BACK TO POSTING!

Hey All! I can't thank you enough for all the wonderful, supportive comments regarding Jay's emergency illness. He is back home as of last night and is recuperating. I was also very touched that I received over 20 personal emails asking for my address so that you could send a card to Jay. Instead of answering them individually, I decided to just post my address here. So, if you would still like to send Jay a card the address is:

Jay Rosello

12650 Cerromar Ct.

Carmel, IN 46033

I'm sure it would lift his spirits and you all were very sweet to ask. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. I don't want to bore you with all the details of what happened, so I will put a blurb at the bottom of the post for those of you who would like to know what happened with Jay. There was also a very weird thing that happened during the emergency that I will tell you about. So, if you want to know what happened, you can read it at the bottom. If not, you can just read the post of the cards. So, on to the cards. . .

This post has LOTS of pictures. This first card is one I did for our doctor who's wife just gave birth to their first baby:

When I saw this image for the first time, I knew it would be perfect for a baby boy card. It is a Happy Hopper image from House Mouse. Again, I colored it with cheap colored pencils and OMS. I used cotton batting on the tail, and a silver metallic pen for the metal part of the clip board. The sentiment is computer generated.

We have been getting a lot of afternoon storms lately, and with Jay's illness coupled with the rainy afternoons, this card was born:

The stamp is from The Paper Company. I double stamped the image and cut out the top part of the umbrella after stamping it on patterned paper. I mounted them on top of a white piece of card stock that I ran through the Cuttlebug with the Swiss Dots embossing folder. I added brads to the top of the umbrellas and added glitter to every one of those little dots. This is one of those "long" cards, but I don't remember the measurements. Of course, it doesn't show in the photo. I plan on using this for a get well card with a sentiment inside saying "Heard you were under the weather".

I'm most excited to show you the note card set that I made for a friend of mine. This set includes a note card holder that I found cruising around the net. You can find the tutorial for it here.

The stamp set I used for this is the new set from Flourishes called DIY Topiary. I LOVE this set, and I can guarantee you that you will see more cards made with this set. The image on the front of this holder was colored with colored pencils and OMS. It was stamped on white card stock, but as I tried to use Tim Holtz's distress ink on the edges, I didn't like how uneven it looked, so I just daubed it all over and this is what I got. I kinda like it. . .a lot!

Here it is as it is being opened:

And here it is all the way opened:

Here is a pic of the whole set including one of the coordinating envelopes:

Below is the individual picture of each card in the set:

This one I used Flower Soft on. I LOVE this product. It really gives a great feel and 3-D effect to flowers or in this case topiaries!

What I especially love about this particular stamp set is that you can mix the different topiary plants with different pots. There are so many possibilities with this set.

Well, there ya have it. Don't forget the "Pic of the Week"! It is kind of creepy. Below is the "Jay Update":

It turns out that Jay was severely dehydrated due to a diuretic he was prescribed. This caused his kidneys to slow down and toxins were not being removed. This is why he was so disoriented and talking and doing crazy things which made me believe that he had had a stroke. He was in the hospital from Thursday morning until Monday night. He is doing much better, but still weak from the ordeal.

Here is the weird part of the story. On the morning it happened, he called out for me. I was sleeping, but Shotsy heard him and barked to wake me up. When I looked at the clock it said 9:11. As you know, I ended up calling 911 shortly after that. Weird huh?

Again, thanks so much to all of you for your thoughts, prayers, concerns, and emails. They were very comforting to me and I so appreciated your thoughtfulness. You are all WONDERFUL, and I am so lucky to "know" you.

Hope you are all well! I'll be seeing you on your blogs!

Best,

Curt O'Brien

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