Welcome to the Crafters of Faith Blog Hop!

Welcome to the first Crafters of Faith Blog Hop! We are so blessed to have you stop by and celebrate the beauty of AUTUMN with us! The Crafters of Faith blogging group is a joyous blending of christian friends ~ joined together to fellowship, share our faith, build friendships and craft together! If you are just visiting and would like to hop with us, welcome! If you hopping along already, you should have arrived from Sharon's blog. This month, our hostess is Carol S! She gave us a wonderful Harvest challenge and here is what she asked us to create:  "I love FALL, the colors and the smells! I would like to propose that we make a card with fall colors, it should include fruits and vegetables to remind us of the harvest. When my kids were small, I canned peaches and pears, made pickles and such. So much fun to open those jars in the dead of winter! I am looking so forward to the fall festival of Sukkoth (Feast of Tabernacles). To Biblical historians, this is the actual time of Christ's Birth and many people believe this will also be the season of HIS return. Blessings All!" To celebrate in this glorious season upon us, here is a card that I created: Front & an angled view to show the popped up wreath and some of the textures. The wreath is an old PSX stamp that I've had for years..  It's stamped in Memento Rich Cocoa and colored with a variety of PrismaColor and Derwent Pencils, blended with Gamsol. Below is a close up of the wreath - and yes - I did use some glitter!  Rather a glitter novice here but wanted a bit of sparkle on this one.  It is also painted with Crystal Effects to give it some shine and enhance the colors. From here, continuing hopping to Jeanette's blog to see what Autumn splendor she has waiting for you! We also have a special little giveaway for one lucky hopper today and you can find that on Kelly's blog - the last stop on the hop!  Thank you for stopping by today! In this glorious season of Fall, and the wonders of the earth changing to gorgeous colors .... in a time of gratitude and thanksgiving ... we wish many blessings for you! To God who gives our daily bread A thankful song we raise, And pray that he who sends us food May fill our hearts with praise. Thomas Tallis (1505-1585)

So. Here's the Deal;

If you are looking for a card, move on.  This is Bijou the Bog Editor here.  My Female Pet is acting out.

She received something termed a "phone call" on Monday and she's been in a funk ever since.  I don't know what an "Aunt" and an "Uncle" are, but they are important to her.  And they live in somewhere far away called "Sacramento".  Anyway, it made her sad because it's a tough stage of life right now, when facing the end.

But then The Female found a post by her companion on SCS called "Paige".  It seems that loads of humans are posting on an "Amazon" site (what exactly is that anyway?) and submitting reviews on  some pens that are supposedly marketed specifically to women.

Well, thanks to Paige, my Female has been in a good mood and giggling all day.   Hmpf.  What's an editor supposed to do?  How can I possibly whip her into shape and meet my deadlines if she's all happy and "feelin' good" (how do you feel good without oat groats, sweet potatoes and safflower seeds anyway?)  
Seriously, check this out:
BicPensforwomen

Read the reviews.  Just don't drink anything while you are reading.  You may choke on your coffee like my Female did.  Nearly woke the whole house up in the wee hours.  Hmmmph.  

Are You Cured?

Here's my submission for Round 12 of the Mystery Image Swap on Split Coast:

This round's hostess was Samantha and she sent us the images.  It was up to us to color and create a card with her images.  She belongs to a card-giving group at her church and will use our cards for that purpose.

Isn't he just the cutest little guy, all tucked into his comfy bed?  I guess that I was feeling like Fall when making this card, choosing earth tones and an acorn theme.

He's colored with both Prisma and Derwent pencils, blended with Gamsol.  I do not know the origin of the quilt DP, since it was bought second-hand and already cut into 6x6 squares.  Ivory card stock stamped with a plaid BG stamp, then a small acorn peg-stamp from my stash. I rounded up 4 of the acorns in the bottom of a drawer full of "treasures".

Sam is very speedy with swapping out and I already have my returns back!  Thanks Sam for a great image for this round. And thanks for being part of such a fun group!  In 2 months we'll have another round hosted by Terry.  Thanks for stopping by!

The Best of the Dueling Darlings!

A monthly group of friends, called the Dueling Darlings on Split Coast, create cards from kits sent by each of us in turn when it's our month to host.

One of our members, Debbie, had a great idea for us to keep the leftovers from each monthly kit and in September, we create a card from these remaining items.

What to do, what to do...many ideas floated through my mind over the months as I stashed my goodies away.  But then, when it came time to make the card my other life took over and I was pressured, and late to meet our Dueling Deadline (cards should be posted by the 15th).

I really got myself into a tizzy about being late, but then I just thought about how special each of these women have become in my life.  Then it came to me!  Make a quilt using strips of each of their papers (well, the ones that I had left anyway) and make a big heart!

Card base is ivory, a navy blue panel, then the pink doily paper panel, trimmed with two different ribbons along the bottom and left side.

The heart is made of 1/2" strips of DP, woven and glued onto white CS.  Then I hand cut the heart, mounted it on navy CS and hand cut the border.  Some light blue ribbon was tied in a bow and fixed to the heart.

The sentiment is from one of the kits during the past months and says it all:

"A friend is what the heart needs all the time".

Here's the inside, which used up some more of the lovely papers that I had gathered through the months.


I cut out half of the Irish Blessing from March's kit and included it on the inside.

Today I had a meeting at church led by a dear friend, Carolyn.  I gave her the card, explaining it's origin and purpose and that I wanted it to go to another special friend, so now it belongs to her!







Thanks to all of the Dueling Darlings - for inviting me into your group, for tolerating me when I am late to post - for being caring and supportive of each other - and for sharing your talents with others!

Each of you has a special place in my heart!

Cards 5 & 6 In Gift Sets

Here are two more cards that I made while on vacation.  (these are also for the gift sets)

With Sympathy is on lavender CS and white embossed.  The stamp is Stampin Up's French Flair.  Sentiment is A Muse, from the Damask Greetings set.





















They are rather simple cards, but perhaps that's best for sympathy cards. the inside has a portion of the swirls & bird and a sentiment.

The next card has an Asian theme, and uses an old beauty from SU! "Oriental Paintings".  Red CS for the base, damask embossed black panel, image heat embossed with gold EP on red, mounted on shimmery gold paper.

I must admit, these two pictures have been giving me fits. This is the third day trying to make this silly little post.  Not sure what the issue was, but I just could not get these two pictures to upload to Blogger.

I haven't quite finished this set yet, still deciding what type of sentiment to add.  Probably a "thinking of you" type.

This makes a total of 60 cards made, 10 sets with 6 each. Not too shabby for a few days off from the office.

Thanks for stopping by and thank you for your comments!  I really enjoy it when you visit this bitty blog (and it keeps my editor happy, ha ha!)

Two More Cards for the Gift Sets

Many of you know that I took some days off last week to recharge.  What better way to recharge than playing with my toys, right?

So I pressed on toward my goal of making 10 sets of varied cards to give as holiday gifts this season.  Here are two more that were made last week:

I'm not happy with either of these photos, they don't accurately portray the colors: Mellow Moss, a very pale pink and Barely Banana.  I also used some A Muse Shimmer Finishing Spray on the moss panel.  It gives it a nice sheen and soft sparkle.  The picture taken from a slight angle shows it a bit better.


The inside is also stamped and decorated, but those pictures did not turn out very well.  If I manage to take a better picture, I will add it to this post.








Then I decided to make a fun birthday card so out came one of my favorites: Ronnie from Inky Antics!

Here's the card, and there's glitter on the DP.  She's colored with my new alcohol markers: Spectrum Noir.  I think I'm getting the hang of them, they are so different from my other, water based markers.  (Thanks to all of my friends on SCS who are experts with Copics.  Your tips have really helped me!)



 Here is a closer look at Ronnie.  Today she has on her usual bling and bright colors!








The inside says "Now you say it back to me" - I just love that!

Anyway, thanks for looking and thanks for your patience with my photography.  Someday when I have a life I'll have to take some lessons on photographing cards better.