WEDNESDAY EVENING POST - JUNE 2, 2010

Hey All!  How are ya???  I want to apologize first and foremost for being a horrible blogging friend.  I have neglected so many of you.  I have not meant to, but my time taking care of Jay has been so much more in demand, it has been hard to keep up with all the blogs I regularly visit.  HOWEVER, things have been getting better slowly but surely, and I am now pretty much back on schedule.  So I WILL BE SEEING YOU IN THE NEXT FEW DAYS!  Thank you for being so supportive and understanding.  You have been wonderful!

As I stated above, I'm finally getting back on track hence my Wednesday Evening Post is on time!  LOL  I HAVE A WONDERFUL TECHNIQUE TO SHARE WITH YOU TODAY!!!!  Take a look at this:

The sky and grassy hill is done with a technique called MELTED CRAYON.  This was such a blast for several reasons.  First, doesn't it have a Van Gogh feel to it???  Can you believe that sky and hill were done with ordinary crayons and a travel iron????  Take a look at the close up below:

If you click on the pic above, you'll see the texture (which looks like paint) and the glossiness of the finished background.  The "trees" are actually a two-step leaf stamp from Memory Box.  The scale of the leaf made it a perfect tree stamp for my scene.  I stamped the "trees" with Staz-On ink because the finished surface is slick.  I also stamped the sentiment with Staz-On as well.  I just can't believe that you can get this effect with a travel iron!  Look at these great backgrounds I created for future use:

Doesn't this look like granite?  I used brown and pink for this one.  Here is another:

I think this looks like a piece of jade.  The other thing that was fun about this project was going out and buying a big box of Crayola 64 Crayons.  Boy did that bring back memories for me.  When I opened the box and smelled that unmistakable smell of crayons, I was immediately transported back to my childhood.  Wow, the memories that crayons brought back to me.  It was like opening a magical time machine.  Some of the images and memories that it invoked were so vivid and fresh and not thought of in many, many years.

If you are interested in learning this fun technique, check out the great tutorial complete with a video HERE.

The next card I want to share is a card I made for ME!   LOL  I'm always making note card sets for others, and when I saw this stamp, I knew that this would be used for the following note card for me:

I love this Gruffies stamp!  The way the card turned out is exactly what I had pictured in my head when I saw this stamp.  I colored it with my colored pencils and oms.  The paper is by The Paper Studio.  I got another stamp that is nothing but piano keys, and I plan to make a different one using that stamp to create a background paper.

The final card I want to share is on a sadder note.  One of my teammates on the HM design team has a sister who is terminally ill.  She asked if we would send her a card.  She said that she loves frogs.  I don't have many frog stamps, but I did have this one from Anna Wight's "Fish Friends" by Whippersnapper Designs, so I made this card for her:

This was marker colored and the sentiment was computer generated.  I used a CB folder for the background because this one reminded me of frog skin!  LOL  I hope it cheered her.  I also enclosed a small frog charm inside the card for her.

Well, that's it for this post.  Can't believe it is June already!!!!  HEADS UP!!!!  My birthday is this month and to celebrate, I'm going to have a blog candy give-away!!!!  I think I've got some great stuff to offer up, so keep checking back!

Hope you enjoyed the post.  I'll be seeing you on your blogs over the next few days.  BTW, you still have time to enter for the House Mouse and Friends Monday Challenge Blog Hop blog candy give away.  So click HERE for the details!

Take care all!  I love you guys!  Don't forget the "Pic of the Week"!

Best,


Curt O'Brien


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