. (Links below also) I added a bit of pink confetti in the bottom.

This is what the bracelet kits look like – and what is part of the prize giveaway! YAY!

Here we are making our bracelets. We used alcohol inks to dye the gumdrops gems and the stars, and then glued everything together with Glossy Accents. The charms were attached to the bracelets using Tim Holtz Jump Rings. I bought the chain part at Michael's in the jewelry section. This is a super fun project that doesn't take a lot of time. The links to everything I used are below in case you would like to make one! (Great group project!)

Here is my finished bracelet!

I loooooove this photo of all of our creative hands together!! These hands do a whole lot of crafting!!

Debi hand painted these amazing cookies for all of us! Personalized with our initials! They were very tasty, too….although it was hard to eat these little pieces of art.

The group got a little bigger on Saturday! Brenda, Me, Cathe, Sharyn, Gina, Vicki and Debi. Thanks to Brenda's husband for always taking such nice pictures of us silly girls!

Cathe brought a fantastic project so we could make boxes for our bracelets. We painted boxes and then used vintage stencils and texture paste to make them fancy and beautiful.

Some of Cathe's cool stamps she brought in her bag of tricks!

So, this is what our table looked like at MIDNIGHT as we thought it was a good idea to make pressed flower items! Sharyn brought all of these gorgeous pressed flowers from her garden. She also brought vintage music and book pages to put the flowers on. What a neat idea….ready for framing and so pretty.

My favorite were these pressed dogwood flowers. Sigh.

Then Brenda got out all the fabric, felt, suede, leather, thread…. buttons….and we made softies animals!

Did I mention what a fabulous hostess she is? Well, I'm going to mention it again. Look at this beautiful breakfast. How nice to sit down and eat meals as a group with no hurry or worry. It really hit me that this is something I do way too infrequently.

On Sunday we all piled in the 'party van' and went on a road trip to Port Costa to the Theatre of Dreams and then on to Berkeley. We wanted to take the out of town ladies to some of our favorite places! (See my previous posts on Theatre of Dreams HERE and HERE). It was fun to see these places through new eyes and it was a great day!

Some of Wendy Addison's amazing creations….

Debi, Sharyn and Brenda being adorable!

The hostess with the mostest!! In her lovely studio.

That's all! Somewhere along the way I put my camera down and just had fun! Sorry that some photos are missing of our finished projects! Sometimes I get too carried away! LOL. Debi works for Spellbinders and they were very nice and sent us some tote bags and awesome products. I'm including some of them in the prize package along with the bracelet kit.

In order to be eligible to win the prizes in the photo, please leave a comment on this blog post. Tell me what would be the project you would bring to share at a craft retreat! I think we can all have fun seeing everyone's ideas. Maybe you will be inspired to have your own craft day or weekend! I will draw one lucky winner on Saturday evening and notify you via email.

Thank you for following along with me today. Have an awesome day! XOXO I'll be back here on Sunday as part of a cool blog hop celebrating the birthday of one of my favorite stamp companies! I'll be on the SSS Blog on Sunday too, with a Mother's Day card! See you soon!

May 4, 2016
Tales from a very creative weekend!

Hey everyone! It's been a while since I posted and I've been super busy as a little bee in my hive…making tons of cards and sharing a lot over on the Simon Says Stamp Blog! I hope you are keeping up with me over there!! SO much going on…and more to come this week too! A new SSS card kit is coming out and then another new stamp release soon after that. Besides that, I have been unusually busy with fun social activities! Most of the time my life is pretty quiet! But the way it seems to work is….no activities for weeks, and then everything all at once!! I had a very very nice and creative and inspiring weekend so I thought I would edit some photos and share all that with you! A project, some cupcakes, a visit to the museum, and a crafty girl day! It was so delightful and now it's midnight Sunday night and I'm wide awake from all the excitement! What better time to write a blog post!? Buddy is here too!

Friday the hubs and I went out for breakfast and then went to our local (and awesome) art museum. It's called the Crocker and it is actually right across the street from where I used to work! A few years ago they added an entire wing onto the old part of the building and now it is a cool mix of old and new. The reason for our visit was to see the Andy Warhol visiting exhibit and it was great. Here is a photo of the front of the old part of the museum.

Our museum now has a Chihuly sculpture! It's AMAZING! It's only been here about a month and the nice docent was telling us the story of the installation. All I can say is, I'm glad it wasn't my job to install this gorgeous glass piece!

In the courtyard of the museum are these gorgeous old dogwood trees. The blooms were about 80% gone, but I found a couple of pretty ones to photograph…

Mark caught me in action!

These gorgeous miniature roses are also right in front of the museum…sigh…

This was our tasty breakfast at The Mill Coffee….

So, we'll skip over Saturday because we did chores and laundry and grocery shopping…and I did some work…. But on Sunday I attended a lovely crafty girl get together at my friend Brenda's studio. So, I had to make some treats – right!? I never pass up the chance to make cupcakes! I made carrot cake cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. I always love to make them pretty – and get crafty! I die cut some cupcake wrappers and then made butterfly toppers. The toppers were easy and quick – I die cut some woodgrain circles and then attached beautiful butterfly dimensional stickers. I hot glued the cake pop sticks to the circles! Then, when the cupcakes are frosted, you just stick them in the centers.

And I brought a pretty hostess gift and card!

Here we all are in Brenda's studio getting crafty and having a wonderful time! We watercolored Brenda Walton for Sizzix Dies and made fabulous cards! How the time flies when you are having fun. Really such a great group of women. Made my heart happy to laugh and create!

Here are all of our cards! Isn't this a great explosion of color? Everyone made something beautiful and unique! We used watercolor paper and watercolor paints and Brenda's Sizzix dies. We mixed and matched dies and colors to our hearts' content. I can't really think of a better way to spend a cloudy Spring afternoon!

Brenda's lovely husband took this group photo of the happy crafters!

Brenda made this card using her new Teacup Bouquet Die Set. Here is a photo of all of the pieces. It's so fun!!

Everything in her amazing garden is so pretty and healthy and green! I snapped a few quick pictures while she was showing us her gorgeous heirloom roses and other plants.

So if you're still reading…thanks for taking the time to hang out with me!! I know it's a lot of pictures, but I really do love to share with photos. I think photography is my language. I always feel like I can explain anything…if I can just show you a picture! I hope I've brightened your Monday just a little bit and I hope you have a fantastic week ahead of you. Thanks for stopping by here and many blessings to you friends! XOXO

April 11, 2016
Hot Air Balloon – Hooray!

Hi there my sweet creative bloggy friends! How are you? What's new with you?! I've been having a pretty quiet week so far, getting things done in the studio and chugging along! This Friday we are going to the Andy Warhol exhibit at our local art museum. My husband works a 9/80 schedule, so he has every other Friday off from work. We try to find fun things to do together and make it a date day! The weather is nice and it's time to get out and do stuff!

I'm sharing a really special card today! One of my dear friends has some super duper happy news and I really wanted to commemorate the occasion with a bright and cheerful card to send her! I got out my beautiful Brenda Walton Hot Air Balloon stamps and dies and decided they would be perfect for a celebratory card! The sentiments are perfect, and beautiful. I created a rainbow hot air balloon by die cutting the balloon die several times and trimming the pieces to fit together.

The white banner comes with the Hot Air Balloon set. The Celebrate sentiment is from the Big Top stamps and die set – also from the delightful Brenda Walton collection. Now, this sentiment curves the other way…. How did I get it on there you might ask?! Since these are all flexible clear stamps, I played around with it on my clear stamping block until I got it just the right curve to match! TOO FUN.

I die cut a stitched circle die out of a sheet of watercolor paper and mounted some pretty gingham paper behind the window. Then I used a pretty red layer for the bottom. I always love light blue and red together. It's so fresh and pretty. The cloud dies come with the balloon, too. I cut them out and gently inked them with a sponge dauber and light blue ink.

HOORAY! This is the prettiest stamp! I thought it looked nice right there on the cloud!

A few enamel dots makes the whole card festive and shiny!

I sure have enjoyed sharing this project with you! I think that there is something really special about sitting down and making a card for a specific person for a specific occasion. That makes me truly happy. I hope you have found some inspiration today, and I hope the rest of your week is amazing! Take care! XOXO

April 6, 2016
I’m back from CHA! Fun, Memories & Creativity!

Hey everyone! I'm back from CHA! Wow! Can't believe it's been a week since I drove down to LA! That was maybe the fastest week of my life. I told my husband last night that it felt like I got pulled into the CHA tornado, swirled around, and then spit back out! But, oh, what a wonderful thing it was. I am quite sure that I have never laughed that much in one week in my entire life. It's all about memories, friends, fun, and creativity. And this time around, work, too! YAY! So it was raining the day I drove down to Anaheim and the last 50 miles of my trip took over three hours. Can you believe it? The entire I-5 Freeway was FLOODED! Yowza. I made it safe and sound though and checked into my hotel that night. On Thursday I did some sightseeing over at the ocean. I need ocean time, ya know!! Then I met up with Heidi, Stephanie and Sarah from Simon Says Stamp for a yummy dinner! MAN, I love those girls…A LOT.

Friday I helped Brenda set up her Sizzix booth all day. That was the first time I've been in the convention center before the show opened. It was super duper interesting to see behind the scenes of how everything comes together. I'm really happy I had that opportunity. It kind of freaked me out that I was sitting there doing some last minute crafting for the booth….and a tractor went by me in the aisle!! They were putting up the giant overhead signs. Like I said….super interesting. I saw so many of my favorite people setting up, and it was quiet in there too. I worked the show Saturday, Sunday and Monday and drove home on Tuesday. We had some amazing meals together all of us gabbing and getting caught up. I worked with Brenda in her booth on Saturday morning and that was amazing.

This year I was on assignment for Simon Says Stamp and I loved it! I was responsible for taking all the photos for our "LIVE FROM CHA" blog posts all week, and writing some of the posts. I was also doing some Instagram too. We were all there scouting products as well, looking for things we want in the SSS store and things that would be fun for card kits. I loved doing all of those things. There were some late nights and rowdy times with the gang. Seriously, on Sunday I left my hotel room at 8:30 am and got back at 1:00 am!! Brenda was doing crafting in the food court at midnight!! LOL. A bunch of us ended up in someone's room and I looked around at the people there and had a moment. Like, I am sitting here with so many people that I admire. Wow. So much food for my creative soul. My heart is FULL. I got to hug all my crafty pals in person and meet some of them for the first time. When you meet another crafty girl, it's not really like meeting them…more like seeing them again. It's so cool that we are connected like that all over the world. Today it's all about laundry, bills and unpacking (back to reality mode!!)

Some of my favorite products were from Tim Holtz (Ranger, Ideaology and Sizzix), Lawn Fawn, My Mind's Eye, Prima, Simple Stories and Waffle Flower. We R Memory Keepers has a new punch board that makes the entire alphabet! They are so innovative. Lots of companies are getting into the planner biz I noticed. Echo Park as always had some of my favorite paper collections. Little B has new washi tape that has FOXES on it – and I must have it! It's really hard to think of everything right now!

CLICK HERE to see the blog posts from CHA that we posted on Simon Says Stamp Blog (it will be the first four links that come up). CLICK HERE to see my Instagrams from the show! I made a fun little video instead of showing a bunch of photos here on the blog!!! I hope you enjoy it!!!

This slideshow created with Smilebox

I'll be back tomorrow with a card and a super fun and fabulous blog hop! XOXO

January 13, 2016
Brenda Walton Shadow Box Dies – Projects!

Hi friends! How was your Thanksgiving? I hope it was lovely! Are you shopping today? Or resting? We are doing a little of both. Usually we would be power shopping allllll day today…. But I hurt my knee and I'm trying to take it a bit easy on this old girl. I hope you are enjoying a long holiday weekend with your friends and families! Now, it's time for Chrsitmas!

Wow! I have a fun project to share with you today! I'm so excited to show you this versatile and fabulous Shadow Box Die! I made these projects for the Brenda Walton Studio, using two beautiful Brenda Walton Dies – The Shadow Box Die and the Poinsettia Swirls Die. I combined these dies with some of my favorite holiday papers and vintage embellishments to create project with an old fashioned flair. Don't you love vintage Christmas?

Let's get started! The Shadow Box die can be used in so many ways. You can create a true shadow box, a theater, an ornament, a treat box….and whatever else your imagination can dream up. I made an ornament and a candy treat box to show you two ways to use the die.

I die cut my pieces out of sturdy cardstock. For the background piece of my ornament I used silver glitter paper for a bit of whimsy and sparkle! I used the Sizzix Crease Pad to get nice deep score lines. I definitely suggest using the Crease Pad, and also using nice, thick paper. This paper I've used is 110#. If you use thinner card stock, it may not fold as nicely!

After die cutting my pieces I folded all the score lines and used a bone folder for crisp edges. This makes your projects come together perfectly! Then use some fast drying paper glue to glue the sides together.

And here I have my two finished boxes! One will be left open for the ornament shadow box. In the other one, I put a sheet of window plastic across the opening and used it as a sweet treat box. See the half circle cut out? That makes it very easy for the recipient to open the box. Genius!

For my ornament, I attached a bit of patterned paper with a pretty winter scene in the back. Then I put in some little trees…. I added glitter of course! In the form of Diamond Stickles. I cut out a pretty poinsettia using matching patterned papers, to glue on the front. I also cut strips of papers to use on all four sides of the shadow box.

I used blue snowflake paper to add a border across the top of the shadow box (this piece is part of the die set!) and then attached a pretty snowflake charm with some twine. In this photo you can see the top of the shadow box. I made some little hearts to strengthen the area where the ribbon comes through. I love these little touches you can add to make the project your own unique creation!

Here is the candy treat box version of this project! I loooooooove this and I am going to make about a million of these! They are perfect for candy, cookies or maybe a small present like some jewelry! They look so professional when they are assembled. I tied mine with some cheerful twine. This twine from Lawn Fawn is my favorite!

I gently inked the corners of my box and papers to make it look more vintage. To make the blue snowflake piece over the front, I simply cut the die again with that paper and slightly trimmed it to fit!

Thank you for coming by today, and for letting me share with you! I hope that I've inspired you to make some handmade ornaments for your holiday gift giving. I think it's so special to give and receive handmade items! Have a blessed day! XO

November 27, 2015
Christmas Correspondence with Brenda Walton Dies and Stamps!

UPDATED ON 11-9-15 ** BLOG PRIZE WINNER IS NANCY FAITH! YAY! Nancy – email me your address if we haven't yet connected! Thanks for the nice comments everyone!

Hello crafty pals! I'm here with another vintage inspired project that I made for Brenda Walton Studio! I used the fun and versatile Sizzix Mini Correspondence dies along with the Brenda Walton Carte Postale Stamp Set to make a trio of pretty mini notes sure to brighten anyone's holiday! These little cards and envelopes have so many uses – you can put them on a present as a tag, tuck a note inside a food gift, or even hang them on the tree as ornaments. The shapes are classic and simple — you make them your own by choosing papers and pretty embellishments!

I used the awesome paper collection called Holiday Style from October Afternoon, along with some vintage-y items in my Christmas stash! The die set comes with a library pocket, a mini envelope and a coin pocket envelope, along with three different shaped notes that fit inside.

It brings the entire project together when you use papers from the same paper pack, as I did here. I used only papers from my pad, and then used two neutrals – kraft and cream. For my stamping I used brown ink and linen ink instead of black. This also adds a vintage feel.

I punched a heart out of red cardstock and tucked it inside this library pocket note!

For the mini envelope, I cut it out of the red words paper. Then I cut a second one out of the holly paper and used it as a liner for the envelope! Looks so pretty – combining all these patterns together!

PRIZE ALERT!!!!

Leave me a comment below with your fun and fab idea for this die set….and I'll randomly draw a winner for their own Mini Correspondence Die! YIPPPEEEEE! Thank you to Brenda Walton and Sizzix for the great prizes!

Thank you for stopping by today! I hope I've inspired you to get a start on some holiday crafting. It's never to early to panic, I mean start! LOL. Have a wonderful day! XO

November 5, 2015
Halloween Medallion with Brenda Walton Dies!

Hello creative friends! I have such a fun project to share today! It's my first official Halloween project for 2015! Yay! My super sweet, amazing and talented friend, Brenda Walton, has asked me to create some projects to showcase her awesome craft dies! So I'll be creating some Fall and Winter projects over the next couple of months and I could not be more happy about this! I'll be using the Brenda Walton dies from Sizzix and we are going to have big fun! The Brenda Walton style is pretty and whimsical and nostalgic in all the right ways, and it's a style I have long admired and used in my own crafting.

I love anything that is retro/old fashioned Halloween! Glitter and pom poms and rosettes and cute figurines. Love it all. My goal with today's project was to create a new piece that has that retro feeling. My finished item is a wall hanging that you can hang on the front door or use as interior decor for the holiday. Here it is on my front door!

For the base of the piece I used the Brenda Walton Large Medallion Die and cut eight pieces out. Then I folded each one along the creases. There are diamond shaped cut outs in the folds and I like it when the diamonds are at the top of the creases. I used some cool Halloween paper with cool script and big spiders on it! Here are my pieces ready to assemble.

After I glued the eight pieces together I made my medallion and secured it with a scallop circle on the top and the bottom (made with a craft punch). For this step I use hot glue and put a lot of it on both the bottom and the top. The scalloped circles hide the glue, and give you a nice smooth base to attache your other goodies.

After I made my main piece….I thought hmmmm…how can we add some orange!? So I cut out six medallion dies with orange harlequin paper (From an old Brenda Walton paper pad!) I cut 2 and a half inches off the bottom of each of the pieces and that made a smaller medallion. I glued it onto the first one as you see here.

I die cut several of the Brenda Walton Celestial Stars Dies out of black paper and then covered them in dream black sparkly glitter. Spooky and pretty at the same time! This was the best part! (But there is currently black glitter everywhere in our house! LOL) I made some of the smaller size star and then one of the medium sized star which. If you glue two of the medium stars together it will make a 3-D star. The die set has three sizes.

To attach my stars to my project I first glued them onto some long straight pins. I used glossy accents for this step. Then you can attach the stars and they look like they're floating on the project.

In my stash I found an awesome spider web doily (I think from Michael's) and some pretty silver paper. The Happy Halloween stamp is from a Hero Arts clear stamp set. The banner is hand cut. In this photo you can see that I gently sponged the edges of my medallion pieces with jet black ink. I added some hanging paper flags on the bottom.

I cut a scalloped circle from silver paper and mounted it over the spider web doily. Then I used the center label piece from the Brenda Walton Trophy Die set. It comes with an embossing folder for this very awesome effect! The numbers are from the Brenda Walton Numbers and Dies Thinlits set. Of course I made them from black paper!

Please click here to see the entire Brenda Walton die collection from Sizzix!

There are new dies about to be released next month and you can see those too!

Thank you for spending some time with me today. I hope you'll make a fun Halloween medallion too! Or a Christmas one… Hmmm, the ideas are flowing! See you soon! XO

September 8, 2015
Poinsettias in August? Yes!

Hello crafty pals! What's up with you? Happy August! Yes, I said August! Yikes. I was out doing errands yesterday and stopped in at Michael's and it was FULL ON HALLOWEEN already! I am so not ready for that. Lots of cool stuff, though! I got what I needed and ran out of there in holiday denial. NO….I will not process Halloween yet!

I'm still in Summer crafting mode! The project I'm sharing with you today shows you a way to use your craft stash in a totally different mode. I took the beautiful Poinsettia Swirls Dies (Sizzix by Brenda Walton) and made tropical flowers out of them! Something about the shape of the flowers made me think…. "Hmmm, I bet I could make this look kind of cool with some pretty bright colors." I'm always looking for new ways to use what I already have. This is the perfect example of that – Poinsettias in August! What do you have in your craft room that you can put a different spin on?

Here's my bright and sunshiney card for today….

The papers I used are from the Lawn Fawn Let's Polka paper set. I used the 12 x 12 version for a bigger scale on my patterned dots. First I cut out all of my die cut pieces from the Poinsettia Swirls Die Set. Then I embossed a sheet of white paper using the Chateau Damask and Veranda embossing folder set.

In this photo you can see the beautiful pattern of the embossing. I gently edged all my cut out pieces with some Corduroy Distress Ink and a sponge. Even on bright colors, just the tiniest bit of brown gives contrast and makes the edges stand out. I also inked around the white layer.

When I assembled the flowers, I put foam tape between the layers and then gently rounded the petals upwards to give dimension off the page. I added pretty enamel dots as accents.

I added the Thinking of You sentiment, stamped in Corduroy ink, so that this card could be for any purpose.

I hope I've sparked your imagination today, and maybe got you to think outside the box a little bit! Enjoy your craft supplies and get crafty! Hope your day is awesome! XOXO

August 4, 2015
A big announcement & a fabulous project too!

Hi friends! This is going to be a very long post! So I hope you have some time to sit down and visit with me. I have so much to show and tell you! I have a big announcement to talk about and I also have a wonderful project to share. I took an amazing creative workshop yesterday, and I took lots of pictures! You'll see why, later in my post. I am so super grateful to have this blogging forum and to have all of you as my friends and colleagues to share my life with.

I quit my job on Friday….I have to say it again because it doesn't seem real….I quit my job on Friday. I am super proud of myself for choosing happiness and peace over negativity and chaos on a daily basis. Like, wow, I did what??? Most of you might not even know that I had a full time job, because I have always kept that separate from blogging. I worked in the Insurance industry for 28 years…until Friday. It was a hard decision, months in the making. Planning, praying, brainstorming and generally freaking out. Trying to get up the courage to take that big leap of faith. I have had a job since I was 15 years old. 35 years of working with never more than two weeks off (our honeymoon). It is going to be very strange to not have to get up in the morning, and go to a workplace. I think I will get used to it though!

My Insurance career gave me so many wonderful opportunities. I got to travel a lot, I learned so much, and I met so many great people who have been my life long friends. I will always be grateful for the jobs I had and the people who helped me, and that I was able to help, along the way. It seems like the industry has changed…or maybe work in general is different now….or maybe I'm different. It is definitely the right time to make a change and follow a dream I've had for as long as I can remember. A creative life.

I have been a photographer since I was a freshman in high school – when I learned how to shoot on my Nikon FE using a light meter, how to develop film and how to develop photographs. My first job was at a camera store. It's in my blood to be creative! I am truly happiest when I am making something (anything!).

I am not a big risk taker by nature so the fact that I left the security of the 'known' shows just how much I've grown and changed over the past couple of years. SOOOO many lessons and trials. I am not afraid anymore. I feel so at peace with this decision.

I am the luckiest girl in the world. I have a husband who supports me, friends who believe in me (often more than I believe in myself), and a God who blesses me. Every single day.

I've pretty much been crying for a week – tears of gratitude. The tears keep sneaking up on me. When I see something beautiful. When I think about the fact that I no longer have to wake up at 5am and be completely exhausted on a daily basis. When I grasp for a fleeting moment that I am in charge of my life again and I can make it what I want. When my friends make me laugh so hard I snort. All of it.

So stay tuned for what's to come! I am going to be a creative professional living a creative life, and I will have much more to share with you. I will be so happy if you will support me in my new adventure! First, I am going to take some much needed time to rest, relax and regroup mentally. Then I am going to start my own business. I'll be off and running soon. I have at least ten notebooks full of ideas and projects and business stuff. Now I will sort it all out and make something happen. Some amazing things are already happening! Yay! Go me! I literally cannot even believe I'm typing this right now.

So, now I'm dying to share this project with you! Saturday I was so happy to be able to go to Cathe Holden's Inspired Barn Workshop Space and take an amazing class with two of my most favorite crafty friends (Brenda and May). I have been wanting to take one of Cathe's classes for so long, and have also wanted to see her beautiful space in person. The stars aligned and we were all free to go this weekend and take the Mason Jar Luminary Cloche Class! (There are still openings for her other dates for this class).

Well…. Cathe is just as fabulous and sweet as I thought she would be! And, her space is crafty girl heaven. Like, we literally died and went to heaven. OMG. For my first day of 'freedom' from work, it was the perfect thing to do! Brenda, May and I sat at a table together and laughed and laughed. My stomach actually hurt when I got home. Boy, is laughter good for the soul!! Laughter and Creativity filled my soul on Saturday. Thank you to these lovely and amazing women!

I'll show you my photos of her Inspired Barn workshop space first and then share my project photos after that. Hope you're still with me!

Here is a long shot of Cathe's workshop and there is sweet May smiling in the corner!

This is our most lovely hostess Cathe Holden. She made us feel so at home and so welcome. Her designer eye is AMAZING. Anyone who can envision space in this way is a complete genius in my book. Wow. Thank you Cathe, for such a fun day and a great project! XO

A sweet photo of Cathe and Brenda – looking so lovely!

Cathe's husband came in and took this photo of all of us with our projects! What a nice bunch of women! I say that you never meet a stranger when you go to a craft class! #craftygirlsrock

Here is my finished Mason Jar Luminary. I posed it next to some of Cathe's vintage beauties!

Don't we look so happy? Brenda, me and May at our crafting table!

The rest of these photos I took at home to give you some more details. The little house is mounted onto a cardboard ring and then it fits inside the mason jar. The top of the house is not sealed so you can turn on the tiny battery operated tea light inside. GENIUS. CLICK HERE TO BUY THE TEMPLATE FOR THE HOUSE from Cathe's Etsy Shop!

The whole house/base is glued to the lid of the mason jar and then the entire thing fits inside and you screw the ring on.

I couldn't resist adding vintage silver glitter to my house. The base is a kraft color, and I added white wash with a little acrylic paint. Here is the back of the house.

As part of the class, Cathe taught us how to make these teeny tiny bird nests out of wire and beads. OMG are you kidding me?? EEEEP.

There is even a tiny chimney that glues on top of the roof!

Whew! Okay, so that's enough blogging for one day! Thank you for hanging in there until the end and for coming by A Blog Called Wanda. I would absolutely LOVE to hear from you this week! I could use your encouragement and love and happy thoughts as I start this new path. Have a wonderful week! XO

July 12, 2015
4th of July Treat Bags! Happy Summer!

Happy 4th of July Weekend! I get tomorrow (Friday) off work, so it's almost the start of a lovely Summer long weekend for me! How about you? What are your plans? I hope you have a wonderful time – whatever it is that you end up doing. I would love to barbeque and hang out and just enjoy the sunshine. We don't have any real firm plans, and I kind of like it that way. Life has been kinda hectic, so whenever I can grab some quiet time – I do!

I have a really fun project today – I made some treat bags using the amazing Sweet Treat Bag die from my friend Brenda Walton (by Sizzix)! This die has matching movers and shapers to cut out a window in the front. LOVE. I used some vintage Americana type papers and went to town! I filled them with cheery Hershey's Kisses of course!

I cut out some ovals with a punch and stamped in nice deep red for my titles… The I lightly inked the edges of the ovals with Antique Linen Distress Ink.

This totes adorbs pinwheel die is from The Cats Pajamas Rubber Stamps. It's soooo cute! I love to make little pinwheels using double sided papers. The are too fabulous. To add to the vintage vibe I used glittery brads for the centers of my pinwheels. I added a little banner made with silver glitter paper underneath the pinwheel.

I used acetate sheets to cover my windows before assembling the bags. The bags come in two pieces and they are super easy to put together. This is such a great project for any occasion. I really had fun mixing and matching patterns….

And THIS happened!!! I was one of the winners for the Tim Holtz 12 Tags of 2015 contest for my June coffee tag! Yeah!

July 2, 2015
A thoughtful thank you card….

Hi peeps! Happy Easter Week! Hope this week has been a good one for you! Thank you so much for the amazing response to my last blog post! I'm just over the moon about that opportunity and I'm so glad you liked the first project in my series! XO I'm just waiting for Mermaid Lagoon to arrive so I can make a new project!

Today I'm sharing a happy, bright and cheery Thank You card I made for my friend Brenda. Remember a couple of weeks ago when I posted THIS POST? Well, of course I had to make a handmade thank you card to send along. What more perfect thing to use than Brenda's new Floral Wreath Dies? This card was super fabulous to make – so fun to combine different Spring colors and play around with the layout until I got it just how I wanted it. This set of dies has 23 different shapes so you can really have a blast…and this card would look completely different in Fall colors…. Gets me thinking….

You're probably going to want to bust out the tweezers for this one! Each piece is so perfect together with the other pieces. I really like this. After much playing, I chose a light pink, dark pink and yellow color combo for my flowers.

I used a lot of foam squares for this project! I hand wrote my message for a personal touch, inside the light pink banner.

This kind of gets you in the mood for Easter right? I'll be back on Sunday with an Easter card and some good wishes of the season. Until then, take care crafty friends!

April 3, 2015
Brenda Walton Butterfly fold card…and a magical afternoon!

Yeah! I have something really cool to share today! Remember back when I posted that the lovely Brenda Walton featured one of my projects on her blog? Well, she and I got to emailing back and forth and she invited me to a lovely and magical afternoon at her home for a calligraphy lesson and lunch with her friends! OH my stars! She is really just as sweet and lovely as you imagine she would be. The most gracious and lovely hostess. So talented and generous with her time and her guidance. But, the very best part is her laugh and her smile. I love a girl who laughs all the time – don't you? Yes, I'm pretty much gushing, but I loved spending the day in her beautiful studio and home. It felt like some kind of crafty dream – the kind you don't want to wake up from!

I wanted to be a good guest and I wanted to hand-make her something. So, I made her a butterfly card using one of her amazing Sizzix dies, and brought her a little gift too. I'm sharing the card today, and a few photos from the event on Saturday. How lucky am I to have received such a nice invitation?? VERY.

Here is the card I made… The butterfly wings join together in the center and there are separate pieces for the top layer of wings. LOVE.

I used some letter stamps and Corduroy Distress Ink to put her name on a little banner. I coated the wings with some antique glass glitter I had in my stash. The pretty patterned paper is from Authentique.

I wrapped some pretty ribbon around the back and attached it under the wings in the front.

In this shot, you can see how the card folds together. Inside is a tiny flat note! Before I put the glitter on the wings, I sponged some distress ink around the edges.

Sorry with the photos….I love doing these glamour close up shots! 🙂

Below are a few photos that capture the mood and spirit of the day! First up, a wide shot of Brenda's amaaaaaazing studio! High ceilings with tons of natural light, and beautiful objets everywhere you turn! A feast for the eyes…

Brenda and her lovely and kind husband Doug.

That ceiling!!!

I adore this photo because it captures Brenda perfectly! I love a gal who will stand on her desk to take a photo!

Here we are all enjoying a beautiful lunch of soup, salad and quiche…followed by a big giant chocolate cake! Everyone was so lovely and fun. It was cool to hang out with a group of women who all grew up in my town. Often I am surrounded by people from all different places – but it was really nice to share stories with the knowledge of our shared history. Shared places and people…. I hope I get to hang out with them again.

Here is Brenda giving us a Calligraphy lesson after lunch. Can you see me reflected in the glass door? LOL. I am totally blown away by how effortless she makes it look to do calligraphy. True art.

So, me?? Not so great at this!! I gave it a really good try! I press very hard when I write and I'm very linear… I wish I could be good at this! Here is my practice paper.

One of the ladies had brought this pretty velvet bunny as a present for Brenda…

This paint palette could tell a million stories, don't you think? What a beautiful thing….

Love in a pail!

Thank you for letting me share with you today! Thanks for coming by to see me! Hope you are having a lovely weekend – and best wishes for a good week ahead. XOXOXO

March 8, 2015
Botanical – gone wild!

Hello everyone! Nice to see you here with me today! Before I post anything else I just want to say a big giant thank you for all the love that has been coming my way! Thank you all for the nice comments here on my blog, on Facebook and on Instagram – regarding my entry for Gallery Idol. (see post below) Wow, I am so touched by how sweet everyone is. I think it was worth it to enter – just to read the nice things people said. Now I don't even care if I make it to the Top 20! (well, maybe I care a little LOL). Sincerely – THANK YOU! When people ask me why I craft and blog I always say – the people! We will know if we made it to the next round sometime on Friday. YAHOO! So many of my fun and talented blogger friends entered cards – the creativity blows my mind. Good luck everyone!

Today I'm sharing a POP of color and a pretty flower I made! One of the things I HAD TO HAVE from CHA was this gorgeous Brenda Walton (Sizzix) Camellia Die!!! OH. MY. WORD. Had to have it. I live in Sacramento and we are known as the Camellia City – and I have three giant Camellias in my front yard. Okay, I totally digressed right there with trivia. Well….the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge this week is BOTANICAL! Okay – right up my alley. I got my hands on this die and got inky!!

Here is my finished card and below are step by step photos:

POW!!! Did I not tell you it was a POP of color!!?? I adore this Raspberry Distress Ink. Yummmy. The Hello Die cut and the Sweet Friend sentiment are from WPLUS9. I stacked three green die cuts on top of each other to get the dimension off the page. (As if this card didn't have enough dimension)…

Here is a view from the top down. I made the flower first and then designed the card around it. I stamped the giant word stamp (Impression Obsession) in the matching Shabby Shutters green ink and then edged the paper in brown.

I thought this card needed a pearl, too. The card base is a 5×5 square….

Here are all of my die cut pieces – cut out from Watercolor Paper. This is how many pieces you need to make the flower as shown. Of course you can always add or subtract according to the look you want. I think in this form, they look like Dogwood blooms!

One of my favorite techniques – watercoloring with Distress Inks…. What a mess, but oh, so worth it. You can see I'm not super careful with this process – just have a good time!

While the petals are still wet, gently curve them up with the palm of your hand and let them dry like this.

OOOOOOOH. Pretty!

Glue it all together and this is what you get! Yay!

Um, I'm pretty sure this one won't fit in an envelope! I'll have to deliver this one in person! Have a very happy day and thank you again for being a part of my creative journey! XOXO

CLICK HERE TO ADD YOUR ENTRY TO THE CHALLENGE!

May 21, 2014