I'm Planning on Christmas in July

Have you ever had your project all mapped out in your head and then it takes off in an entirely different direction ?? Well, that is what happened with this one. My plan was to make planner clips for my Happy Planner using my Susan K Weckesser Christmas stamps that I have. And I did make a few; but then I  saw the Christmas tag that I had cut the face out of and my mind went in a completely different direction and I was quickly in CARD mode !!

I used the Very, Very Merry and World of Christmas and  An {Artful} Ornament stamp sets by Susan K Weckesser Inc.. The images were stamped using Colorbox Color Pop Archival Ink in Mystery.All images were colored with an assortment of  Tim Holtz Distress markers and Faber Castell PITT Artist pens. I cut strips from scraps of patterned Christmas paper and wrapped them around the bottom of some new pretty green paper clips ( found these at Office Maxx ). Using Tombow Mono Aqua Liquid Glue. I attached the stamped image to the strip of paper and placed a square of patterned paper on the back to hide the paper strip. A few rhinestones finished the clip. For the round clips, I punched circles out of the An {Artful} Ornament image and glued 2 images together back to back with the paperclip in between.

Clip process

       

I love this angel face from the World of Christmas stamp set and punched her out with a square punch. That's when my mind started going off in a different direction. I didn't just want to waste the rest of the tag so I made a card using it.

 I found a picture of an ornament in an old Christmas book that I have and punched out the image that I wanted to show in the window in the tag. I then found exactly where I wanted the tag to be placed and adhered the square picture down first. I then mounted Tombow Foam Tabs on the back of the tag around the square opening to create a window effect. I used a card base with bold gold stripes and added some red holiday tissue tape by Tim Holtz and a strip of pink glitter washi . I finished off the card with  3 large pink pearls on the left side and a piece of twine  at the top of the tag.

Close-up of the window in the tag

Planner clips -- December 2016

And because I love the holidays, I am having a little Christmas in July Blog Candy giveaway !! Leave a comment on this post and let me know what your favorite holiday project is and ONE lucky person ( USA Only ) will win a few of my favorite supplies... Remember that watercolor washi that everyone was looking for --- Yes, I'm including that along with a coloring book and a few other items  like my favorite grass washi !!

Christmas in July Blog Candy

Thank you so much for visiting Meticulosity and checking out my latest project for Susan K Weckesser's Creative Team. I can't believe my first month is almost over as a teammate with this amazing group of women.. Stay tuned for some August fun from all of us !! You can check out the team blog at { My Sweet Earth }

Stamp sets used :

Debra Davison

Susan K Weckesser Creative Team

Home Is Where the Crazy Cake Is

Baking was a big part of "Home" for me while growing up in a small town in Northeastern Pennsylvania. My father's parents were of Russian descent and my Baba (grandmother) had many family recipes. My Grammy (mother's mom) seemed to always be in the kitchen with a floury apron on when we would visit. This card was inspired by my mom who always worked in a factory sewing clothes, mainly dresses. She also loved to sew at home. There was also always something going on in the kitchen and this cake was a favorite. I used a copy of the well-worn recipe on this card which is filled with many of my favorite elements - washi, flowers, sequins, one of Susan's stamps, a doily and a few vintage buttons. Also had to use my go-to adhesive , Mono Aqua Liquid Glue by Tombow. To see more details of the process of making this card, please check out my post on My Sweet Earth, the blog for Susan and her Creative Team.

This Crazy Cake recipe was handwritten by my mom  about 50 years ago. I keep it in a Recipe box of hers along with many other recipes. It was written on a notepad from Kaier's Brewery, which was in my hometown of Mahanoy City. It is very easy and I remember helping her with it. One of the moistest cakes I've ever made. I will be sharing this one with some co-workers. A little whipped cream and some strawberries go perfectly with a slice of this cake.. And of course, an ice-cold glass of milk (or cup of coffee)... The Crazy Cake picture is of the actual cake I made this morning..

CRAZY CAKE

• 3 cups flour
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup baking cocoa
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons white vinegar
• 3/4 cup vegetable oil
• 2 cups cold water
• Powdered sugar ( optional )
• PREHEAT oven to 350° F. 
• 
  
• COMBINE cake flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda and salt in ungreased 13 x 9-inch baking pan. Make 3 holes in mixture. Into the first hole, pour the vanilla extract, into the second hole, the vinegar and into the third hole, the vegetable oil. Pour cold water over all. Mix with fork or wire whisk until well blended; do not overbeat. Mixture may contain some small lumps. 
  BAKE for 35 to 40 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Dust with powdered sugar ( optional ).

Thank you for visiting Meticulosity.. I hope you will comment with a special memory of home, maybe even a favorite recipe. 

Stamp Used :

Motherhood is a Verb

Debra Davison

Susan K Weckesser Creative Team

• 
  

Home Sweet Home

Today is my first "official" post with the Susan K. Weckesser Creative Team and we are celebrating  Home Sweet Home. My first idea was to make a card but I wanted to try something different.  On a larger scale. I had a chalkboard vinyl bulletin board that I have not used yet, so what better time than now as I plan on keeping track of my new responsibilities. Susan's new team already feels like family - another Home Sweet Home for me. 

On the board,which is on the closet door of my creative space, I have our upcoming blog themes along with a calendar with my dates marked. Susan has so many great house stamps for me to work with -- I chose 4 of my favorites .

I started out by using many of my paper scraps and stamping the houses on different papers so that I could paper-piece some of them. The yellow floral and  green scribbly roofs are made with some scraps of adhesive-backed fabric. I used Susan's line of Colorbox Color Pop Archival Dye Ink in Mystery to stamp all of the images. 

I punched out circles of Susan's Color Burst paper and placed Doubleclick Skittles in their centers for added dimension. A few other creative touches are a sequin for a doorknob and white polka-dots on the roof scallops using my favorite Uni-Ball Signo Angelic White Gel pen

For more details on a watercolor technique I used and other creative touches, please check out a more detailed description of all supplies used ( and more pictures )  on our blog -  My Sweet Earth . I'd love for you to leave a comment there on my post and continue to follow us. Thank you for being a part of my creative journey-- I feel so at home with this fabulous team !!

Stamps Used :

Painted Sentiments

The Happy Homestead

Le Mason

Little Haven

Heart-Full Homes

Debra Davison

Susan K Weckesser Creative Team

Paint Your Own Rainbows

Imagine my excitement when I submitted an application to work with Susan K. Weckesser's Creative Team and was asked to join her for a 6 month term starting in July. I have been a fan of Susan's work and absolutely love  her co-branded stamp line with Unity Stamp Company!!

Tonight Unity is releasing 2 new sets of Susan's designs for their 4th of July Sale and I couldn't wait to create something with the Unicorn & Rainbows stamps. There is also a cute set  with an owl and a fox called Going Wild.

I used a piece of an older Stampin' Up paper pad, cut out the elements of Unicorns & Rainbows and mounted them on the background paper. I colored the images with Faber-Castell PITT Artist Pens and Tim Holtz Distress Markers. I traced the sentiment onto a piece of confetti vellum and attached it with some bronze staples. My favorite Grass washi by Scotch was placed at the bottom edge of my card and enamel hearts by Chickaniddy Crafts were placed on the tree.

I plan on painting my own rainbow as a member of Susan's Creative Team by creating what I love, exploring new techniques and learning from the many talented members of the team.Thanks for joining me on my creative journey!!

2016 GIU Week Winners

The winners chosen at random to win some fabulous Unity stamps for commenting all week on my blog posts are  ---

Meg Crawford

&

Kathie Longbricco

Please PM or e-mail me your addresses so we can get your prize sent to each of you ! You have 2 weeks to send me the info.. Thanks so much to everyone who visited Meticulosity and followed my posts throughout the week..

I  also picked 2 commenters to send a bit of blog candy to. 

Jan Vint & Shelley Miscavitch-Lange

2016 Coffee Lovers Blog Hop

I am a coffee gal with no coffee maker !! My Keurig no longer works -- probably from over-use.. Time for a new one.. So lately I have been drinking more tea.. But I knew I had to make a Coffee card for this Blog Hop. My week has been busy as the Growing in Unity Girl with Unity Stamp Company and one of my projects was a coffee card.. For today's Blog Hop card, I again used Faber-Castell Whipped Spackle and some Donna Salazar Fairy Dust "Spun Sugar" Glitter on a Prima Mixed-Media tag.. The stencil is Wall Flowers by Claudine Hellmuth Studio.

I stamped  Kimmie Girl and fussy-cut her .. I still haven't bought one of those fancy machines that cuts out stamped images and will hold off as long as I can.. I actually enjoy fussy-cutting !! I then paper-pieced her jeans and the heart on her shirt.. She was colored with Faber-Castell PITT Artist pens and Light Flesh Big Brush Pen ( my go-to pen for flesh-tone ). I added some Scotch washi tape in Grass to the bottom of the tag and at the top I used some Stampin' Up Quilted ribbon in Early Espresso and Cherry Cobbler.. The sentiment is from Unity Stamp Company KOM 6/14.. I hope you like my tag for the Hop..

Thanks to Amy for hosting again and to all 57 Super Sponsors for their support AND prizes !! I'll be offering blog candy to someone who comments on this post and tells me their favorite coffee maker / machine.. Hope to be able to post again but at least wanted to get one finished over the weekend..

Happy Coffee-Blog Hopping

I'm a Happy Planner - GIU Day 5

I'm sure you all have heard about the planner craze. Erin Condren, Kikki K, Webster's Pages, Happy Planners -- there are so many great ones to choose from !! I typically would keep a small calendar in my purse and enter my work schedule in my phone. But I wanted to try my hand at planner decorating and actually bought  2 during great sales. I have a Webster's Pages Personal Planner and a MAMBI Happy Planner . For my last GIU project, I did a layout for June in my Happy Planner. I am new at this and still have "white space" or empty places showing on my layouts. I have seen beautiful pages decorated from top to bottom, completely covered. Not sure if that is for me but I will try it one month !!

Of course, I had to choose the perfect stamp sets for the June layout. I chose Bunny Hugs and Journal Doodles with a Heart which are both designed by Susan K. Weckesser. From Bunny Hugs, I used the mushroom stamp and the others were all from Doodles with a Heart. I used a Black India Ink stamp pad and stamped directly on the planner. I used the small flower stamp to designate days that I work. The Strong ME stamps are placed on 6/29, which is when I had my first surgery for thyroid cancer last year. It's hard to believe so much time has passed and I wanted a reminder in writing of just how STRONG I am !! 6/30/2001 is the anniversary of the date I met my significant other. Brian and I have been together 15 years. The butterfly in the Notes section is colored in the Thyroid Cancer colors -- pink, purple and teal.  I used a Heidi Swapp puffy sticker to designate my LUCKY week as the GIU girl and several MAMBI Happy Planner stickers & Sticky notes to finish the pages. It's nice that I can use many of my card-making supplies in my planner layouts. The Susan Weckesser stamp sets I used were the perfect sizes for my planner.. I can't wait to try some of her small houses on future planner layouts !!

I had a wonderful GIU week and want to thank everyone who has read my posts, visited my blog and commented. It means so much to me that you all would take the time to do that. Winners of the Unity stamps and my blog candy will be announced next week..


                                                           Thank you so much again !!