THE WEDNESDAY EVENING POST

Hey All!  How's your week going?  Well I hope!  I almost didn't make the post tonight.  Time got away from me!  Lots to share in this post, so I'll get busy!

Many of you have encouraged me to try out again for the DT spot over at House Mouse Monday Challenge.  So, I've thought about it and have decided to try out again.  I so love the HM images, and their design team is simply awesome.  It would be an honor to be a part of that group.  So, the first thing I need to share is my card to show them what I can do.  Here it is:

I've used this image one time before and this time I've used it to create a more Fallish feel and to use it in their challenge this week which is to use buttons.  See 'em there along the bottom under the image?  They are little bone buttons.  I used my ccp/oms to color the image.  The leafy background paper is from the Paper Studio.  The bow is the final result of the mini tutorial at the end of the post.  Here is a close up of the bone buttons:

But before we get to the tutorial, I have another project to share with you.  I had been seeing these really neat boxes all over the internet and they kept referring to the "ones found on SCS".  I did no less than 5 different searches on SCS and found nothing like I was looking for.  So I winged it and came up with my own.  Here are 3 that I have completed:

What do you think?  I really like how they came out.  Take a look at the pics below of each, then I'll give you the deets:

Here are a couple of close ups:

The picture below is what it looks like opened:

As you can see, they are perfect for holding 2 of the single Reese's peanut butter cup packages.  The box itself is an origami box folded from an 8 1/2 X 8 1/2 piece of Bazzill card stock.  The box size ends up being 3" X 3" X 1 1/2 ".  The bottom and top are made with my Nesties Label dies (the largest die in the set).  The skull is an Inkadinkado stamp as is the spider web.  The spider is a MS punch, and the witch is also a stamp by MS.  I added ribbon and bling to decorate.  The bottom is attached to the box with red line tape and the lid is attached to a strip of card stock and sandwiched between two identically die cut lid pieces so that it is hidden and seamless.  There might be an easier way, but this is how I figured it out.  I've decided on future boxes that I'll decorate the inside lid more, but I had already attached them before I thought of that.  So I just stamped the sentiment, which by the way is a $1 stamp.

OK, now to the tutorial I promised.  I came up with this idea out of frustration.  The Bow Easy (you can purchase one from Sharon Johnson - go HERE) does help make consistent bows of several sizes, but that is all. . . a bow. . . which you have to use glue dots of dimensionals to attach to your project.  Well, when I would attach them to ribbon, it didn't look like it should.  So I came up with a way to slide a piece of ribbon in during tying process so that your bow looks like it was tied all in one piece.  I know, it sound confusing.  Pictures are worth a thousand words:

I started out with two pieces of ribbon.  The first is 24" long (for the bow part) and the second piece is the piece that the bow will be tied to.  I'm using the largest part of the Bow Easy for this bow.

Start the bow as directed by the Bow Easy directions:

You will go to the part where you put the ribbon through your loop as shown above.

Once you've gotten to this part (the part right before you tighten the bow itself) flip the Bow easy over, and you should see this above.

This is where my "tip" begins.  Take the second piece of ribbon and slide it through the loop on the back (above) so it looks like this below:

At this point, flip it back over and continue making your bow as usual.

Your bow is now tied and should look like this picture above.

This is what it looks like (above) when you slide it off of the Bow Easy.  Your bow is now tied to the other extra piece and it stays in place.

Trim your tails.

You can see above that all you have to do now is attach the extra piece you added to the bow by wrapping each end and taping them to the back of the matted piece.  And as a reminder of the finished use of the bow my card again below:

Took a bunch of pics to show that, but believe me, it is very simple to do if you use the Bow Easy.  My bows are getting better, but I'm still in the "novice" stage.  But I do hope this tip helps those of you who have the Bow Easy.

All righty then.  I'm done and tired of typing!  LOL  I'm sure you are tired of reading!

I have to say one more thing.  Don't forget to look at the "pic of the week" below.  It is the most beautiful FUNGUS that I have ever seen!  LOL  I have never seen anything like this, and the first thing that struck me about it is that it is perfectly colored for not only Fall, but for Halloween too!  It reminds me of a smashed pumpkin!  I took this photo this week in a park very near my house.

Thanks all for stopping by.  I hope I made it worth your while.  I try hard to give you something in each post, and I hope I did this time as well.  Again, thanks for all of your comments and support.  It means the world to me!  Take care of yourselves!  I'll be seeing you on your blogs~

Best,

Curt O'Brien

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