Coffee & Cards with Deb & Celeste / January 2021

I was really hoping to wake up on January 1 and COVID would be a big blur in my rear-view mirror. But it's still rearing its ugly head, is getting worse and just might be around for awhile .. So Celeste and I are trying to stay positive AND stay crafty as we have coffee & cards with you all again each month this year !! We are both healthcare workers and I know that getting creative helps keep us sane in these crazy times.. Celeste was running low on her stash of birthday cards so that is our theme to start off the year ..

I found a page of sweet sentiments in a paper pad and decided to use it for my card - The Best Is Yet To Come. Don't you think that's perfect for a birthday card, especially this year ?!?!?! The paper pad is Turn the Page  by Pink Paislee for American Crafts. 

The Best Is Yet To Come

• On a patterned card base, I adhered a strip of wood-grain paper across the bottom. 
• The cat, chairs, cup and books were stamped on watercolor paper and a blue polka-dot paper. They were then fussy-cut. They are from the fun  Waffle Flower "Hello Stampurr" stamp set .
• I colored the images with my COPICS . 
• A gold doily was folded to fit in the left upper corner of the card base.
• I added 2 strips of washi tape to the doily, stapled them to add some texture, then adhered the doily. 
• The chair, cup and books were adhered to the card base with Tombow Mono Aqua Liquid Glue.
• I popped  up the cat on the chair and the sentiment with foam tabs.

This card has 3 of my all time favorite things - cats, coffee and books !! I love them all . I am actually going to be doing a book-themed blog post each month so I hope that you will join me for that -- there will be a handmade bookmark with each post !! Please take a look at Celeste's first project of ours for 2021 over at her blog - Crafting Junky .

I guess I'm kind of not over the holidays yet because the coffee I am drinking today is in a cup that I got on sale after Christmas.. And it was just too pretty to wait until next year to use it !! I have some Toasted Almond Caramel coffee in the Get Toasty cup .. 

Thank you for stopping by to enjoy some coffee and cards with us. We hope to see you each month as we get creative .. Until next time, stay safe ..

Debra Davison / Meticulosity

4 Years of Meticulosity - #1

It's so hard for me to believe that I have been blogging for 4 years now. May 19, 2014 was my very first blog post and the rest is history. I have learned alot, met many creative people ( some who are now good friends ) and have been a part of several design teams. I have always been a lover of paper and my love of card-making has also been a part of my love of snail mail. I am in several swap groups for Happy Mail   -  a Coffee Lovers card swap, the Love Notes postcard project and the Global Postcard heART Swap. April was National Letter Writing Month and I was in a fabulous group hosted by Lindsay Ostrom. She assigned  me a penpal for the month and  I also sent mail to approximately 50 others in the group !! 

I want to thank everyone for your support of my creative side. Your visits to my blog and comments have really been a wonderful part of these past 4 years. So I want to share my anniversary celebration with all of you and have a fun giveaway !!  Because so much of my creativity is tied into my love of Happy Mail, I will have 2 giveaways. One will be papercraft focused and the other will be Happy Mail / stationary focused. All you have to do is comment on any of my Anniversary posts this week and you will be entered into the drawing for a prize. The prizes will be a variety of my favorite things from some of my favorite companies. No one has donated anything - these are all coming from my heart !!

A few quick cards made for this post combine my love of cardmaking with my love of snail mail. And these snail digi stamps from Vera Lane Studio are just the perfect images to use !!

• I printed the cute snails from the Snails Pace set from Vera Lane Studio on my favorite Neenah Stardust White cardstock.
• I also printed the images on a floral paper and a heart paper and cut out the shells to paper-piece on the snails.
• Some of my favorite markers were used to color the snails and shells - Faber-Castell PITT Artist pens, Sharpies, Ranger  Distress and Stampin' Up markers.
• The snails were then adhered to some of my favorite card bases using Tombow adhesives - both an adhesive runner and my favorite MONO Aqua Liquid Glue.

Some of my favorite images to stamp are coffee and cats. And a favorite technique of mine is paper-piecing.  I am a paper, stamp, ink & washi junkie !!  And I LOVE  to color and watercolor !! I have enjoyed learning techniques from many of my online friends and hope I have inspired you to get creative too !!

Waffle Flower Flora Cats, Vera Lane Studio Girls on the Block

Hampton Art  Quiet the Worries

I hope that you will take a minute and leave a comment for a chance to win one of my prizes in celebration of my 4 years as a blogger. Tell me about a favorite company or technique of yours. Or let me know if I've inspired you. I couldn't have done this without all of you and your support. Please  sign up to follow me as I start my 5th year of Meticulosity !! 

Thank you so much for visiting Meticulosity

Meticulosity - extreme attention to detail

The Starbucks cup that gave my blog its name !!!

Debra Davison / Meticulosity

May Cookies - Take 2

What an absolutely  perfect theme for our second May challenge over at IF YOU GIVE A CRAFTER A COOKIE. Brian and I recently adopted a sweet little kitten from the Virginia Beach Animal Care and Adoption Center and she has really stolen our hearts. Well actually, she chose Brian and the rest is history !! We had to say good-bye to our much-loved Anna a year ago and I have not even wanted to think about getting another cat. But I was starting to feel like it was time to begin looking and Brian definitely  was ready. Sooooooooooooo  I thought the process would take awhile and give me time to really get used to the idea, but that's not exactly what happened.  The first day we looked, we saw a cute little white kitten named Maxine. Well, she wrapped Brian around her little paw and we now have had her almost 1 month.  She has the cutest little face and I thought she looked like a little pixie, so now we have our sweet Pixie Dust . And that is why this theme is perfect !! Our sponsor for this challenge is Beccy's Place - they have a fabulous variety of clear AND digi stamps. Several team members have used their digis for this challenge. 

 

Pixie is the friendliest kitten ever and always so happy to see us when we come home from work or even just enter a room. She loves to roll around and really enjoys having her belly rubbed.  That inspired my card for this challenge !!

• I placed a gold doily in the lower right corner of a Molly & Rex card base and trimmed the edges. These cards look like they are water-colored and are fabulous !! I got them on clearance at Michaels.
• I stamped the cat image and sentiment on Neenah Stardust White cardstock using Memories India Black Ink . The stamps are from the Waffle Flower Flora Cat  stamp set. I fussy-cut the cat and trimmed around the sentiment.
• The cat image was colored using a variety of my favorite markers - from my beloved Faber-Castell PITT Artist pens to the Sharpies I buy at the office supply store.
• A piece of Recollections washi was placed at the bottom of the sentiment, which was then adhered to the lower right side of the card base on top of the doily. Tombow Mono Adhesive+ was used on the sentiment and the doily.
• Tombow Foam Tabs popped up the cat image onto the upper left side of the sentiment.
• A turquoise, pink, black and gold sequin were scattered on the front of the card to complete it and give it a bit of shimmer.

Take a look at my teammate's creations from this challenge's inspiration.  You can find them here.   Be sure to also look at Beccy's Place - they are providing a prize to one lucky person who links up a project for this challenge. I hope you will pull out your favorite dog/cat/pet stamp , get inspired and join us !!

And if you are ever looking for a pet, please remember to check out your local SPCA or Adoption Center. There are so many pets who need to be rescued to find their forever home. We are grateful for our little Pixie every day !!

Thank you for visiting Meticulosity !!

Debra Davison / Meticulosity

Miss Polly Prissy-Paws

On Sunday, April 9 we said a heartbreaking goodbye to our beloved cat, Anna... Her full name was Andromeda Cassini but we called her many other names ( which I am sure she hated, but tolerated ). Anna Banana, Boo-boo, Pooh-bear, Peanut Butter.. Really no rhyme or reason to most of these  nicknames. But Brian called her Miss Polly Prissy-Paws after a South Park reference and ot seemed to suit her. She could be sitting right near you, yet when you called her name, she would look around  very slowly as if  to say  " Why, I am sure that you could NOT be talking to me?!?! " Our day to day life is so much emptier without her, but are hearts are full of 13 years of wonderful memories . For that we are grateful. 

• I mounted a scrap piece of pink-hued paper onto a Mollie & Rex watercolor card base from Michaels.
• Using Memories Black India Ink, I stamped a cat image from Waffle Flower "Flora Cat" onto the right lower corner of the pink base and the Thank You sentiment from Stampin' Up onto another scrap piece of pink paper.
• I cut out the Thank You image and mounted it onto a scrap of gold glitter paper, then adhered it yo the upper left corner of the pink base. 
• The cat image was highlighted with some Distress marker  & PITT Artist pen coloring.
• For a finishing touch, I placed a small piece of a paper doily in the upper right corner.

I took this card to Bay Beach Veterinary Hospital for Dr. Karen Smithwick and the team who tool care of Anna. Along with the card, I tool some homemade Kitchen Sink brownies. We were so grateful for the care that Anna  received and also how they treated me and Brian.

I know that not everyone understands how much we could love a pet but Anna was a part of our family for 13 years and she will be greatly missed. I still "feel" her presence everywhere in the house and especially miss her waiting for me in the window when I arrive home from work.. Thank you for allowing me to share my story with you. I appreciate that you took the time to read this ..

Waffle Flower "Flora Cat"

Debra Davison/ Meticulosity

Coffee & Cards with Deb & Celeste 12/11

Welcome to our December Collaboration !! We've timed this one exactly right because it coincides with the Winter Coffee Lovers Blog Hop. So, of course there had to be a coffee tie-in. Carly Pool is our guest this month and she suggested a wreath theme; the catch was that we couldn't use leaves. That was a fabulous idea, Carly !! I really had to put on my thinking cap.. I wanted a twig wreath but didn't have any stamps I could use. And something else you may not know about me is that I cannot draw or doodle one little bit. The perfectionist in me comes out and I erase more than I doodle/draw.. So I enlisted the help of my guy, Brian, who is a whiz at graphic design. He drew the twig wreath that I used on my card, using 2 colors of Distress markers. I think that I may owe him dinner for this favor !!

• I used Sketchy Coffee Cups from Stamplorations and stamped the smallest cup on white cardstock  5 times and also on different holiday patterned papers 5 times. In addition, I also stamped the cup 5 times on kraft cardstock. I fussy-cut the plain white cups, the cup itself from patterned paper ( excluding the handle, which I colored ) and also the coffee from the kraft paper. 
• The sentiment by Waffle Flower was stamped on a favorite cardstock of mine - Neenah Astrobrights Stardust White. This cardstock has flecks of color it it and is one that is a go-to supply for me for many of my cards. I then paper-punched that image into a circle that fit into the inside of the wreath.
• I placed a portion of a kraft doily at the bottom of my wreath design and then added a strip of snowman washi by Scotch Brand. 
• Tombow MONO Aqua Liquid Glue was used to adhere the sentiment and also the main image to the pink card base. I popped up the coffee cups on the wreath with foam dimensionals.
• Chocolate Pixie Stix Glitter from Pink Paislee was used on the small kraft fussy-cut coffee pieces. I love all of those cute glittery coffee cups !!

Today's card was brought to you by a lovely cup of Lipton Matcha Green Tea. I found a fun Retro tea cup and couldn't resist it. And with temperatures down in the 30's tonight, tea is perfect !! Please take a look at Carly's wreath over at her blog - By Gods Grace Card Designs. She is amazingly talented and uses a variety of techniques to create her fabulous projects. We are so happy that she joined us this month. And don't forget my partner in crime, Celeste and her post at  Crafting Junky. Take a minute to sign up and follow our blogs if you haven't already done so.

"Do I Look Like I Care"

I will also be linking my card to the Winter 2016 Coffee Lovers Blog Hop which is from December 9 - 16 this year. I absolutely LOVE coffee cards, coffee stamps and of course, Coffee. But they don't discriminate -- tea and cocoa cards are also welcome.. There are hundreds of cards linked up to that blog hop already and they are all marvelous !! Thank you so much for visiting Meticulosity. Celeste and I will be back again next month with another guest blogger.

Debra Davison / Meticulosity