Coffee & Cards with Deb & Celeste - 4/28

For our April collaboration, Celeste suggested we use a stencil. Of course, I have many stencils in my stash, so all I had to do was choose one !!  It's been a very challenging month around here  -- let's just leave it at that. And one way that I relax is to read a great book and escape into someone else's world.  While I was reading this week, I decided that I needed a new bookmark . A bigger bookmark, And that is how this month's project was born. 

I immediately thought of the stamp Nerd Bird from Rubber Moon and designed by Lori Sparkly Franklin. I chose a large tag from my stash - I think it is by Prima Marketing.  And of course, it had to have some washi too !! The stencil is a Tim Holtz Layering Stencil - Holiday Knit.

• I started off by selecting the area I wanted to stencil and masking that area off with some painter's tape. I then used  Brea Reese Gold Modeling Paste to stencil the design at the top of the tag. 
• I immediately sprinkled some Tumbled Glass Distress Glitter  over
  the modeling paste and shook off the excess, then allowed this to dry for several hours.
• I had stamped the Nerd Bird image onto a piece of watercolor paper,  a piece of yellow-patterned paper and also a piece of brown-patterned paper.
• The bird and nest images were cut out of the patterned paper and the complete image was cut out of the watercolor paper. 
• I layered 4 strips of coordinating washi to the bottom area of the tag and 1 piece of washi at the top above the stenciling. 
• The bird and nest were adhered to the watercolor image after I colored in the books with some favorite markers. 
• I then adhered the entire image to the tag at the top of the 4 washi strips. 

This tag is fun because it has space on the back for me to write down the books I have read. I have several other Book Nerd friends and we are always recommending books to each other. And nothing is more frustrating  than not being able to remember the title of the fabulous book you just finished !!

My coffee this time is good old Folgers  with Coconut Caramel Latte  Creamer . I picked up this mug at Home Goods and it about sums up how I want to handle this month !! Head on over to Celeste's blog - Crafting Junky - to see what her stencil project is. We hope that you will leave us a comment and also sign up to follow our blogs. 

Namast'ay in bed with my cat

Feline going back to bed

Thank you so much for visiting Meticulosity !!

Debra Davison

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