Coffee & Cards with Deb & Celeste 7/30

Celeste & I are back for our collaboration and our theme this month is summery / nautical. It's been crazy hot here in Virginia Beach lately and now that it is finally cooling off, it's been raining non-stop !! We don't have a guest this month  ( taking a summer hiatus ) but will be inviting fellow bloggers to join us again in September.

I have posted every day this week as the Growing in Unity girl with Unity Stamp Company, so I have been on creative overload. My card this week uses stamps from a British magazine - Creative Stamping. I searched bookstores near me and finally ordered the magazine from a shop in Britain. I wasn't disappointed - these stamps are incredible. I also used my new Tim Holtz Stamping Platform to do the stamping for this card and really loved it .. This pirate caught my eye and I had to make today's card with it !!

• On a turquoise ombre' card base, I adhered the AHOY/anchor panel from the DCWV "Hey Sailor" stack, using a Tombow MONO adhesive runner.
• I stamped the pirate image and sentiment on Strathmore Watercolor paper and the porthole image on a piece of blue woodgrain paper from Paper Studio at Hobby Lobby. Memories India Black ink was used to stamp all images. 
• The porthole was fussy-cut, including the opening in the center. I trimmed the pirate image to fit behind the porthole. The sentiment was cut with a square punch.
• The pirate was colored with Distress Markers & Faber-Castell PITT Artist pens. My Wink of Stella Clear Glitter Brush Pen added some highlights to the pirate's beard and tattoo. 
• I adhered the pirate behind the porthole with Tombow MONO Liquid Glue and then the that completed mage to the upper area of the AHOY panel. 
• A strip of gold glitter washi was placed across the top of the sentiment, which was then popped up with foam dimensionals onto the left side of the porthole. 

 Creative Stamping Issue 43

Sea View Collection by Sheena Douglass

My coffee today is being served in a small Starbucks cup that I found on clearance after the holidays last year. I've been making iced coffee and keeping it in my fridge lately. I'm drinking Iced Caramel Custard coffee with Sweet Cream creamer . I sometimes waste more coffee than I drink so this small cup is perfect for me !!

Please check out Celeste's card at Crafting Junky to see what she came up with this month. We hope you will sign up to follow our blogs. Have a great Sunday and Happy Stamping !!

Debra Davison / Meticulosity

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

My Planner Gals - GIU Day 4

Thank you all so much for visiting my blog for my first 3 GIU posts. For Day 4, I decided to let you all take a peek into my Happy Planner for this week.  I sometimes think that my planner is way more organized than I am, but I do have fun decorating the pages !! Does anyone else feel that way ?? 

I absolutely fell in love with the new Planner Gals by Angie Blom. Now that I have purchased these, they have also come out with short-haired Gals . ( There might be another Unity purchase in my future !! )

• Planner gals and their sentiments were stamped with Memories Black India ink. I used two of the gals - Be a Beauty & Don't Be Perfect. I stamped the images on blank planner pages from previous months, the cut them and adhered them to the pages for this week.
• I colored in the images with Distress Markers and Faber - Castell PITT Artist pens  and drew stripes on the be-you-tiful gal's shirt 
• Some of the flowers were highlighted using a Zig Wink of Stella Clear Glitter Brush Pen. This has to be one of my very favorite pens for adding shimmer to a project !! I also used some "Rock Candy" Distress Stickles Glitter Glue .
• I added some Craftsmith washi tape from their French word /black stripe set, purchased at Michaels. I am not a "fill in every bit of white space" planner girl, Unlike my need to add more and more to cards that I make, I am more of a minimalist when it comes to decorating my planner.
• A "hoarded" banner sticker and some enamel dots by Basic Grey also were added to the pages. I used a variety of stickers and embellishments to highlight weekly activities.  I like to leave space for spur-of-the-moment fill-ins.

My $5.99 Blitsy Happy Planner

Hard to believe that Day 4 is here . I'll be back again tomorrow with my final project and hope you will stop by to see it. I want to thank everyone at Unity Stamp Company for giving us all this chance to show our creative side to everyone.  Their stamps are amazing and their designers are phenomenal !!  I'll see you back here at Meticulosity tomorrow. Please comment on each post this week for your chance to win a grab bag of 25 Unity stamps.

Happy Stamping !!

Create - GIU Day 3

I love making tags. I love embossing paste and glitter. And I absolutely LOVE Susan K Weckesser and her stamp sets for Unity. So I combined all of those and came up with a project that showcases all of these.  Remember to comment on all of my posts this week for a chance to win a grab bag of 25 Unity stamps. There will be 2 winners chosen at random. This tag will hang in my craft studio and remind me that I am in there to CREATE - it feeds my spirit, tends to my soul and makes me happy. When I take care of ME, I am better able to take care of others !!

• I started with a Prima tag and applied Faber-Castell Whipped Spackle over a Tim Holtz Doily Layering Stencil down the Left side of the tag. I then sprinkled "Pralines and Cream" Fairy Dust Glitter over the spackle
• The house from Heart-Full Homes was stamped with Colorbox Color Pop Archival Dye ink by Susan K Weckesser - the color is Mystery. I stamped it on a scrap of paper with a word-patterned background, then fussy cut it . I also like to stamp on book pages. 
• The house was colored  with a combination of Distress Markers and Faber-Castell PITT Artist pens. I also adhered a glitter heart to the roof. 
• On a scrap of Live in Color paper  also by Susan K Weckesser, I stamped the word CREATE from the Painted Sentiments stamp set . The ink color was  Kiss. I placed a strip of double-sided tape on the bottom of the paper and sprinkled it with Tumbled Glass Distress Glitter .
• The fun in making these scenes with the houses is that you can use all of your scraps, favorite washi, punches and anything else on hand . I placed a piece of grass washi across the tag bottom, then built a flower with another piece of green washi, a paper-punched circle and a colored glass center . Several paper-punched clouds were placed above the house on the tag.
• I adhered the CREATE image and all of the other elements to the tag, using a combination of Tombow Adhesives - Xtreme Adhesive  Runner and MONO Aqua Liquid .
• Scraps of several favorite ribbons were tied at the top of the tag to add some more color.

I will see you again tomorrow for my 4th project this week as a GIU girl. It's been fun inking up old favorite Unity stamps, as well as some new favorites, like the Planner Gals. I hope you will sign up to follow my blog and continue with me on my creative journey.  Looking forward to sharing a few more posts with you !!

Debra Davison / Meticulosity

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. 

Kitchen Logic - GIU Day 1

I am thrilled to be back as a Growing in Unity Girl this week for Unity Stamp Company. It is my third year and there will be another person this week who is joining us as a first-time GIU girl. Welcome to Kim Gray - I can't wait to see all of your projects !! I will be posting a new project using Unity stamps on my blog Monday through Friday. Please comment each day for a chance to win a grab bag of 25 Unity stamps. There will be 2 lucky winners.

For my first project, I used an older Unity kit called Kitchen Logic. Everything about this set reminds me of my mom - the stove with the kitchen towel hanging on it, the lovely apron and the sentiments that are included.

" if you can't take the Heat, get out of the Kitchen "

• I started with a turquoise card base and adhered a pink doily in the center. 
• I stamped the 3 images on patterned paper from the Echo Park "Happy Days" collection .This is a fun, retro paper pad. All stamping was done with Memories India black ink.
• The stove and apron were fussy-cut and adhered to the doily. I used foam dimensionals to pop up the apron. 
• The sentiment was paper-punched out then stapled to a same-sized square of turquoise paper. 
• 3 retro banners were adhered to the upper Left corner of the card base. A strip of pink glitter washi gave the card a pop of color .  It reminds me of kitchen curtains !!
• And don't you love that small cake stand that I found at TJ Maxx - how perfect is that !?!? I think that maybe I made that card to match the stand !!

I used turquoise on this card because my mom used to write recipes in her recipe book with a turquoise ink pen. To this day, when I see that color ink, I have great memories of my mom in the kitchen with me. She was an amazing cook and baker. Miss her every day.. This card is for you, Mom !!

I hope that you like my first GIU project. Be sure to leave a comment and at the end of the week, I will choose 2 winners at random to win 25 Unity stamps. Thank you so much for visiting Meticulosity.