THE WEDNESDAY EVENING POST FOR JULY 21, 2010

Hey All!

Happy Hump Day to each and every one of you!  Glad you stopped by for my Wednesday Evening Post!  I hope you find some inspiration and feel that it was worth your time to spend a little time with me.  On with the post!

I've been seeing a ton of Christmas cards showing up everywhere.  I honestly don't know how anyone can make Christmas cards in July.  Can't do it, can't do it, can't do it!  I know it's a great idea to have all your cards done before the holidays, but give me that last minute rush!  LOL  Must be the guy in me.  However, I don't think it is too early to start thinking about Halloween!!!!  My most favorite holiday of the year!  So, I thought I would start doing some Halloween cards for a change.  Here is my first:

I've hardly been able to wait to use these stamp sets from There She Goes.  Each component in the above scene was stamped separately and painstakingly cut out.  The fireplace, the skull candle, the basket of bones, the hat, the jack-o-lantern, the broom, the picture, well you get the idea.  I colored everything with a combination of colored pencils and Bic markers.  Everything but the spider and the sentiment (There She Goes) is set up on dimensionals for a 3-D look.  If you click on the picture you can see the detail and the shadowing from the popped up images.  I created the floor myself!  I took a piece of wood grain paper and used a ruler to create the planks.  Then I put little nail marks for detail.  I really do love how this card turned out.  Puts me so in the mood for more Halloween cards!

My next is this one:

I've wanted this stamp ever since I first saw it on Addicted to Rubber Stamps.  So I used some of my birthday money and bought it.  The stamp is by Heirloom stamps.  I colored it with colored pencils and Bic markers.  I cut out all of those strips you see behind the window and ran them through my CB to give them more of a wood look.  I then sponged them with distress inks to give them an old wood siding look.  I then taped them together making sure I left cracks to give it the look of an old house.  The sentiment is from a $1 stamp.  I love how this one turn out too!  I've got way more in the works so stay tuned.

I didn't want to leave you with all scary cards, so I included this next card in the post so that you wouldn't have nightmares from the above two cards  LOL!

I love this Happy Hoppers stamp.  I made some alterations to the image however.  The original image has another little bunny next to the one above asleep in an empty cone.  So I masked that one out.  Also, the original image only has one scoop on the cone.  I stamped two more cones and cut out the ice cream part to make it a triple scoop.  Who the heck only gets one scoop anyway???  Certainly not me!  LOL  I coated them with Liquid Diamonds to give a "wet" look to the ice cream, but the lights I used in the photo kind of bled out the color of the ice cream scoops.  I also made the tag using a small Nestie oval and punched two small slots with a slot punch on each side.  Slid the ribbon through and attached to the card.  The image is, of course, colored with my colored pencils and OMS.

I hope you've enjoyed your time here.  I love that you come by to see me and leave me such great comments.  I'll be coming by all of your blogs in the next couple of days to see what you have all created.  I love seeing your wonderful work.  You all so inspire me.

I hope you are all well and doing fine.  As always. . . .

Best,

Curt O'Brien

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