Christmas in July with APC

I have always loved Christmas & crafty Christmas supplies are no exception !! It's never too early to start on Christmas cards, so I am bringing you some early holiday cheer with my first cards as a member of the Design Team for Anthony's Paper Craft. I hope my cards will inspire you to check out Anthony's wonderful collection of stamps. My first 2 cards have a vintage look and combine some favorite APC stamps with a much-loved ( and hoarded ) Tim Holtz paper pad !!

• On a scrap piece of text paper, I stamped 4 ornament images from the Anthony's Paper Craft stamp set Ornament Set 1 with Memories India Black Ink. 
• I also stamped the ornaments on 2 card-sized pieces of very pale pink paper from the Tim Holtz Holidays Past paper pad . I positioned the ornaments side by side/ one a bit lower than the other,  leaving room at the top and bottom of the paper for my sentiment and banners.
• Using StazOn Midi Ink Pads in Emerald City, St. Valentine, Blue Hawaii and Jet Black, I stamped the 4 scenes from Ornament Set 2 onto the 4 text ornaments and then fussy-cut  ONLY the ornaments ( not the ornament top or bow ).
• The sentiments - also by Anthony's Paper Craft  - were stamped on a green piece of paper, also from the Holidays Past paper pad, using Emerald City StazOn. They were then cut to fit on the cards.
• I made several long and short banner flags for the cards. The smaller ones were made with a paper punch and the larger ones were cut by me to fit the spaces.
• I colored the ornament tops and bows with some Brea Reese and Tim Holtz Distress markers.
• All elements were adhered using a combination of Tombow adhesives - MONO Adhesive+ runner, MONO Aqua Liquid Glue and Foam Tabs. The foam tabs were used to pop up the sentiments. 
• The text ornaments were adhered over the stamped images on the background paper. Short banners were placed at the top left of each card and a longer banner at the bottom left. The sentiments were each placed at the top right.
• A piece of Maya Road "Sweet Candy" twine was tied around the top of the banner on the Seasons Greetings card. 
• On a ledger card base from DCWV Vintage Collector, I adhered the  Seasons Greetings card and the Happy Holidays card is on a white base. 

I love the vintage look of these cards and the stamps by Anthony's Paper Craft were perfect. I'm excited to be a part of this Design Team and can't wait to show you more Christmas in July projects throughout the month !! Anthony will be in my area in October for a stamp show and I look forward to meeting him in person. I will give you more information about that in another post. I might even be teaching a Make & Take at the show !! Thank you to Anthony for giving me this opportunity to work with his stamps . I look forward to working with all of the other DT members. Shout-out to Michael Trent who introduced me to Anthony's Paper Craft. He is also on the APC DT and can be found at World of Michael Trent . 

Debra Davison / Meticulosity

Coffee & Cards with Deb & Celeste 4/29

Celeste and I are back for our blog collaboration and this month our guest is Maria Giselle. She is a friend of Celeste's and blogs at Maria Giselle's Creative Cuts. They met at a Copic Certification class a few years ago. Celeste chose our inspiration for this month and I'm excited to see what they both created !!

When I think of Spring, I think of sunshine and flowers and bright colors. I knew exactly what I wanted to use for my project - several digital designs from Vera Lane Studio.  I've seen amazing projects made with these digis and was excited to try one for myself !! Vera Lane Studio has an amazing collection of digi stamps and collage sheets. You really should check them out !!

• I started by printing these -  Circles and Stems collage sheet, Little Houses collage Sheet and Mayke's Markers digi girl - on my favorite Stardust White cardstock.
• The collage sheets are already colored so I just fussy-cut the elements I needed.
• I colored the girl with a variety of my favorite markers and then fussy-cut her out. Faber-Castell PITT Artist pens and Tim Holtz Distress Markers are my go-to markers !!
• Painted With Love paper from Stampin' Up was adhered to a bright pink cardstock base.
• Tombow MONO Aqua Liquid Glue was used to adhere all of the elements to the background paper, except for the girl, 
• She was popped up using Tombow Foam Tabs. 
• I dipped a pencil eraser into my  turquoise ink and used that to color her eyes. 
• A Wink of Stella Glitter Clear Brush Marker added some shimmer to her hair and lips. Dpn't you just love her heart-shaped mouth ??
• I printed " Spring At Last " from my computer onto cardstock, cut out the words and adhered them to the card to finish this project.

I hope you like my bright, sunshiney Spring card. You can check out Celeste's at Crafting Junky and our guest's at Maria Giselle's Creative Cuts. Leave us a comment and follow us if you don't already.

Today's coffee choice for me is Pecan Praline from Community Coffee. They have amazing coffee and the best flavors !! My cup is one I've had for years with a design of North Carolina lighthouses.  We are very close to the NC border and my guy, Brian is from NC. I actually had been storing brushes and markers in the cup but decided to use it for coffee !!

Thank you for visiting Meticulosity. Celeste and I hope to see you again next month for our May collaboration. May is the 4th anniversary of my blog and I will be having giveaways each week so be sure to follow me to check that out. 

Debra Davison / Meticulosity

Time For Tea / #fall2017clh

Well, the Coffee Lovers Blog Hop is in full swing with close to 700 links already !! Today I've created a Tea card because I think I might just like tea as much as I like coffee. Have you tried the new Pumpkin Spice Chai Tea Latte at Starbucks yet ?? Might just have to do that soon .. I'm playing with more Rubber Moon stamps today . I used Corner Sun, Checkered Moon, and Lou Moon. 

Rubber Moon is a new sponsor for the Blog Hop with a prize of a $20 gift certificate.  I am also having a giveaway for those who comment on each of my cards throughout this Hop !! So far, I have linked 3, # 108 and # 357 and # 697.

• On a Moss Green card base, I adhered a piece of  Ki Memories "Vintage Charm"  paper. I  think I went with a quirky vintage feel for this card. I love mixing different paper patterns and this card is no exception.
• Memento Tuxedo Black Ink was used to stamp all 3 images mentioned above.  I stamped on my go-to favorite, Neenah Stardust White and also on Strathmore Mixed Media. The Corner Sun and Checkered Moon were also stamped on several patterns of Pumpkin Spice Paper by Craft Smith, fussy cut and used to make the paper-pieced images. 
• I die cut those cute tea cups and tea bag with the Sizzix Tea Cups Dies. Again, I used that fabulous Craft Smith "Pumpkin Spice" paper pad.
• My Distress Markers and Faber-Castell PITT Artist Pens added Autumn colors to my images. 
• I assembled the card using Tombow Adhesive - both the Permanent Tape Runner and MONO Aqua Liquid Glue. A piece of Turquoise Scrappy Floss was used on the tea bag and attached with a tiny staple. 
• The Corner Sun was paper-pieced and adhered to the upper L side of the card. Checkered Moon was paper-pieced and adhered to the lower tea cup.The cups were then stacked and adhered to the background paper. 
• Recollections Wood-Grain letters spelled out TEA next to the sun and some Fall-colored sequins created seam coming out of my cup. I think it just might be that Pumpkin Spice Chai Tea Latte that I want to try !!
• Can't forget some shimmer on the fun sun and moon designs with a ZIG Wink of Stella Clear Glitter Brush.

Again, thank you so much for visiting Meticulosity and validating my creative spirit !!  I hope you are finding some inspiration here and in all the great links over at the Fall Coffee Lovers Blog Hop. Comment on all of my posts for this Hop and you could win this new stamp by Rubber Moon. A  Java Girl -- how perfect !!

Deb Davison

Meticulosity.blogspot.com

Yawning & Screaming / #fall2017clh

It's that time of year again.. The leaves change color, it gets chilly at night, sweaters are worn and Pumpkin Spice is back !! And another reason to love this time of year is the Fall Coffee Lovers Blog Hop.It's time for coffee, tea, and cocoa lovers to link up their Fall-themed creations and be inspired by the massive amounts of creativity .. Also to be enabled to buy all of the new fun coffee stamps recently released .. AND for a chance at some amazing prizes from tons of sponsors.. It's a win-win situation, if you ask me !!

A new sponsor this year is Rubber Moon and I'll be playing with many of their stamps throughout the Hop .. Since this time of year also involves Halloween, I thought that for my first card I would use this fun Sugar Doddy stamp. You can create a coffee card even if you don't have many - or any - coffee stamps .  ( But to be completely honest, we all know that I don't have THAT problem )

• On a brown glittered base, I adhered paper from the Pumpkin Spice Paper Pad from Craft Smith, using a Tombow MONO Adhesive Permanent tape runner . 
• I die-cut a coffee-cup image from the Sizzix Pumpkin Spice Collection using a scrap of fall-themed DCWV Four Seasons paper.
• The Sugar Doddy image was stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black ink, colored with fall-colored Distress Markers and Faber-Castell PITT Artist pens, then fussy cut.
• I adhered the cup to the background paper in the Right lower corner, then popped up the skull on the cup with foam dimensionals.
• Using my Pink DYMO Caption Maker, I printed my sentiment, then cut it and adhered it to the card.
• Several gold rhinestones were placed on the center of the flowers. Glossy Accents was applied to the teeth and eyes of the skull to brighten those areas.

Thank you for visiting Meticulosity .. Please take a moment to sign up and follow my blog. I will be posting a few more cards during the Hop. If you comment on all of my 2017 Fall blog hop posts , you have a chance to win a  fun new limited edition Rubber Moon stamp, Java Girl. How perfect is she ?!?!?!

Relax with some coffee, tea or cocoa and check out all of the #fall2017clh links !!

Debra Davison

Meticulosity.blogspot.com

Christmas in July - GIU Day 5

For those of you who know me well, my love of ALL things Christmas is no secret. Patterned paper, stamps, washi, embellishments. You name it and I love it !! So I couldn't let my last GIU day pass by without a holiday card. And because I can be a bit quirky at times, it's not a traditional red & green card.  

Ever since I saw the Imagine Only stamp by Angie Blom, I have thought of making a holiday card with it.  This has been a fabulous GIU week for me and all of you are the reason why !! I could never thank you enough for all of your visits to Meticulosity and also your comments. They made me excited for each of my 5 posts !!

• Once again, I stamped on patterned paper - this time, I used Crate Paper's Peppermint collection. I cut the paper  to include the pretty scalloped border. I also stamped the image again on a doily-patterned piece of Peppermint collection paper and fussy-cut the headband and dress . All images were stamped with Memories India Black ink.
• The image was colored with my favorite Distress markers and Faber-Castell PITT Artist pens . A Zig Wink of Stella Clear Glitter Brush pen added a bit of shimmer. A silver glitter pen by Kaiser gave her eyelashes a little "pop"..
• A bit of fine glitter was added to the areas around the girl. To me, Christmas + card-making = glitter  ( to the horror of my guy, who ends up wearing it most days !! )  
• I placed a variety of washi across the bottom of the of the card. The teal washi strip under the girl is from My Mind's Eye, the snowflake washi with a hint of red is by Docrafts and the last 2 snowflake washi are from Recollections @ Michaels.
• I just couldn't find  the perfect saying for this card so I decided to use a die-cut from the Graphic 45 "Christmas Past" collection. I adhered it to a piece of slightly larger silver glitter paper.
• I adhered paper and elements with Tombow adhesive - the permanent adhesive runner for larger areas and the MONO Aqua Liquid adhesive for smaller areas. 
• AND because it is a holiday card especially, I could not say enough was enough. Soooooooo, I added a few Basic Grey Opaline half-pearls along the top scalloped border. 

It's hard to believe my week is at an end. Please comment on each post this week for a chance for 2 lucky winners to receive a grab bag of 25 Unity stamps. Winners will be chosen at random.  Comment by midnight EST on Sunday, July 30. I hope you will continue to support all of the GIU girls. There will be 2 more next week who will share their creativity with us. And again, a big thank-you to Unity Stamp Company for allowing me to be a GIU gal !! I hope all of you were inspired and  I would love to see what you create with your fabulous Unity stamps. 

Thank you for visiting Meticulosity.

Debra Davison

Succulent Salutations - GIU Day 2

For my Growing in Unity Day 2, I am using the sentiment kit Succulent Salutations . This is a fabulous kit that includes 18 stamps. I am not a gardener so this set is as close as I will be getting to having a plant. I love to fussy cut and paper-piece - this card is perfect for that.

" just take it one day at a time "

• I started with a Molly & Rex card base,  A pink doily was placed in the upper left corner of the card and trimmed to fit.  
• The succulents, sentiment and bird were stamped with Memories Black India ink -  I stamped the succulents several times on both Neenah Stardust White cardstock and patterned paper . The patterned paper was from 2 Prima pads - Hello Pastel and Life Time. 
• I fussy cut the planters and 2 of the succulents, then adhered them to the image stamped on the cardstock.
• Distress Markers were used to color  several sections of the succulents.
• The sentiment was paper-punched then stapled to another paper-punched square of patterned paper.
• A strip of glitter washi was placed along the bottom of the succulent image, then this mage was adhered to the bottom right corner of the card. 
• A fussy cut bird was adhered to the top of the sentiment. 

Please comment on this post. I will randomly choose 2 winners to win 25 Unity stamps at the end of my GIU week. Thank you for taking the time to visit Meticulosity. 

Signs of Spring

I made a card for my Skipping Stones Design Team March post and loved it so much that I decided to make a set. I do not like to make the same card over and over with the exact same papers etc., so this is a variation on that initial theme. For me, Spring days are full of birds chirping, flowers blooming and of course, coffee drinking. Lately I have been enjoying the lovely pastel cups at Starbucks. 

Today is also the last day of the Spring Coffee Lovers Blog Hop and I will be linking this card there. If you are in need of some inspiration and love coffee ( or tea or hot cocoa ) , please check out the Blog Hop. There are over 1000 link-ups this time -- an amazing record !! Shout-out to Amy Tsuruta and Chaitali Narla for coming up with the idea for this fabulous Hop back in Sept.2014.

• Using  Memories Black India Ink, I stamped the cup from  Skipping Stones Design Coffee Volume #2 and the sentiment from Best of Birds on white cardstock and cut them our. I also stamped the cup on a piece of  Crate Paper "Farmhouse" and cut out the sleeve portion.
• On a piece of polka-dotted patterned paper from We R Memory Keepers "Flower Girl" collection, I stamped the bird from SSD Heartsong 2 in the lower right corner and the music notes from  SSD Best of Birds above where the coffee cup would be placed.
• Portions of the bird and the top of the coffee cup were colored with Tim Holtz Distress Markers and Faber Castell PITT Artist Pens. A hint of shimmer was made using Wink of Stella Clear Brush Pen.
• I adhered the sleeve to the cup, then placed it on the left side of the patterned paper, underneath the steamy music notes. I was quite proud of thinking of that idea !! A paper-punched heart  ( using Pink Paislee "Memorandum" ) was adhered above the bird with the sentiment popped up on top with foam dimensionals.
• For some cute finishing touches, I added a bright green glitter heart to the coffee-cup sleeve and a strip of grass washi along the bottom of the patterned paper. 

I hope you've been inspired by my card. It's a dreary.rainy day here in Virginia Beach,VA, but any day off work is lovely to me !!  Stay creative and have a wonderful weekend !!

Debra Davison/ Meticulosity

Heartsong 2

Best of Birds

Coffee 2

Let Your Dreams Bloom

Another installment of our blog collaboration is here and I guess you could say that we have gone International. Our March guest is my friend, Liz McGuire from Glasgow,Scotland. She is amazingly talented and has been on many Design Teams as well as being published in numerous paper-crafting magazines. We wanted Liz to choose our theme for this month's posts and she came up with this Inspiration Board. Don't you just love these colors, especially with Spring right around the corner ?!?!

As soon as I saw this, I immediately thought of a stamp set that I have had for awhile but have not gotten inky yet. I'm sure you have some of those in your stash,don't you ? I had fun paper-piecing on this card - one of the techniques that I love using, It allows me to combine 2 of my loves - stamps & patterned paper !!

• I started off with a patterned card base by My Mind's Eye that was a perfect color for this challenge. I kind of have a "thing" for boxes of patterned cards. 
• I stamped the succulents and sentiment from the Unity Stamp Company stamp kit Succulent Salutations, which was their June 2016 sentiment kit. It is an amazing kit with the main image, 14 sentiments, a flower and 2 cute birds. My ink pad was  Memories Black India Ink.
• The images/sentiment were stamped on Stardust cardstock and several pieces of scrap patterned paper that were luckily in the colors from this month's Inspiration Board. See, it helps to keep those scraps !! At least, that is what I have been telling myself all these years ...
• A yellow doily was folded and placed in the upper L corner. The sentiment was stamped, then punched out with my ever-faithful square paper-punch. I then stapled it to a contrasting square of patterned paper and attached it to the doily with a Pop-Up Glue Dot.
• On the main image of succulents, I paper-pieced the R and L vases and the middle succulent. I then colored the remaining areas with my Tim Holtz Distres Markers. For some shimmer, I used a Wink of Stella Clear Glitter Brush Pen. 
• A strip of glitter washi was placed at the bottom of the image as a shelf for the succulents. Tombow Adhesive was used to adhere the stamped images, paper-pieces and doily onto the card.

This month's card has been brought to you by an amazing cup of Jamaica Me Crazy coffee in my wonderfully colorful mag. I hope that you are inspired by our Inspiration Board chosen by Liz and that you liked the card I created. Now it's time for you to head over to  Crafting Junky to see what Celeste came up with. I hope you will also take a look at Liz's blog  Buttons for Brains - I am sure that she has outdone herself !! We welcome your comments on each of our blogs and also invite you to follow each of us. Thank you SO much to Liz for helping us broaden our horizons and taking this collaboration to another level !!

This is where I blog ....

Succulent Salutations

Debra Davison

Meticulosity.blogspot.com

Skip {ping} into Fall

Welcome to my second official Blog Hop as a Stamp Tramp for the fabulous Skipping Stones Design. As we enjoy our Fall weather here in Virginia Beach,  the scariest thing on our minds is NOT that Halloween is approaching --- it is Hurricane Matthew !! Hoping our area fares well, along with everyone in the path.. My project for today's Hop uses a sentiment & the doodled bird image from the Best of Birds stamp set. Take a look at all of the wonderful supplies available at the  Skipping Stones Store.This stamp set  is great for any season but today, I used rich Fall colors.  You might have gotten here from Jessie's blog; but just in case you haven't, the line-up is listed at the bottom of this post .. As you can see, I used an embroidery hoop to create a scene for a friend. I was an avid counted cross-stitch fanatic in the past and have many hoops and tons of fabric, so I enjoy putting them to good use in my stamping life..

• I first placed some linen fabric in a wooden hoop. If you do not have fabric, you can always use paper cut to the size of the hoop and glued to the outside rim.  The sentiment was stamped on white cardstock using Memories Black India Ink and then the background was colored using a foam applicator and a Tim Holtz Wild Honey Distress Ink Pad . I adhered the sentiment to the larger piece of fabric and then that piece to the fabric in the hoop.
• I fussy-cut 4 of the doodled birds and color-blocked 3 with Distress Inks. The 4th was colored using a combination of Distress Markers and Stabilo pens. They were then attached to the fabric in the hoop using large Glue Dots.
• Along the top of the sentiment, I alternated used 3 Prima flowers and 2 square Making Memories Crystal brads. A round brad from Making Memories completed the project at the bottom of the hoop.

There will be a giveaway of a stamp set of your choice to one lucky person. All you have to do is comment on each member's post and subscribe to each of our blogs. I hope that you enjoy all of our projects for this Hop !!

Here is the order of our Hop :

• Skipping Stones Design
• Cornelia
• Jessie
• Debra   YOU ARE HERE
• Martha
• Tanja

Thank you for visiting Meticulosity
and for hopping with all of the Stamp Tramps from SSD.

Paint Your Own Rainbows

Imagine my excitement when I submitted an application to work with Susan K. Weckesser's Creative Team and was asked to join her for a 6 month term starting in July. I have been a fan of Susan's work and absolutely love  her co-branded stamp line with Unity Stamp Company!!

Tonight Unity is releasing 2 new sets of Susan's designs for their 4th of July Sale and I couldn't wait to create something with the Unicorn & Rainbows stamps. There is also a cute set  with an owl and a fox called Going Wild.

I used a piece of an older Stampin' Up paper pad, cut out the elements of Unicorns & Rainbows and mounted them on the background paper. I colored the images with Faber-Castell PITT Artist Pens and Tim Holtz Distress Markers. I traced the sentiment onto a piece of confetti vellum and attached it with some bronze staples. My favorite Grass washi by Scotch was placed at the bottom edge of my card and enamel hearts by Chickaniddy Crafts were placed on the tree.

I plan on painting my own rainbow as a member of Susan's Creative Team by creating what I love, exploring new techniques and learning from the many talented members of the team.Thanks for joining me on my creative journey!!

Coffee First - Spring 2016 Coffee Lovers Blog Hop

With Spring here, it was time to join in on the Spring Coffee Lovers Blog Hop. A celebration of all things Coffee, Tea & Cocoa; many amazingly talented papercrafters linking their projects up from Maarch 18 - March 25. There are some fabulous sponsors and prizes to be given away. I hope that you will check out everyone's hard work on their website ..

The theme is Spring so I started with some springy floral paper...And my morning motto which is "Coffee First"....

Supplies :

Sweet Stamp Shop "Coffee Town"

Paper House "Blossom"  paper pad

Double Click Skittles - Stream & Cranberry

 Tim Holtz Distress Markers

Butterflies punched from undeveloped x-ray film

I had fun making this card and hope you like it too... I am using my un-developed x-ray film in many projects these days. Thanks to my time working in the ICU !! I think they make the cutest butterflies and were perfect for this card. Comment here for a chance to win some of these butterflies aloa few other spring goodies ...

Thank you for checking out my first blog post of 2016 ...  I don't know where the time has gone.. I will be better at posting more frequently and hope you will continue to visit and comment.

Color Your Stress Away

The gals at Mountain Plains Crafters never need a reason to color but with National Coloring Book Day being celebrated on August 2, we decided to share our ceations with you. Check out our blog HERE to see all of our projects.

There has been much in the news lately about the benefits of coloring.. I think that creative people have known this all along !! I have been coloring since childhood and still to this day, you can find me coloring at a local coffee shop or on my lunch break at work..

For these coloring projects , I used Adornit's Hello & Love You ArtPlay Paintables. These are fun designs by Lindsay Waltman-Ostrom, printed on amazing watercolor paper that can be used with your favorite markers, colored pencils etc..

Supplies for these 2 Art Play projects were : Faber Castell PITT Artist pens, Tim Holtz Ranger Distress markers, Wink of Stella Brush in Clear Glitter, Stabilo pens & We R Memory Keepers Sequin Stickers. I also used some Yasutomo metallic watercolors for the green on the shirt.. It is SO shimmery !!!

Image from "HELLO" Paintables

Image from "LOVE YOU" Paintable

And last, I have been coloring my Starbucks cup... The design was the winning entry in their White Cup contest.. They are on sale at Starbucks ans I could not help adding some color to the all black/white design ... I suggest you get one today along with a coloring book or 2 and start coloring !!!