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

Sweet Tweets

You all must know by now how much I love rubber stamps !! Some might say that I have an obsession with stamps. I've been playing with some great new releases by Rubber Moon and they are just SO much fun to work with. Tweets and Chirps by Lori Sparkly Franklin has the sweetest, most fun images. Lori is an amazing mixed-media artist - she paints, she makes jewelry, she designs stamps . Lori says that she doesn't remember playing with Barbies as a child, but a new box of CRAYOLAS was ecstasy ! A woman after my own heart. I hope you will love her new line as much as I do !! These birdies are my new best friends ..

•  I started with some pastel card bases - 2 solid and a diagonal striped. Doilies are a favorite supply of mine, so I added 1 to each base.
• Journaling cards are fun to stamp on and quick when you want something to stamp on, but don't want or have time to measure and cut. These are from the Charming Collection by Becky Higgins for Project Life.
• I'm all about using scraps of paper on my projects and the clouds and banners were both paper-punched using bits and pieces from my scrap drawers.
• The stamps are Identical Tweets & Just a Little Note and were inked with Memento Tuxedo Black . I stamped the images directly on the journal card and bird images also on scraps of patterned paper. These birds were then fussy-cut and paper-pieced.
• Washi was placed on all 3 cards ( I'm washi-obsessed, too ) . Tombow MONO Aqua Liquid Glue adhered all of the elements to the cards.
• A piece of long-hoarded Scrappy Floss by Karen Foster gave a pop of color to the banners. I have this floss in red and turquoise and it came in containers that look like  dental floss !! It has been discontinued so I use it sparingly. I never complain about having to floss when I use this !!

From start to finish these 3 cards took me about 30 minutes ! I wanted to play with these new stamps but didn't have much time, so I used what was easily at hand. There are many other stamps in this Tweets and Chirps collection and I can't wait to ink them up. Another reason I loved this collection so much was that it included another LOVE of mine -- BOOKS !! These will be the next stamps I play with !!

I hope you will take care of yourself today and do something for YOU !

Spend some time outside looking at the birds .

Ink up a new stamp set ..

Check out all the amazing stamps at Rubber Moon.

Buy yourself a Sweet Tweet ...

Thank you for visiting Meticulosity

Debra Davison