Curt's Best Shots Slideshow

Friday, April 26, 2013

SPECIAL EDITION OF THE WEDNESDAY EVENING POST ON FRIDAY 4/26/2013

Hey All!

Welcome to a Special Edition of The Wednesday Evening Post (even though it is on Friday!).  Today, I'm celebrating my 5 year anniversary of starting this blog and my very first post.  If you'll look over to your right, you'll see the huge anniversary cake there on the table and to the left is a completely stocked open bar for your enjoyment while you are here.  Servers will be walking around with a variety of hors d'oeuvres, so please help yourself.  Don't forget the GREAT GIVE-AWAY!!!!  More info on that at the bottom of this post.

I'm so glad you came!  5 years. . .I can hardly believe it.  For a stroll down memory lane for those of you who would like to see. . .here is the link to my very first post and my very first cards HERE.  I had 3 comments and remember that I had no idea how they even found me! I was amazed and hooked from that moment on and the rest is history.  Here are my cards for tonight:

 I haven't used this stamp in ages!  I LOVE this little guy.  We had a break-in here in our neighborhood this week!!  It was a house about 3 doors down from us and it is the home of a very cute, young couple.  They found their door kicked in and their house ransacked and robbed.  I just felt sick for them and wanted them to know how sorry I was that this had happened.  So, I made this card for them and went to a local bakery and got them some yummy cupcakes to make them smile.  The image was colored with my colored pencils and odorless mineral spirits.  The sentiment was from "Gunther's Greetings" which was a stamp set designed after my own sweet Gunther!

Next card. . .
Are those bee faces the cutest or what???  LOL  I used baker's twine for the "bee trails" but all I had was black and white so I colored the white part with a yellow marker.  Their little wings are all Stickled up and I fussy cut them out and popped them up on dimensional tape.  The bee stamp is by Recolections and I colored them with marker.

OK, now for the promised give-away in honor of my 5 year anniversary. . .Here is the prize package:
1 Set of Spectrum Noir Markers in browns and greys
1 Stampabilities House Mouse/Happy Hopper wood mounted rubber stamp (Snuggle Bunny)
1 Spellbinders Nestabilities Big Scalloped Squares (7 dies)
1 All Occasion Mat Stack with Glitter (44 sheets of 4.5X6.5)
1 Memory Box die (Resting Birds)
3 packs of assorted bling

Nice huh?  As you know I don't make you jump through hoops to win any prizes here.  All you need do is leave me a comment on this post.  I'll use Random.Org to pick a winner from all the comments, and I will announce the winner on the May 8th Edition of My Wednesday Evening Post.  Good Luck!

Pic of the Week
My sweet Gunther celebrated his 9th birthday on the 24th!  He got a birthday cake, a trip to the "doggie store" to pick out his presents, and lots of treats.

Hope you are all well.  Thanks for stopping by and I'll be seeing all of you on your blogs!

Hugs,

Curt

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



Thursday, April 18, 2013

THE WEDNESDAY EVENING POST FOR APRIL 17, 2013

Hey All!


Sorry I'm a day late (and $1 short too after tax day).  I've just been consumed with the coverage of all the horror that is going on in our world.  For my readers in Boston particularly, I'm so sorry that your beautiful city was touched by such darkness and evil.  Those of you in West, Texas I can't tell you how saddened I am over the loss of life there.  You are all in my thoughts and prayers. . .

I've only created a couple of cards this week and here they are. . .


I made this for Joan Fricker. . .Some of you might know Joan from Joan's Gardens.  She lives here in the northern part of the state of Indiana.  She has a fun blog and runs challenges too.  Joan just had a complete knee replacement (which went well I read on her blog) and I wanted to send her a card wishing her a speedy recovery.  I thought this House Mouse/Happy Hopper was perfect because of the leg cast (and they threw in an ear cast too! LOL).  Of course, it is colored with my pencils and oms.  I drew all the stuff on the cast because the cast is blank when stamped.  Hope Joan is back to normal in no time!

My next was created using a die which I've had for a few weeks.  I was sitting looking at all of my paper and saw a sheet that made me think of how I could use the die. . .take a look:


The paper had these wonderful tie die patterns on it and I thought sure they would fit inside the hot air balloon die and they did.  It made a fun design on the balloon.  I embossed the clouds for more texture and used distress ink to sponge the background sky.  The sun was created from a die as well.  I freehand cut the "hills" and finished it off with a computer generated sentiment.

Pic of the Week
The Perfect Symbol of Spring
That's it for another post. . .I have now officially gone over 100,000 views on my counter and my 5 year anniversary will be next week, so be sure that you tune in next week for my celebration give away!  Thanks for stopping by and I'll be getting to all of your blogs sometime this weekend!  Hope you are all well and safe.  Take good care. . .

Hugs,

Curt

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

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

THE WEDNESDAY EVENING POST FOR APRIL 10, 2013

Hey All!

Welcome to another edition of the Wednesday Evening Post.  What a crazy week this has been!  We got up to 80 degrees here in Indianapolis yesterday. . .Just imagine that we had 8 inches of snow 2 1/2 weeks ago.  Talk about weather extremes!  I did see my first butterfly today!!!  So I think Spring is here to stay.  We are supposedly in for some rough weather tonight and tomorrow with possible tornadoes.  Never a dull moment. . .Throw in my monitor dying, a huge, unexpected tax bill, and fighting with Jay's medical providers and insurance companies brought another wonderful week in paradise!  On with the cards I did manage to make this week!
Gina K Designs kind of inspired this one for me.  She had a video out where she did a resist technique that used dragonflies.  So I got my dragonfly stamps out to make this one.  The main dragonfly is embossed with copper embossing powder.  You can also see that part of the matting I did includes some metallic copper card stock.  The smaller dragonflies were stamped in random order using distress ink.  Simple card I created for a guy.  He is the mortgage loan officer at our credit union who is simply an angel among men.  He is one of the most helpful, friendly, pleasant people I have ever worked with.  Throw in some remarkable customer service skills and you have him (I honestly don't think he is human, he is too perfect).  I made this for him because he helped me with a homeowner insurance problem.

My next card was for a woman at the same credit union who was also instrumental in the above mentioned problem.  I stopped at a local high end bakery and got them each some cupcakes as a thank you for their help and the cards were delivered with the treats.

Sorry, I should have warned you to put on sun glasses to view this one.  Can we all say together "screaming banana"??  LOL  I don't know why it looks so bright in the photo. . .It really doesn't look this "neon" in real life.  But it has the same kind of layout as the first one and had a bug on it too. . .  You really can't see it in the photo, but the main butterfly is cut out and stands 3-D from the card.  I also used some Stickles on it for some sparkle.  

Pic of the Week
Robin Taking A Spring Bath
Well, that's it for this post.  Kind of boring. . .However, I noticed that my hit counter is now approaching 100,000 visits and I'm almost to my 275th post, and my blog will celebrate its 5 year anniversary on April 26th!  So I think that sounds like a reason to celebrate with a give away soon huh?  I can't believe I've been doing this for almost 5 years!  Anyway, give away details will be coming in subsequent posts. . .stay tuned!

Hope this post finds you all well and happy and safe.  I think I made it around to all of you who have left comments and then some!  You guys do some really amazing stuff and are such an inspiration to me!  I love visiting each of you!

Take good care!

Hugs,

Curt

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

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

THE WEDNESDAY EVENING POST FOR APRIL 3, 2013

Hey All!

Let me first start by apologizing for not getting to most of your blogs this week.  I don't know where the time went!  Well, I do know where it went, but that is neither here or there.  I hope this post finds you well and happy.  I'm in a much better mood thanks to the weather!  We have had sunshine for 3 days in a row!!!!  It has done so much for my spirits.  We are going to be in the mid 60s by this weekend and I can hardly wait.  What is going to be fun is to see what Spring flowers pop up here at the new house.  We moved in mid June, so we missed Spring here.  I have already spotted tulips coming through.

I did manage to get a card set done today.  Have a look:

 Here is the box I made for the set.  It is my "go to" from Gina K Designs.  Here are the four cards that you will find inside. . .




I really love these images.  I got them at Joann Fabrics for $1 each.  They are clear stamps by Studio 112 from their summer mini assortment.  I stamped each image with Walnut Stain Distress ink on cream colored card stock.  I decided to keep them uncolored but did add copper Stickles on the shells and glitter on the two birds (which of course you can't see in the photos).  The background paper reminded me of swirling ocean water and the color is exactly what I wanted for this color scheme.  I roughed up the edges around each image, matted each, then double wrapped twine around them.  Here is the set together. . .

I can't believe these stamps were only a buck.  They rival anything that other stamp companies have out, and they stamped beautifully.

Pic of the Week

Thanks again for stopping by even though I was neglectful of you this week!  I'll be around to each of your blogs starting tomorrow.  I miss seeing the beautiful, creative work you all do.  Again, forgive me for not seeing you sooner!

Hope you are all OK and experiencing great weather for a change.  Take good care!

Hugs,

Curt

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