Curt's Best Shots Slideshow

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

WEDNESDAY EVENING POST FOR SEPTEMBER 29, 2010

Hey All!


Happy Hump Day!  I wanted to say thanks to all of you who left me such wonderful comments regarding my father's death and my brother's birthday.  You all are so wonderful and I honestly don't know what I'd do with out you!

I also wanted to let you know that I've resigned from my House Mouse Design Team position.  I am just trying to lessen some of the complication in my life.  I also just want to concentrate on my own creativity and crafting for me.  You'll still see HM cards on my blog because I love them so much.  I'm just jot on the DT any longer.  It was a fun stint and I am honored that I was a part of such a wonderful group of women.

OK, it's time for another Wednesday Evening Post, and as has become almost traditional, I have 3 cards to share with you tonight.  So, here they are. . .

My first is a birthday card for a great neighbor.  She turned 70 last week, and I'm taking her to lunch on Friday to celebrate.  Here is the card I made for her:


I love this Penny Black stamp and I've had it for quite a while.  This is its debut card.  Since it was her 70th birthday, I thought this card was so appropriately funny.  Look at that one chicken getting ready to blow out the candles and the one's look of worry on his face with the fire extinguisher LOL.  This is a technique combo where I "painted" the ground, table, cake and extinguisher with Distress Inks.  The beaks and red thingies are colored with colored pencils/oms.  I used a Sizzix EF for the background because it looks like chicken wire to me.  OMG!!!!  I just looked at the picture and noticed I didn't color one of the beaks!!!!  LOL  I can't believe that!  Good thing I haven't given it to her yet!!!!

My next card is an Thanksgiving card. . .


Another one that I "painted" with my Aqua Brush and Ranger Distress Inks.  It seems that I'm slowly but surely moving away from my beloved colored pencils and moving more towards those wonderful distress inks.  I chose this sentiment (by Stampendous) on purpose because it is usually used for Christmas cards.  However, I think it is a great sentiment for Thanksgiving too.  The image is by Penny Black and the papers are by Recollections.  

My last card to share tonight is a Halloween card. . .You know I rarely do Halloween cards (eyes looking up at the ceiling looking very innocent) LOL  This one is pretty generic but I like how it turned out. . .


I don't even like candy corn!!!  And I don't like it even more after stamping and coloring all of these!  I did several to fill the jar by masking several of them.  This is my first attempt at faux stitching.  How did I do???  I can't determine if I did it well or not.  The jar stamp is by Inkadinkadoo and the single candy corn stamp is by Recollections.  I punched the two corners with a MS punch and added bling.  Candy corn was colored with colored pencils/oms.  The lid was colored with a silver gel  pen.  I tied a little bow using some orange jewelry cord.  Sentiment is by Studio G.

OK, that is it!  Another Wednesday Evening Post is at a close.  Don't forget to look at the "Pic of the Week"!

Thanks again for stopping by.  I'm so pleased that you do!

Hugs to all of you!

Best,
Curt O'Brien

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

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

A DRAGON BIRTHDAY!

Hey All!


Today is High Hopes Stamps challenge day and BIRTHDAY!  Be sure to read the wonderful details of the prizes for this week's challenge below!  Today's challenge is a sketch challenge.  I'm kinda getting used to playing with sketches and today's was a simple one to follow for me.  I have a TON of birthdays in the month of October.  Jay's, my Mom's, my sister's, my best friend's, and my aunt's.  So birthday cards are on my mind right now.  I thought this would be a perfect time to knock one off the list.


Here is the sketch:


Here is my card:


As you can see, I flipped the sketch to accommodate the horizontal image.  I love this sweet dragon!  This image is called "Warm Wishes".  I used a couple of coloring techniques on this image.  The dragon is completely colored with distress ink - Crushed Olive.  I used my Aqua Painter to color him.  The cake is colored with my colored pencils and oms.  I was very disappointed in the quality of the photo, because of the "dragon scales" panels and how they photographed.  That is not exactly the color.  The reason it looks shiny is because it is shiny LOL.  I took green card stock, ran it through my CB with an embossing folder (this one always reminds me of reptilian skin, and then I painted it with Yasutomo Shimmer Paints.  This is a wonderful product, and boy does it add shimmer!  That is why it was so hard to get a good shot because it is so shiny.


Anyway, there you have it!  NOW HERE IS THE EXCITING PART. . .It is High Hopes BIRTHDAY!!!  They are giving away a GREAT PRIZE this week!  One winner will win 10 STAMPS and 2 people will win 5 STAMPS!  Go to the HIGH HOPES blog for all the details.  I hope you play along, and if so, I wish you lots of luck!


Thanks for visiting!  I'll be back tomorrow with the latest edition of the Wednesday Evening Post with lots of stuff to share!


Hope you are all well!


Best,


Curt O'Brien


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

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

WEDNESDAY EVENING POST FOR SEPTEMBER 22, 2010

Hey All!

I need to get a couple of things off of my chest before this post gets started.  Because I feel you are all friends, I wanted to share a couple of things.  Today would have been my brother's 52nd birthday.  He died 13 years ago from complications of AIDS.  Happy Birthday little brother.  I also found out this past weekend that my father passed away.  He and I had been estranged for over 13 years.  I always had the thought in the back of my head that he and I would speak again, but it is obviously too late for that now.  I share this with you because if you have a similar situation, you really need to think about this and decide if it would be OK if the family member you are on the outs with would suddenly die.  I'm OK with what has happened, because it was his doing, but none the less, it is a very weird feeling to have to deal with.  I'm sorry to start out on a down note since this is usually an uplifting post, but I just felt I needed to share.  Thanks for allowing me to do so.  Anyway, out of the downer stuff and onto the fun stuff: . .

I have 3 more cards to share with you.  I've been up in that creative cave quite a bit over the past week and I have more than 3 to show, but I'm saving some in reserve!  LOL  Here is my first card:


I was browsing the web a few weeks ago, and found where someone had used a stamp of a spider holding candy corn.  So, I made my own.  The spider is an Inkadinkadoo stamp and the candy corn stamp is from Recollections.  You can't really see it in the photo, but the design on their backs is colored in with a silver glitter gel pen.  I colored the candy corn with my colored pencils, and drew in the spider web strand on each spider.  The sentiment is from Studio G.  Before I mounted the panel on the main card mat, I attached a fun fur yarn strand to give it a "webby" look and feel.  I used my Stampamajig to align the candy corn up so it looked like the spider was holding it.

Here's the next card. . .


This is in honor of Michelle Zindorf.  I LOVE here style and her cards are simply works of art.  If you've never seen her work, check out her gallery HERE.  I've looked at nearly 100 of her tutorials and just sit in awe of her techniques and talents.  I read on her blog a few days ago that she just lost her Mother. (Seems September is a month for losing people).  So I thought I would try something "Zindorfian" in nature.  The main limb was created by using a Stampscapes stamp that is actually 3 trees.  I just turned it sideways and stamped only one of the trees.  The branches are also from Stampscapes.  The owl is a Martha Stewart Stamp.  I sponged the background masking the moon off with a circle cut with Nesties.  Highlighted the top of the "limb" with a white gel marker for depth.

Here's my last card for the post:


This is an image that my sweet blogging friend Lee sent to me from St. Agnes.   The stamp is by Elzybells I believe. and it sure is a cut1e.  I colored it with my colored pencils and oms.  For some reason my camera always used the flash when I took the pictures of this card, so the colors are a little bled out.


OK, that's it for this edition.  I really do appreciate you coming to see what I've done.  I'll be doing my weekly round of your blogs in the next couple of days.  Can't wait to see what you've been up to!  Thanks to for letting me share my personal stuff with you.  I appreciate it.

Don't forget the "Pic of the Week" below!  I've not quite seen a turtle lay like this!  LOL  Check out his back legs!!!!


Hugs to all of you!


Best,


Curt O'Brien


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

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

TUESDAY'S HIGH HOPES STAMPS CHALLENGE

Hey All!

I hope your week is progressing nicely!  This is the last day of Summer!  Can you believe it???  Fall starts tomorrow and I am so happy!  So long Summer. . .Hello Autumn!!!!


Today is Tuesday so that means it is High Hopes Stamps challenge time!  This week's challenge is "Country, Farm, etc."  I couldn't wait for this one to come around because of the stamp I bought just for this challenge.  It has to be one of my all time favorite images.  I like it because it is cartoonish and whimsical, and just plain adorable!  LOL  It make me grin and snicker every time I see it.  Here it is on the card I made for this challenge:


OMG is this hysterical or what????  The stamp is called "American Cowthic".  I had a blast with this image!  Isn't that what stamping is all about???  The entire image is colored with Ranger Distress Inks (black soot, victorian velvet, barn door, and brushed corduroy).  OK, I fibbed. . .the cow bell was colored with a colored pencil because I have no yellow in the distress inks.  The barn window was made by cutting strips from paper that had weathered woodgrain on it.  I distressed it again with distress ink.  I popped the cow's heads up with dimensionals for a little depth.  The background red card stock was ran through the CB with a distressing folder to give it a red barn look.  I finished the card off with red gingham ribbon for that country feel.  The inside of the card says "Cows by you?"  LOL  It is computer generated.


I hope you get a chance to play with us this week!  Head on over to the High Hopes Stamps blog to see what the Diva's did with this one and play along!


Thanks for stopping by!  I'll be posting my Wednesday Evening Post tomorrow with lots more to share with you.  I'm excited because it will be the first post of the Autumn season!!!!  Can you tell I'm a Fall nut????  Can you tell that I'm ready for Summer to go bye-bye!?!?  LOL  Until tomorrow. . . .


Hugs to all of you!


Best,


Curt O'Brien


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

Thursday, September 16, 2010

THE WEDNESDAY EVENING POST FOR SEPTEMBER 15, 2010

Hey All!


It is Wednesday again, and time for another Wednesday Evening Post.  I've got a TON to share with you, including 2 projects with RECYCLING.  You won't believe what I used!  I've also got what I think is a really cool "Pic of the Week" at the bottom of the post, and a photo to share.

I also want you to meet a brand new blogger!  Lee and I "met" when she sent me an email wanting to know if we could be "pen pals".  Lee lives in St. Agnes, Cornwall and was such a sweet lady I immediately agreed.  She sent me several emails and we corresponded back and forth for several weeks.  Then I got to see a card she did and it was wonderful.  I started bugging her to start her own blog, but she kept telling me she wasn't computer literate blah, blah, blah.  So, long story short, she agreed to start a blog because I offered to help her set it up.  She is now up and running and I know she would love for you to visit.  Here is the link to her blog:  LEES CRAFTY CORNER.  She has already got quite the following and has only been up a few days.  Happy blogging Lee!

OK, on to my cards. . .

The first one is a sympathy card I did for a very sweet neighbor.  Her father passed away recently, and I wanted her to know how sorry I was.  Here is the card:



If you click on the picture, you will see that I added Flower Soft to the silhouetted images.  I stamped the image several times and left the space for the sentiment.  I did my own mix of Flower Soft for this card.  I had a jar of Nut Brown and a jar of Bright Orange.  So I mixed  up a little of each to come up with what you see. The stamp is a Penny Black.  Now, here is the RECYCLED part of the card. . .can you see it?  It's the little buckle on the ribbon. . .can you tell what it is????  It is the pop top from a can of Coke!  I got this great idea from one of Gina K's videos over at Stamp TV.  I think it is one of the best sites on the Web.  You can color them with markers and I made mine look like tortoise shell with a copper and gold marker.  The last thing I did was color the white of the ribbon with a tan marker to soften the white.


My next card is my first Fall card of the season. . .




This card started out as a different technique using bleach.  "How did that work out for you Curt" you ask????  Not so much!  Gina K made it look flawless, but mine just looked like I spilled bleach.  Oh well. . .So I started all over and went to a new technique.  Painting with Ranger Distress Inks and an Aqua Brush.  I am so in love with the Ranger Distress Inks.  I honestly believe they are the best and most versatile inks on the market.  I stamped this Hero Arts image with Versamark ink, then embossed it with fine detail black ep.  I used Rusty Hinge, Crushed Olive, and Fired Brick inks to color them.  I stamped the Ranger ink on a clear acrylic block then picked up the color with my Aqua Brush.  The colors are so vibrant.  Your going to see lots more projects where I'm using the Ranger inks.  The sentiment was computer generated.


My last card that I want to share with you is again one with some RECYCLED material.  It is also the first of the Thanksgiving cards I've made this year. . .




Can you tell what is the recycled piece on this one????  Here's a clue, it is part of the pumpkin. . . take a look at the picture below for another clue. . .




LOL, do you think I've lost my mind????  The picture below is the backside of the above. . .




Is this fun or what???  A blogging friend of mine in Texas had made a great card using a pumpkin made out of this.  I went nuts over it, and she surprised me be sending me some of it!  So, I made my card using the pumpkin I made out of it.  Makes you kinda want to start pulling other packaging apart doesn't it???  LOL  My pumpkin was created by cutting out 3 ovals with my Nesties and then I distressed the edges with distress inks and then glued them together.  The "stem" is ribbon obviously, and the sentiment is from Waltzing Mouse Designs "Peaceful & Plenty" stamp set.  I forgot to look who did the paper.  Sorry.  It's a simple card but I think it is really sweet and has a country/folksy kind of look.

That's it for the cards, but I am hoping your will indulge me for just a moment.  I took the boys to a local park today for their daily jaunt.  When we take a rest, Gunther has this thing he does where he plops down and starts rolling back and forth (no, he is not rolling in anything smelly - LOL).  As he rolls on his back, back and forth, he makes this guttural, growling noise as if he is frustrated about something.  He has done this for years. However today, he really was into it and when he finished this is what he looked like:




OMG it made me laugh right out loud.  He had all those sticks and leaves stuck all over him, and his bandanna had come up and hung sideways on the top of his head.  I was laughing so hard that I could barely hold the camera still to get the photo, and I was so thrilled at how it turned out.  He is such a HUGE CLOWN!  Thanks for indulging me on this picture, but I just had to show it to you all.


OK, all done.  I hope you've enjoyed your visit!  Please don't forget the "Pic of the Week".  I think it is really a unique one.  Not the greatest shot I've taken but still unique.


I'll be visiting you all in the next few days to see what you've been up to!  Can't wait to see.  I hope you are all well and having a great week.


Hugs to all of you!


Best,


Curt O'Brien


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

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

A NEW DAY OF THE WEEK TO POST FOR HIGH HOPES!

Hey All!


Today is my post as a guest designer for High Hopes Stamps.  They used to post on Sundays, but they have changed it to a Tuesday post.  This week's challenge is "Spots and Dots".  The prize this week is not 1 free stamp, but your choice of THREE!!!  How great is that????


Here is my challenge card:




This stamp is called "Henry the Great".  I love this image a lot.  This is a HUGE rarity for me.  You hardly ever see "people" on my cards.  But I had to make an exception to this because the image is so adorable.  I colored him with my colored pencils and oms.  I then used MS red glitter to enhance his cumber-bun, kerchief, bow tie and the sash around his hat.  I could not for the life of me find a dotted or spotted background that I liked, so I created my own!  I used two dotted circle stamps from a set I bought almost 3 years ago.  So I'm afraid I don't know the stamp maker.  But I stamped a pattern with red and black ink.  The sentiment is computer generated.  I also used a great technique that I learned from Gina K about a new way of using your Nesties.  You run it through as usual to cut out your shape, then you run it through again to get the embossed edge they are famous for.  At this point, you start cutting at the embossed edge all the way around.  You then use the same Nestie die you originally used on paper that you want to use as the mat.  Now, where the embossed edge was you now have a mat of your panel instead.  So easy and it gives a great look.  This is particularly useful if you are using the largest of the die set because it does not have one bigger to use for the matting!


Hope you can play with us this week!  It is a fun way to win THREE of their stamps!  Please visit the High Hops blog to see what the other talented designers came up with!


Thanks for looking, and I will see you tomorrow for my Wednesday Evening Post!


Best,


Curt O'Brien


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

Monday, September 13, 2010

IT'S A HOUSE MOUSE CELEBRATION OF 2 YEARS OF CHALLENGES

Hey All!


Happy Monday, and welcome to the 2ND Anniversary of the House Mouse Blog!  To celebrate, we are having a blog hop with some really awesome prizes from our very generous sponsors.  There's lots going on, so let's start the party!!!!

The challenge for this blog hop is two-fold.  First, you have to play the challenge, secondly you have to visit each design team member's blog to pick up some cheese.   What mouse party would not have cheese???  LOL  I'll explain in a moment.

First the challenge. . .It is a combination of "celebration" and "sketch".  You can pick really any theme but you must follow the sketch.  Here is the sketch:




This is a great sketch by our super talented Lorraine.  As always, you can flip it, rotate it, etc. as long as you stay with the sketch details.  Here is my take on the sketch:




When I think of the word celebration, I always think of Mardi Gras and New Orleans.  The traditional colors for that celebration are green, purple, and yellow so that's what I went with here.  I love these little mice peeking out from under the party hat trying to avoid all of the confetti.  I colored it with colored pencils and oms as always.  The ribbon I dyed with markers to match, and I used a Marvy balloon punch to create the balloons.  I outlined them in glue and added MS glitter in matching colors.  I also created my own background by stamping directly onto the card base with the color coordinated inks with a little stamp that was part of those little sets you get at Michael's.  I then colored stick on pearls with color coordinating markers.  To add a little more zing to the card, I dyed embroidery floss to also match the colors of the balloons and tied it to the bottom of each balloon.  Put it all together and done.

OK, now for the second part of the blog hop.  You need to go to all of the DT's blogs to pick up pieces of cheese.  Each blog will have a different number of cheese pieces for you to collect.  Once you have visited each blog and have the total number of cheese pieces you need to go back to the main blog and leave a comment as to how many pieces of cheese you collected.  We have turned comment moderation on, so no one can see your answer.   So to recap:


1.  Visit Each DT To Leave A Comment And Collect Your Pieces Of Cheese
2.  Go Back To The Main Blog And Leave A Comment As To How Many Pieces Of Cheese You Have
3.  Play The Sketch Challenge By Uploading Your Card With Mr. Linky On The Main House Mouse Blog
4.   You'll Have Two Weeks To Participate In The Hop


Ok, here are your pieces of cheese from me:




Your next stop on the blog hop cheese gathering is HEATHER!  She has more cheese waiting for you!


Thanks for stopping by and have fun.  You'll see the list of prizes on the main blog.  Enjoy your cheese!


Best,


Curt

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

WEDNESDAY EVENING POST FOR SEPTEMBER 8, 2010

Hey All!

Happy Hump Day and welcome to another edition of the Wednesday Evening Post!  I've got lots to show, so off we go. . .


I have a question for you. . .when you create cards, do you come up with your own design most of the time, or do you use other cards you see on blogs or sites like SCS for inspiration?  I tend to do the latter.  I see a card and I think  "Wow! that is such a great idea. . ."  Then I go and make a similar card based on the idea, but making my own personal creative changes to make it my own.  Well this card is one of those.  Here is my card:




You can see the inspiration card HERE.  There are so many techniques used on this card.  There is paper piecing (shell and poppy flowers) colored pencils and oms, sponging (sky and ground/grass), Flower Soft, and paper punching (grass MS and dragonfly).  When I saw the inspiration card, I thought it was cute, but a little plain for my style.  I used several stamp sets to pick the background flora.  I made this card for a neighbor who made us dinner for the day of Jay's surgery so I wouldn't have to cook that night.  Such thoughtfulness. . .


The next card is for Halloween (what a surprise huh? LOL).  Again, I saw a card that I used as my inspiration.  Here is my card. . .




The link to the inspiration card is HERE.  Once again, I've used the house image from the PTI set called Boards and Beams.  It is so versatile.  I combined several stamp sets for this one.  The tree is from Memory Box, the grave stones are from Hampton Arts, the bats are from a $ stamp, and the sentiment is from Hampton Arts.  I sponged the night sky using various Ranger distress inks and colored the house with colored pencils and oms.  The tree and house shadowing were done with a grey colored pencil.  I made the stars with a silver gel pen.


My last "show and tell" is a set of Halloween cards that I made from a newly purchased cheap stamp set. Take a look:












This is a stamp set from Recollections.  Their stamp sets sell for $6.99 at Michael's, but I used a 40% off on it so, what a deal.  The "boo" is by High Hopes.  I colored them with colored pencils and oms.  All the paper is from my scrap bin.  These were quick to make and I really like how they turned out.  The inside says "Have a Monstrous Halloween" which is computer generated.


OK, that's it for this edition.  I hope it was worth your time taking a look.  I'm off to look at your blogs for the next couple of days, and as always, can't wait to see what you've created in the last week.  Thanks for stopping by!


Hugs to all of you!  Don't forget the "Pic of the Week" below!


Best,


Curt O'Brien


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

Sunday, September 5, 2010

HIGH HOPES CHALLENGE - I'TS A BOY/GIRL

Hey All!


Hope those of you here in the US are enjoying a long Labor Day weekend.  I always get excited when Labor Day arrives, because it means it is the official close of Summer and we're off to Autumn.  I just can't wait!


Edited to add:  HEY ALL.  I JUST FOUND OUT THAT I CAN POST THE WINNER FOR THE BLOG HOP.  MY BLOG WAS ONE OF THE RANDOM 3 BLOGS!  SO, THE RANDOMLY CHOSEN WINNER IS:  Tanya Sarnowski, aka crazymomma!  Congrats and thanks for joining us on the hop!  You win 4 main stamps and 4 sentiment/accessory stamps (total of 8) from the new release!  Please contact Nikki at nichola.fairbairn@googlemail.com to make arrangements to collect your prize!

OK, on to today's High Hopes Challenge.  The challenge this week is to make a card with the theme "It's a Boy or Girl".  I'm sorry to say that I'm somewhat limited in my selection of High Hopes stamps at the moment (I plan on buying some more soon!).  So here is what I came up with:


This is rather a simple card for me.  But I wanted to keep it sort of simple because it is a baby card.   This image is called "Sammy Seal".  I colored him with my colored pencils and oms.  I tried so hard to give the ball some dimension by using some distress ink to shade it, but this is the best I could do.  The sentiment is computer generated.    I wish I knew who the paper is by!  Luck would have it that the name is on the back of this piece of paper!  LOL  I didn't want to take the chance of tearing it by trying to lift it off to look.  I didn't want to add much more to the card because the paper was so cute, so I just slapped on that bow (made by my Bow Easy) and the corner brackets and stopped.  The image and ball are set up on dimensionals. 

I hope you get a chance to play this week.  You can see the other uber talented Divas' work at the HIGH HOPES BLOG.

Thank you so much for the wonderful comments you left during the High Hopes Blog Hop.  Thanks too for always being so supportive and kind.  I love you guys so much!

OK, gotta go.  Jay had major eye surgery on Friday, and I've had to give him extra care during the recovery period.  OMGosh you should see his eye!!!!  It is so scary!  I'm calling him "Zombie Eye" LOL.  His MS is starting to effect the nerve in his left eye causing his eye to "stray".  My hillbilly father would have said he has "One eye chasing rabbits".  Anyway, they had to go in and tighten up the muscle in that eye.  Poor guy!  He has to go through so much with this horrible disease.  But he does it all, and never complains.  That's not to say that he is the "perfect patient" either. . . LOL  There are days that he puts me through the hoops, but it's OK.


Anyway, I'll see you all on Wednesday for another packed Wednesday Evening Post!


Hugs to you all. . .


Best,


Curt O'Brien


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

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

HIGH HOPES RELEASE BLOG HOP!

Welcome back everyone!


Thanks so much for coming by the past few days.  Your comments have been so positive and wonderful.  I so appreciate your support!


Today's the big day of the High Hopes release of all of the wonderful images by Laurie Furnell.  I'm so excited that I am the first stop on the blog hop tour.  I'm so excited to show you this card for a couple of reasons.  First, I love this image of Laurie's.  It is my first Winter card for the Winter season.  And two, it is a 3-D kinda card and you know how much I love to do dimensional cards.  Here it is:


Is that little snowman fun or what?  When I saw him, I pictured this card in my head immediately.  I believe this is a version of a stair step card.  I could see him ski jumping over snowy hills.  Take a look at the close-up:


Look at those shiny, cool glasses!  LOL  I colored them with a silver gel glitter pen.  I also used the same pen and dotted the trees.  The tree stamp by the way is by Stampscapes.  Here is another close-up:


Here you can see the snow crests I created.  I tore white card stock, and were it was torn, I used liquid appliqué heated with my heat gun.  I then used glue over it to add the sparkly MS glitter.  The sentiment was computer generated, cut out and mounted onto a label created with Nesties labels.  I then fed the snowflake ribbon through it and attached it to the card.  The snowman is actually popped up on two dimensional foam squares on top of each other so that it really sticks out as if he is flying through the air.  Here is a frontal view:


So, there is your first image of the blog hop.  Your next stop is SIRPA.  Just click on her name and it will take you to her blog.  If you get lost, go to the main blog HERE to check the order.  Here are the rules for the blog hop to be entered into the drawing:


1.  Leave a comment on all blogs in the hop including mine.
2.  3 of our blogs will be chosen randomly, and everyone who commented on those 3 randomly chosen blogs will be entered into the drawing.


The prize:  The winner will get to choose 4 main images AND 4 accessory/sentiment stamps of their choice!


I wish all of my readers the best of luck in the drawing.  And I certainly appreciate your support of my participation as a guest designer for High Hopes.  Obviously, this post supersedes my normal Wednesday Evening Post for this week.


Have fun on the hop!


Hugs to all of you!


Best,


Curt O'Brien


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