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!!

2016 GIU Week Winners

The winners chosen at random to win some fabulous Unity stamps for commenting all week on my blog posts are  ---

Meg Crawford

&

Kathie Longbricco

Please PM or e-mail me your addresses so we can get your prize sent to each of you ! You have 2 weeks to send me the info.. Thanks so much to everyone who visited Meticulosity and followed my posts throughout the week..

I  also picked 2 commenters to send a bit of blog candy to. 

Jan Vint & Shelley Miscavitch-Lange

2016 Coffee Lovers Blog Hop

I am a coffee gal with no coffee maker !! My Keurig no longer works -- probably from over-use.. Time for a new one.. So lately I have been drinking more tea.. But I knew I had to make a Coffee card for this Blog Hop. My week has been busy as the Growing in Unity Girl with Unity Stamp Company and one of my projects was a coffee card.. For today's Blog Hop card, I again used Faber-Castell Whipped Spackle and some Donna Salazar Fairy Dust "Spun Sugar" Glitter on a Prima Mixed-Media tag.. The stencil is Wall Flowers by Claudine Hellmuth Studio.

I stamped  Kimmie Girl and fussy-cut her .. I still haven't bought one of those fancy machines that cuts out stamped images and will hold off as long as I can.. I actually enjoy fussy-cutting !! I then paper-pieced her jeans and the heart on her shirt.. She was colored with Faber-Castell PITT Artist pens and Light Flesh Big Brush Pen ( my go-to pen for flesh-tone ). I added some Scotch washi tape in Grass to the bottom of the tag and at the top I used some Stampin' Up Quilted ribbon in Early Espresso and Cherry Cobbler.. The sentiment is from Unity Stamp Company KOM 6/14.. I hope you like my tag for the Hop..

Thanks to Amy for hosting again and to all 57 Super Sponsors for their support AND prizes !! I'll be offering blog candy to someone who comments on this post and tells me their favorite coffee maker / machine.. Hope to be able to post again but at least wanted to get one finished over the weekend..

Happy Coffee-Blog Hopping

I'm a Happy Planner - GIU Day 5

I'm sure you all have heard about the planner craze. Erin Condren, Kikki K, Webster's Pages, Happy Planners -- there are so many great ones to choose from !! I typically would keep a small calendar in my purse and enter my work schedule in my phone. But I wanted to try my hand at planner decorating and actually bought  2 during great sales. I have a Webster's Pages Personal Planner and a MAMBI Happy Planner . For my last GIU project, I did a layout for June in my Happy Planner. I am new at this and still have "white space" or empty places showing on my layouts. I have seen beautiful pages decorated from top to bottom, completely covered. Not sure if that is for me but I will try it one month !!

Of course, I had to choose the perfect stamp sets for the June layout. I chose Bunny Hugs and Journal Doodles with a Heart which are both designed by Susan K. Weckesser. From Bunny Hugs, I used the mushroom stamp and the others were all from Doodles with a Heart. I used a Black India Ink stamp pad and stamped directly on the planner. I used the small flower stamp to designate days that I work. The Strong ME stamps are placed on 6/29, which is when I had my first surgery for thyroid cancer last year. It's hard to believe so much time has passed and I wanted a reminder in writing of just how STRONG I am !! 6/30/2001 is the anniversary of the date I met my significant other. Brian and I have been together 15 years. The butterfly in the Notes section is colored in the Thyroid Cancer colors -- pink, purple and teal.  I used a Heidi Swapp puffy sticker to designate my LUCKY week as the GIU girl and several MAMBI Happy Planner stickers & Sticky notes to finish the pages. It's nice that I can use many of my card-making supplies in my planner layouts. The Susan Weckesser stamp sets I used were the perfect sizes for my planner.. I can't wait to try some of her small houses on future planner layouts !!

I had a wonderful GIU week and want to thank everyone who has read my posts, visited my blog and commented. It means so much to me that you all would take the time to do that. Winners of the Unity stamps and my blog candy will be announced next week..


                                                           Thank you so much again !!

A Full Mug - GIU Day 4

The June 2014 Kit of the Month is called -- "In Love with Love"-- and I am definitely in love with all 18 stamps !! It's no secret that I also love coffee so I chose the Full Mug sentiment and image for today's card.

I stamped the mug's image twice then colored some of the mugs and cut them out to layer on top of the image that I had stamped on patterned paper. I used some Faber-Castell Whipped Spackle and a Tim Holtz Doily stencil on the right side of the patterned cardstock by Momenta. I sprinkled some Donna Salazar "Sugar Shimmer" Fairy Dust Glitter  over the wet spackle. The border at the top of the card and the red and yellow flowers were cut out from an old calendar. I used some Tim Holtz washi at the top of the border. I then stamped the saying on the left side of the card. Maya Road Twine Cording in Sweet Candy complete the card. 

A Full Mug Makes Everything Better

Whipped Spackle with Glitter, Paper-pieced Mugs

I have been loving playing with embossing pastes and the whipped spackle that I used on this card.Textures and layers always seem to add so much to a project. I have many stencils that I can't wait to play with. Once again, thank you for visiting Meticulosity. I always welcome your comments and it inspires me to try new techniques and perfect others. 

Please comment -- you could win a prize of some fantastic Unity stamps. I will pick 2 winners at random who have commented on all 5 of my blog posts this week. 

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Take Note - GIU Day 3

It's hard to believe that it is my GIU Day 3 already. I hope you have liked my projects and left comments for a chance to win some Unity stamps !!  Excited to be featured on the Unity Stamp Company blog today .. The stamp I used on this card is from one of my  favorite kits -- Everything Stronger -- and has sentiments for sympathy and support. I was diagnosed with Thyroid Cancer last year and my summer/fall was spent having surgeries and treatments. It was not a fun time but I stayed positive ( most of the time ) and spent alot of time making cards to support friends who were going through their own challenges. I fell in love with this kit when I saw it and I hope you do too.. 

I used a card base by Heidi Swapp , placed a doily behind the stamped image and added some rhinestones along the Right side edge. I colored with Faber-Castell Pitt Pens and Staedtler markers. 

 

Just some trivia about this stamp... The 2004 song "Beautiful Soul" by Jesse McCartney is one of my favorites so when I saw the Everything Stronger stamp set, it reminded me of that song.  Fast forward to 2016 and another favorite of mine, the TV show Fear the Walking Dead. Imagine my surprise when I realized that a 12 years older Jesse McCartney had played Reed, one nasty bad guy,  on the series. Great storyline for him...And it reminded me of this stamp set.. So, that was how this card was born !!  Thanks for indulging my love of trivia !!

Thanks to all who have been leaving comments ! I will choose 2 winners at random to win 25 stamps from Unity from those of you who comment on all 5 blog posts.  I will also send some blog candy to 2 others who comment..

Stick With Me - GIU Day 2

 When you are making a project, do you know when to say "enough is enough" ?? I have a habit of always thinking I need to add just one more element - glitter, a die-cut, some washi. I also like to mix different patterns and embellishments. So this card for GIU Day 2 has stripes, polka-dots, floral, sequins, a doily, a journaling card, a stamped image and some Wink of Stella !!

This card started out with a polka-dot card base by Pebbles and a MAMBI Journaling card .I have been wanting to use the Stick With Me stamp by Unity because I have an obsession with washi and this stamp is perfect to use with my endless washi collection. I had also just gotten some amazing new  Hobby Lobby Paper Studio washi from a friend so the timing was right !! For the main card, I stamped the image twice and cut the washi tape images out from one and used dimensionals to adhere them to the other image. It was fun matching the colors of the card base and the Recollections Color Splash doily with the journaling card and sequins..

Stick With Me

Steampunk Kitty & Succulents washi from Hobby Lobby Paper Studio

Thanks for checking out my Day 2 GIU blog post. I hope you've gotten some ideas from me. Please leave a comment each day -- you just might win some Unity stamps. See you tomorrow !!

Comfort - Growing in Unity Day 1

I will be posting a project Monday through Friday this week as the Growing in Unity Girl for the amazing Unity Stamp Company . This is my second time as GIU girl and the hardest part is deciding which stamps to use -- there are SO many wonderful designs to choose from !! 

I have always loved retro designs and when I found those cookbook page flags, I knew that they would make their way onto a card one day. I knew that they would work perfectly with the stamp Bowl-Full of Comfort . I used Distress Markers and  Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Pens to color the bowls then applied a few layers of Clear Rock Candy Distress Crackle Paint . It's difficult to see but there is a crackly translucent look to the bowls. I placed the bowls on an American Crafts Wood-grain journaling card, then used Sizzix Scallops dies to make the left-hand border. I then placed the page flags along the side of the card , added a few rhinestones and a sentiment and the card is complete !!

Sending Comfort by the Bowl-Full

Retro Kitchen Page Flags

Comment each day on my blog posts this week and you just might win a prize of 25 Unity Stamps. I will choose 2 winners at random .  I will also be sending some blog candy to 2 others. Thank you SO much for visiting Meticulosity. I hope you will visit each day and check out my projects !