Coffee & Cards with Deb & Celeste / January 2023

Another year is starting - time to get organized, make resolutions, plan your next 365 days .. Celeste and I are back with our January Coffee and Cards posts to welcome 2023. Our theme is Books. I am an avid reader and know I will have fun choosing a few books to start off my 2023 reading list .

For my card , I chose an older stamp from Whimsy Stamps - Book Worm. It's no longer available but they have a few other fun book-related stamps. I have been a bookworm since childhood - and can remember "reading" with my dad long before learning the alphabet !!

• I stamped the image with a Memento Tuxedo Black ink pad on white Mixed-Media paper.
• The image was colored with COPIC markers.
• I matted the stamped panel with green cardstock,
• I adhered a piece of book patterned paper from the American Crafts Project Life paper pad - Desktop Edition onto a turquoise card base.
• The completed stamped panel was then adhered to the book paper.
• A Tim Holtz Idea-ology sticker phrase was placed in the bottom right corner of the completed stamped panel .

I'm excited to see what Celeste did with one of my favorite themes !! You can check out her project over at her blog - Crafting Junky .  Are you a reader ?? If you are, let me know one of your favorite books so I can add it to my reading list .  I will choose one commenter to send a card and bookmark to .

My coffee today is my all-time favorite - Gingerbread.  I found some Starbucks K-cups on sale at Target and also some boxes of store brand K-cups at Food Lion  for $2 each, so I stocked up !! And because I'm drinking "holiday" coffee, why not use a holiday mug I picked up at Life is Good at a recent sale.. This might just be a new favorite mug .. 

Thank you for joining us as we kick off the New Year with our book-themed posts .. We'll be back in February with more Coffee and Cards. Until then, stay creative !!

Debra Davison / Meticulosity

Crafty Elves' Coundown to Christmas / January 2022

Here we are with another year of Crafty Elves !! Michael, Lisa and I will each be bringing you 4 holiday cards every month on the 25th. We aim to be ready for the Christmas / holiday rush and have at least  44 cards made to address and send. We hope that we inspire you to make some along with us . 

My post will be short and sweet. All of the papers that I used were in my scrap stash. I used a variety of my favorite stamps - digi, and clear . Two of the cards were made with stamp/die sets . I usually fussy-cut but these were too cute to resist ( and I got them on sale !! ) All coloring was done with my Copics and Flair pens .

Stamp used -

Holiday Jar 

Angie Blom Digital Designs

Disney Magical Memories

American Crafts

Gnome for Christmas

Close To My Heart

The Jubilee Crew

Close To My Heart

As always, I am sure that Michael and Lisa have created beautiful cards . And this month we also have a Guest Crafty Elf . My friend Liz McGuire is joining us all the way from Scotland !! She is a fabulous mixed-media artist who makes cards, junk journals, tags, altered playing cards etc. . You can find her at Buttons For Brains on both Instagram and You Tube. I am thrilled that she is here with us to start   off  2022 !!

Michael Trent - World of Michael Trent

Lisa Reynolds Bzibziak - Life of a BZ Scrapper

Liz McGuire - Buttons For Brains

Thank you to everyone for joining us as we start our holiday card stash for 2022 !! Let us know if you will be adding to your stash each month .. In the meantime, stay safe and healthy and also Creative ...

Debra Davison

Meticulosity

Coffee & Cards with Deb & Celeste /April 2021

Celeste and I are back for our April Coffee & Cards posts !! It is National Letter Writing Month so we decided to do a Snail Mail / Happy Mail post .. I send many letters and postcards every month to friends all over the world . But in April, I am in a group that assigns a penpal for the month, so I am sending even more snail mail than usual..  And this past year when we have all been spending much of our time at home and away from friends and loved ones, it's even more important to stay connected . It's always nice to see a letter from a friend in my mailbox. So, pick up a pen and some paper and write a note to someone.. You will make their brighter !!

I love all things snail mail - postage stamps, rubber stamps, paper, washi etc.. It was hard to choose a stamp set to use but I finally decided on Mr. Snailman from Trinity Stamps . The set includes a cute snail, sentiments and also stamps suitable for decorating your envelopes !!

Snail Mail - paper hug enclosed

Envelope Art

• On a pink-pattered card base, I adhered a piece of envelope patterned paper from the sweet Lucky Charm paper pad from Dear Lizzy by American Crafts .
• I stamped the snailman image on a piece of Solar White  cardstock and also on an April calendar panel from Graphic 45.
• Snail Mail was stamped with Ladybug Memento ink.  The snail and sentiment were stamped with Gina K Jet Black Amalgam ink .
• I fussy-cut the snail shell from the Neenah cardstock.
• The images were colored with my COPICS.
• I  created a border with a Martha Stewart border punch and a piece of vintage white ledger paper also from the Lucky Charm paper pad.
• A strip of thin pink confetti washi was placed down the vintage white border.
• I adhered the border down the left side of the card.
• I popped up the Neenah cardstock snail shell on top of the snail with a foam tab.
• The calendar panel was also popped up on the front of the card with foam tabs.

I also used several images from the Mr. Snailman stamp set to decorate the front of the envelope for this card . I always like to at least add some stickers or a stamped image to the front and back of my envelopes. Some of the envelopes I have received from friends are true works of art !!

I am sure that Celeste has created a fabulous Happy Mail card .. You can check out her post over at her blog - Stamping Junky ..Today I am drinking Twinkie coffee from a Mikasa cup. The pattern - Garden Gallery - is perfect for a gorgeous Spring day !!

I hope that you all are doing well and staying safe. Take care of yourself .. Thank you for visiting me once again  at  Meticulosity.. Until next time, Stay Creative !! And don't forget to let someone you know that you are thinking of them -  write a letter and send it off soon !!

Debra Davison / Meticulosity

April Cookies - Take 2

As soon as I saw the Inspiration Photo for Challenge #115 over at If You Give a Crafter a Cookie , I immediately thought of the rabbit-shaped gift cards I recently saw at Starbucks. I love it when an idea pops into my head like that !!

I knew I wanted to create a scene for this card and these cute flowers and the sun from Unity Stamp Company's Susan K Weckesser's Create Your Day stamp set were absolutely perfect !! I had a gorgeous Spring day to take a picture of my card and I hope that you like it .

• On a pale blue card base, I placed a piece of blue striped paper from the  fun 6x6 paper pad by My Mind's Eye " Well, Hello "  .
• I used Memento Tuxedo Black ink to stamp the 3 flowers and the sun .
• The sun was paper-pieced with a yellow-checked pattern also from the Well,Hello paper pad.
• The flowers were colored with my Faber-Castell PITT Artist pens.
• A piece of blue/green patterned washi from Scotch was placed along the bottom of the blue-striped paper.
• The rabbit was adhered in the lower Left corner with double-sided removable tape so the recipient can use the gift card !!
• The Hello and bee are puffy stickers from Jen Hadfield for American Crafts.
• I placed a blue,pink and gold sequin on the card for a bit of shimmer.

Hop on over to the IF YOU GIVE A CRAFTER A COOKIE  blog to see the rest of the Design Team's projects. We hope you will be inspired to link up one of your own. This challenge runs from April 18 - May 1. Thank you all so much for stopping by my own little corner of the crafting world - Meticulosity. I greatly appreciate it and also the comments you make.

Debra Davison

Coffee & Cards with Deb & Celeste - 3/31

Once again, Celeste and I are here with our cards and coffee. Hard to believe that April is almost here and it is Spring already. I know that I am ready for spring temperatures and flowers and spending time on the deck with my morning coffee. Our inspiration for this month was a picture found by Celeste.  We hope that you will be inspired too !!

I wanted a bright, cheerful, flowery card to get me in a springtime mood. I immediately thought of a digi stamp set from the Etsy shop - Polka Dot Orchard. I am one of the first members of their Design Team and look forward to showing you  many of their fun stamps !! I used the digi set " It's Your Day ".

• I started off with a Molly & Rex watercolor card base. It had matching colors to the patterned paper that I used.
• The digi images of the cup, teapot and sentiment were printed out on a piece of patterned paper - American Crafts "Lucky Charm" Sunny Day paper . This paper is brightly colored floral on one side and a pretty pale pink on the other. Perfect for this card !!
• I fussy cut the cup and teapot and trimmed the sentiment to fit the card.
• I colored areas of the teapot with a pink Brea Reese marker .
• Pralines & Cream Fairy Dust Glitter by Clearsnap  was placed on the top area of the cup with Tombow MONO Aqua Liquid Glue. I think it looks just like my tea after adding some cream and honey.
• I placed a strip of turquoise glitter washi along the bottom area of the card base.
• The teapot was positioned to look like it was pouring tea into the cup. 
• I adhered the sentiment in  the upper left corner. All paper elements were adhered with MONO Adhesive+ Permanent Runner.

I hope that you will take a look at all of the fun digi stamp sets over at Polka Dot Orchard. I had fun with this card and actually made 2 more. I can't wait to see what Celeste has come up with to celebrate Spring -- head over to her blog @ Crafting Junky and take a look.  For my drink this month, I chose tea to go with my card. I am drinking a Matcha Green tea from a bright red floral Starbucks cup . With just a hint of cream and a bit of honey !!  Brian just refinished a small wrought iron table and 2 chairs that were his parents and they are outside on our deck.  I will be drinking my morning coffee and tea out there whenever I can !!

Thank you for visiting Meticulosity.

Debra Davison

Crafty Elves' Countdown to Christmas - February

Thank you to everyone who commented on our first Crafty Elf posts !! Lisa and I are keeping ech other motivated and can't wait to show you February's cards. After some sort of glitch with comments  ( I think it's a problem with Google + ), I've chosen a winner at random for  a Crafty Elf stamp. Vannessa Osbourn was new to my blog and I'm so excited to have her and thrilled that she won . Can't wait to see what she does with the stamp - send me your snail mil address and I will get it in the mail !!

For my first card, I inked up a holiday set that I never got around to using for my 2018 cards. It was a quick card to color and I cut  several extra images for more cards. I loved the vintage look of the background paper and couldn't wait to use it on a card !! I hope you like it ..

• On a Cranberry cardstock base, I adhered a piece of Vintage Xmas Tree paper from  American Crafts  All I Want For Christmas Is You paper pad .
• Using Versafine Clair Nocturne ink,  I stamped the girl image and the sentiment  from  the  Oh What Fun stamp set by Unity Stamp Company on  Strathmore Mixed Media Paper .    
• I fussy-cut the girl and colored her with a variety of my favorite markers - Faber-Castell, Brea Reese and   Staedtler. 
• I cut the sentiment, mounted it on a piece of dark green cardstock  and adhered it to the top of the card base in the center.
• I had cut the tree paper so the image was to the left and mounted the girl on the right, using Foam Tabs.   
• I adhered 3 green rhinestones on her coat as buttons.
• The pom-pom on the hat and the whipped cream on the cup were highlighted with some extra fine white glitter.      
• Tombow Adhesives were used to adhere all elements ( MONO Adhesive+, MONO Aqua Liquid Glue and Foam Tabs ).       

Now, for my next 12 cards - YES, I did say 12 - I gathered these supplies :

1. My favorite holiday washi
2. My favorite Sizzix On The Edge Scallops Die
3. A variety of sequins, rhinestones and other doo-dads !!
4. My MONO Adhesive+ Permanent Runner
5. 12 cardstock bases - I used A2 sized.
6. Scraps of holiday paper
7. A 12x12 piece of American Crafts Christmas paper with 12 journal card designs on it. I cut the images apart and had 12 holiday designs to work with. 

I added a cute Rubber Moon Tree Cup stamp to the snowman.

Washi and/or border scallops were added to all cards.

Green-striped Candy Dots were added to the Merry Christmas card.

All others had scallop borders or washi.

Sequins were placed on the tree and a washi frame was added.

I used a fun corner rounder on Season's Greetings.

Happy Holidays has washi, a scalloped border and dots added.

I've had friends tell me that they would love to make their Christmas cards throughout the year but just don't see how they can manage.  These 12 cards I made take minimal time and you can add as little or as much stamping as you'd like or as time allows. I only added stamping to 1 card but they all will be stamped on the inside.  I actually cut the paper into 12 cards and made 4 each week, along with other cards and Design Team projects. If I had just sat down to make all 12 cards at once, I probably could have finished them in 2 hours or less. 

Lisa and I have really been enjoying our Countdown and hope that you are inspired to make some Christmas cards throughout the year too. I hope you will comment on my February cards and then head on over to Lisa's blog at  Life of a BZscrapper to see what she has created. 

Thank you for visiting Meticulosity !!

Please join Lisa and I next month as we continue our Countdown.

Debra Davison

               

Coffee & Cards with Deb & Celeste - 1/27

Well, 2019 is here and Celeste and I are continuing our collaboration into the New Year. I hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday and that 2019 is a happy, healthy one for you and those you love. Our inspiration for this month's card is a mood board chosen by Celeste. I really loved everything about this photo - the colors, the images and the "mood". 

For my card, I used the color scheme, the snowy scenes and the silver & black tones. I was lucky enough to get some Stampers Anonymous stamp sets that I have had my eye on for awhile. They had a 50% off promotion in November during their Days of Thanks Sale. I took advantage of the Stamp promotion one day and the Mixed Media promotion on another. I knew I wanted to use some of my new stamps for today's card.

 The background piece of paper is from a fabulous American Crafts 12 x 12 paper pad. I copied an area of the page at 50% in order to get the trees for the base of my card.

• I used a Kraft card base and cut it just slightly larger than the tree background.
• The snowman image from the Stampers Anonymous Tattered Christmas stamp set was stamped onto the tree background in the lower right corner and also onto a piece of Neenah Stardust White cardstock using Versafine Clair Nocturne ink .
• I fussy-cut the snowman from the Solar White cardstock and adhered it over top of the snowman stamped on the tree background image. 
• The snowman's nose waa colored in with a Brea Reese marker. 
• I stamped the Let It Snow image from Stampers Anonymous Handwritten Holidays 2  onto a piece of vellum  cut to fit in the upper left corner of the tree background. 
• We R Memory Keepers Silver Sequin stickers were placed around the sentiment on the vellum. 
• I didn't have any vellum glue so I placed Tombow MONO Aqua Liquid Glue on the back of the vellum underneath the sequins so the adhesive did not show.  Clever, huh ?
• I will admit that I smudged the first Let It Snow sentiment. Note to self : do not carry a still wet sentiment around with you while you go searching in your studio for washi tape to place on your card!!
• I also have to give thanks to my guy, Brian. When I stamped the snowman on the background, it was not at the bottom of the paper and appeared to be floating in the trees. I really hadn't noticed that yet, but he pointed it out and when he did,  I realized that it did look a bit odd. So I placed a piece of word washi from the Tim Holtz Idea-ology Christmas set. along the bottom of the card . It fit perfectly !!  It helps to have a guy with a Graphic Arts degree and an eye for design/layouts. 

I was quite pleased with my card since it has been a busy week of crafty projects and deadlines for me and I had absolutely NO idea what I was going to make when I sat down to create a card,  Then I thought of my new Stampers Anonymous stamp sets and took it from there. I know that Celeste will have a fantastic card made so please take a look at her blog - Crafting Junky. We would love for  you to comment on our posts and follow our blogs if you haven't signed up already.

My coffee for today's post is Winter Warmer, a blend of butter rum and coconut flavors with a little Half and Half. The mug is one I got on clearance after Christmas in 2017 along with a tin of Hot Cocoa. I thought the mug perfectly matched our Mood Board theme.

Thank you for visiting Meticulosity again and sharing coffee and cards with me & Celeste as we start 2019. We look forward to seeing you each month as we challenge each other to create fun projects that we hope will inspire you. If there is any crafty challenge you would like to see us undertake, please comment and we will see what we can do.  Until next time, stay creative.

Debra Davison / Meticulosity

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

A Winter Celebration

Welcome to the first Day of the Winter Coffee Lovers Blog Hop !! The team from Skipping Stones Design will be bringing you some coffee inspiration with projects of our own and I hope you will take a look at all of them here. For my project, I decided to use some hoarded paper, non-traditional colors and a few of my favorite things. So make your favorite cup of coffee, tea or cocoa and relax with some fun inspiration from the Skipping Stones Design Team.

• I placed a silver doily on the left side of a Recollections snow-flake card base and a strip of turquoise glitter washi down the left edge of the card.
• The coffee cups from the Funny Coffee stamp set were stamped on several patterns of paper from my hoarded Dear Lizzy Christmas collection from American Crafts, using Memories India Black Ink. The cup handles were also stamped on some plain white card stock, in order to fussy-cut the area inside the handle and then color them to match the card base color.
• I fussy-cut the coffee cups and added brown glitter to the coffee area. The cups were then stacked along the right side of the card.
• Using a matching piece of music paper, I stamped the sentiment from the Christmas Song stamp set and adhered it at the top of the card with foam dimensionals. All other elements were adhered with Tombow MONO Aqua Liquid Glue.
• A piece of rustic twine was wrapped several times along the inner edge of the washi to complete the card.

Doilies, washi, and twine are a few of my favorite elements to use on cards. I love the non-traditional colors of this one !! After the card was completed, I realized that the words on the tag at the top of the card - " Oh, what fun it is to ride in a "  - matched up perfectly with the words on the middle coffee cup - " open sleigh ". Not planned, never even thought of that while stamping or cutting. Just a happy accident, but I love when things like that happen !!

I hope you will also take a look at all of the amazing link-ups at the Winter Coffee Lovers Blog Hop . Thank you for visiting Meticulosity. Please sign up to follow my blog if you haven't already.

Debra Davison / Meticulosity 

Heart-Full Homes

I have had SO much fun creating these postcards for an amazing group that I have joined recently - The Global Postcard Art Swap / heART Exchange  .  The cute little houses are in a stamp set designed by Susan K Weckesser -  Heart-Full Homes. These houses are so fun to create with. I have stamped them on patterned paper for this swap and then colored in different elements of each image. They were then cut out and adhered to the postcards with my favorite adhesive - Tombow MONO Aqua Liquid Glue.

I used Strathmore Watercolor paper / 400 series from a 6 x 12'' pad. I can get 3 postcards from each sheet and there are 12 sheets in a pad. I buy them when I have coupons to my local craft stores and can get them for under $5. The watercolors are from a $5 set I purchased at Michaels. I made vertical stripes on each card in several colors and widths using different sized brushes and amounts of water. The theme of this swap was PEACE so I also used a Peace, Love, Joy stamp by Paper Source and a Peace On Earth stamp from Wordsworth / Ampersand Press. The clouds were punched out with a paper-punch from the same paper that was used on the houses. Grass washi by Scotch was a fun addition to the bottom edge of the card.

Postcard stamp by Amy Tangerine / American Crafts

The Global Postcard Art Swap is a group that "creates art from the heart in the form of a postcard to send and receive around the world". You can check out the Facebook Group or go to this link and sign up to be a part of the swaps that occur several times each year.The connections that are made through these swaps/groups are priceless !! At this time of Thanksgiving, I am so very grateful for all of the wonderful people that I have in my life. And it is through the joy of letter-writing /snail mail, that I have made some of my strongest friendships.

 

Postcards that I have received

Having fun with the Rhonna Designs App on my phone

I added some Susan K Weckesser images to my postcard photo.

Susan K Weckesser's "Heart-Full Homes" stamp set

Wishing you and yours an amazing Thanksgiving..

Thank you for visiting Meticulosity !!