April Cookies - Take 1

Challenge #91 over at the If You Give a Crafter a Cookie Challenge Blog is all about transportation.  Our fun inspiration photo features, trains, planes, automobiles, hot air balloons etc.. The sponsor for this challenge is The Cutting Cafe. 

In case you didn't know, April is National Letter Writing Month. I absolutely love snail mail and writing and receiving letters and postcards. I am in a group that celebrates this BIG TIME !! I have a penpal for the entire month and have sent something every day to Snohomish, WA. My penpal is a world traveler and I made my card for her. She's been to an ice hotel in Finland, traveled to South Korea and visited St. Petersburg, Russia , just to name a few. 

• I adhered a piece of patterned paper from the Uncharted Paper Pad  to a piece of turquoise cardstock for my card base. This paper pad has the most amazing map images and it is available at Hobby Lobby.
• The Retro Van was stamped on Stardust White paper and also a scrap of blue patterned paper; then colored and fussy-cut.
• I stamped the sentiment with Embossing ink and used Adirondack "Bottle" Embossing Powder to create a fun sheen.I don't emboss as much as I should. This embossing powder is really gorgeous !!
• I used a scalloped die to cut out the sentiment and also the next larger size die for a contrasting colored scalloped mat for a layer under the sentiment.
• Using Tombow Mono Adhesive +, I adhered the sentiment to the upper left of the card base.
• I popped up the Retro Van  in the lower right corner of the card base using Tombow Foam Tabs.

I took the picture of this card on top of my vintage Hermes Rocket typewriter. I bought it from a friend who found it at a thrift store. It still works and I have been using it for some letters to my penpal. My teammates have also been inspired by this challenge and I hope you will check them out here. This challenge runs for 2 weeks and we'd love for you to link up a project for a chance at a prize from The Cutting Cafe.

Thank you for visiting Meticulosity !

Celebrate National Letter Writing Month by sending some a handwritten letter !!

Debra Davison

Coffee & Cards With Deb & Celeste 3/25

Hello again and thanks for checking out our monthly blog collaboration . Celeste and I are happy to welcome Marilyn DeGroot as our guest blogger this month. You can find Marilyn at Mississippi-McGyver. I have known her since 2014 when we were on the Design Team of Mountain Plains Crafters. She is an amazing papercrafter and makes the most beautiful projects. I am in awe of her talent !! Earlier this month, Celeste was blessed with her second grandchild and that is our theme for this month -  babies !! 

I don't have many baby-themed stamps but I remembered that I had a few from Unity Stamp Company and decided to combine them in this card to celebrate the birth of Madelyn Celeste.

• I started with a scrap piece of pink paper that also had some yellow highlights. Using Memories India Black Ink, I stamped the Unity Stamp Company image Tickled Pink in the lower right hand corner. The stars are an older Unity stamp "Twinkle Twinkle". I stamped that in the upper right hand corner. 
• The baby carriage was also stamped on a piece of my hoarded Basic Grey paper from the "Out of Print" collection and I fussy-cut the image. I had  also stamped the stars on a piece of scrap pale yellow paper and also fussy-cut those. 
• I paper-punched the clouds, also using the "Out of Print" paper and stapled them to the pink background paper with silver staples. 
• A piece of gold star washi was placed along the top edge of the background paper.
• The stars were popped up on top of the stamped image using Tombow Foam Tabs . The carriage was adhered over the stamped image with Tombow MONO Aqua Liquid Glue.
• I wrote the baby's name and date of birth using Google Docs,cut them out and adhered them on the lower  right side of the card with Tombow MONO Adhesive+ .
• To finish the card, I adhered the background to a kraft base. 

I'm so excited to see what Marilyn made and hope you will visit her at Mississippi-McGyver to see her project. Celeste can be found at Crafting Junky . I'm happy to be celebrating the birth of Celeste's son's baby girl. Best wishes to Brian and his wife, Erika. 

Today, my coffee is Pecan Pie and I'm using a fun mug by Suzy Toronto that I found at Tuesday Morning.  It's bright, big and I absolutely LOVE it !!

Thank you for visiting Meticulosity.

Debra Davison/ Meticulosity

March Cookies - Take 2

As we all head into warmer weather, what better than a Springtime theme for Cookie Challenge #90 over at the IF YOU GIVE A CRAFTER A COOKIE Challenge Blog !! Our inspiration photo is full of bunnies, chicks, ducks, eggs and fabulous spring colors . I had recently bought a couple 6x6 paper pads at Tuesday Morning and knew they would be perfect for a Spring-themed project. Our fabulous sponsor for this Challenge is Little Blue Button Stamps. 

I don't send many Easter cards or have many Easter stamps, but I did recently buy a few at the amazing Hobby Lobby clearance. I found wood-mounted stamps clearanced for $1 and $2 dollars so somehow they jumped into my cart. I do love wood-mounted stamps but have been trying to downsize recently to make my stash more manageable !! As usual, my card did not turn out like any of the ideas I had in my brain, But I am thrilled with it and now just need to decide who to send it to. 

Spring is in The Air

• Using  a piece of pale yellow Bazzill card stock, I made the card base.  
• The floral images were from a piece of Pebbles "Garden Party" paper . I cut off the 4th floral design in the bottom right corner and placed a piece of coordinating paper from the same pad in its place. 
• The Easter basket is a Mason-Row stamp from Hobby Lobby. I used Memories India Black Ink to stamp the basket onto Stardust White cardstock, as well as a few scraps of coordinating spring-colored paper.
• I cut out the basket and eggs, colored them with some favorite markers and then adhered them to a fussy-cut basket image. 
• I popped up the basket in the lower R corner of the card with Tombow foam tabs, then positioned a Tim Holtz Small Occasions sentiment above it.
• To complete the card, I placed 3 sequins above the sentiment and numerous rhinestones and pearls on the flowers.  
• All items were adhered with Tombow Adhesives -  both MONO Permanent Adhesive+ Runner and MONO Aqua Liquid Glue.

Take a look at my teammate's projects here and be inspired  by their Spring designs.  Each challenge is open for 2 weeks. Link up one of your own creations by April 4 for a chance at a prize from our sponsor this time, Little Blue Button Stamps. 

Thank you so much for visiting Meticulosity 

Debra Davison

March Cookies - Take 1

This month's cookie challenge - #89 - celebrates all things music. Over at the IF YOU GIVE A CRAFTER A COOKIE Challenge Blog , we are showing you our musical creations .  Our sponsor for this challenge is Sasayaki Glitter Digital Stamps and several team members have used their images. Take a look at my project and those of my team-mates and if you are inspired, link up a creation of your own. The challenge is open for 2 weeks, starting March 8 !!

My guy Brian is a singer/songwriter/guitar player and we have the opportunity to listen to many local musicians in the Hampton Roads area.  This challenge inspired me to make a birthday card for a friend who plays in a band with his wife. John and Laurel have been good friends and we always love to hear them play with their band, The Muddy Gems.  They were the inspiration for this card. No one who hears them play could ever doubt that they are making time for the things that they love.

• I started with a piece of Bazzill blue cardstock as my base.
• The guitar image from the Visible Image stamp set  Music Speaks was stamped in Staz On "Blue Hawaii" ink  on a scrap piece of marbled blue paper.
• A piece of black paper with gold foil accents from the Bella Blvd. paper pad Make Your Mark was adhered along the left side of the blue card base.
• The guitar image  was adhered at an angle onto the card base. A Tombow MONO+ Permanent Adhesive Runner was used to adhere this image and the paper along the L side.
• I placed 3 turquoise sequins around the guitar to finish the card.

Heart Musical Note stamp from Memory Box

( back of card )

I'm glad that you stopped by to see what I was inspired to create  Music is an important part of many of my friend's lives and it was fun to take part in this challenge !! I hope you will take a look at the other projects from our Challenge Design Team. Link up a project of your own here and you could win some digis from our sponsors at Sasayaki Glitter Digital Stamps.

Debra Davison / Meticulosity

Coffee & Cards with Deb & Celeste 2/25

This month Celeste and I decided to highlight some of our Favorite Stamps .  This month instead of having a guest blogger, we are telling you about a new blog. My friend Nola Pierce Chandler has designed some stamps ( her first ) for Impression Obsession AND has also just started a blog Snickerdoodle Studios . Of course, I fell in love with her coffee stamps and they are my favorites for today's post !! I also decided to use another of my favorite supplies - Project Life cards. 

• Using the Impression Obsession stamp set Coffee Set / Valentine , I stamped the girl image on a Project Life "Gather"  journal card and the travel mug images on several colors of scrap paper. Memories India Black Ink was my go-to ink.
• A fun striped card base from the American Arts "Shimelle"  boxed card collection added a fun background to the stamped images.
• Brea Reese Markers  were used to color in the images. These are my latest marker purchase and I really LOVE them !! I also used a few Faber-Castell PITT Artist pens.
• I cut a small tan doily to fit in the upper left corner of the journal card and adhered it with my Tombow MONO+ Adhesive Runner . I then adhered the journal card at a diagonal on the right side of the card base. 
• I stamped my initial, Celeste's and Nola's on the travel mugs. 
• The travel mugs were fussy-cut and popped up on the left side of the card base with Tombow Foam Tabs .
• Ranger Glossy Accents added the appearance of glass to the lenses. 
• A Wink of Stella Glitter Clear Brush Marker added some shimmer to her hair.

Teal, pink and purple are the colors of the Thyroid Cancer ribbon.. I am a 3 year survivor and find myself using these colors often in my projects. They seemed perfect for this card !! I hope that you will check out Celeste's blog Crafting Junky to see what she chose as her favorite stamps. And Nola's blog at Snickerdoodle Studios is a fun place to get lots of creative ideas. You can also see all of her stamps at Impression Obsession . 

My coffee for today is Cinnamon Churro  in a beautiful Starbucks cup that was designed by English fashion designer, Charlotte Ronson. I actually didn't now who she was, but just fell in love with the cup !!

Thank you for visiting Meticulosity !!

Debra Davison

February Cookies - Take 2

Spring is definitely in the air and Cookie Challenge #88 pays tribute to that with a bird/birdhouse theme. This month's sponsor at the IF YOU GIVE A CRAFTER A COOKIE Challenge Blog is Pattie's Creations Digital Images. I hope that after you check out my project, you will also look at the projects from the other Design Team members. And I'd also like to invite you to link up one of your creations to the post.. You have 2 weeks from Feb. 22 to join us .

I will confess that this Bird Crazy stamp set and the matching dies have been in my possession since 2015. A friend got them for me at a stamp show in California and even had Tim Holtz himself sign the die packaging. I will admit that I had something of a fangirl moment when I held the dies in my hands. It was really fun getting creative with these stamps and I am sure I will be using them again very soon !!

• On a pnk card base, I mounted a background of pink tree/ branch patterned paper
• I stamped 3 different birds on a variety of different colored scraps and also a few on some Neenah Stardust White cardstock. 
• Using the dies, I cut out the 3 birds and also their wings. 
• I fussy-cut the eyes and beak from the Stardust White cardstock and adhered them to the birds after coloring some of them with my favorite markers.
• After coloring the wings, I adhered them to each bird. A Wink of Stella Clear Glitter Brush Marker added some shimmer to  several of the wings. 
• The birds were adhered to the background with Tombow MONO Adhesive+ and the saying from a Dylusions Coloring Sheet was popped up using Tombow Foam Tabs.

This was a fun card to make. These birds can be used in so many ways !! I'm sorry I waited so long to get them inky .. They were perfect for this Challenge.  Thank you for visiting Meticulosity and be sure to look at all of the Design Team projects here.

Debra Davison / Meticulosity

February Cookies - Take 1

Challenge #87 over at If You Give a Crafter a Cookie is all about hearts and love and red and white and Valentines. Our sponsor this time is My Besties . This challenge is open for 2 weeks starting Feb. 8 and I hope you will take a peek at all of the Design Team creations AND maybe even link up something of your own. 

I have had this wonderful AMOR stamp by Hero Arts for quite some time but had never inked it up !! So, the time was right to get creative with it. Along with a red and white Valentine theme, I used a non-traditional color card base.

• I stamped the AMOR image from Hero Arts on a piece of pale pink scrap paper, using  StazOn ink in the perfect color - St. Valentine.  
• The Frida image is from the Coyoacan Collection by Vera Lane Studio. I printed her on my favorite cardstock - Neenah Stardust White. 
• I fussy-cut Frida and colored her with my favorite Faber-Castell PITT Artist pens and Stampin Up markers. 
• The AMOR image was adhered to the card base with Tombow Mono Adhesive+ and Frida was popped up with Tombow Foam Tabs.

I hope you like my Frida Amor card !! I am a big fan of Frida and her work  - you can find out more about her here. Please leave a comment and let me know what you think of my card. Do you like  more "traditional" Valentines?? I love combining patterned papers & backgrounds with stamped images and this card was no exception. Be sure to check out the Challenge page for all of the team's designs. And if you'd like, you can link up a project -- we would love that !! 

Thank you for visiting Meticulosity.

And thank you again to our sponsor -  My Besties .

Debra Davison