4 NEW CARDS!

Hey All! Boy have I been on a roll this week! I found two new types of cards (well, new to me!) and I am so in love with them! So much so, I made two of each type for the post! Now, on to the cards. . .

The first is a "waterfall" card. This one I had glimpsed for the first time on Rita's blog. When I went to the tutorial she provided, I couldn't believe how easy they were to make, and what a cool effect they gave. I love dimensional cards, but this one has "moving parts" and can be done for so many occasions! Here is my first attempt:

This one I made as a "Happy Autumn" card. I used Fallish background paper and then for my waterfall panels, I stamped 4 different leaves and then embossed them in copper embossing powder. I just LOVE these cards!!! For those of you that don't know what they are, when you pull the part there at the bottom with the ribbon, the little leaf panels flip back to reveal each one one at a time! Your card message is on that strip as you pull it out. How cool is that? When you go to Dawn's (Dawn's Stampin Studio) tutorial here, you will see how it works in her excellent video. Dawn's blog is incredible! Go see hers for this tutorial and many others she has. She is amazing! They are really hard to photograph but here are the other two shots:

I started to pull the bottom and you can see how it is starting to "flip" the panels backwards. . .

And at the end, is your last stamped image, and your greeting sentiment. How very cool! OK, the next one is one I've made for Jay's great nephews who were here from Boston a couple of weeks ago. I know, I know "Oh God! Not more Halloween!" LOL Just hang with me for a sec. This is the only one for this post! I just thought these would be perfect to send to kids for Halloween. Zak is 9 and Dillon is 5, so these are perfect for that age. . .

How cute are these for kids? These stamped images are from new stamps I picked up at Michael's and they are part of the Martha Stewart line. They were perfect for this card because they were all uniform in size.

OK, those were waterfall cards, now on to the next two. These are called "Free Standing Pop Up Cards" and I stumbled on these while looking around Splitcoast. Click here for the tutorial. I am just nuts over these cards. They are way three dimensional, and they fold flat to put into an envelope!!!! I can't get over how easy they are to make as well, and the tutorial is excellent! Here is my first attempt:

Is this not a great idea?!?! Can you believe it folds flat easily to slip into an envelope? I can think of 100 cards to do using this technique. And again, it was really super easy to do. Here is a close up of some detail:

I used my Endless Limbs from Pink Cat Studios for this card. The base and tag mat are done with a copper card stock. I used a paper punch to punch out the leaves. OH, and by the way, I punched the leaves out of paint sample cards I picked up at the local hardware store! Talk about an endless FREE supply of color squares to use on your cards!!!! I then cut out the scalloped circle with my Nesties, added some bling and ribbon, and done! Here is my second attempt:

I forget what stamp set this is, but can't you see this sitting on someones desk at work or on someones mantel at home? I really love these, and yes there is a Halloween one floating in my head. Can't you see the tag being made to look like a tombstone? LOL You know it's coming Bwaaaa haaa haaaa haaa haaaaaa. . . ..

Well, there you go. Hope you try these if you never have. Can't wait to make more!

Thanks for all the wonderful things you all said about me last week! My award that I gave really brought some wonderful words back to me. Did my heart good to make all of you happy! And speaking of happy. . .A very sweet Jan Scholl out of the blue sent me a package containing some beautiful May Arts ribbon. I appreciate it so much Jan! Thank you!

That's it for this post! Sorry they are so long, but I just have to share it! Don't forget the pic of the week below. I took this picture of this little guy last week while walking the Shotsy and Gunther. A lot of you have been asking where I take all these pics. Well, most of them come from this wonderful park a couple of miles from where I live. It is called River Road Park. It has trails through these beautiful wild flower fields, and that is where I find most of my "subjects". Take care all! Have a fabulous weekend and I'll see you all on your blogs!

Best,

Curt O'Brien

"God help me be the person my dogs think I am."

NEW AWARD LAUNCHING TODAY!

Hey All! Hope you had a great weekend! I'm a little under the weather here today. I started with a cold last night, and I'm a little miserable today, but that didn't stop me from making some stuff! LOL I have a few things I wanted to share with all of you. One thing is a brand new award that I have personally created and am launching today. And, as I'm sure you have already noticed, I've done some decorating here at the old blog. Now, on to the cards. . .




How cute are they? This stamp is from a series called "Anthony & Burt". I bought it from Little C's which is my blogging friend Jen's new online store. You can visit it here. She has great prices and gets things to you right away. I love this stamp! I colored them with markers, cut them out and matted them with foam squares on top of the "frog skin" background made from using the "bubbles" Cuttlebug embossing folder (which looks like frog skin!) Did the mounting of that piece on regular cs added the sentiment (which by the way I came up with and was created on my computer), added the dew drops on the bottom and done. Here are a couple of close ups:






My very sweet blogging buddy Tammy Hershberger surprised me this week and sent me a ton of stamped Halloween images from "My Favorite Things" along with the sweetest card using one of them:




Is this not the sweetest card?!?! You really should go see her blog, she has some awesome talent and her cards are incredible! Below are the images she sent me:





Sorry Tammy, but I was so excited to get them that I started cutting them out to use when I realized I had not photographed them yet! That's why some are missing in the photo above! I used some of them to make my next card:





The minute I saw the cauldron with the flourishes I got the idea for this card. I cut out the cauldron that Tammy sent me, but I did not cut out the flourishes that came with it. Instead, I stamped my own flourishes onto a mottled green paper. Then I cut out those cute bottles with potion ingredients, colored them, and applied them to scalloped circles made with my Nesties (by the way, Hobby Lobby is now selling them in their stores and you get to use the 40% coupon on them too!). I then attached them and the cauldron with foam mounting squares for depth, stuck on a bunch of orange and purple crystals, cut out and matted the sentiment she sent me and done! Oh, the bat on the cauldron is made with a Martha Stewart punch. Here are a couple of close ups:








With all the images she sent, you can count on a few more Halloween cards from me in the next few days. Once I get those out of my system I'll move on to Autumn!



And lastly, I was nominated again by a couple of sweet, sweet, people for the same award. Sankari W. who is a new visitor to my blog and creates wonderful cards (click on her name), and Sue at Sue's Stamping Stuff who I have admired for months now (go see her creations by clicking her name), both gave me the "I "heart" Your Blog" award last week which is displayed proudly in my awards column.



So I wanted to thank them so much for thinking so highly of me that they would do that. Normally, I don't continue the award string because most of you have them already, and they sort of become like chain mail! LOL However, I think it is important to recognize those out there who inspire us. To me, it's not so much an award as it is a statement of liking your blog and admiring your work. So, I've created my own award that I'm launching today. I've created it using one of my own favorite original photographs. It simply says "You Inspire Me". I'm going to name those people that I would like to have this inaugural award because I do love their blogs, and I am inspired by them daily. If you feel the same about someone, pass it on to those who inspire you, however no strings attached to this one other than giving it to those who inspire you too. Here is the award, and underneath are the people that I want to receive it:



Jenn - Kiyomi Krafts
Jen - Pieces of Me
Jodi - Inked Inspirations
Tammy - Stamp Happy
Rita - Rita's Little Corner
Dee Dee - Scrappin' with Dee Dee
Jane - Scossie Jane
Janine - 2bKrafty
Julie - Out to Impress
Pat - The Rubbermaid
Deb Neerman - Paper, Ink, Scissors, & Stamps
Denise - Denise Loves Stamps
Glee - Gleefully Done
Juliann - Pixie Shire
Sue - Sue's Stamping Stuff
Danielle - Wild Dragonfly Designs
Adrienne - Scrappin' with Adrienne
Jamie - Stamp This
Judy - Designs by Nanny
Joanne - Stamps 4 Sanity
Toni - Whimsical Thoughts



There is my inaugural 21 list! I guess you just right click the award picture and re-size it to fit where ever you are going to "hang" it. You all deserve this because you are all talented and creative, you have all inspired me is so many ways, and you have been consistent visitors to my blog with nothing but positive, uplifting, supportive comments that I so appreciate. You are all the best! As I visit other blogs as I do all week, I'll be giving more awards.


Don't forget the pic of the week below!


As always, thanks for spending some of your time visiting me. I'll see you on your blogs!


Best,


Curt O'Brein
"God help me be the person my dog thinks I am."

Butterfly Sympathy

Hello All! Welcome to the new post! Today's card is sadly a sympathy card. A neighbor here on our cul-de-sac lost her husband suddenly. So I made the card for her to take over with some food. We don't neighbor much, so I don't know her well, but I did want to acknowledge the loss of her husband. Here is the card:

All of the background silhouette images are from a set I bought at Hobby Lobby that I had never seen before. The company is Inque Boutique. I'm really impressed with this set called Silhouettes. They are rubber cling stamps and this set has 12 different stamps in the set, and the set came with its own stamp pad. The stamps are high quality, and it was only $11.99! When you go to their blog (above) they have a video on a cool stamping technique, but they also have this thing that if you upload a card or project to their gallery and they select it for the "card or project of the week", they give you $50.00 in free product. I've not seen that on any of the other stamp company's sites! So, back to the card. . .I used Colorbox Teddy Bear Brown ink for the silhouette images, then Versamark embossing ink for the little butterfly and embossed that in copper ep. I used my Cuttlebug butterfly die/embossing set for the butterfly and mounted it with a foam sticky square. The sentiment is from a set that I bought months ago, but have no idea who makes it. Stamped that on to cs, matted it, then used a copper paint marker to go around it and create the corner brackets. Tied the ribbon and done. Here is the closeup of the Cuttlebug butterfly. . .

One last thing, I received my blog candy that I won on Rita's blog. Go visit her and see her creations, she is so sweet! This is what she sent:

This was the card she sent with the gifts below:

This was my first blog candy win ever, and I'm glad I won it from her. Thanks again Rita!

That's it for now! Don't forget to look at the pic of the week! Stay tuned for something new coming up in the next few posts! Thanks, as always, for visiting my little 'ole blog! I'll be seeing you on yours!

Best,

Curt O'Brien

"God help me be the person my dog thinks I am."

MORE SPOOKY STUFF!!!

Hey All My Blogging Buddies (and welcome new comers too!)! The week has ended and the weekend is upon us! I hope you all had a good week and are ready for the weekend! Today's post is more Halloween Cards! Sorry, but I just had to get these out of my head so I can move on to other stuff! I also got my new stamp set from Pink Cat Studio called "Limitless Limbs" and couldn't wait to use them. After the cards, I've got "stuff" to talk about, so be sure you read the last couple of paragraphs! OK to the cards! Here is the first:

This one was done with my new set. I love all of the possibilities that this set offers. You can check it out here. I stamped the tree, cat, and pumpkin from the set with black Colorbox ink, then embossed them with clear ep. I colored the pumpkin with markers, and added the hill with colored pencil. All of the leaves were made with a punch and glued on individually. I then mounted it on black cs then mounted that onto paper from Doodlebug. Tied shimmery orange ribbon on to that, then mounted all of that on to white cs, added the 3-D sentiment square from a sticker set and that was that!

The next two are traditional "spooky" cards. One actually gives me the creeps every time I look at it, so I'm saving it 'til last. Here's card #2:

I have always loved this stamp, and as I was looking through my Halloween papers, I found the perfect one to go with it. I stamped the skeleton (Inkadinkado) with Versamark embossing ink, then used white ep. I triple matted the image using black, white, and orange cs. I then used a stencil to create the faux stitching around the card using my silver glitter pen (you can see it better in the photo below). I had two of the 3-D sentiment thingys and I thought it went well with this card too. So, I slapped that on, tied the ribbon, and then mounted it onto white cs.

OK, prepare yourself to be creeped out by the third card! Here it is:

How creepy is that skull??? I made it even worse by putting in the two "eye balls". They are black "dew drops". However, I LOVE the flourishes on his forehead. That is why I stamped all of the flourishes as the background. I don't know who makes that stamp set, but I used black and orange Colorbox ink and then embossed them with clear ep. I triple matted the skull figure, which by the way is mounted with 3-d foam squares which makes it look like it is floating, then mounted it on white cs. The sentiment was stamped in black and embossed as well. I made the "tag" thingy myself. I just kept cutting down a rectangle until I got this. I then embellished it with with two black brads. Look at the close up below for really creepy feelings. . .

So, there are the last of the Halloween cards for awhile. I may come up with some more closer to Halloween, but I hope these put you in the "spirit"!

Now onto a couple of other things. . .First, I want to say thank you to Jodi for the cutest shaker card that she sent to me. Her blog (see it here) had a tutorial on how to make shaker cards. Well, I loved them (being new to this) and left a comment on how much I loved them. She sent me the one below:

How cute is that!?! She is a dog lover like me, so this was so perfect. Nice to see a cute puppy after that skull, huh? Thanks again so much Jodi. It made my day!

Lastly, Jodi's sweet RAK got me to thinking. . .There are so many of you who are regulars to my blog (I love ya for that!) that there are times when I wish I could send you all a RAK every now and then. Sometimes some of you leave a comment on my blog that really makes me smile or makes my day, and I think "I wish I could send them a card." So, I thought why not ask! Here is what I would like to do. If you would like to receive a little something from me every once in awhile, please email me your address. I'm going to then have my "blog" address book so that I can send you a card or something every once in awhile. Don't worry, I won't publish your address anywhere! It will be for my own personal use only! I won't give it out to anyone! Promise! So, send me an email (curt.obrien@gmail.com) with your address (don't post your address in the comments section!). Don't know if that sounds dumb, but I just feel that I have made some really great buddies doing this blogging thing, and I'm used to sending out cards to friends and to people who do nice things for me! OK, that's it. Sorry this is so long. . .

Don't forget the pic of the week below! Also, I'm going to try a new challenge over at Y.ou K.now Y.ou R.ock. It is hosted by my good blogging buds Julie Koerber and Deb Neerman. It really is a new and creative challenge blog. This month's challenge is like none I've seen, so I'm going to give it a shot and that will be my next post. You should go give it a try!

Take care all! As always, thanks so much for your time to come visit me, and I'll see you on your blogs!

Best,

Curt O'Brien

"God help me be the person my dog thinks I am."

81 Days 'Till Halloween

Hey All! I'm back with more Halloween creations! 3 to be exact. I got on a roll, and had these floating in my head and they all came out in one sitting! Of course that meant I was up until 2:00 A.M. but I was having fun! Here is the first of the 3:

(click on picture for detail)

This is a "no stamp" card. I had purchased this paper last year at Hobby Lobby. It is by Daisy D's. I loved the vintage feel of the pictures on the paper (this was one of 3 or 4 on the 12 x 12). When I bought it, I had this card in mind and 1 year later it materialized! I cut it from the paper, matted it with black and red cs added bling at the bottom and on top of the hat, distressed the white cs with black ink, added the ribbon and done! If you click on the picture, you will see the saying "Friendly Fairy, Witch, or Fay Fulfil the Wish You Wish Today." I thought to myself what the heck is a "Fay"? So I looked it up and it is the old Middle English word for "Elf". So, there ya go ~ you learned something new today on my blog! On to the next card. . .

This one is my "Halloween Gallery" card. It reminded me of pictures hung on a wall. If you click on the picture, you'll see the background paper has a paisley print which looks like wall paper. This was a simple card to put together. . .just stamped the images, embossed them with clear ep, cut them out and matted them with black cs, used foam mounting squares for a couple of the images, and then attached them to the card. There are 3 different stamp companies represented here. . .Inkadinkado, Stampede, and Stampabilities. The ink is Colorbox black. I added a red rhinestone to the raven's eye, and when I took the picture below the sun hit it just right to give it this effect!

How fun (and creepy) is that! It was an unexpected photo effect without trying!

The last of the 3 is more whimsical. . .

I love this little spider guy so I built a card around him. Again, the stamps are from the above mentioned companies and I used Colorbox black pigment ink and clear embossing powder for the webbing on the background panel. Used my Nesties, mounted both panels to the card, added the ribbon and done.



I hope you enjoyed these! Making these has gotten me so in the mood for Fall! So Autumn cards are soon to follow! I love anything Autumn, the colors, the crisp cool air, the smells of wood burning, cinnamon, and apple cider. Going to the pumpkin patch, decorating the house in warm Autumn colors, etc., etc. . . .Sorry, I was rambling wasn't I?

Anyway, thanks so much for stopping by and for the comments you all left on the last post. I'll be anxious to see what you think of this group! Hope you are all well and things are wonderful in your worlds! I'll see you on your blogs! Don't forget the pic of the week below! This one I took a couple of days ago while walking the boys. It was such a cool flower and I picked this photo for this particular post because it has such Autumn colors! Enjoy!

Best,

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

Halloween is Coming!!!!

Hey All! Hope your week is going well! As I've been visiting your blogs and other blogs near and far, I have noticed a lot of people starting to post Halloween cards and Christmas cards. While I'm not inclined at the moment to even think about Christmas, I am getting so excited about Fall and my favorite holiday of the year - Halloween! As a kid, I loved spooky things and always had a fascination with ghosts and scary things (I know, most of you are thinking "Hmmm that explains a lot!") HA! My fondest memories as a kid revolve around Halloween! So, today's post is a Halloween card. This was definitely a project for me. I wanted something 3-D. I love dioramas and 3-D cards. I found a stamp at a used stamp sale that I thought had so many possibilities. It is a giant stamp that is nothing but 9 squares on it. It became the basis of my idea for this card:



As you can see from the photo, I cut out all 9 squares with an Exacto knife to form the window panes! Behind it, I placed black card stock and sponged the moon with Colorbox yellow ink using a circle mask. I then stamped the tree branch, colored it with markers, and attached it to the window itself after punching out little leaves and gluing them to the branch. I then stamped my ghost. Onto the window I folded and taped card stock to form the "sill" for the cat to stand on. I then attached the whole window to the card with foam mounting squares to give it the 3-D effect from behind. You can see it better in the closeup photo below:



I love how it turned out, though it was a lot ow work and cutting again! The sentiment will go on the inside, because I didn't want to ruin the "window in the wall inside the house" effect by putting a sentiment on the front under the window.

I'm going to do another Halloween card using this same 9 square stamp in a totally different way to show its potential for some many uses.

So, there you go. I'll post the next one in a couple of days, and then I will have one more Halloween card not using this stamp.

One last thing. . .My blog was featured on "Card of the Week.Com" this week! I didn't even know it untill my bloggin buddy DeeDee sent me an email to let me know. So I got to post that cool icon up there to the right! Thanks DeeDee for letting me know!

Hope all is well with you! Thanks again for stopping by! I love it when you leave comments, because I truly value what you have to say! So please, as one visitor put it "I need to leave more comments instead of lurking around your blog!) LOL Lurking is a good word for this post, huh?
Don't forget the Pic of the Week below: See you on your blogs!

Best,

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

AND THE WINNER IS . . .

Hey All! We have a winner of my set of Hummingbird note cards from the last post. Thanks so much for the wonderful tips you all left! I expected no less from all you talented people! Some of them I'm adopting right away! Also, thanks so much for the nice comments about the cards. Speaking of cards. . .today's post (I know, you want to know the winner. . .if you can't wait and savor the moment, scroll down to the bottom and take a look to see if it is you!) LOL Now, for those of you who are going to wait, back to today's post. This card was made with another stamp set from Artful Inkables. This one is from their Bloomin' Beauties set. Take a look at the card:



I just love these stamps! I colored the flowers with colored pencils and cut each one out. I stamped the vine part in Colorbox Canary multiple times in opposite directions, cut them out and pieced them together. I then wove the vine thingies into the trellis, then mounted the flowers on with foam mounting squares for depth. The trellis thingies are a border die cut from my Cuttlebug as is the embossed background which I thought went perfect with this. Ever since I got this Cuttlebug die, I kept thinking it looked like a trellis. Then when I got this stamp set I thought the two would be perfect together. A detailed shot is below:



The stamp set came with the sentiment "Bloom where you're planted", but it was a bit small for this size card. Besides, I have a friend that has a birthday coming up soon, so I thought this would make a good birthday card for her.

So, there you have it. Now, shall I announce the winner? OK, OK! For Those of you who waited, the list is below. Remember, the winner was the one who came out 13Th on the list as determined by Random.org. There were a couple of you who commented after the deadline date, so I'm sorry that I did not include you on the draw. There were also a couple of anonymous comments who did not leave a name, so I could not put them in for the draw. So, here is the list:

1. sue-oregon
2. mary ellen eidle
3. babs w/8
4. cardcrazy
5. denise
6. judy
7. the rubber maid
8. scossie jane
9. jodi
10. jennifer muraoka
11. gina wrona
12. rita
13. deedee
14. radiogirl
15. carole beath crayola58
16. mary ann-anon
17. adrienne
18. juliann

Congrats DeeDee! I'm so glad you won! Send me an email with your address and I'll get these right out to ya! DeeDee wrote: "OMG!! These are WONDERFUL Curt!!! WOW....you are so awesome to give them away too....my Mama LOVES hummingbirds and I may just need to go purchase that stamp set just to make cards for her!!!!Okay....hmmmm....a tip....did you know you can drop a few drops of food coloring in some shaving cream...give it a slight "mix" then lay your cardstock in it and make your own patterned paper??? Look here: http://www.metacafe.com/watch/294783/shaving_cream_printer/Have FUN!!!! HUGS!!!! Oh jeepers...I almost forgot...I love your pic of the week...that is so COOL!!!!"

I always love hearing from you DeeDee, thanks for all the wonderful comments you have left! And that goes for all of you! I love to hear from all of you, and I love coming to your blogs! You guys are the best! I'll be having some more fun stuff to play in the future with some more ideas I have, so keep coming back, you never know what is coming next! Don't forget the pic of the week below! She is a beauty! I've been waiting all summer to get a photo of a tiger, and a few days ago, there she was! Have an incredible week all! See you on your blogs!

Best,

Curt O'Brien
"God help me be the person my dog thinks I am."