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

April Cookies - Take 1

The Inspiration photo for Challenge # 113 from If You Give a Crafter a Cookie is so much fun. There are so many elements to choose when designing your project. Bees, flowers, hexagons, amazing colors -  endless creative possibilities !! We hope that you will be inspired to link up a project before April 18.

I wanted to use the hexagons in my project because I have a cute punch and it was perfect for this Challenge. I only had 1 small bee stamp ( I know !! Can you believe it ?!?!?! ) so searched for a digi stamp and found this cute  Bee Mine Honeybee Girl from Just Me Digital Stamps on Etsy.  I really enjoyed this Inspiration picture !!

Believe in Yourself

• I began with a pre-made watercolor -look card base.
• I chose the My Mind's Eye "Howdy Doody" paper pad because it had the wonderful colors from the Inspiration photo in it . Using my hexagon paper punch,  I punched enough hexagons out of 4 coordinating paper patterns for several cards. 
• The Honeybee Girl was printed on Neenah Stardust White cardstock and colored with Brea Reese & Faber-Castell Markers. The image was then fussy-cut.
• I arranged the hexagons in 2 rows on the left side of the card - 6 on the far left and 5 for the other.  They were adhered with 1/2 inch Glue Dots.
• A piece of natural teine was tied around the left side of the card between the hexagon rows.
• The Honeybee Girl was adhered to the lower right of the card with Tombow MONO Aqua Liquid Glue. 
• A Wink of Stella Clear Glitter Brush marker was applied to the the girl's shoes and wings for some added shimmer. 
• Golden rhinestones were added to he ends of the antennae,
• Believe in Yourself is from Tim Holtz "Quotations" Metallic Stickers. 

Be sure to look at my teammates' projects over at If You Give a Crafter a Cookie , We would love for you to follow us and leave us comments. This Challenge runs from April 4-17 so get started on a card or tag or  other project to link up. We also choose our favorite projects from those linked up. I hope that Spring weather is reaching you wherever you live. After a few dreary, rainy, chilly day here, we are supposed to have temperatures in the 60's and 70's for the next week. 

Thank you for stopping by and taking a look at my card. I hope that you will leave a comment.

And thank you for visiting Meticulosity !!

Debra Davison

Coffee & Cards with Deb & Celeste 9/24

This month Celeste and I and our guest are celebrating some new stamps designed by a friend of ours.  Terri Burson has been my friend since we met through our love of stamping back in 2014. I was a member of Mountain Plains Crafters with her and several others. We posted our papercrafting projects on our Facebook page and on our blogs. We had blog hops and promoted many company's great supplies. Well, long story short, Terri has just had some of her designs made into stamps with So Suzy Stamps. She has always been a fabulous doodler and drew on her projects, which everyone raved about. So ----------- today our guest, Jennifer Leamy Loftfield ( who was also on the design team of Mountain Plains Crafters ) is helping Celeste and I, as we all make cards with Terri's just released stamps !! Terri knew we would be using her stamps today but did not know Jennifer would be joining us .. Surprise !!!

My card today has a vintage feel and was made to reflect the ornaments my parents had on their first Christmas trees. They were thinking of starting a family and placed pink and turquoise glass ornaments on the always fresh-cut Christmas trees. All these years later, I still have some of them and they are treasured beyond belief.  As my brother and I came along, more traditional ornaments were added and I loved hanging each and every one on the branches.

• I stamped Terri's Wreath image onto a piece of pink scrap paper from my hoarded Basic Grey collection.
• The ink I used was Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Iced Spruce .This is a blue/green/grey ink  and one of my favorite Distress colors .
• I actually used the hole punch on my Cropodile to punch out the berries on the wreath using scrap paper in pinks and pale turquoise.
• Although it is hard to see on the wreath, I created shimmer with Swarovski crystals, Wink of Stella Clear and Frosted Lace Stickles.
• Tombow Adhesive adhered the pink paper to a white card base and also all of the elements to the wreath. I used the Permanent Adhesive Runner and MONO Aqua liquid glue.
• The rick-rack Christmas banner at the top of the card and the angel in the wreath's center are from the My Mind's Eye All is Bright collection. Nostalgia alert : my mom sewed many of my clothes when I was young and loved to use rick-rack. So, that banner was exactly what I was looking for !!
• Prima's Lifetime Collection  had the  Memories chipboard piece that finished off my card.

You can see Celeste's card at Crafting Junky. And Jennifer's card can be found at Caffeinated Papercuts. Jennifer is as passionate about coffee as Celeste and I are ( if that is possible ). I mean, look at her blog name !!! We are so excited that she joined us to celebrate Terri's first ever stamp release !! 

And now on to my coffee for today.. I had some wonderful girl time with an old friend from my ICU days and of course, we stopped at Starbucks !! I had an Iced Maple Pecan Latte and it was as amazing as its name .. I can see many more in my future. 

You can see all 4 of Terri's stamps with So Suzy here. Leave me a comment and show Terri some love. I'll choose 1 lucky commenter to get a card from me made with Terri's stamps. You can check out Terri's blog at Waving My Wand. We'd love for you to follow all of our blogs. Celeste and I will be back again next month with another guest. Let us know if you would like to join us ..

Thank you for visiting Meticulosity

Debra Davison

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

Coffee & Cards with Deb & Celeste 11/13

Welcome back to the blog collaboration of  Deb and Celeste. We had so much fun every week in the month of October that we decided to continue this once a month. Also my friend, Lynne had asked if she could play along with us and that gave us the idea to have a monthly guest. So for the month of November, our guest is the wonderful artist, Lynne Mizera.. We hope that you will visit all three of our blogs and leave us some comments. Lynne got to choose the theme for this month and she picked SNOW.. I hope that you like my card -- the weather is finally getting chilly here, so I put on some holiday music and created this for you.

•  On a Kraft card base, I first stamped the Hello Flags banner from Hero Arts on the left upper side of the card.  The Sassy Snow stamp set from Skipping Stones Design had the perfect snowperson and sentiment for my card. Both images were stamped using Memories Black India Ink. 
• I then cut a piece of white glitter paper to make a hill for my snowperson and the trees and adhered it with my Tombow MONO Aqua Liquid Glue. 
• The  banner was stamped on Merry Little Christmas paper from My Mind's Eye. I adhered several different patterns to the banner and also used some of the banners at the bottom of the card as trees !! 
• Two red candy dots were used as tree-toppers and several snowflakes from my stash were also placed around the snowman. I used glitter markers to highlight the scarf, mittens and nose.
• I also used the Sassy Snow stamp set for the Skipping Stones Blog Hop this weekend.

Today's card -- in the spirit of SNOW -- was brought to you by a cup of Santa's White Christmas Coffee  ( by Barnie's Coffee Kitchen ) and my 2011 Starbucks Holiday Fa-La-La-La ceramic tumbler. I rarely use this tumbler but this was a great opportunity to get it down off the shelf and enjoy my coffee in it !! Head on over to  Crafting Junky to see what Celeste did with our SNOWY theme. And be sure to see what Lynne Mizera did with the theme she chose -- you can find her post here at Lynne's Art World. Lynne is an amazing mixed-media artist and her blog is full of fun from her studio, garden and kitchen, We are thrilled that she asked to join us as our guest this month !!! Take a moment to sign up to follow our blogs when you are checking out our cards. Celeste and I will be back next month with another guest .. And who knows, it could be YOU !!

Thank you once again for visiting Meticulosity !!

November Hop with Skipping Stones

We are heading into the holiday season and there is so  much to be thankful for. But I am mostly thankful that the elections are over. Whatever the outcome, we all have to make the best of it.. And after having a bad case of the ? flu/strep throat, I am ready to be creative again. You should have arrived here from Jessie's blog. She has a fabulous card with the cutest holiday image !! Here's a hint -- Meow !!

If you would like to win a SSD stamp set of your choice, please check out all of our projects and leave a comment on each, like our Facebook page, and subscribe to the Skipping Stones Design blog. There are some amazing stamp sets for the holiday season !! Take a look at all the fantastic stamps in the Skipping Stones store  HERE.

For the Hop today, I wanted to get into the holiday spirit and Think Snow... Not that I want any, but it is beautiful and does make for a great card. Any reason to use glittery paper !!

• I started with a Kraft card base and cut some silver and white glitter paper into hills. Before adhering them, I stamped one of the cute snowmen ( or snow-women ) from the Sassy Snow stamp set onto the card base in the exact spot I had chosen to match with the hills. I used Memories Black India Ink.
• Using a square of paper from my Merry Little Christmas paper pad by My Mind's Eye, I placed 3 cute little trees on the left side of the card behind the hills.
• A strip of paper - also from Merry Little Christmas- was adhered to the top of the card and I placed turquoise, pink and green rhinestones across the  scallop border. Gold rhinestones were also used at the top of the trees.
• Copic atyou Spica Glitter markers added some shimmer to the scarf, mittens and nose. Several snowflakes from my embellishment stash completed the card.

Your next stop is the amazing Martha Lucia whose creation reminds me of the colors in a crayon box !! Enjoy as we all share our creativity with you during this Blog Hop...

The order of our hop is

Skipping Stones Blog

Cornelia
Jessie

Debra  -- YOU ARE HERE

Martha Lucia

Tanja

Thank you for visiting Meticulosity and also for hopping with the Stamp Tramps from the fabulous Skipping Stones Design Team. 

A { Pink } Fresh Fall Hop

I am always SO excited for another Coffee Lovers Blog Hop and this one is no exception, especially since I have several new coffee-themed stamp sets !! I have always loved using paint samples on my cards and this one from  Sherwin Williams was perfect. The colors from top to bottom are Pumpkin Curry, Copper Playa and Outgoing Orange.. I placed the paint sample on the Right side of a kraft card base. Don't you think that Kraft cardstock is absolutely perfect for Fall projects !?!?!? 2 types of washi were just the right touch for the Left side of the card. I stamped and punched 3 images from a new Pinkfresh Studio stamp set and popped them up on the paint sample with dimensionals. I did also stamp the teacup on a piece of patterned paper also and paper-pieced it to the image stamped on the square.

Supplies used :

Pumpkin Patch Gold Foil washi from Little B

My Mind's Eye Metallic Decorative Tape

Tsukineko Memento Rich Cocoa Dye Ink

"Late Nights" stamp set from Pinkfresh Studio

Has my first card for the Hop inspired you to get creative ?? I will choose someone to win some coffee-themed blog candy for commenting on my cards for this Hop.. I would love if you would also follow my blog . Make sure to take a look at the other cards for the Hop.. I am sure we will break the old record for number of projects linked up. I appreciate you taking the time to share in my obsession for all things coffee, tea and cocoa related !!

As always, a BIG shout-out to Amy Tsuruta for co-ordinating this Hop and to all of the amazing Sponsors !! There are 63 Super Sponsors this time with some fabulous prizes !! 

Thank you so much for visiting Meticulosity !!

A Note of Appreciation

Our group challenge with my gals at Mountain Plains Crafters was to create a card to tell someone how much you appreciate them. Spring flowers needed to be a part of the project. Then we all need to send what we created to the person it was made for. I am sure you all have someone in your life that you owe a thank you note or a note of appreciation. After all, April is National Letter Writing Month so join in the fun and send someone special a little something in the mail.

A friend of mine who also happens to be my boss will be retiring next month. She is an amazing person and goes above and beyond to be fair and kind to everyone.She is looking forward to spending much more time with her family. And although I will miss her, I wish her all the best... Penny is a wonderful person and I hope retirement is filled with many happy "Grands" days !!! This card is for her..

For my appreciation card, I used a Sizzix Alterations "On the Edge" die by Tim Holtz for the border and a Spellbinders "Laurel and Bee" D-Lites die. The floral and woodgrain papers are from the My Mind's Eye "Howdy Doody" collection. I finished the card with a sentiment from the Stampin' Up "Pursuit of Happiness" set after sponging the edges of the stamped image with Color Box Turquoise ink. This card will be in the mail to Penny this week..

Check out all of the creations by the Design Team members of Mountain Plains Crafters on their blog.. Then sit down and create a card or other project, or write a note of appreciation to someone you care about. You will be glad you did !! And thanks for visiting Meticulosity-- it means the world to me that you want to share in my creativity..

How Sweet It Is ....

How sweet it is to share a love of coffee, tea & cocoa with so many others who either linked up to the Spring Coffee Lovers Blog Hop or visited to enjoy all of the nearly 500 projects. My last card used the Tea for Two stamps by Unity Stamp Company. The card base is from the beautiful "Bramble Rose" collection from My Mind's Eye. I placed the Nature's Window diecut from Spellbinders In'Spire on the front of the card with a small piece of Webster's Pages paper in the window cut-out.. A woodgrain stain sample was used for the background of the sentiment. As I wait for Spring's arrival and new leaves to appear, I'll have a nice cup of tea and celebrate how sweet it is....

How Sweet It Is

Again, a great big thank-you to everyone who visited Meticulosity during  this Spring Hop. I will be choosing 2 winners at random from the comments and they will receive some Spring goodies !!

You're My Cup of Tea

This LaBlanche Teacup stamp has the loveliest floral pattern in the cup and saucer. It is a silicon stamp and the details in them are just amazing !! I wanted to share some tea designs for our fellow tea lovers. Not everyone is as coffee-obsessed as I am.. But I will admit that I also love tea and have sometimes had my cup of coffee from an intricate tea cup. Some of my latest tea favorites are a White Tea with Almond & Vanilla and a Green Tea with Coconut, Ginger & Vanilla, both by Harney & Sons..

I stamped the teacup image, that I had inked with "Blue Hawaii" StazOn and cut it out. I placed it on a doily that was a punch-out from a Colorbok embossed paper pad and used some My Mind's Eye washi to adhere it. A glittery sentiment tag from Docrafts Papermania was attached using a bit of Martha Stewart twine.

Are you a tea lover ?? What is your favorite tea ? I am always up for a new flavor to try. Share your favorite with me here in a comment You will have a chance at some Spring supplies by commenting here.

With Love

 And check out all of the amazing cards at the Spring Coffee Lovers Blog Hop page.. There are 200 so far and they are all wonderful !!

Look Forward with HOPE....

As we focus on Breast Cancer Awareness every October, there are also many fighting other cancer battles. Patients, their loved ones and caregivers are all on a journey together that is as difficult as any they will ever face. The Mountain Plains Crafters Design Team are all posting cards for Cancer Awareness today. Please go to their blog to see what we all have created.

 I used the Unity Stamp Company sets "...all about HOPE" and "Imperfection is Beauty" on this card. The lotus petals from left to right represent : Gold/ Childhood cancers, Dark Blue/ Colon cancer in memory of my brother, Teal/ Ovarian cancer, White/ Lung cancer in memory of my beloved mother, Plum honors caregivers who fight the battles alongside their loved ones, Periwinkle/ Esophageal cancer in honor of Dale Kemper, and Pink/ Breast cancer both in honor of and memory of many friends. The lavender card base represents all cancers. 

This card showcases one of my all-time favorite stamps by Paula Best . I also used My Mind's Eye washi and Queen & Company twine. It was made to honor several friends who are fighting breast cancer and also in memory of those who did not survive.. When I look at the writing on the image, I think that we need to have the DREAM that there will be a cure for cancer someday and BELIEVE with all of our hearts that it will happen... Support those you know who are battling any form of cancer. A small act of kindness will be greatly appreciated. Deliver lunch or dinner, drive someone to an appointment, listen if they need to vent or just be there with a smile or a hug. Thank you for visiting my blog . I always appreciate when you stop by and share in what I have created..

My Take on "The Shake"..

I have a confession to make..... I absolutely LOVE shaker cards... I watch how-to videos, collect pictures of them, find them on Pinterest etc.... I have everything I need to make them.. Just bought the foam mounting tape last week. Sat down to make one this morning and somehow got distracted by these cute little envelopes I have had for awhile...Does this happen to any of you ?? I call it my Creative ADD...  I sit down to make 1 thing that is all settled in my mind and end up with something completely different... Like today's Shaker card... I had some of my Project Life  journal cards on my desk and put it in the clear envelope..Perfect fit--even had enough room to fold the end back... Then I spotted the literally thousands of sequins I have and VOILA !! My card was born..  The supplies were meant to go together.. It was like peanut butter & jelly, Barnes & Noble, Ben & Jerry's ..... I am already thinking ahead to more of these cards... I have some fabulous metallic sequins. They would be great for beachy cards... I can envision autumn colors, Christmas -- the possibilities are endless.... I still want to try a traditional shaker card but I am thrilled with MY take on the "shake"....Now if only I could remember where I got those little envelopes... Google, here I come !!

dEb