THE WEDNESDAY EVENING POST FOR APRIL 27, 2011

Hey All!

I'm just going to come out and say it. . .There's not going to be a post this week.  I really need a breather, and I haven't had the mind or the inspiration to create.  I have thought all week about getting up there and creating, but when it came right down to it, I just didn't have the desire.  I've been taking care of Jay and his Mom quite a bit last week, and I've also been doing "Spring cleaning" projects that have just tuckered me out.  Today is a prime example. . .I went into my walk-in closet this morning, looked up at all the boxes that were sitting up on the shelves.  I went to the garage, got the ladder and pulled each and every one of them down and went through them.  I now have about 100 pounds of very old paperwork in bags and boxes that need to be taken for shredding. . .I went through paperwork that dated back to 1991.  I'm also starting to get rid of "junk" that has been in closets since we had the house built 10 years ago.  It's time for a garage sale!  So I'm just tired and a little sick of the constant rain and storms we have had over the last two weeks.  My grass is so long that I told Jay I was going to find some huge cutouts of buffalo and set them out in the yard for a wild prairie display!  LOL

OK, sorry for all the text.  Just wanted you to know I'm taking the week off and will be back with a post next Wednesday.  Now I can truly catch up on all of your blogs.  I can also spend a little time on my guilty pleasure playing some games on Pogo.  Are any of you members of Pogo?

Hope you are all well!  I'll see you on your blogs!

Best,

Curt O'Brien

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

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 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 30, 2011

Hey All!

Happy Hump Day to each and every one of you!  I'm so happy to see you and I love our visits here on Wednesday night.  I really don't have much special to show tonight however.  Just run of the mill cards, with a few little tricks to share.  So let's get started. . .

I did add a new feature to my blog RIGHT OVER THERE AT THE RIGHT SIDE BAR ----->  I've decided that I would like to know more about us collectively.  So I am going to have a reader poll with a new question each week.  The questions are things that I wonder about and I'd like to get a feel for what you think about these things as well.  So won't you take 5 seconds and cast your vote?  Thanks!

Here is my first card to share:

 The special part about this card is that the skirt is made out of a COFFEE FILTER!  

 Take a look at this view:

When I was at my neighbor friend Nina's house learning how to make flowers out of fabric, she showed me a card she had made with a dress made out of a coffee filter.  She had it hanging on a little hanger, and I thought it was so creative.  So I came home and came up with my version.  I cut out the top by hand, and then cut the coffee filter in half and did a 3 fold on it.  I then took a background stamp with black dots and stamped the dots on the skirt.  Added a bow done with my Bow Easy, mounted the dress on a Nestie oval ran through the CB and done.  Sentiment is computer generated.  I did a search on SCS to see if anyone else had done a dress/skirt out of a coffee filter and didn't find one.  So, great idea Nina!  

My next card:

A card for Spring.  The technique I used on this was the cutting out part of the image before cutting it with an oval die in the CB so that it comes right out of the die cut.  So easy to do, and it makes a big difference on a card.  I colored the image with colored pencils and oms.

Last card is my least favorite.  I hate it when cards don't turn out like I think they should. . .

It just doesn't do anything for me.  And the thing that is so disappointing is that it was a lot of work.  The left and right flower was stamped twice and painstakingly cut out and popped up with dimensional tape.  I just thought it would look a little more dramatic, but it looks like the poppies are on their last legs. . .LOL  Oh well, sometimes these things don't come out like we want them to.  The stamp set is called Poppies from Flourishes.

Lastly, I have to share a gift I received from my wonderful blogging buddy Karen from 1 Wacky Woman.  She is awesomely talented, especially when it comes to coloring images (her book is in my sidebar) and card style.  Here is what she made for me!

 And matching card:

The card front is actually quilted cloth!  Here is how this little quilted caddy cover works.


Take a cup:

Wrap the cup with the quilted organizer and secure it with the Velcro straps:

Then fold in the top half into the cup so that it looks like this:

Then fill all the little pockets with your most used items! :

It's so nice to have the stuff on the outside pockets so you don't have to dig through pencils and markers to get your special pens or small scissors.  I LOVE this Karen and it is sitting prominently on my work desk.  The quality of this is AMAZING.  The stitching is beautiful!!!  I'm so proud to own this!  I really can't thank you enough.

Finally, the "Pic of the Week":

THINK SPRING!!!!

OK, that's it for another edition!  Thanks so much for coming by.  Don't forget to vote in the poll!


Hope you have a wonderful rest of the week and a fab weekend.  Take care of yourselves and I'll see you soon!


Best,


Curt O'Brien


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

THE WEDNESDAY EVENING POST FOR MARCH 23, 2011

Hey All!

How the heck are ya???  HAPPY SPRING!  We are having the most bizarre weather here (but typical for Indiana).  Today it got to 73 but in the morning we are supposed to be in the 20s!  Is that nuts or what???


Today's post is reflecting the new Spring season.  How do you like those cute flowers that popped up in my yard up there???  LOL  God love 'em.  They do anything to please me (but they are paid well in treats, I assure you).  On with the post!


First Card:

When I saw this stamp set, this card was in my head.  It really went together quickly.  I drew the clouds freehand on "sticky paper" then cut them out.  I peeled off the backing and sprinkled them with diamond glitter.  Can't see it in the pic that well, but they are sparkly.  What you also can't see is the yellow in the balloon is also very sparkly.  I used a glitter gel pen to color those areas.  After some very fussy cutting, I popped up the balloon and clouds with foam squares.  The green hills I cut out freehand as well, and the sky was sponged with distress ink (faded jeans).  Sentiment is from the same stamp set from Inkadinkado.

Next is my second Easter card.  Here it is:

It's kind of goofy, but I made this for Jay's great nephew's (young kids).  It is all made with punches.  I actually stole cased this idea from something I saw on SCS.  You can see what I cased HERE.  However, I did make tons of changes.  Changed the scene completely adding flowers and a fence, etc.  Bet you will NEVER guess what I made their little feet out of. . .a MS Halloween bat punch!  LOL  Their little feet are part of the bat's wing.  That's what I call "winging it"!  (GROAN)  Literally, everything on this card is punched.

Last thing to share with you tonight is this 3-D project for Easter:

This is a box I found while surfing You Tube.  I love the idea of this and when I saw it I knew it would be great for Easter or Halloween.  Since I didn't see it for Halloween, Easter it is. . .Are you ready for the inside????

I just love this box, and it is a piece of cake to make.  If you are interested, you'll find the video tutorial HERE.  I stamped the outside of the box with a $1 stamp I found at Mike's.  Love the rabbit silhouette (stamped in four different pastel colors).  I don't know who the paper is by that I used on the inside.  I'm going to put a little Easter grass in each box to enhance the presentation, but I didn't have any for tonight's pics.

HERE IS THE PIC OF THE WEEK:

I took this picture this afternoon.  This was the largest, brightest rainbow I had ever seen.  It had not even rained in our neighborhood, but you can see that it is raining behind the rainbow.  If you look really close to the left above the white house, you can see a second faint rainbow.  I was standing in my driveway when I took this today.  We even had tornado warnings this evening.  I have a feeling we are in for some rough weather this Spring.

OK, that wraps it up for another Wednesday Evening Post.  Welcome to all of my new subscribers.  I love that you think enough of my blog to subscribe.  I'm honored.  For the rest of you wonderful, fabulous, amazingly talented, super sweet, regulars of mine, I'm behind on my blog visiting (as usual).  I'm trying to stay ahead of all the things that need to be done around the house and with the care of Jay and the boys.  I feel like I've neglected some things so I've tried to get started on some Spring cleaning etc.  But I will be by in the next few days.  I've missed you and can't wait to see what you've been up to!

Hugs to all of you!  Thanks so much for stopping by.  You guys are the very best!  BTW  HEY SONJA!!!!!  Please email me!!!!  Would you please????  curt.obrien@gmail.com


Love you guys!


Best,


Curt O'Brien


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

THE WEDNESDAY EVENING POST FOR MARCH 16, 2011

Hey All!

Top 'o the day to ya!  For those of you who are visiting on St. Pat's Day . . .HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY to ya don't ya know!  For those who aren't and the day is over, may good luck be with ya!  Sorry I'm so late with this post, but some ornery little leprechauns were playing some dirty little tricks with me blogger. . .I was getting to the point of wanting to stick a pot of gold up their little . . .Oh, sorry!  I got a little carried away with me self!  LOL  On with the post then lads and lassies. . .

Since it is after 1:00 AM here, it is technically St. Patrick's Day, so I'll start with a St. Pat's card which I am entering into Ted's challenge (HERE) which is to use the colors of the national flag of Ireland.  Here is my card:

I don't know if Ted will disqualify me for this, but I think he said we needed to also use a shamrock.  I believe these are clovers, but what the heck. . .I say close enough.  And if you disqualify me TED, I'll have to hit you upside the head with my sheleighly!  And don't ya think I won't be a doin it either!  This is a House Mouse image colored with my colored pencils and oms.

Next is a get well card for a friend of my blogging friend Patti at Cherish Each Precious Day.  Patti asked me to give a shout out for her regarding cards being made for this poor woman.  She sounds like a very sweet wonderful person going through some rough times, so I wanted to help.  Here is the card:

This poor woman broke her femur (OUCH) and has so many complications.  I knew what stamp I was going to use the minute I read her story HERE.  So if you'd like to send this dear lady a smile, won't you hop over to Patti's and get the scoop?  Thanks!  This card is on its way Patti!


My last thing to share is a 3-D project.  I saw this on Splitcoast and just went crazy over it.  I think it is the cutest idea and I had to give it a try.  Take a look:

It's a box/card that holds one of those travel size tissue packets.  Yes, another House Mouse image (one of my favs - I LOVE that baby bunny)  The image is colored with colored pencils and oms as well.  Here is kind of a side view:

For the deets on how to make this clever creation you can go HERE. 


Well that does it for another Wednesday Evening Post.  I hope you've enjoyed it.  I'm so glad that you stopped by and I hope I made it worth your while.  And in honor of the day, let me leave you with an old Irish blessing:

May the road rise to meet you

May the wind be always at your back.

May the sun shine warm upon your face,

and rains fall soft upon your fields.

And until we meet again,

may God hold you in the hollow of His hands.

I hope you are all well and happy.  Please keep the people of Japan in your thoughts and prayers.


Love you guys!


Best,


Curt O'Brien


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