THE WEDNESDAY EVENING POST FOR APRIL 6, 2011

Hey All!


Here I am. . .seems like I'm getting later and later with these posts!  Sorry about that.  But this post is BURSTING with photos!  So there is lots of eye candy for you tonight!

First, the results of my first poll were great!  Thanks for so many of you participating.  I was a little surprised by the top answer.  The question was "Where do you get most of your card ideas?"  Almost 50% of you stated you get your card ideas from surfing other blogs!  My vote went to the second most popular answer which was "places like SplitCoast Stampers".  I had over 90 people vote!  Tonight's new poll is up and has to do with this blog post tonight, so go vote over there on my sidebar!  I love learning about my readers.

OK, on with the post!  Here is my first card to share:

Isn't this image cute?!?  This is a Hambo digital image.  The inside sentiment says "Thought you might need a little lift".  LOL  Cute huh?  I colored it with my colored pencils and oms. 


Next card:

Another incredible Hambo digital image.  Again, colored it with colored pencils and oms.  The sentiment is computer generated.  I really can't tell about this image, but to me, it looked like they are wearing little knitted sweaters.  So that's what I went with when coloring them.  I came up with the sentiment and since I used the term "spring chicken", I went with fun Spring colors.


Here's my last card to share:

And again, another Hambo digital image.  I love whimsical, and this is such a fun image.  I used an MS punch for the grass there at the bottom, and I cut out an extra bunny (yellow sandals) and popped him up on dimensional tape.  I also made these images a little larger than most images (a real plus for digital images).  I wanted these great images to be dominant on all the cards.

If you noticed, all my cards have several things in common tonight.  They are all square cards, they all use Hambo digital images, the are all animal themes, and they are all colored with colored pencils and oms.  I normally don't use digital images.  I find most of them to be not well drawn (some almost look like they were drawn by very young children).  I'm also not a real fan of simple line drawings which most digital stamps are.  But there are some companies out there that really produce quality work.  Hambo is definitely one and so is Mo's Digital Pencil Too.  

OK, that's it for the cards.  HOWEVER, I wanted to share with you some photos I took today while I was out for a walk with the boys this afternoon.  These pics were taken along the same trail that you "walked" with me and the boys this past Winter.  Take a look at what we saw, I call this group "Signs of Spring":

I have no idea what type of plant this is, but that little bud in the center pops out this dark burgundy colored flower.

I don't know what this plant is either, but I loved the variegation and patterns on the leaves.

I don't know what these are either but they are so pretty and are popping out everywhere on the floor of the woods.

This little sprout growing in a hole of a tree trunk reminded me of the sentiment "Bloom where you are planted".

And this is a sure sign that Spring has sprung.  Love the perfect coil keeping itself warm.  It was about 58F here today with a brisk wind.  I read in an old Almanac some time ago that you can count on no more hard frosts when you see snakes out and about.  Here is a pic of this one's sibling which was not more than 5 feet away from this one:

Again, coiled up keeping warm.  I did "bother" this one with a stick because I wanted to see how long they were.  This one was about 3 feet long.  I believe these are common rat snakes and are not poisonous.  I have heard that for the most part, if a snake has a slender, long head (like this one) they are generally not poisonous.  If their heads are more square shaped they usually are poisonous.  But I would imagine there is always an exception to the rule, so I don't mess with them much.  I tend to keep my distance whenever possible.  I used a very long stick on this one and my camera's zoom lens is exceptional.

I love how this little cluster was huddled up in this cozy little alcove at the base of a tree.

And finally I just found the rippling roots of this tree covered in this beautiful green moss so interesting to look at.


So, you can consider those an extra dose of the "Pic of the Week".  Hope you enjoyed them.  I'm loving seeing the daily changes as Spring takes hold.


OK, hope you've enjoyed this edition of my blog.  I so appreciate you coming by and I'm so glad that you do.  I always look forward to your comments and coming to see what you've been up to this week.  I appreciate you so much!


Hope you are all well.  Hugs to all of you!


Best,


Curt O'Brien


"God, please help me be the person that my dog's 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."