MISSING IN ACTION

Hey All! Gosh it's good to see ya! LOL And it certainly is good to be back. Again, I have to thank those who sent emails to me making sure I was OK. Truth is, Jay was having some medical issues and I was taking care of all of that. Whenever he is going through something, it so effects me and I get a little depressed over it. But he is doing much better now, and I'm back! I'm also having computer issues! Errrrrrrrrrr! It keeps overheating and shutting itself off. I'm going to take the cover off today and have a look. Everything on the Internet says it needs dust cleaned off the internal fans. So, I thought I better get my post up before I take the chance of blowing up my computer.

The first cards I want to share with you are ones I did for my Mom and Jay's Mom for Mother's day. Here is the one I did for my Mom:



The inside says "Always There For Me" which Mom has always been. This is one of the sweetest House Mouse images. I love the Happy Hoppers and that little frog is just as cute as it can be. You can see in the close ups below (click for larger) how layered it is. I double stamped the umbrella and raised it with dimensionals. The rain drops and the puddle look wet. I used Diamond Glaze to get this effect.







This one I made for Jay's Mom:



It was made to match the gift I made for her below:











The box is one of the "Origami" boxes that I now LOVE to make. This box was perfect for this coaster set! The coaster set was inspired by Gina K's "Stamp TV" video. You can watch it here. The paper used for the box is from The Paper Studio. I went to Lowe's and hand picked these Venetian stone tiles. Since these are natural stone, each tile is totally different, and I wanted the least amount of holes in the stone. I then used Staz-On black ink for the image and "writing". Both stamps are Inkadinkado. I then used daubers to add the Staz-On mustard and Staz-On pumpkin ink colors on the butterfly. After I added the writing stamp, I used a sanding block to sand the ink so it looked aged. Just like in the video. I then added felt "pads" on the bottom to protect furniture. The Staz-On ink is totally waterproof, so it is the perfect ink for this project. I love how these turned out!

Here is the box that I made for my Mom:



As I said, I LOVE these boxes. You can see a great tutorial video on how to make these here. I can make them in less than two minutes and they are so versatile! The paper size I used for these boxes is: Bottom 11 x 11 and the top 11.5 x 11.5. For instructions go here. This box is such a nice size. The one above that I made for my Mom held 3/4 of a bag of Hershey kisses (her favorite). At the bottom of the box, I had hidden cash that I gave her as a gift. I paper pieced the flower (various punches) on top of the box out of Bazzill card stock in the colors of the patterned paper.

I also made another card for my Mom which held another "surprise":







These little flower pot cards are really cute. I first saw them on Splitcoast. They are perfect for hiding gift cards or in this case, scratch off lottery tickets.

My last card to share with you is a belated birthday card for a woman I used to work with:





I love this little image too! I came up with the sentiment (on the inside) that says, "I was a blooming idiot to forget your birthday". The image was colored with my cheap colored pencils and OMS.

Finally, I wanted to share with you a couple of RAKS that I received. The first one was so sweet and so thoughtful:



My very sweet blogging buddy Elaine Moore sent me this very sweet gift. She knows how much I adore my "boys" and she sent me these great bone shaped paper clips and this adorable box of dog themed bandages. Elaine, this was so very thoughtful of you, and I can't tell you how much it means to me for you to be so thoughtful. I wish she had a blog so I could share her with you! Please keep watching your mail Elaine, I haven't forgotten, just have been distracted as explained above.

My next RAK just blew me away:



This one was given to me by the very sweet America who recently won my blog candy which included the Copic markers. This package arrived and I just couldn't believe my eyes! It was full of all kinds of marvelous stuff, along with over 200 stamped House Mouse images and sentiments. I couldn't get over all the time it had to have taken her to stamp all of those images. I also told her in my thank you email that I have never seen so much stuff in any one's blog candy give aways! Be sure that you take a look at her work here. America, it was so kind and generous of you and I appreciated it so much! The card below was also included:



Well, there you go. . .It's nice to be back. I've saved some cards for the next post so you'll be hearing from me again soon! Thanks so much for your patience and sticking with me! I'm now going to take my computer apart and hopefully it will be successful! Keep your fingers crossed for me! Once I get it back together, I'll be visiting all of your blogs to catch up on what you've been doing! Can't wait to see all of your great stuff! Don't forget the pic of the week below!


Best,


Curt O'Brien


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