Coffee & Cards with Deb & Celeste 1/28

Hard to believe that 2018 is already here and the first month is almost over.. Celeste and I are continuing with our blog collaboration and hope to have guests for you each month. Joining us for January is my friend Paula McLane. We met in 2014 when we were both in a wonderful group of crafty women - Mountain Plains Crafters. Although we have all gone our separate ways, our friendships have continued. Paula can be found getting creative on her blog - Scrap Addict's Attic She is an amazing paper-crafter, painter, mixed-media artist etc.. And we are so happy she is kicking off 2018 with us !!

This month Celeste had the idea for us to use the stamps we sent each other for Christmas. Of course, they each involved coffee so I found this perfect image online to use as inspiration for our guest.  I'm inspired each month by Celeste's projects and grateful for our friendship.

Celeste sent me the stamp Planner Gal - Stay Cozy from Unity Stamp Company. I knew right away I wanted to use her for some planner pages in January. I got a KikkiK planner for 2018 and it's been fun decorating my pages. I hope you like this layout. I am more of a minimalist when it comes to my planner pages. I don't cover the entire page; I leave white space.. But as you can tell, I do love using washi & stamps & stickers on my pages.

• I used a combination of Simple Stories "Carpe Diem" stickers - the Bloom Collection and    the Heidi Swapp Hello Beautiful Washi Shapes Booklet to decorate the pages of this week's layout.
• I stamped the Stay Cozy planner gal and sentiment on the layout with Memories India Black ink . My favorite PITT Artist pens and glitter pens were used to color the image.

My KikkiK Planner

I'm excited to see what my fellow bloggers have come up with for this post. Coffee images are some of my favorites and it was fun using them on this planner layout. Celeste's project can be found at Crafting Junky. I hope you will take a look at each of our creations, comment and follow our blogs if you don't already. Paula can be found at Scrap Addict's Attic.

This week's coffee is Pecan Praline and I am drinking it in my new favorite mug !! My friend Dana got it for me when she visited Canada and I will be sending her one from Virginia.  Thank you, Dana for enabling my mug obsession !!

Thank you once again for visiting Meticulosity.

Debra Davison

January Cookies - Take 2

It's time for Cookie Challenge #86 over at If You Give A Crafter A Cookie and this time we are celebrating birthdays ! Our sponsor for this challenge is Imagine That Digistamp. I hope you will think about joining us in this challenge that is open for 2 weeks beginning Jan. 25. 

Cookie Challenge #86

I couldn't resist using my latest digi-stamps from  Vera Lane Studio. I am a true coffee fanatic and couldn't resist pairing up this fabulous coffee cup with a cute cake image.  I love stamping on patterned paper and realized I can do the same with digi-stamps just by cutting my paper to fit the printer ! Take a look at what I came up with and you can also find my teammate's designs over at the challenge blog.

• I printed the cake image and sentiment from the Cake Sketches set and the cup from Coffee Cup Collection - both from Vera Lane Studio. The paper was from my patterned-paper scrap drawer. I am trying not to buy so much paper and also to use up what I do have, including scraps !!
• The card base is from the Lucky Charm Boxed-Card Collection by American Crafts. I love these card bases. They have the best patterns and I can get them at a discount at my local Tuesday Morning. There are 40 envelopes/cards per box. 
• I fussy-cut the images and also an extra scalloped border & cup bottom. Portions of the images were colored with my favorite Faber-Castell PITT Artist pens. 
• Ranger Distress Glitter in Brushed Corduroy was adhered to the top of the cup to make coffee .
• The cake was popped up with Tombow Foam Tabs. All other images were adhered using Tombow Adhesives - both MONO Aqua Liquid and a MONO Permanent Adhesive runner. 
• A few colorful sequins were placed around the card base and on the sentiment.  

I'm enjoying being on this team and working more with digi-stamps. It's out of my comfort zone and I like that !! Remember that we have 2 challenges a month over at If You Give a Crafter a Cookie and they are based on the coolest cookie pictures for your inspiration !! Please leave me a comment and let me know how you like my latest card. Are you a fan of digi-stamps ?? I'd love you to link up a birthday project ( digi or regular or anything goes ) on the challenge page.  A big THANK YOU to Imagine That Digistamp for sponsoring this challenge.And once again, I appreciate you visiting me at Meticulosity ..

Debra Davison / Meticulosity

January Cookies - Take 1

I am so excited to be a new member of the Design Team for If You Give a Crafter a Cookie. They began in 2014 and have 2 challenges each month. Each challenge is based on a picture of cookies, which intrigued me right away !! I hope that some of my creative friends will link a project up to their blog. There are prizes each month from some great sponsors !!  Here is the picture for Cookie Challenge #85, which runs from Jan. 11-24. I hope you like what I've come up with and also take a look at what my team-mates created.

Cookie Challenge #85

We were just in the path of Winter Storm Grayson, so I wanted to make a bright, cheery card. I got out my new Distress Crayons and a fun Unity stamp and this is what I came up with !!

• I stamped Lauren from Unity Stamp Company twice; once on Neenah Stardust White Cardstock and once on a piece of word-patterned paper with my favorite Memories India Black Ink.
• The shirt, pants and flower/leaves were then fussy-cut separately from the word-patterned  image.
• I then colored these fussy-cut flower/leaves and pants with Distress Crayons. The color was applied to each piece, then blended with my finger, adding more color as needed. This was SO much fun to do -- now I need more colors !!
• The intact stamped image of the girl was colored with a combo of my favorite Distress Markers and Faber-Castell PITT Artist Pens and some glitter pens; then adhered to a bright green card base at an angle.
• Tombow MONO Aqua Liquid Glue was used to adhere the pants, shirt and flower/leaves to the Lauren image, 
• THANKS was applied with some Prima Marketing canvas letters from my stash. See, it pays to buy those letters at Tuesday Morning even when you don't have a clue what you will be doing with them  !!
• A strip of grass washi was placed along the bottom of the stamped image.
• I have to give a shout-out to Echo Noble, an amazing stamper/papercrafter who  inspired ths card . I saw her video using this Distress Crayons technique with this stamp and I was hooked !!

Thank you for  visiting Meticulosity and taking a look at my first Cookie Challenge !!  I hope that some of you will link up a fun THANK YOU project -- each Challenge runs for 2 weeks. The prize for this Challenge will be a ribbon sampler to use in your future creations.  I'm excited to be on this team and can't wait for Challenge # 86.

Debra Davison / Meticulosity,blogspot.com