My Time to Craft! #406 Birds

Hi, guys! As you read this I will be travelling home after a week spent in Shropshire, close to where my son and his family live. It's a beautifulpart of the country, stuffed full of history and with some fabulous walks by the River Severn. Of course, as a fan of Ellis Peters' 'Brother Cadfael' mediaeval mystery series I love exploring round Shrewsbury, where the stories are set! Do visit, if you ever have the chance.

Anyway, I have scheduled this post, and I hope I've got it right!

Our challenge this time is simply - Birds. I have a gorgeous pink flamingo on my card!

I have been sorting through my card kits and came across one from Simon Says Stamp last year which included the One Cool Pineapple stamp set, which is still available to buy on its own. I LOVE this stamp set! I stamped and coloured the flamingo and used a circle die to cut it out, then added streaks of Copics in blue to make the water round its feet. I also gave the water some sparkle with a Spectrum Noir Sparkle Pen.

The paper is left over from the kit, as are the sequins and the 'Happy Birthday' stamp. When my daughter came to visit she looked through my cards and walked off with every single one that I'd made with this kit - I think she liked them! It was lovely to go back and use up some more of my stash.

Anyhoo, that's my card for this Challenge. I know my teamies will have made a gorgeous collection of Bird cards to inspire you, so do go and see!

Thanks for looking and have a great weekend!

(Now for the scheduling, I hope I get it right!)

love Mags B x

The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge #56 Anything Goes.

Christmas is creeping ever closer, but at The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge we are here to help! In other words, we have a new Challenge for you!

I have been channelling my inner Kristie Marcotte and have made a set of 4 cards. Kristie's videos show how she uses card sketches to use up an entire 6 x 6 paper pad, and I get ideas from her about how to mix papers without a card being too busy, and also ideas on using up snippets! Do go and have a look!

The card sketch is Operation Write Home #146 - unfortunately I don't seem able to add the image here.

The papers are from an old DCWV Christmas paper pad which came with a magazine. The gold-embossed sentiment is by Clearly Besotted and sadly is out of print. I added some gold peel-offs from Love from Lizi for added bling.

I am quite a slow cardmaker, but doing an 'assembly line' using the same sketch is quicker, and the various papers make them not too 'samey'!

Check out my teamies' creations and be inspired to get your Christmas on!!

Thanks for looking, and I hope your week is going well.

love Mags B x

Dream Valley Challenges #209 Autumn Colours.

Hi, guys! We had a visit from our daughter this weekend and in between seeing her old friends she was watching Korean Drama on the tv! I found it quite interesting - though I'm not normally one for the soaps! Anyway, she's now on her way home to Ireland and the house seems a bit empty! Hopefully she'll be back before the end of October, with hubby and son in tow.

So we have a very topical new challenge at Dream Valley: Autumn Colours.. Our sponsor is Sheepski Designs and the lovely Andrea generously sent some digis for the DT to use. I have used Lilly - isn't she lovely?

The papers came from a mysterious pad that has lost its details, which I found while tidying the Craft Hovel last week. It's amazing what I find when I do that! I coloured Lilly with Promarkers and matted the image and papers with gold mirri card. I added a Sway Peeloff from Love from Lizi over the join between the two papers. The corner stickers are from my stash, and the sentiment is from the same mirri card, cut with a die from the latest Love from Lizi kit.

Go and see my teamies' lovely creations, made with some fab Sheepski images!

Thanks for looking, and have a great week!

love Mags B x

My Time to Craft #405 Anything But A Card.

Hiya! I'm sorry this post is late - my daughter is over from Ireland for the weekend, and I'm afraid with all the excitement I forgot!

Anyway, we have a new Challenge at My Time to Craft which is to make Anything BUT a Card. That can be a scrapbook page, embroidery, anything! I have made some little boxes for Christmas presents.

They are based on This video by The Posh Paper Lady. I used 6.5" papers from Kaisercraft (a very old Christmas pad!) so I was able to add lids to the boxes rather than glue everything down. All I did was add half an inch to one of the top flaps, score it, and cut off the opposite flap to give room to tuck the lid in.

The snowflakes are cut in silver mirri card using a Lawn Fawn Stitched Snowflakes die. I'll add tags nearer the time, once I've found suitable gifts to go inside!

My teamies have been so creative, do go and look at their lovely work!

Thanks for looking, and have a great weekend!

love Mags B x

The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge #55

Hello! It's another very hot day here in Hertfordshire, so what better than to talk about Christmas? Yes, we have a new Challenge at The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge where it's always Anything Christmas Goes.

I found a very old foiled decoupage sheet when cleaning up my stash a couple of weeks ago. It was ragged around the edges, but I salvaged one gorgeous image of the Three Kings giving their presents to Baby Jesus.

I matted it onto silver mirri card, and for a background used a vintage-looking paper of bells which I think was a magazine freebie. I love all the festive shine!

Do join us for the Challenge - remember, it's doesn't have to be a card that you create!

Thanks for looking!

love Mags B x

Dream Valley Challenges #208 Buttons and/or a Bow

Hi, guys! Happy Monday!

Ournew challenge at Dream Valley is to use Buttons and/or a Bow. Our sponsor is Oddball Art. The DT were given some of their cute and quirky images to play with, and I have used Penelope.

The background paper is glittered, it came from a very old Papermania pad called 'Hampstead.' The buttons are in fact die-cuts, made with a Love from Lizi die and cut from a snippet of blue glitter card. I added embroidery floss to tie each button to make them look more realistic! The bow is coloured with Broken China Distress Ink. The sentiment is an old Sizzix die. I also added Nuvo Drops on the image and around the scalloped mat.

Go and see the cards my teamies have posted on the Challenge blog and be inspired!

Thanks for looking, and have a great week!

love Mags B x

My Time to Craft! #404 Fantasy

Good morning, and happy Friday! I hope you're all looking forward to a FANTASTIC weekend! If you join in with our new challenge at My Time to Craft you certainly will, as our new theme is Fantasy. (See what I did there?)

I have a card for a little girl here, using the adorable Magical Day by The Greeting Farm.

The unicorn paper is from Chasing Rainbows by First Edition. I made the image into a banner, adding some Nuvo Drops along the top. The ribbon is from stash and the sentiment came with the image.

Go and see the fantastic creations made by my teamies over on the Challenge blog!

Thanks for looking!

love Mags B x