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.

Gift Sets of Cards

Hello!  I've been busy lately making sets of cards to give as gifts this holiday season. My goal is to make 10 sets of an assortment of cards and gift them to special people in my life.  So far I've made 4 sets. Hopefully I can get another 4 sets done before I go back to work on Tuesday.

Here are two of the cards I've made.  The first one shows that I was in an Autumn frame of mind:

The images, inks and matching papers are all from A Muse Studios:
Stamp Set: Beautiful Botanicals
Paper and inks: from their Fall Palette; Squash, Currant and Nutmeg
Cardstock: Wasau's Stardust (it has little flecks of color throughout) and the olive green is DCWV from my stash.
Ribbon: from my stash - it just happened to match the Squash color perfectly!

The second card contains one of my favorite color combinations: pale yellow, blues and brown. I decided to make a Criss Cross Pocket card and used some retired SU DP that I've been hoarding for a while:

Stamp: Inkadoo
Ink: SU Tempting Turquoise, heat embossed with clear EP, then colored with SU ink pads and blending pen
Papers: Close to Cocoa for the base, and the inside panel and side panels are SU's Twitterpated DP





The small decorative strip of blue paper across the front was stamped with an old filigree background stamp from Stampin UP and also clear embossed.

The circular bird image was cut out and popped out with dimensional foam dots.

Here are two, tomorrow I'll post two others.

So far I'm leaving the cards blank to give more flexibility in how they can be used.  But I'm still undecided about that.  What do you all think?

Thanks for looking and I wish you all a great day!

Dueling Darlings Do Bingo!

Greetings from Dallas, TX! I'm in the airport, waiting for my flight and trying to do my blog post today for this month's Dueling Darlings Challenge! (my hubby calls this being cyber-woman, LOL)

Our kit this month was over-the-top fun, thanks to Jeanette! Unfortunately, I did not bring with me the listing of fabulous papers, embellishments and the identity of the image, so I can't give you specifics. (sorry Jeanette)

Well, I can't seem to figure out how to move these pictures around now that I finally have them loaded up, so you'll just have to read & then scroll down to see them.

I used Tempting Turquoise for the card base, and colored the fun image with a combination of markers and pencils, and die cut it and the starburst panel that was in the kit with Nesties. (The bottom picture shows the embossed panel better) I'm not sure if you can tell, but she is wearing enormous pink sparkly earrings, compliments of Stickles.

Part of this month's challenge was to try something we've never done before. Can you believe that I have never put a button on a card or made a ribbon flower before? (gasp!) So, after a wee bit of research on SCS, I took the ribbon that was in the kit and made a flower, attached a button and voila!











Aren't the papers great? I must admit that this was a great challenge, got me out of my comfort zone a bit in a fun way. Thank you Jeanette!

Now, I'm off to visit everyone else's creations, and I hope that you will also. It's sure to be a big treat!

Thank you for stopping by! Hugs and blessings to you.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad