THE WEDNESDAY EVENING POST FOR APRIL 20, 2011

Hey All!

It's always good to see you.  I have the best looking readers in all of Blogland!  I sure hope that you all made it through the stormy weather of the past week unscathed.  I thought about many of you in the states that were affected.  We've had quite a couple of nights with heavy wind and rain, but thankfully, no damage.

Well, last week's poll revealed that the most aggravating part of our card making is CROOKED CUTS.  I'm with the majority there.  You have all read my rants about paper cutters that don't cut straight.  Coming in at a close second was SMUDGES.  Again that would be my second biggest frustration.  Thanks for participating.  I've got a new question up, so let your opinion count!

Nothing over the top for tonight's post.  I've been scouring the internet for some new creative ideas and have been coming up dry.  But I did create 3 cards for this post so here they are:

My first is a card I made duplicates of for a couple of neighbors and my doctor's office for Easter:

This is the newest addition to my Happy Hoppers collection.  This sleeping bunny is just adorable.  Looks to me like he ate everything in the basket and now is sleeping it off.  I colored it with my colored pencils and oms, added the bow and done.  I really do think this is a perfect Easter image.  This image is called "Hoppy Dreams".

Here is another Easter card:

Do all of you have those neighbors who decorate their outdoors for Easter?  I was inspired by those folks that decorate their trees and shrubs with brightly colored plastic eggs.  I really do love the DIY Topiary Stamp set from Flourishes.  I've used it more than any other stamp set I have.  So, I thought an egg covered topiary tree would be perfect for an Easter card.  I created the little eggs in Microsoft Word and cut them out.  Made the little tiny bow with the Bow Easy (love that thing).  I kind of like how it turned out.

This last one represents something that I normally don't do, but I did make an exception for this card.  This is almost an identical copy of a card I saw  HERE.  

I changed several things, but they look so similar.  I changed colors a bit, stamp, ribbon color, sentiment. . .but all in all it is a case.  I loved the look of her card and it was one of those classics that can be used for so many things.  Thank you Wendybell for the inspiration for this card!

PIC OF THE WEEK

I took this photo yesterday, and it just made me think that it was the perfect depiction of Winter giving into Spring.  You have the trees in many different stages, the dead grasses from Winter's cold and the greening up all happening in one scene.

OK, that's it.  Thanks so much for stopping by.  To all of those who celebrate Easter, I wish you many Easter blessings.  Easter also happens to be my Gunther's Birthday.  So along with Easter dinner we will be having the traditional ice cream birthday cake for dessert to celebrate his day.

Hugs to all of you!

Best,

Curt O'Brien

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

THE WEDNESDAY EVENING POST FOR APRIL 13, 2011(ON THURSDAY)

Hey All!


I so apologize for the lateness of this post.  As some of you have asked me, yes "life got in the way".  I won't whine about what is going on, but I'm OK.  Thanks again to all of you who emailed me to make sure everything is alright.  I love you guys!


So, the poll results last week surprised me just a bit!  Over 72% of you voted that you RARELY use digital images.  Only 12% use them a lot, and everyone else was in between.   Yes, I'm in the rarely category, but I was sure that more people would use them sometimes.  I'm learning a lot about you guys!  Don't forget to vote in this week's poll!


OK, on with the post.  I have a 3-D project to share with you and two cards.  Here is my 3-D project first. . .It was a bear to photograph it.  So here it is:

With all the white, it's hard to see the sheep!  But this is a card set of 4 sheep in a little pen I made for them.  Each has one of these sentiments:


Love Ewe
Happy Birthday to Ewe
Thinking of Ewe
How Are Ewe?


Here are all the sheep let out of their pen:

These sheep are all over SCS, so they are nothing new and certainly nothing unique.  However, I did make the pen from scratch a well as the envelopes.  Speaking of envelopes, here is what the sheep look like sitting inside:

I used the MS scoring board to create the envelopes to fit.  The sheep are "clam shell" type cards that open from the top.  I used the largest scalloped circle to cut them out.  I also used the smallest scalloped oval for the "hair", and regular oval Nestie for the face and ears.  Ran 'em through a cuttle bug folder for the embossing.


Here is my second card:

This is one of those reverse image cling stamps from Hero Arts.  I've been having an issue using them until now.  I finally had an "Ah Ha" moment.  I had been trying to emboss them with white ep on white cardstock and then trying to color or paint them but with not much success.  Then I thought "why not just use white ep on colored cardstock and call it a day?"  LOL  It worked.  I used linen white ep on black cardstock to create this image.  Matted it several times and added a sentiment on the bottom.  Really was quick to do.


Last card for the post is an Easter card using a Prairie Fairy (Thanks Sue for the reminder!) digital image:

The inside sentiment says "Sending Love at Easter Time".  I love that squiggly big smile on his little face.  I did the cut out of the image so his ears are sticking out of the die cut.  He's colored with colored pencils and oms.


OK, that's it.  Hope you liked what you saw tonight.  I appreciate you coming to look and also your concern when I come up missing.  Thank you so much for caring.  I've been remiss in visiting your blogs last week as well, so I'll be catching up as usual.


Here is the Pic of the Week:              SPRING CROCUS

 I do hope you are all well.  Can't wait to see what you've been up to.  Thanks to my new subscribers.  Welcome!


Best,


Curt O'Brien


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

THE WEDNESDAY EVENING POST FOR MARCH 9, 2011

Hey All!

Hope this post finds you happy, safe, and dry.  We certainly have had some weird weather across the country, and I always worry about all of you and hope that you are OK.

Sorry I'm a little late tonight. . .but I had some unexpected happy mail today, and I just had to use it for tonight's post.  My good blogging buddy Mark at Deadbeat Designs took pity on me from my last post where I said "I don't have any Southwest themed stamps".  Well Mark sent me a gift of some:  Take a look:

I took a picture of the box because I was so impressed with how he did my name.  How cool is that?  And this from a guy who has a broken hand!  I just loved this.  Now, here is what was inside:

How fun!  I was so surprised and excited.  See those fun little stars???  He makes those!  They are origami stars and I think they are the coolest.  Here is a close up:

OK, so see the horse and rider stamp?  Here is the card that it inspired:

Another Zindorf inspired card.  I had this stamp of the 3 horses forever, and had always planned to use it for this type of card, but always felt I needed something else in the scene.  When I saw the horse and rider stamp that Mark sent me, I immediately thought of using it this way.  I made the "leather" straps by running a strip of dark brown paper through the "bubbles" Cuttlebug embossing folder.  I then covered it with Versamark ink, and sprinkled clear ep on it.  Heat set it, then repeated the process one more time.  It really gives a cool leather look.  I then added the brass brads.  Made the corners too the same way (hard to see in the picture).  I created the horses' shadows by stamping the horse image on acetate, then flipping it and rubbing it onto the card.  really works great!  Thanks again Mark!  It was really thoughtful of you.  Did any of you see Mark's "Six Tags of Texas"?  He did an incredible job with them.  Go take a look HERE.  

OK, so Spring is less than two weeks away!  OMGosh I can't wait to get rid of this crappy, snowy, cold, miserable, nasty (SLAP) OH, sorry weather!!!  I'm now in SPRING MODE and will make NO MORE CARDS WITH SNOW, FLAKES, SNOWMEN, ETC.!  Here is my first Spring card:

This is a Northwoods stamp and I love it!  Tulips to me always represent Spring and Easter.  I colored the image with my colored pencils and oms.  Punched out the butterfly and sprinkled it with two different colors of MS glitter (can't tell in the pic but it is turquoise and green).  This was the ONLY "Happy Easter" stamp I have, but it worked.  The paper is by Creative Memories.

My last card is one of those that I call a CWTGIOW card (Can't Wait to Get it Over With)!  LOL

OMG!  I love the reverse image stamp (by Hero Arts), but no matter what I did with it after finishing it, I didn't like anything I did.  The image is a reverse image so I stamped it on water color paper with Versamark, embossed it with white ep, then used an aqua painter and distress inks to color the images.  So, anyway, this is what I came up with.  Not happy with it at all.  I have three others like this, so I'm going to try to create a note card set with them.  Hopefully I'll have better luck!  

That's it!  Thanks for stopping by. . .I'm afraid I've been behind again getting to all of you, but I'll be back at it starting in the morning with my first cup of coffee!  I always love to see what you've done over the past week.

A big thank you to all of you who went over and left Cheryl some kind words regarding the loss of her sweet Ollie.  She appreciated them so much, and you all are just the sweetest!

Love you guys!


Best,


Curt O'Brien


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

THE WEDNESDAY EVENING POST MARCH 31, 2010

Hey All!  Welcome to another addition of the Wednesday Evening Post with yours truly.   I have a few projects to share with you this evening.  So on to the first card. . .

I haven't made one of these in a long time.  So, this idea came from my lack of ability to create an Easter card that I actually liked!  I attempted no less than four (all sitting in my trash can) before thinking of this type of card. I had almost given up, but this came to my rescue:

How cute is that rabbit???  You'll hate me too, because I have no idea who makes the stamp.  I bought this almost two years ago and put it in my binder before I found out that you were supposed to tell people who made your stamp!  LOL  Anyway, very little coloring was needed for him.  I just did a little grey shadowing and added the pink to his ears and nose.  Here is a little side view:

I love to create scenes, and Easter just lends itself to scenes.  The eggs were created by first cutting them out with my oval nesties and then running them through various CB embossing folders.  I then highlighted the embossed areas with MS glitter.  The grass and fence was created with MS punches.  I also used a CB die for the ribbon tag used for the sentiment.  I attached it with the green gingham ribbon.  Everything (including the grass panels) are attached to the base card with foam squares.  The pale eggs in the background is just a sheet of paper that I used for a background for this photo.  I made five of these to give to family members and my best friend and his partner.  I'm going to attempt a dog themed one using the stamp that looks like Shotsy next.

My next project I wanted to share is just a simple one.  Here it is:

I had made one of these for my blogging friend Chris for sending me the gift certificate.  It is just a simple box to which I added some printed paper that looked like a row of tulips, and then punched out the fence to wrap around the box.  The little plastic jars fit perfectly.  I filled them with jelly bean eggs and then cut the same paper out for the top of the lid.  Looks different in the picture because of the different light I had at the top of the box for lighting.

The next two are packaging for those little Millstone coffee packs and for packs of gourmet hot chocolate:

This is the same "memory box" that I have used for other projects that I've shown you.  Here is yet another use:

The last card I want to share is this one:

The flowers were done with FlowerSoft.  I love that stuff!  The other thing I wanted to point out is that it is very hard to get a nice border around some of the Nestabilities dies labels editions.  What I did with this one (and don't look too close 'cause I don't think I did a great job on this one!) is once I cut the nesties die cut out, I use double sided tape to tape it to the card stock that I'm going to use as the mat.  I then carefully cut around it to get this mat.

OK, that's it for this post.  Hope I made it worth your time.  Thanks for sharing some moments with me.  You know you have my heartfelt thanks.

I want to take this opportunity to wish you and all of your loved ones a very happy, warm, and blessed Easter Sunday.  I hope your hearts are filled with the joy and meaning of this holiday, as well as all of the fun that the Easter Bunny can bring.

Love and 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."

LOTS TO SHARE!

Hey All! Happy Saturday! I hope all is well in your world. I have lots to share with you today so I'll get right to it! I have 3 cards to share with you, a recommendation of an online store, some amazing RAKs I received, and an announcement. So if you don't read anything else, be sure you read the last few paragraphs! LOL

My cards today are Easter themed for obvious reasons. I also have one card that for the first time I cased from SCS. So on to my the first card:




As most of you know, I'm a big fan of House Mouse stamps by Stampabilities. When I saw this one, I knew it would make a great Easter card. This one is called "Will Knit for Friends". I colored the image with colored pencils and OMS. The paper is from Paper Studio and the card stock is Bazzill. I used white photo corners and colored them to accent the card.


The next is another Easter card made with a HM stamp. This one is called "Eggcellent". These are bunnies from their Happy Hopper line.



Again, colored with colored pencils and OMS. The paper too is again from The Paper Studio and card stock is Bazzill. Each layer on this card is mounted with 3-d foam squares, so this has some hight to it. I then added the coordinating brads to finish it off.

My next card is the one I cased. As I understand it, when you case a card you have to change 3 things about the card. I don't know if that is a rule or just the rules for a challenge on SCS. Regardless, I would never try to duplicate any one's work. It's kind of like American Idol for me. You take a card idea and "make it your own". LOL You can all be the judges on this one and see if you would vote me through to the next round. Here is the card I "cased":



I have tried so hard to find the artist who did this card on SCS, but after searching over 30 pages of cards and using keywords to search, I still can not find who did this gorgeous card. EDITED TO ADD: Two people found her for me! You guys are so awesome! Here is the link to the SCS post: HERE And you can see her actual blog HERE. Jean aka CraftJean on SCS found the link to the SCS gallery, and the other was found by my blogging buddy Julia. Thanks again you two!

Here is my version:



I do love how this one turned out. I love the effect of looking up at the dragonfly flying by. As you can see, I changed many things to make it my own. I left the circle in tact, used a dragonfly instead of a butterfly, used different foliage, added brackets instead of ribbon, different colors, etc. This person's card was really an inspiration for me. I just wish I knew who it was. This has taught me to be more cognisant when making notes.

Now, on to the RAKs I mentioned at the beginning of the post. The first is from a very new blogging friend who lives in Canada. Her name is Bonnie, and she is a groomer and also has a Miniature Schnauzer. She is a huge dog lover like I am. Unfortunately, she doesn't have a blog that I can share with you, but based on the card she sent me with my gifts, she is so talented! Here is what I received from her:



Is this awesome or what??? A gift for me and gifts for my boys! I was amazed at her generosity. The bookmark is brass and has this wonderful saying: "A dog is the only thing that loves you more than he loves himself. ~ Josh Billings" I just can't thank you enough, Bonnie. I will cherish these always!

Another wonderful RAK arrived the same day! It is from my wonderful blogging buddy Jodi at Inked Inspirations. Here is what she sent me:



Are those puppy faces cute or what? She had gotten this for me awhile back, but had misplaced it, and then recently found it again and sent it to me. I lOVE it so much, Jodi! Thank you for your thoughtfulness knowing how much I love Schnauzers and thinking of me. You are very sweet!

OK, now for a BIG recommendation for an online store that I am very impressed with. The store is Creativeplaystamps.com. The owner is Laura Hampton and is located in Illinois. WHAT AMAZING SERVICE! I had been jacked around by another online store (which I won't mention) and gave up on an order that I had been waiting for for 9 weeks! I cancelled that order and went to Creative Play Stamps to order my Nestabilities. Not only were they on sale, but she also carried House Mouse stamps (and a ton of other stuff). So, I ordered a few other things and got my priority shipping free. I placed my order on a Wednesday night, and had it in hand on Saturday morning! I was having trouble (due to my stupid computer) placing an order on her site. I sent her an email and she responded literally in minutes to help. Once I placed my order, she sent an email (again in minutes) telling me that she had pulled my items and they were ready to go out. I then received an email from the USPS that it had been shipped with a tracking number. When the package arrived, she had also included a free gift (small ink pad) with my order. I couldn't be more impressed, and I plan to order from her again in the near future. Go check her online store out. Huge selection, and AMAZING service! Thanks again Laura! You have a very happy customer here!

Finally, my Blogaversary is coming up in 10 days. I also noticed this morning that I have gone over the 20,000 hit count. So I'm going to be celebrating! Stay tuned for my Blogaversary Celebration. More details to come in my next post in a few days, so stay tuned.

That's it for now! Again, thanks so much for your incredible comments and support. You are all the reason why I do this, and I wouldn't be doing this without you! I hope you all have a FABULOUS Easter! Don't forget the pic of the week below! I'll see you on your blogs this week!

Best,

Curt

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