Curt's Best Shots Slideshow

Saturday, October 4, 2008

HAPPY WORLD CARD MAKING DAY!!!

Hey All! Happy World Card Making Day! This is really kinda cool! A day just for us to celebrate our craft! By the way, I've added someone to my blog list over there to the right. Her name is Marie and her blog is Aloha and Mabuhay. She is so talented, and I love visiting her blog. Go take a look, and I think you will agree that she has some fabulous cards to share. Her detail is incredible!
I've made 4 cards for today's special occasion! So on with the cards! My first is an Autumn card:


I used my new Spellbinders Shapeabilities for these leaves (except for the little bitty ones, those are punches). I love this new set! I love how it embosses the leaves and gives them veins. I used my glitter pen to go over them to make them sparkle. I attached the 3 main leaves with foam mounts to give it depth, and glued the others flat on the card stock. I used my corner punch to do the scalloped edge and then pierced each scallop, mounted all of that onto chocolate brown card stock, added the ribbon, the bling to the ribbon, and dew drops to a few of the leaves. Here's a close up of the Spellbinders leaves:



See how the leaves have the embossed veins? Love this!

My next card is a Halloween card. I just can't stop making them! I was cruising blogs the other day and came across a card that I just had to case. However I could just kick my butt, because now I have no idea who's blog it was on to give them credit! I'm such an unorganized dork! Anyway, this is my version of that card. . .

I started with a watercolor card stock. I then took my ink pads (all Colorbox) and started at the bottom rubbing the ink pads on the card stock. I started with yellow first, then orange, then purple, then dark blue, then black. I then used my Aquapen to mute it and blend it all together so the colors graduated into the next. I used a heat gun to dry it, then stamped the tree line with the bare tree stamp from Rubber Stampede. I used my Nesties to cut out the circle for the moon. This paper is from Doodlebug and it is called sugar coated card stock. It really sparkles and comes in lots of colors. I got it at Archivers. Anyway, I stamped the witch image right on the sparkle stuff using archival jet black ink. The stamp is from Martha Stewart. The ink did not really come out well because of the granular surface, so I went over it with a black marker to make it darker. I then attached the moon to the card, and then used a glitter pen to dot in the stars. This was a pretty easy card to make. Here is a close up:


Even after going over the image in black marker, the sparkles still shined through! I was really amazed by that!

My next two cards are birthday cards. One is for a friend of mine and the other is for the batch of cards I'm making for Pat for the Cards for Kids project that she started. I'll start with that one first.


This one was a little time consuming because of all of the cutting out and assembly, but I think it is really cute if I do say so myself. The stamps are from Stampin Up. They were part of my prize package that I won as blog candy from Rita's blog. I stamped the packages and balloons on white card stock with different color inks by Colorbox, then embossed them with clear ep. I cut them out and attached the bling to the balloons and then attached the color coordinated yarn to both pieces. I attached them all to the matted card stock with foam squares. I then used my glitter pen to do the background "swirlies". Here are a couple of close ups:




I wanted something suitable for kids and whimsical.

My last card is also a card I kind of cased from Catherine at Inksomnia. I loved the card she posted, so here is my version:



I like her card way better, but this served its purpose. I used various stamps to fill in the squares which were cut out of the paper using a plastic template. I then adhered the paper to white card stock. The images (I have no idea who makes these stamps) were colored with colored pencils, cupcake was glittered, hats had bling attached, and the sentiment was embossed with red tinsel ep. Pretty quick and simple card.

Well, that's it for this post! Whew! That was a lot of pics! I set a record for pics in one post! And speaking of pics, don't forget the pic of the week below: Thanks for visiting, and I'll see you on your blogs later tonight! I have a birthday dinner to attend to this evening, then back to the blogs!

Best,

Curt O'Brien
"God help me be the person that my dogs think I am."

26 comments:

DeeDee said...

Oooooh, Am I first today!!! YAY!!! I really like all of your cards....all of the time....but that witch in the moon card is so danged COOL!!! I wish I were a stamper....but I'm not and I can never make a card look this good with just stamps....you are AWESOME Curt!!! Your POTW...way too COOL dude!!! WOW...I love it!!! HUGS!!!

Marie said...

Wow! Thanks for the shout out, Curt! How sweet!
All the cards are wonderful! That's a lot of cards for Card Making Day! Love the way you did your Halloween card. The braying effect is awesome! Have a great week!

6 wacky women said...

Hey Curt...
All your cards are terrific. I especially like the way you did the shading on your witch card. You have been really busy ....glad to see you back. Your pic of the week is awesome...What a great photographer you are too!! Have a great day.
Karen

The Rubber Maid said...

Love your leaves, they are totally awesome and the picture of the week is a real beauty. Thanks for doing a card 4 kids card too, cute. Pat

Anonymous said...

THAT "WITCHY" CARD HAS GOT TO BE YOUR BEST SO FAR. I ESPECIALLY LOVE THE BACKGROUND...I NOTICED IT FIRST, EVEN BEFORE I REALLY LOOKED AT "WITCHY". THE "PIC OF THE WEEK" IS AMAZING...HARD TO DUPLICATE "GOD'S WORK", BUT YOUR GETTING CLOSE WITH YOUR GOD GIVEN TALENT......LOVE YA, MOM

Sharon (notimetostamp) said...

Gosh, you've been busy!!! Love them all, and I am so happy to see the Spellbinders leaf dies - how cool are they!!! Gee, there is so much to wish for!!! These are definitely on top of the list!!! A great batch of cards and glad to see you could enjoy World Cardmaking Day!!!

Sharon (notimetostamp) said...

Gosh, you've been busy!!! Love them all, and I am so happy to see the Spellbinders leaf dies - how cool are they!!! Gee, there is so much to wish for!!! These are definitely on top of the list!!! A great batch of cards and glad to see you could enjoy World Cardmaking Day!!!

sarahw said...

I just found your blog, I really like your cards. The Halloween card is great and I love the detail on your birthday card. Thanks for sharing. Sarah

Jules said...

OMG your witch card is THE SH*T!!!!
HAHAHA...that means above and beyond FANTASTICO!!! ANd I lOve it!
All your cards are just amazing!
You should win an emmy!!!
I especially LOVE your Butterfly picture of the week! It is beautiful!
I have tagged you, check out my blog for the deets and have a great week!

WhimsicalThoughts said...

Love the cards Curt, as always you did an awesome job! I love the Witch one, the moon is fantastic.

Catherine said...

Curt, all 4 cards are just wonderful and I was really surprised to see my name on this post...LOL! Thank you so much :)

Judy said...

As always, these cards are gorgeous. I love the witch!

Mada said...

Curt, as always, your creations leave me in awe. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the leaves card! Awesome!

Thank you for nice words and good thoughts and I apologize for not being around much. I did keep an eye on you ;) and admired everything you've posted. And the photos.
By the way, there are a few shots I'd love to have on my desktop as background. Is it allowed to use them for personal purposes only?

Hugs,
Mada

Jodi said...

Hi Curt, I love all your cards! It's so fun looking at all of them. I love your Halloween card, and all that glitter in the moon! =) Great photo of the week!!

Crissy Armstrong said...

My favorite was the leaves. Who'd a thunk to do pink autumn leaves, but it works! I love when pple think outside the box like that. Cool cards!

Crissy Armstrong said...

Ah, I see, they are NOT pink leaves... the orange got lost in translation to computer screen... But pink leaves would be cool on a fall card! I took a walk the other day and looked at the leaves at my feet, and the red maple leaves actually DID look pink on their underside, because they were a definite rosey red on the front. So they actually exist!

Julia Aston said...

Well - you have been one busy guy Curt! I love those embossed leaves and the great colors you used - fun balloon card too - and your pic of the day is terrific! thanks for stopping by my blog too!

Scossie Jane said...

Hi Curt

Thanks for all your lovely comments. I'm having a lovely time with my family here in Scotland, just reminds me how much I miss them living in Australia.

Your latest cards are amazing, especially the witch, she is fab.
Love the detail in the nestie leaves, well done.

hugs Jane xx

Janine said...

Well Curt your cards are absolutely fabulous.. Especially that witchy hallowe'en one... I love that one!!
Hope you are well and that you are having a good week.
Thanksgiving is this weekend for us so I am busy getting my home and menus organized.
Talk soon
Janine

Rita said...

Their all so darn cute! You were quite busy there fella! I luv them & you did a super job, my favorite one is the witch on her broom in the moonlight! Hugs Rita

Denise said...

Aloha Curt,

Love your cards. You put a lot of time & creativity into all of them. Thanks for sharing.
Hugs~

Jamie Martin said...

Hi Curt! I'm so excited, I finally figured out how to put the award you gave me (forever ago) on my blog!!!! Be sure to go take a look, I'm so proud (ok now I'm just sounding pathetic). Computers aren't my friend so it takes me awhile to figure things out. So you should be getting a bunch of people checking out your blog :)

Jamee said...

your halloween card is so cute! very creative :)

dpkennedy said...

Fabulous cards Curt! I love those leaves, they look so real! But that witch card is awesome! Fantastic sparkle..and I love the graduated color and the tree line-gorgeous!

Anonymous said...

My sissy Margie at OhBumbleIsMe told me about your work and she was right- I love it. Your cards are great!

Hope to see more!

:) Sara

Deb Neerman said...

Hey, how'd I miss this post!?!

WoW! These are all soooo terrific! Especially love that witch card ... the trees down at the bottom totally 'make' this ... in my humble opinion, lolol! Really adds the right perspective, KWIM?

Always soooo much fun to come play at Curt's World ... and you've given me some ideas!!

~Hugs, Deb