WEDNESDAY EVENING POST - DECEMBER 16, 2009

Hey All!  Happy  Hump Day to all of you!  Hope this Wednesday evening finds you safe, warm, and well!

I have some fun, FUN stuff to share with you that I found during my blog adventures this week.  I found the cutest card I think I have ever seen, and I had to do one of my own.  It turned out so well that I ended up mass producing them to send out to several people.  I can't wait to share it with you so let's get to it!

When I see a card that is done with mostly punched or die cut images on them, I usually am not that excited over it.  I think to myself, "that's cute, but where's the stamping??? Anybody can die cut or punch out shapes. . ."  Gosh, just typing that makes me feel like such a snob!  But when I saw this card I just went nuts over it.  Here is my version:

Punched polar bears!!  Are they not adorable?!?  I sure think so.  The card is 5 X 7.  This card incorporates several techniques that I don't use often.  Punching shaped animals, ripping paper and then sponging it, and distressing.  These bears are made from my Nesties circles and ovals die sets.  The snowflake background paper is by The Paper Studio and the card stock is by Bazzill.  I paper tore the two "snow banks" and then sponged the torn edges with a light blue ink by Colorbox.    All edges of the pieces of the bears were distressed with the edge of my scissors to give a fuzzy look and to help distinguish each piece of the bear from the other (because everything is white).  The sentiment is from a Martha Stewart clear stamp set.  I also outlined each ripped edge of the "snow bank" with glitter.  The eyes and the nose are punched out with a standard paper hole punch and I used white ink to add highlights.  I also added a black Rain Dot to each of the noses to give it a shiny look.  Here is a close up shot:

EDITED TO ADD:  I inadvertently gave the wrong link when linking to the person who actually came up with the polar bear idea!  I'm so sorry Laura. . I went to the blog I listed to get the link to your blog and ended up using the wrong link!  What a Dork I am!  The link has now been corrected.  You can go here to see the person who came up with this great idea HERE.  You can also go see a video tutorial HERE.

My next card to share with you is a HM card.  I made it for a general Winter card.  Take a look:

I LOVE this image.  It reminds me of sledding when I was a kid.  I colored this with my ccp/oms and used liquid appliqué which I then glittered.  The sky was actually colored this time with my colored pencils and oms.  This is a large image.  The card is 5 X 7 so you can see it is pretty big.  There wasn't much room for embellishments or a sentiment.  Here is a close up of the snow and glitter:

My third and final card to share with you tonight is another Christmas card that I am making several of because it turned out really cute and easy to make.  Take a look:

Isn't this a cute image.  I've not seen this around on SCS or other places.  I picked it up at Archiver's yesterday and used it right away.  The stamp is by Northwood Stamps.  It was fast and easy to color, and I used my liquid appliqué to add the "fluffy" to the clothing items.  I matted it with black cut with my long scalloped rectangle Nesties.  I made the belt out of a black strip of card stock and gold card stock for the buckle.  The sentiment is actually a cheap foam stamp which I stamped with Versamark and then embossed with gold.  This is an A2 size card.

Last on my agenda for this evening's post is to show you the light box that I put together.  I think the photos for this post look much better because of it.   Here is what it looks like as I'm photographing the above card:

LOL  So professional huh???  I took a box and lined the inside with white paper on the bottom and the sides.  As you can see on the back, I just use a 12 X 12 piece of printed paper and can swap it out based on the subject of my card so that I have coordinated backgrounds!  The light fixture on the top is is a clip on lamp that has a silver reflective collar around it.  The other two are just can lights.  I prop them up on stuff to get the best light angle for the photo.  The white paper inside the box seems to do a great job in bouncing the light back onto the card.  It might not look pretty, but it has made a great difference with the light quality of the photos for my blog without natural light.  So I thought I would share this with you all to show you that I no longer have to stand on my head for the shot!  LOL

That's it kiddos!  I've had a great time visiting your blogs these past few days.  You guys have done some amazing work!  You are all such inspirations to me.  I hope in some small way I am giving some of that inspiration back to you in my posts.  I sure hope so.

My next post will be Monday's HM challenge.  I can't wait till you see it.  It is so hard not to be able to show it until Monday, but I have to follow the rules!  LOL  So I'll see you then.  Thanks for stopping by and for the wonderful comments you all leave.  You guys are wonderful!  Don't forget the pick of the week below!

Best,

Curt O'Brien

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