HIGH HOPES CHALLENGE - RECIPE

Hey All!

Tuesday is once again upon us and that can only mean one thing. . .it's time for another High Hopes Stamps Challenge.  Today's challenge is a recipe challenge.  Here's the recipe for the challenge:  One Circle, Two Squares, and One Scallop.  Sounds delicious doesn't it???  LOL  OK, so let's get cookin'!

Here's my card:

I know, I didn't warn you that it was another Christmas card!  LOL  This image is called "Dapper Dan".  Isn't he cute dressed up in his Christmas finest?  Really, this is a simple very simple card.  I colored the image with a combo of colored pencils/oms/distress inks.  I tried something new with the inks this time.  I did the shadowing with the inks.  I love using the combo.  The panel with the sentiment is distressed with a Tim Holtz distressing tool to look snowish.  I used a Sizzix embossing folder for the snowflake background right on the card base.

OK, that's it!  Hope you hop over to see what the other Divas have done with this challenge.  You can find them HERE.  I'd love to see you play along too!

I'll see you tomorrow night for the next installment of my Wednesday Evening Post.  Loaded again!  (No, not me, the post!!!)  LOL  Hope to see you back tomorrow night.  Thanks for all the wonderful comments.  I do read and appreciate every one of them!  BTW, you all have been doing some awesome work!  I had a blast visiting last week, and can't wait to see what you've been up to!

Hugs to all of you!


Best,


Curt 


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

HIGH HOPES CHALLENGE - HALLOWEEN

Hey All!


Don't you look amazing today!  Glad to see you here!  So glad that you took time out of your busy life to come see me.  I love having your here!


Today is Tuesday, and it is once again time for a High Hopes Stamps challenge.  Today's challenge is simply "Halloween".  Gee, is that right up my alley or what!?!  LOL  We were to use some of the new release stamps from Laurie Furnell.  Here is my card for this week's challenge:

I built all of this from scratch.  I knew I wanted to use the frog in the cauldron and that cool broom, but I wasn't sure how to use them together.  Then I thought of a fireplace theme.  I could put the cauldron in the fireplace and lean the broom against then mantel.  However, I didn't have a fireplace stamp large enough, so I had to make one from scratch.

I used a rectangle cut piece of beige card stock and then "colored" it with distress inks.  I then drew in the stones and colored them with colored pencils.  I made the hearth out of dark grey card stock, colored the black stripe across the front to give it dimension and drew lines around to look like blocks.  The blocks are mounted on foam squares as is the broom for dimension.  The floor is just a piece of paper that had a wood look to it.  And the "wall paper" is from a DCWV stack.  I stamped spiders to give it a spookier look.  I colored the frog, cauldron, and broom with colored pencils and oms and used Stickles on the fire.  I also accented the green bubbles in the cauldron with some MS purple glitter.  The inside says "Brew'in Up Some Treats" which is also from this series of stamps.

I love building scenes, and I did have fun with this.  I hope you get a chance to play with us, or at least take a look at the great work of my fellow "Divas" at the High Hopes Stamps blog.  


Thanks so much for taking a look.  I so appreciate you coming by and your support.  I'll see you tomorrow for the Wednesday Evening Post!  Got lots to share!


Hugs to all of you!


Best,


Curt O'Brien


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

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."

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."