THE WEDNESDAY EVENING POST FOR DECEMBER 14, 2011

Hey All!!!

PLEASE READ THIS:  For this week's "Video of the Week", I decided to install a fireplace for your enjoyment while you are here to keep you nice and cozy.  Just click the play button over there on the right and the fireplace will magically start burning.  Enjoy the warmth!

 OK, for those of you who were trying to send me snow. . .please either try harder or stop what you are doing because all I'm getting is frigging rain!!!!  And to top it all off, it was nearly 60 degrees here today.  As I write this post, it is raining so hard that you can hear the rain hitting the windows.  It's so hard to make Christmas cards when you are too warm and watching it rain.  I'm now changing the words to Christmas songs:

"It's beginning to look a lot like flooding. . .everywhere I go"  or. . .

"Big Puddles Big Puddles. . . puddles all the way". . .    or. . .

"I'm dreaming of a dry Christmas". . .  You get the picture. . .LOL

But Christmas cards I have made and I'm on a roll and getting quite a few done!  Take a look:

I do very few "clean & simple" cards because I'm not good at them.  However, I'm liking how this one turned out.  I actually hand crafted the pine branch by stamping it end to end 4 times to get the length and once to the left and bottom to make it fuller on that end.  It is just a small one branch stamp.  But before stamping it, I cut out a rectangle with a die and used the negative as a mask to create the little rectangular blue space.  The snowflakes were stamped with Versamark before sponging on the distress ink.  It gives such a nice, subtle look to the flakes.  The "ornament" is simply a button with a gem glued to it.  Tied the tiny bow with my Bow Easy, added a piece of embroidery floss for the string, stamped the sentiment and done.  I've made several of these because they are pretty quick.

Next card:

My blogging friend Karen sent me this great stamp last year and I just think he is adorable.  Colored him with colored pencils and oms, cut him out and placed him on the background paper.  Stickled his buttons, berries etc, popped on a couple of glittery snowflakes and done.  Then image is by High Hopes and the sentiment is from a Tim Holtz set.  (Yes Mark. . . Tim Holtz).  TIP:  I had the snowman all colored and cut out and went to pick him up and got a big ink smudge from my thumb on his bottom section.  Instead of throwing it away and starting over, I stamped the image again on a piece of paper and cut out that section and paper pieced it over his bottom half!  Worked perfectly!!!!!

Next card is a very different kind of Christmas card. . .

This is more of a manly card and I do like how it turned out.  When I first bought this stamp set, I had other things in mind for it, but I never have used it until now.  I simply did the sentiment on my computer and printed it out on regular paper.  I have a very old paperback dictionary so I tore out the page that had "Christmas" on it, distressed it with Antique Linen distress ink as well as the typewriter stamped image.  I cut the typewriter out and cut a slit in it to put the paper in, taped it to the back and popped it up with dimensionals so the paper stands up from the card.  Put it on some plaid background paper, added a ribbon with twine bow, and the "typewriter keys" are stickers.  The ring around the numbers/letters is actually metal so they feel like keys.  The image is by Hero Arts.

My last card for tonight is this one:

I had to take two pictures of this to actually show you what type of card it is.  From this photo it simply looks like the tree is on a panel, but it is not. . .take a look:

See!  It's a card with a punched out window.  No big deal, I know, but I wanted you to see it was a window card and not just one of my standard panel cards.  I don't make these much either!  This image is from Mark at Deadbeat Designs (a very talented and funny guy).  This is his tree stamp (large tree) and I added the birdhouse and bird from Artful Inkables.  I added liquid applique to the branches for a snow effect.  All the little snowflakes were punched out, Stickled, and hand applied inside and out.   

Pic of the Week

Since I don't have any snow yet this season, I had to post a pic of snow from last winter.  This is the park that the boys love the best and is in the "walking videos".  This was taken last February.


So that wraps up another edition of the Wednesday Evening Post.  Hope you enjoyed your stay and that the fireplace kept you nice and warm.  Can't wait to see you next week.  I'm on my way around to see all of you!  Hope you are getting all the stuff done you need to get done!


Love you guys!


Best,


Curt


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

THE WEDNESDAY EVENING POST FOR DECEMBER 7, 2011

Hey All!

How the heck are ya??  Any snow yet?  Here in Carmel, not a stitch. . .we've had some flurries but that's been it.  Hard to be in the mood for decorating but I'm forcing it.  I've invited my Mom over tomorrow for a "Christmas decorating lunch".  I'm putting up the tree and decorations right after lunch with her help.  I will have wine in hand!

OK, on to the post.  All Christmas today with a couple of fun techniques.  Here is the first which is my favorite:

OK, pretty boring I know. . .until you slip off the belly band and get this:

This is another one of those pop up stage cards.  Here is a side view:

You know me and scenes.  I created one of these for Halloween.  These images are from Recollections cling stamps.  The bear took a LOT of fussy cutting but it was worth it.  I colored the images with Bic markers.  The "ice" is a cut out piece of patterned paper that I used diamond glaze to look like it was "real ice".  I then used liquid applique around the little pond to look like snow.  Not sure who the paper in the background is by.  SCS has a great tutorial for this card HERE.  So there is the first technique.  Here is the second:

This is an origami folded Christmas tree, and it is so easy to do.  I love how it looks, and I've made another one which I will show you next week.  You can find a great video on how to fold this tree HERE.  The embossing folder I used on this one is a new one from Sizzix.  It is pine branches and it is beautiful.  Here is a side view of the card to give you an idea of depth:

I used same embossing folder on the next card with another technique:

No matter how many photos I took of this, I could not pick up all the glitter.  I made the mats totally glittered by using ScorIt tape around the edges then loading it up with glitter.  It look so beautiful IRL.  I double stamped the pine cone and cut one out.  I colored both with markers and on the one I cut out, I cut out individual pieces and pulled them up for a ton of 3-D.  Then I glittered all of the prongs of the pine cone for more sparkle.  Here is a close up:

You can see a little more of the sparkle in this photo above.


Well, that's it for this post!  So glad that you stopped by.  If you have snow where you are, can you send some this way to help me get into the mood???  Thanks!


Pic of the Week

MY REINDEER!!!!

Video of the Week

This video is one of my favorites for Christmas.  If you've not seen it, you will LOVE it. . .watch for the Giant Schnauzer. . . 


Again, thanks for coming by and taking time to see my stuff.  Hope you've enjoyed yourself!


Love you guys!


Hugs,


Curt


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

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."

CHRISTMAS EVE POST 12/24/2009

Merry Christmas Eve Everyone!  I hope this post finds you all in good spirit and surrounded by all those that you love.  I waited to post my "Wednesday Evening Post" until today because I wanted to post the last of my Christmas cards of the holiday and wanted to send you all holiday wishes.

So not a lot of gabbing on this post.  Here are my cards:

Made with Artful Inkables tree stamp and Martha Stewart Cardinal punch.

Stamp is from the dollar stamp bin at Michael's.  Sentiment is computer generated.

This is a Mo's digital image from Digital Pencil Too.  Reminds me of Gunther.  I can't color things that are supposed to be black!  Does anyone have a tip for me?

This is my first easel card.  Jay has a friend that loves cats, so he asked me to make her a Christmas card with a cat on it.  This is the only cat image I have (Mo's digital).  This easel has a surprise on it. . .take a look:

I hid the sentiment under the image.

That pile of peppermint candy gave me a fit!  LOL 

This is originally a birthday stamp, but a change of colors and presto! a Christmas card.

Love those mouse cookies!

I love the look on the one startled bear's face.  LOL

This is the Christmas card that I made for my Mom.  I hope she likes it.

Well those are the cards.  I'll be making a bunch more over the coming months for my inventory to sell next fall at the big craft fair.  I have a feeling that I'm going to be really sick of Christmas cards by next Christmas!

I want to thank you all for being such wonderful blogging friends.  I've received cards from several of you and they are just so special!  I'll be highlighting them on my next post.  Thank you so much for them, I treasure each of them!

I want to wish you all a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS and the best that the new year has to offer.  On the Christmas Eve night, I'm going to have some hot cocoa and sit here to visit each of your blogs to leave you each an individual message.  So I'll see you later!

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT!

Best,

Curt O'Brien

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