HOUSE MOUSE MONDAY CHALLENGE #74 - THE LETTER "B"

Hey All!


Can you believe that two Monday's have passed and it's time again for another House Mouse And Friends Monday Challenge?  Wow, the weeks are such a blur anymore.  I can't believe that July is already more than half over.


OK, on with the challenge. . . . .As my title indicates the challenge is to do a card that revolves around or has something to do with the letter "B".  This week it was my turn to come up with the challenge, and I thought just using a letter of the alphabet would not only be easy, but would allow for a whole range of ideas.  So, to get you started, here is my challenge card:

Can you find all 6 "B" tie ins?  Buttons, babies, blue, bunny, buggy, boys (I'm pretending all the bunnies are boys!  LOL)  This adorable image is called "Bunny Buggy".  I colored the image with my colored pencils and oms.  I paper pieced the buggy so that it matched the background paper.  The over-sized buttons I made from scratch.  They are really easy to make.  You simply punch out 5 or 6 scrap circles and 1 circle of the paper you want your button to be.  Then just glue all of the circles together and make sure the last circle glued on top is your colored/patterned paper.  Use a tool to punch the holes (I used a silent setter for mine).  Here is a close up of the buttons:

This technique gives you the ability to have "buttons" that match your card perfectly.  It is a fun idea that I saw somewhere on the net quite awhile ago but I can't remember where.

Anyway, there you have it!  I really do hope you take the time to play in the next couple of weeks.  At least run over and take a look at my talented teamie's challenge cards this week.  I've seen them, and they are amazing this week!  Take a look HERE.

OK, thanks for coming by and taking a look.  I'm always so grateful that you do.  I have a  great post coming up on Wednesday (I promise, God forbid anything unforeseen!)  So I hope to see you then.

I usually don't do the "PIC OF THE WEEK" on my HM post, but I couldn't resist this week because the picture fit so well with my card project this week.  GO TAKE A LOOK BELOW!  LOOKS LIKE ONE OF HER BABIES FELL OUT OF THE BUGGY!!!!  LOL  I took this photo through the glass at my front door.  This little one was munching leaves right by the porch.  Such a cutie!

Take care all!  Hope you are well!  See you on Wednesday!

Best,

Curt O'Brien

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

HOUSE MOUSE MONDAY CHALLENGE #66

Hey All!  Happy Monday!  I hope you had a wonderful weekend and that this Monday finds you well and happy!  Two weeks have passed, and that means that it is time for another House Mouse Monday Challenge.  This week's challenge is Heather's, and she has chosen Easter as the theme.  Very good timing since Easter is this coming Sunday!  Yikes!  I still have some cards to make and get out!

Here is my card for this challenge:

I so love this image.  That little bunny decorating the egg on the back of the big bunny is just priceless.  I kept this Easter card simple because I find that I, like many, have the inclination to make Easter cards a little gaudy with scads of pastels and glitter, and printed paper, and Oh, that is what I have up there!  LOL  I used my colored pencils and oms to color this sweet image.  I then added glitter on the green stripe and blue spots.  Matted it on eggplant card stock then attached it on top of the dp with foam squares.  Added a simple bow to the corner and done.

Hope you get a chance to play this week.  At least head over and take a look at my DT member's work.  They always do an incredible job and sometimes I feel lost in their talent.

I'll be back with Wednesday's Evening post.  Until then, stay safe, well, and happy!  Thanks for stopping by and lending me your wonderful support!

Best,

Curt O'Brien

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

WEDNESDAY EVENING POST FOR MARCH 24TH, 2010

Hey All!  It's so nice to see you here!  Welcome back for another edition of the Wednesday Evening Post with yours truly.  LOL  I have a TON to share with you in this post, so off we go!

First thing I'd like to share with you is a card I made for my sister who is sadly going through a divorce.  After 13 years of marriage and 16 years of being together, he decided that he's not happy.  She is devastated by this and I wanted to let her know I was there for her.  Here is the card:

 click on image for larger view

I love this image and have used it on other cards, but the image says so much about caring.  The sentiment is computer generated and its placement to the side of the image is thanks to my blogging buddy Sue who has done this with some of her sentiments in her last couple of posts.  Thanks Sue!  The umbrella was stamped twice, one cut out and applied to give it dimension.  I tried something different this time with the water.  Once I colored the water, I used the colors of the bunny and the frog and lightly colored over the water where they were standing to create a reflection look.  I used Diamond Glaze to give a slick look on the puddle and rain drops.  I really like how it turned out.  Here is a picture of my sister:

Isn't she pretty?  This is the picture I took for her to send to her publisher for the back cover of her book.  She is a budding author with one book under her belt and is working on book number two.  Her first book is called Bargain Party and it is about how to have a successful, one of a kind garage sale.  You can click on the link and read more.  Anyway, can you keep her in your thoughts and prayers that she finds the strength to get through this?  I'd sure appreciate it, and I know she will too.

My next thing to show you is a card set that I made for a lady here in my neighborhood.  She is such a wonderful person, and she has the sweetest little pug named Marley.  I found this wonderful image and had to get it so that I could make this card set:

Click to enlarge

Isn't this such a cute image?  It's called "Puggles" and I found it at HERE.  You really should go visit her blog too.  Wow, she has some great stuff.  Her blog is HERE.  I hesitated getting this image because my neighbor's dog is all black, and you know how I feel about coloring black things.  But after tackling this image, I do feel more comfortable doing black images.  Here is the set and how it was packaged:

She loved them and said she was only going to use them to write notes to special people!  LOL  She is very sweet and I'm so glad to know her.  She is the one that, after hearing about Gunther's injury, brought the boys treats and me some of her delicious homemade chicken soup because she knew I was hurting too!

The last card I'd like to share (here I go giving away all my projects in one post!  LOL), is a "congrats on your new home" card.  I saved it for last for a particular reason.  Here is the card:

I have wanted to own this set for a long time, but watch my money and have to pick and choose what I can get.  This set is called "Boards and Beams" from Paper Trey Ink.  This looks like a simple card, but I had to go through a lot of stages to create it.  I colored the house and trees with my colored pencils and oms.  I cut the house out.  I stamped the trees on a separate piece of paper and sponged the sky on that strip.  I then took a piece of dp that looked kind of "grassy" and cut it.  I then pieced the sky/tree panel to the grass panel then attached the house on top of both with dimensional squares.  Finally I stamped the sentiment (from same set) on the grassy piece to finish it.  Now, here's the story:

I entered for a chance at some very generous blog candy on my very good blogging friend Chris' blog Mudmaven Designs.  Well long story short, only 3 people entered and she decided to divide it between the 3 of us which I thought was great.  Well, a few days later, I get this email from Paper Trey Ink that someone had purchased a $50.00 gift certificate for me.  I was in shock!  Then I found out it was Chris.  I just couldn't believe it.  The gift certificate came with a note from Chris that said "A little advance blog candy - now you can get the trees and some goodies to go with them!  ~chris"   She was referring to a card that she had made that I loved so much.  The stamps she used on the card were from Paper Trey Ink.  Well, I purchased both that set and the one that was used for the card above.  Thank you again Chris!  You really will never know how much your kindness meant to me!  If you click on the link to her blog (in this paragraph), you'll see the gift package that I sent to her as a thank you.  Below is the blog candy that she also sent in ADDITION to the wonderful gift certificate!

She is such a generous, sweet person.

Whewwwwww!  That's it!  Done for this post.  I hope it was worth your time.  My next post will be on Monday.  We have another House Mouse Monday Challenge coming up then.  I hope you come back for that.

GUNTHER UPDATE:  Gunther is almost back to normal!  We have been walking now up to a mile, and yesterday he was let off of his leash to run and explore.  He still can't run without limping, but he sure walks with barely noticeable limping.  Thanks for your inquiries on how he's doing!

 Again, thanks so much for spending some of your valuable time with me and my blog.  I love you guys and I thank you so much for thinking me worthy enough of your time, let alone taking the time to comment on my "stuff".  You are all the best.  And by the way, WELCOME TO ALL OF THE NEW FOLLOWERS!  I'm honored to have all of you!  Don't forget the Pic of the Week below!  Take good care!

Best,

Curt O'Brien

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

A POST THAT IS HARD TO TITLE

Hello Everyone.  I have been missing in action for awhile, and I'm OK enough today to let you know what has been going on.  I'll share the story then post a couple of the cards I made last week.

My beloved Gunther was severely injured a few days ago, and I am heartsick over it.  He was at the park sliding as he always does having a great time.  It was to be the final slide of the day as we were getting ready to go home.  As he came down the slide, he got too much momentum going and lost control as he exited the slide.  As he hit the ground, he let out this horrible scream of pain, and he was holding his right front leg up at a horrible angle.  He was screaming for what seemed to be an eternity.  I ran to him and held him to calm him down, and it was evident that he was in a lot of pain.  He also couldn't put any weight on it whatsoever.  Thankfully, my Mom was there and we got him to my van.  She drove as I held him in the back and we rushed him to my vet's office.  After an exam and x-rays, it was determined that the main injury was to the "wrist" area of his right front leg.  There are so many small bones in that area, but they feel confident that nothing is broken.  His shoulder is OK (thank God) and the other parts of his leg seems to be fine.  They feel that he has a severe sprain of the area, and there is a possibility of some ligament or tendon damage, but they can't be totally sure right now.  So it is a wait and see how he does over the next week or so.  It is so awful to see him hobble with only 3 legs.  Today has been the first day that I haven't cried whenever I see him try to walk.  He is on pain/anti-inflammatory meds, and I am putting ice packs on his leg several times a day for the swelling.  He is such a trouper though.  He lays so still for 30 minutes will the ice packs are on his leg.

So, no more sliding for Gunther.  I feel like such a horrible "parent".  I feel this is all my fault for allowing him to slide.  It just seemed like harmless fun for him and I didn't see the danger of such a serious injury.  I'm also grateful, because it could have been so much worse.  The initial vet bill was $235 so, you won't be seeing me use any newly purchased stamps or other new things for awhile!  LOL  So any way, please send good thoughts in Gunther's direction.  I never had any children, so he is the closest to that for me, and I am really heartbroken over this.

I'm going to share a couple of cards I made and had planned to post earlier before Gunther's accident.  Here they are:

This is a Happy Hoppers image from Stampabilities.  This was one of many images that were sent to me by my very thoughtful blogging buddy, Lorraine.  She sent me a ton of House Mouse images and some other things which I will highlight on my next blog post (Thanks Lorraine!!!).  Here is a close up of this image:

I think the reason I love these images so much is that they are so magical to me.  I colored them with colored pencils and oms.  The background paper is from The Paper Studio.  I chose this because it reminded me of kitchen wallpaper.  I tried to make it look like bead board at the bottom by scoring the card stock at 1/2 inch intervals.  It doesn't show up very well in the photo.  The sentiment is what came to mind the minute I saw this image, it is computer generated.

Here is my second card:

I have always loved this color combination.  This image is by Hero Arts and it is a reverse image or negative.  This stamp gives a very dramatic look.  After I stamped the image, I simply colored the one flower with a marker and then added the little glitter sticker to the center.

OK, it's time for an ice pack on Gunther's leg.  Thanks for stopping by and for all of your support.  Honestly, when I'm going through something like this, I feel like I have a ton of friends out there to send good thoughts, and that is so comforting.

Don't forget the "Pic of the Week".  This week it is of my funny Gunther.

Best, 

Curt

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

HOUSE MOUSE MONDAY CHALLENGE #61

Hey All!  Happy Monday!  I hope this day finds you happy and well!

It is Monday, and that means it is time for another House Mouse Monday Challenge from the blog with the same name!  So, without further ado, on with the post!

I have to admit that I was really thrown by this week's challenge.  More so than any other challenge I've done.  So thrown in fact that I created a card like no other!  LOL  This week's challenge is given to us by the ever so talented Pat Rose who challenged us with a Faux Grid!  GASP!  I thought how the heck am I going to do a Faux Grid with a House Mouse image!?!  So I looked through my ever growing collection of HM images and just sat there thinking. . ."what the hell am I going to come up with?"  LOL  So, I kept coming back to the same image time and again, so I thought that this must be the one that I'm going to use. . .now how am I going to use it?

Here is what I came up with . . .are you ready????

I honestly don't know if I like it or not!  Can you see how the "shower curtains" hang on each side?  I formed the "ripples" of the shower curtain by using several pencils alternating one on the paper then the next under the paper and did the creasing that way.  When I was thinking of the faux grid, I kept thinking bathroom tiles!  Don't know why, just did LOL!  So I drew the grid using a pencil for the grey to be the "grout" for the tiles and then did the tile pattern in pink.  I colored them with a Bic marker.  Here is a close up:

I do love how it looks as if your image is floating over the grid.  I used to refurbish old  houses when I was much younger, and I lived in a house that was built in the early 20's that had pink and white tile like this.  Boy did this "bathroom scene" bring back those memories!  Anyway, this is a Happy Hoppers image and I colored it with my colored pencils and oms.  The shower curtain paper is from The Paper Studio and I love how the pattern matches the CB embossed back panel.  I added some glittery domed embellies in each corner.  I didn't really want to show the closeup of the tiles because you can see how some are thicker than others, but hey, that's what that grout looked like in the house I was telling you about!  LOL  Inside the card the sentiment simply says "Relax".  Now that this challenge is done, I can finally relax!  Thanks Pat for getting me TOTALLY out of my comfort zone.  That's why the call it a challenge huh?

I do hope you'll take time to go visit the House Mouse & Friends Monday Challenge Blog to see what the other totally awesome design team members created.  I too, also hope you will give this one a try!  I'd really like to see what you do with it!!!!  So stop laughing at me and show me what you can do!

Again, thanks for stopping by.  Love having you here.  I'll see you all on your blogs.  I'm half way through catching up on all of you after recovering from my bout of blahs!  Gosh have you been busy!!!  LOL

Take good care!

Best,

Curt

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

A HM MONDAY CHALLENGE

Hey Kiddos! Thanks for the nice comments you left regarding yesterday's announcement! If you missed yesterday's post, you can read it here! You guys always know how to make a guy feel special!

I wanted to share a couple of cards I made that I started to post on yesterday's post, but thought I should keep the subject matter to the announcement only. So I'm posting them today in a separate post. The first one I made was a get well card for my Mom's good friend who had some serious surgery yesterday. I'm glad to report she made it through with flying colors! Here is the card I'm sending to her:

I used 3 different stamp sets for this "scene". The main fish is from SU's "Fishy Friends". I love his little face. The other smaller fish, starfish, and coral, were from a $1 set I picked up at Michael's awhile back. Then the other plants were from a set from Inque. I stamped the images in clear embossing powder, colored them, then took a Versamark pen and colored each stamped image and embossed them again with clear ep. I then sponged the water background and sandy bottom. Added some glitter and done with the scene. I mounted it onto some navy Bazzill card stock and then mounted that onto some paper that looked like sand. The sentiment was computer generated.

My next card is for the HM Monday Challenge over at the House Mouse Monday Challenge Blog. They have a really nice sketch for this week's challenge so I decided to play. Here is the sketch:

Here's my card:

I needed to make a card for a friend of mine who didn't get a job that they had interviewed for.

I wanted them to know that they are "Still Fabulous" even though they didn't get the job. This is a Happy Hopper image from Stampabilities. Isn't she as cute as she can be? She is colored with my cheap pencils and OMS. I added the pearls one at a time (the image has pearls around her neck to begin with) to form her strand. As you can see from the close up shot below, I used two sizes to get the 3-D effect:

I just love her little face and that lipstick! LOL She just looks so confident. Every time I see this image it makes me laugh! I think that is why I love the House Mouse images so much. They just stir up so much emotion when I see them, and I think that they do that for the recipient of the card. I sure hope so in this case.

OK, that's it. Don't forget the pic of the week below. Hope you all are having a "Fabulous" week too. I'll be seeing you on your blogs. Can't wait to see what you've posted!

Best,

Curt

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

NOTE CARD SET

Hey Kiddos! Happy Weekend to all of you. I hope you had a great week and you are planning to have a great weekend.

Today's post is short and to the point today. I have a note card set to share with you today. I made this for another neighbor who I talk too every so often when I'm out walking the boys. I have found that she had a very similar past life that reflects so much of what I am going through with Jay now. Her husband was very ill, in a motorized wheelchair, and eventually passed. I could not get over all the things that she went through that I'm going through now. It's nice to find someone who actually understands the frustrations of taking care of someone and to be able to just "talk" about it sometimes. She has been a great help to me in that respect, and I wanted to show her how much I appreciate it. She also has a wonderful sense of humor and drops some "hard" language sometimes which always makes me laugh. The funny part is that she is an English teacher by trade.

Did I say this was gong to be short??? LOL OK, on with the card set.

OK, I know this was not the best choice for ribbon. HOWEVER. . .I tried 8 different ribbons trying to match the "overall" color of this card stock. I found one that was almost "perfect", but it was majorly wrinkled. So, I tried to iron it, and it shriveled up and melted! So, this was the only one that didn't look totally horrible.

I made four cards for the set. Here is the first one:

This is a Gruffies stamp from Stampabilities. The paper is from The Paper Studio. I used my cheap colored pencils and OMS to color it, and cut the image out with my Nesties labels die.

Here's the next one:

This is a House Mouse image from Stampabilities. Again, pretty much of the same info on the supplies as the first one.

Next:

This is a Happy Hoppers image from Stampabilities. Colored pencils & OMS, blah blah blah. Accept on this one, I sponged the sky background with Colorbox ink (much darker IRL, sun washes it out), and I did something I've not done before on the balloons. First, I double stamped them, but before I added them on the card, I tried a technique that I've seen on several blogs that I never think of doing. I turned the cut out balloons over in the palm of my hand and used an embossing tool to "round them out" and poof out more. I LOVED how they turned out. So 3-D!! I then attached them with foam squares. I also coated them with Diamond Glaze for the shine factor. I again also added cotton batting for his little fuzzy tail!

Last card in the set:

Another Gruffies image. How sweet is that face!?! Again, colored pencils/OMS. I used a new product (new to me) that I got at JoAnn's called "Fabric Tac" to make the ribbon loops. This stuff is great! Tiny drop on one side, lightly touch the other side to stick, and tah dah. . .ribbon loop to add. (I know, little things like this seem to amuse me.) LOL

Here is the whole set all together:

So, that's it. She loved them and I was glad for that. However, she said she didn't think she could send them to anyone, because she wanted to keep them for herself. LOL

OK, that's it for this post. 9 more days until the DT announcement. I'll have one more post before it's announced.

Thanks again for taking the time to look at my stuff! I still can't believe that people come to see me! I'll be seeing you all on your blogs! Don't forget the pic of the week below!

Best,

Curt O'Brien

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

YOUR KINDNESS & CARDS

Hey All! It has been a busy couple of weeks for me. I celebrated a birthday, Shotsy celebrated a birthday, planting flowers, lawn work, etc. This is going to be a long post but only because it is going to be loaded with pictures! I finally got the pics of the cards that you sent off of the memory card. I've also got a few new cards and a project to share with you as well. By the way, did you all notice my new "blog pet" over there to the right in the sidebar? As you can see, his name is "Cardstock". You can feed him treats from the box, and if you click on the little white space that says "more", you will find a ball there that he loves to play with. If you throw it, he'll catch it and wait for you to take it from him to throw it again. OK, so on with the post:

I'll share my new cards here first.

This is a card I made for a friend who isn't feeling so well:



This is a Happy Hoppers image that was sent to me by my very sweet blogging buddy America. I colored it with colored pencils and OMS, matted it up with Bazzill card stock, and then attached it to DP from The Paper Company. I thought the basket weave paper was perfect for this image. The sentiment is from Artful Inkables and I stamped it out and cut it out with my Nesties. I sponged around the image and the tag with Tim Holtz distress ink. I attached the sentiment tag to the ribbon with a gold jump ring. Below is a close up of the thermometer to show how I made it look like glass with Diamond Glaze.



The next card is the card that went with the card set I showed you in the last post. Don't know how I forgot to include it in that post. Here it is:



How cute is that bunny??? Again, another Happy Hopper image, and again, colored with colored pencils and OMS. The background paper is from the "Summer Stack" from DCWV which is an actual photo of water in a pool. I added glitter to the ripples in the water of the image which you can see better in the close up below:



The next is my project to share. I did another tile coaster set. This time I did it for another neighbor who also brought us over food. I made this one a little different from the first one by using the DIY Topiary set from Flourishes. I chose this set because the neighbor this is for is way into gardening. Here is the box I made to gift them in:



This is an origami box. Bottom was made from an 11 3/4 X 11 3/4 piece of card stock, and the lid card stock was 12 X 12. I forgot to look who the paper was made by before I finished folding it. But it is very thick paper.

Here is the box open:



And here is the full set:



The background stamp is from Inkadinkado. I used Staz-On ink for the whole project because it is totally waterproof. I found these cool sponge daubers at Achievers that come in about 12 different sizes. They are attached to long skinny wood pieces and are perfect for daubing in different color to smaller areas. I don't know what set the small butterfly came from.

She really loved them and was just amazed that I had made them and the box. LOL It was so fun to give.


Here is the card I made to go with the coaster set:



Again, a Flourishes image from the DIY set. I cut out the image and did the embossed edge with my Nesties as well as the scalloped part. I did something a little different on this one. I used a colored pencil and OMS to also color around the embossed edge. I kind of like how it turned out. I created the background paper by using a small leaf stamp with Versamark ink to create a tone on tone look.


The final card I made was for the 4Th of July. I wanted something fairly simple because I wanted to make 5 of them to send to a few friends for the 4Th. Here is the card I made multiples of:



The image is from Stampendous. I created the background by embossing the fireworks with red and silver embossing tinsel. It is so sparkly. The ribbon is from Hobby Lobby.


OK, now for the cards from all of you who sent Jay a card:



Karen Goguen



Sharon Caudle



Claire Brennan



Shirley Ross (card for me - so sweet of you!)



Shirley Ross #2



Sharli Fredericksen



Lauri Ingram (and a sweet little summer stamp set tucked in for me! Thank you so much!)




Susan Roberts "Rainy"



Pat Gilliam



Judy Gordon



Percy Zabata

The cards below were sent to me for my Birthday (Thanks so much!)



Jen Young (LOVE this sentiment!)



Gina Wrona



Becca Aitken

Wow! Such gorgeous cards from such wonderful, talented people. I am so lucky to know all of you! Cards or not, I have so appreciated the cards, the well wishes, the thoughts and prayers, emails, and touching comments from all of you in regards to Jay. I know that you certainly helped in his recovery, because every time I would bring in the mail, he would smile seeing that he had cards. You guys are the best, truly you are!

Well, that's it (if that isn't enough! LOL) I hope all is well in your worlds! I wish you all a happy 4Th of July. May it be safe for all of you, and may you be surrounded by those you love most. Remember our Service men and women who fight hard and sacrifice so much for us to be here safe and able to celebrate this day!

Don't forget the "Pic of the Week" below! Take good care of yourselves!

Best,

Curt O'Brien

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

NEW NOTE CARD SET

Hey All!

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! I want to start this post by saying a HUGE THANK YOU to all of you who sent Jay a get well card. WOW they were wonderful. And a couple of you were thoughtful enough to include a little something for me! LOL You are all wonderful! They really meant so much to Jay, and he said he couldn't believe that people who didn't even know him would send him cards. He told me to be sure to let every one know how much he appreciated the well wishes. I'll be posting them next post. For some reason, I'm having trouble getting them from the memory card to the computer. All the other pics uploaded fine, but this batch of your cards that I took this morning for this post won't upload no matter what I've tried.

Today, I've got a note card set to share and a card using a new technique (new to me) that I saw at Stamp TV with Gina K. So, on with the post:

Here is the card I made using the technique called "Pullin' Pastels". Take a look:

This is kind of fun to do. You take a dark piece of card stock and and rub it with different colors of chalk (not ink). Then you take silhouette style stamps, ink them up with Versamark ink, and stamp the image right on the chalked card stock. The Versamark on the stamp literally pulls the chalk off of the card stock which creates the image. This card has an almost Asian feel, and I love how it looks like the images are silhouetted by twilight. I used EK Success chalks on black Bazzill card stock. The hummingbird stamp is by Stampabilities and the rest of the flora stamps are from Inque. The set is called Silhouettes. I don't know what the deal is with the color of the border. This photo was taken in direct sunlight outside, so the "yellow" border you see is actually the color of the pale green you see in the chalked area. You can find the video tutorial here.

My next project is another note card set. I made this for a neighbor who was so good to us during Jay's recent illness. She came over to offer to plant my flowers for me, and brought us food after Jay came home. She is wonderful and a wonderful cook too! Here is the set:

I call this one the "Summer Notes" card set. The note card holder is the same design I used in my last note card set, and again, you can see the tutorial here. I LOVE this card holder so much. I altered this one a little by not using the eyelets on the inside sleeves. They really have no purpose, and you really have to be careful to cover them up on the front. So this time I simply used red line tape to secure the flaps. I love how this turned out so bright and cheery. I wanted the outside to reflect "summer" and the note cards inside to reflect "summer things". Here are the inside cards:

The image is from Happy Hopper from Stampabilities. All the images for this project were stamped with Archival Jet Black ink. I colored it with my cheap colored pencils and OMS. I used my Nesties Labels dies to do the mat. I wanted to get the feel for home plate and these were close. I took white brads and used a red Sharpie marker to make them look like baseballs. Don't laugh, it is hard for a guy to work with small pieces! LOL I then added the corner brackets which I punched out and put those on DSP that resembles a grassy field.

This is also a Happy Hopper image. I colored it like I always do and then used my Nesties to cut out a frame for it. I used a black colored pencil to draw in the watermelon seeds on the frame and then attached it to watermelon paper. This paper came in one of those "stacks" but it wasn't by DCWV. I don't know who makes it, but it was perfect for this card. Added the rhine colored ribbon to finish it off.

Again, another Stampabilities House Mouse image this time. Colored it like I always do and then matted it with a piece cut out with my rectangle scalloped Nesties. I used foam squares to attach it to the card. The lemon paper was from the same stack above. Again, it was perfect for this card. If you look close (click on pics to make them bigger) you can see the "droplets" of water I added using Diamond Glaze. I also attached the yellow dew drops to each corner and then added my ribbon.

The last one is also a Happy Hopper. How sweet is this bunny eating an ice cream cone??? This is simply matted and attached with chocolate brown brads, attached a strip of DP matted with chocolate brown card stock, ribbon added and done!



Another shot of the whole set out of the holder.

Well, that's it for this post. I hope all is going well in your worlds. Again, thanks to all of those of you who showed such kindness to us. I'm such a lucky guy to have you! Don't forget the pic of the week below. I'll be seeing all of you on your blogs! Thanks so much for stopping by and leaving comments! They mean so much!

Best,

Curt O'Brien

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