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."

THE ANNOUNCEMENT YOU'VE BEEN WAITING FOR!!!

Hey All! How the heck are ya? Hope you all had a great weekend and the week ahead looks bright!

Today is the day that I can announce the new blog There's Magic in The Air! I was asked to join as a design team member by the ever so talented Nina May. I have to tell you that I am so excited not only for me, but for you too! Nina is so talented and creative, and I think she has come up with an awesome blog and some new and exciting twists that involve YOU! Here's what the blog offers:

~A FREE weekly limited original digital stamp.

~"Magical Mondays" - This is the day that the free digital image is released and the weekly challenge begins. You will also get to see the DT's creations for your inspiration!

~Weekly random prize drawing for all who participate in the challenge.

How fun is that??? In the future, she will also have her other original digital stamps and photo polymer stamps there for sale as well. I really think that you all are going to love her stuff!

And TODAY (July 27Th) and again on August 27Th she is having a blog candy give away to celebrate! So hop on over to "There's Magic in The Air" to enter for the blog candy!

Next Monday is the actual first post of the Design Team's work for the first image. So get over there and sign up as a follower so that you don't miss out on the free weekly digital stamp!

So there you have it! I'm so excited about this opportunity. I hope you have fun with it too over the next several weeks! I think you are going to LOVE her digital images! Good luck on the blog candy! And as always, thanks so much for your support and well wishes!

Best,

Curt

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."

A CHALLENGE CARD

Hey All! I'm going to start trying to be more regular in my posts instead of going two to three weeks between posts. I have to get in the habit because if I'm going to be on a DT, I will be posting once a week! Speaking of the DT, I'm afraid I can't say anything yet. The "official" announcement of the design team will be on July 27Th, and our first works will be posted on the new blog August 3rd. So, I'll be letting you know all of the details on July 27Th. What I will tell you is that this is going to be a little different from most. Every week there will be something for each of you on the blog if you visit. Can't say any more than that, but I think you will find that it is going to be so much fun for everyone! This artist is really talented and you will love what she has in store for all who visit her new blog!

OK, on to my cards for this post. My first is for the House Mouse Monday Challenge #45 over at House Mouse & Friends. The challenge this week was "Seasons". You were to make a card that depicted a season of the year. Since Fall is my favorite season, I chose to do a Halloween card. Here it is:

OMG I love this image! This stamp just came in on Wednesday just in time for this challenge. I used my cheap colored pencils and OMS to color the image. I stamped out extra leaves, cut them out, and attached them to the card with foam mounting squares for the 3-D look. Here is a close up:

I also added a couple around the sentiment which I made using my computer. This image is so magical to me, and conjures up so many fun memories of Halloween. This image is truly on the top of my favs list. One of the reasons that I love the House Mouse stamps is because a lot of them are very large images. My usual size card is 5 X 7, and these stamps help fill all that space. I got several more new stamps, so you'll be seeing more in the next posts.

The other card I made this week is this one:

OK, before you start going "Ewwwwwww! The color of those dew drops don't go with this card!", it is the camera's fault! The dew drops I used are a much darker green, but the flash of the camera made them glow like that. I tried taking the picture outside in direct sunlight, but the picture turned out even worse! The drops could hardly be seen at all, and the ink sponging disappeared all together. So this is the best I could do. So please overlook that bad photo. . .LOL

I double stamped the image (Inque) in Staz-On ink then added glue for the FlowerSoft. I LOVE this stuff, and haven't used it as much as I want to. Here is a close up:

This is the Summer Time mix. I've ordered some more in different solid colors and can think of so much to do with them. Before I stamped the image, I cut out the panel with my Nesties, and before taking it out of the die, I used Antique Linen distress ink to sponge the entire area. I then popped it out and stamped the image and went from there. The little lattice panels are from a Cuttlebug die, and the background paper is from a DCWV stack. And you know the story of the hideous dew drops LOL!

So, there you have it! I'll be back with another post is about a week if not sooner. For some reason, I am up in that stamp room a lot these past few weeks, so I'll have lots more for you. Stay tuned. And don't forget the pic of the week!

Thanks so much for stopping by. I have the BEST readers in all of blogdom! I'll be seeing you on your blogs! You guys have been doing some awesome stuff and you all are such an inspiration to me!

Best,

Curt O'Brien

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

BUTTERFLIES AND A TEASER

Hey All! Happy Hump Day. Hope your week is progressing nicely. I have 3 cards to share with you today. As I was uploading them, I noticed that they all had one thing in common. They all had a butterfly in the theme. Here is my first card:

This is a square card. I cased this card from SCS. The card I cased can be found here. I followed the "rules of casing" and changed more than 3 things. I just loved the unique idea of using Nesties within Nesties. The stamp set I used on this one was from Flourishes called Poppy Patch. The butterfly was from an Inkadinkado set. I'm not sure who does the corner bracket stamp. The main Nestie die cut is lifted from the card with foam squares for dimension. You can see it better in the pic below:

I really love the look of this technique and I love how the card turned out.

Here is the second card I'd like to share with you:

Again, another cased card from SCS. You can see the card I cased here. The only thing I really cased was the actual "concept" of the card. I literally changed everything about the card. Different butterfly, different color, matted the image, added a sentiment, etc. I really do like how this one turned out as well. I thought the "dream" sentiment fit this card. The butterfly and sentiment are both from an Inkadinkado set. I used a dew drop at the end of the word dream, and I used rain dots on the corner brackets.

Here is my last card for this post:

I made the background paper for this card. I started with white card stock and dragged some Ranger Distress Ink over it. I used two colors for this effect. Tea dye and Antique Linen. I then stamped the image in black Archival Jet Black ink starting with the lightest going to a darker image. Cut it out with my Nesties, and added the sentiment on the bottom. I then stamped the small butterfly on the paper and cut out a smaller size with the Nesties. I used a black pen to trace around the inside of the Nesties die before popping it out. I cut a second one in black card stock and rotated it 1/4 of a turn to get the effect. Added a jump ring to the top and attached it to the black satin ribbon. Below is a close up:

There you have it. I also wanted to give you a little teaser with this post. I have some exciting news to share with you, but the details won't be given until the next post. What I will tell you is that I've been asked to join the design team of a new stamp artist!! I'm really excited, and I will share more details next post. There is something in it for all of you too!!!! So keep watching for the details.

Until then, hope you liked the post. In keeping with the butterfly them, the pic of the week is also a butterfly. LOL Thanks so much for coming by to see me. Love having you here and I so love your great comments! Thanks again for sharing your time with me. I'll be seeing you on your blogs!

Best,

Curt O'Brien

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