WEDNESDAY EVENING POST - JUNE 9, 2010

Hey All!  Happy Hump Day!  It's Wednesday and time for another Wednesday Evening Post.  I have a couple of cards to share with you tonight, along with the ANNOUNCEMENT of my upcoming BIRTHDAY BLOG CANDY!!!  So read on for all the details:

My first card is an original design born out of trying something that I'm not good at.  That would be called a "NO LAYER CARD".  Well, I thought I would go out of my comfort zone and try one.  Well. . . . . . .I have to tell you I had to cheat!  LOL  I couldn't help it.  I just didn't know what to do with the sentiment so I had to pop it up.  Here it is:

See what I mean????  There was no room on the card to put it.  Besides that, it was computer generated so what the heck!  The tree is a huge background stamp from Hero Arts.  I stamped it directly onto Gina K. Designs Pure Luxury 120# card stock with forest green Staz-on ink.  I then went over parts of the main trunk and some branches with a dark brown Sharpie.  I used a MS punch for the little birds, punching each from a different colored scrap piece of card stock.  I really like how this turned out.  With the birds being just a punched out little blob, I had to draw beaks and eyes on them to make them look a little more like birds.

My second card is a case of a card I recently saw on Splitcoast.  I cased this card:  Here is my version:

I believe I followed the "rules of casing" by changing at least three things about the card.  My first change is the orientation of the card from vertical to horizontal.  I changed the colors from yellows and oranges to greens and whites, and I gave each leaf a pattern.  I really do like this card and its theme can be used for so many things.  The leaves are actually the "negative" of the punch.  Once I punched the leaves out, I cut the negative into squares and then mounted the square onto the patterned paper.  I like the effect it gives.  The scalloped bottoms are done with an EK Success border punch.  The sentiment is from a set that I have no idea who makes it.

OK, now for an announcement for my upcoming blog candy.  I will start the blog candy on next Wednesday's Evening Post.  I'm NOT going to make you jump through hoops to win it either.  This is in celebration of my birthday this month and the fact that my blog turned 2 a couple of months ago and I missed it!  So I'm combining both celebrations!  So be sure that you come back on June 16th to enter.  I'll be drawing a winner on my birthday, which is JUNE 19TH!  So no long wait.  It is going to be a really nice prize pack too!

OK, that's it.  Thanks so much for coming by.  I love that you visit me, and I can't wait to see what you have all been up to.  I hope you are all well and having a wonderful week!  Don't forget the "Pic of the Week".  It is updated with every Wednesday Evening Post.

Hugs to all of you!


Best,


Curt O'Brien


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

CHALLENGE, NEW CARD, AND EXCITING NEWS

Hey All! How have you all been? Happy Friday!!! Hope you all had a great week and a wonderful Valentine's Day. As you can see, my blog is all decked out for St. Patrick's Day as are my boys above. Honestly, they have bandannas for every holiday and season. I love my guys so much! And with my last name being O'Brien, I would lose my Irish card if I didn't decorate my blog for the holiday.

I have a few things to share with you today. A couple of cards, an update, and some EXTREMELY EXCITING NEWS! So, on we go!

My first card is my submission for the House Mouse Monday Challenge #25. This one was a little different because they had a sketch you had to follow. I'm not big on sketches, but this one was kinda cool and I really loved the layout. Here it is:



Here is my interpretation:



How perfect for St. Pat's Day. As most of you who have followed my blog for any time, you know that when I do a sketch challenge, I literally follow the sketch - no variations. I think this HM image is so cute. I like how this turned out, except that bare spot up there in the upper left hand corner. But, like I said, I follow the sketch as given. Here is a close up of the image:



I'm listing all the details of the cards at the end of the post if you are interested. But I have to say, I colored this image with colored pencils and OMS with blending stumps. I'm not kidding you when I say this. . .the pencils I use for my coloring of all images are simple Crayola colored pencils. I also use these other super cheap colored pencils called "Cran". Makes me laugh every time. Remember when you were a little kid and you called crayons "crans"? Anyway, these pencils cost $7.99 for 72 colors! LOL Can you believe it? My Crayola pencils were like $6.99 for 48 colors. And I get these kind of results. And trust me on this. . .I know some 5 year olds who can color better than me! The secret to the coloring turning out is the odorless mineral spirits and choosing the correct colors. That's it. So, I'm just telling you my little closeted secrets because if you think you can't color. . .if I can get results like this, you can too!

My next card is one that I had in my head the minute I saw two of the stamps that I used for it. The bird and the nest stamps just inspired a card in my head. Here is what came out:



Whenever I see a nest with eggs, I always picture them blue or speckled. When I saw these stamps, I immediately thought of beige and robin egg blue. The background paper is speckled with the browns, blues, and the light greens that I used for the tree just budding. Here is a close up of the bird:



I also did something that I have never tried. That is coloring an image on colored card stock. I always thought that the color of the paper would alter the color. I was so pleased with how it looked, and plan on doing it more in the future.

OK, now on to my EXCITING NEWS! Did you notice the "2 Red Bananas" logo on the right side of my blog near the top? It's there for a reason. I know many of you know Jami of Stamp Happy. If not, go see her. She is so very talented! Anyway, she has designed some wonderful stamp sets for 2 Red Bananas. She emailed me and asked if she could design a stamp set with my boys as the inspiration. She had seen a card I had done previously, and took inspiration from that too (you can see it here). I was so honored and pleased and, of course, said ABSOLUTELY! So, a stamp set was born which will be released next month. The are going to sneak peak it on February 25Th, and I get to play along. I will be posting (proudly I might add) my card using the new stamp set. I was also so excited to find out that the stamp set includes a likeness of my sweet Gunther and the stamp set is called "Gunther's Greetings". I hope I didn't spill too much, but I'm just on cloud 9! My little boy is now a stamp set!!!! LOL I've really been doing the happy dance ever since I received the set. I can't wait till you see it. So be sure to come back on the 25Th to see my card and get links to the other designer's cards.Finally, Pat gave me a final count of her cards for the kids at the hospital. She received, are you sitting down. . . 5,675 Valentines. Doesn't that just knock you over. Job well done, thanks again for all of your help!

OK, that's it for this post. As always, thanks so much for stopping by. I just can't believe that you take the time to do it, but I'm so very grateful that you do. Don't forget the pic of the week below! I'll see you on your blogs this weekend!


Best,

Curt O'Brien

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

Card Details:

HM Card:

Stamp: "Oh Lucky Day" Stampabilities

Ink: Archival Jet Black

Paper: DCWV; Bazzill Card Stock

Accessories: Nestabilities; ribbon; gem stone

Bird Card:

Stamps: Tree - Memory Box; bird and nest - Inkadinkado wood mounted

Ink: Staz-On Timber Brown

Paper: Bazzill card stock

Accessories: Nestabilities; grosgrain ribbon; foam squares.