The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge.

Hello, everyone! We have come to our last Challenge for 2018 at The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge. The next challenge will be on January 8th.

I am busy making multiples of cards (I still haven't found the box where I carefully packed my Christmas cards and stored them 'somewhere safe' - fatal, I know!) This design is based on some old Christmas paper with vintage images of Santa.

The paper is gorgeous, it's textured to feel like canvas and is by First Edition: it came in a mega-pack from Love From Lizi.  I cut the image and the gold mirri mat with stitched oval dies by My Favorite Things.  The sentiment was loose in my Christmas stash box, I think it was a magazine freebie.

Wishing you a creative week! Thanks for looking.

love Mags B x

Dream Valley #192 Christmas

Hello! Today we have a new challenge at Dream Valley which is the last one of the year. And of course the theme is Christmas!

We have several lovely sponsors this time, do check out the Challenge blog to see who they are as well as the lovely creations my teamies have made, using images kindly given to us by the sponsors.

I have friends and family in Scotland, so when I saw this cute Highland Christmas image from Di's Digi Stamps I just had to make her into a card!

I coloured her with Copics and added red Stickles to the holly berries and white glitter to the trim on her hat.  The papers are from my Christmas box and I matted them on antique gold paper using  scalloped dies.  The sentiment is embossed in gold using a Lawn Fawn Winter Scripty Saysings stamp. The star stickers are from stash.

I hope you're all able to take some time to relax as the run-up to Christmas gets going!

Thanks for looking, and have a great week!

love Mags B x

My Time to Craft #385 CAS One Layer Only

I'm so sorry I'm late with this post for My Time to Craft. It's been a frantic day - this morning we set up a room at the Church Hall for our Toddler Groups' Christmas Parties next week, with a special chair for Father Christmas (he visits every year, he is lovely!) and Christmas lights and a glowing Christmas Tree, which took ages to set up because there were no instructions! Then came lunch with a dear friend, and this evening there was Choir Practice. We are singing some beautiful songs this year!

Anyway, I'm home now with a glass of white wine and a card to share for the new challenge, which is Clean And Simple with One Layer Only. 'One Layer' means putting your image directly onto your card front, though if you want to work on a separate panel the same size as the card base and glue it onto the base, that's ok.

I have made..... A Christmas Card! What a surprise!

The lovely flourish Christmas Tree stamp is an old one and I heat embossed it in Simon Says Stamp Platinum silver directly onto a coloured A6 card. I made several of them, using my Misti, because I have mislaid the box where I store my Christmas cards. I know! What a twit!! I knew it was a mistake to tidy my craft hovel.....

There's still enough time to make cards before the Big Day, fortunately!

My teamies' creations for this Challenge are lovely, do go and admire them and try out something CAS!

Thanks for looking, and have a grand weekend!

love Mags B x

The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge # 41

Hello, my dearios! We have another challenge for you at The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge where it's always Anything Christmas Goes!

The most difficult cards to make at this time of year, I find, are not masculine ones but the totally non-religious ones! I don't mean for my Jewish or Muslim friends but those who are humanist or atheist. I don't know if my card today actually fits our theme, though it will accompany a present of hot chocolate and marshmallows at the end of the month - what do you think?

This adorable image is Christmas in a Cup by Elisabeth Bell. A number of her stamps that were originally rubber are now available as digis.

Instead of traditional greens and reds I used pink and mint, with Wink of Stella added to her sash and bow, and Stickles on the snowman on the cup. I used my corner chomper on the bottom two corners.

I had several attempts before I got the image to print in the right place - I'm not very good at digi crafting! I think the friend it's for will like it!

Go and see my teamies creations and then join in the fun! Winter is coming!

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

Love Mags B x

Dream Valley #191 No Squares or rectangles!

Hi, guys! I hope your weekend went well! Ye Olde Manne and I are engaged on a Grand Tidy-Up to get ready for family to come and stay at Christmas! And, no, mid-November isn't too early to start - there's an awful lot of STUFF in this house that needs to go!!

However, there's always time to make a card or two!

Our new theme at Dream Valley is to use No Squares or Rectangles! None at all!!!!!

Our sponsor is Star Stampz and I have used the adorable Snowflake Fairy to make a winter birthday card.

The card base is cut with a Spellbinders Labels Twenty Two die (annoyingly, it seems to be no longer available) and I drew around the inside of the die on some glittered snowflake paper from stash, and cut it out to give a narrow border. I had a co-ordinating gem set from Want2Scrap which adds a lot of sparkle!

I added a ribbon bow and a snowflake charm from my stash, and glitter Nuvo Drops on the snowflakes around the cute girl.

Do join in our Challenge, there is plenty of gorgeous inspiration by my teamies on the blog!

Thanks for looking, and have a good week!

love Mags B x

My Time to Craft #384 Let It Snow.

Morning, all! TGIF! Time for a new challenge at My Time to Craft! This fortnight our theme is Let It Snow so we'd like to see snow or snowflakes on your creation!

I made a shaker card!

I used some tiny snowflake stamps and white pigment ink to stamp on the blue cardbase and let them dry before assembling the shaker.

The snowy background paper is an old digi from Lili of the Valley it's out of print now, but LOTV has some gorgeous paper pads on their site! The frame is from a scrap of holographic card. The sentiment is embossed with Simon Says Stamp Steel Blue powder.

I love blue and white on Christmas and winter cards, it's so fresh!

Look at my teamies' lovely variations on the theme, and have a go!

I hope you're all looking forward to a relaxing weekend!

Thanks for looking!

love Mags B x

The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge #40 Anything Christmas Goes.

Good morning, all! It's a grey, overcast, drizzly day today in S-E Herts, very Novemberish! A good day to craft!

Christmas is creeping closer - eek! - so it's a good thing that we have a new Challenge at The Holly and Ivy where it's always Anything Christmas Goes.

While sorting my craft hovel (again) I found a pack of wooden Christmas embellishments from Hobbycraft on clearance last year which are great for fun cards!

Aren't these Gingerbread Dudes cute? I added Glossy Accents to their top hats, bow ties and candycanes. I used a Simon Says Stamp Tri Square Craft Die to cut the 3 holes and added the wood shapes on top. The sentiment is also by Simon Says Stamp.

Go and see my teamies' Christmas creations on the Challenge blog and be inspired!

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

love Mags B x