Madcap Manor

 Hello, my dearios! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday and that you're looking forward to the New Year. Our new Challenge at  My Time to Craft!  is Welcome, Baby.   It's a very useful Challenge for me, as I am to be a Great-aunt again at the end of February.  I don't know if it will be a boy or a girl, so I made 2 cards, both using die-cuts. I apologise for the glare, I used some beautiful matte mirror card and the day was very overcast, so the camera insisted on using the flash. The background paper is  Promises  by Nitwit Collections, so pretty! The lacy  frame is from the Square Fancy Frames set by Christina Griffiths.  The crib is cut with a die by  Tattered Lace  which unfortunately is out of print. Again I used an old Tattered Lace die.  The lovely cardstock is matte rose gold by Tonic Studios.  The heart paper is from my stash, and I used the  Complete 6 x 6 card and box set  by Card Making Magic to cut the mat and background. Isn't it interesting how one te

 Good morning! Are you all ready for the holiday? Presents all wrapped and under the tree? Cards delivered to the neighbours? No, me neither! Well, in a week's time we'll be getting ready to welcome in 2023, and so our new challenge at  My Time to Craft Christmas  is to make something for New Year's Day.  I have kept it simple, using die-cuts. I used an old layering cover die by Sissix, the bottom layer is matte gold card and the top layer is a rather pretty magents.  The numbers were cut with an old Memory Box numbers set.  Very easy - though it takes a long time to dot wet glue over the die-cuts! I hope you all have a lovely, relaxing Christmas.  American and Canadian friends, keep warm and safe in the awful weather you're experiencing.  Here in the UK we complain about the weather (It's tipping down with rain today) but we don't really know what bad weather is like in comparison. Thanks for looking, enjoy the celebrations, and I hope all your presents come wi

 Hi there! A quick post today about the new challenge at  My Time to Craft  - our theme is Other December Holidays  such as Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or New Year. My first card is about  Kwanzaa  which wikipedia tells us is 'an African-American holiday started in 1966'.  I really enjoyed the bright colours I used on this card! I used a die from Tattered Lace that came with a magazine, trimming the image to leave just candles and a bow.  Isn't it interesting how many celebrations at this time of the year include candles, or fire?  Think of the Yule Log of pagan Europeans, Diwali ('Festival of Lights') and  St Lucy's Day  when the Saint is shown wearing a crown of candles. Anyway, I found a really colourful background paper, which is spot-glossed, by First Edition and spelt out the word using the  Calligraphy alpha stamp set  by Altenew. My second card celebrates New Year. The papers and ephemera all came from the December 2021 kit by  Love from Lizi , which sadly is no l

 Hello, my lovelies! I hope you're all keeping well.  We had snow on Sunday - 9 inches overnight! It's more than we've seen in several years.  I know, I know, those of you in places where snow is much more frequent will be rolling on the floor, laughing, but here in the south of the UK we rarely get so much.  Everything looked very Christmassy on Monday morning. And now we have the last Challenge of the year at  The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge , which lasts until 8th January 2023. I apologise for the shine on the image, I had to use the camera flash, and all the papers are glossy.  Papers, ephemera, bow and sentiment are all from the November 2022 card kit by  Love from Lizi .  I used a tiny bow stamp from a very old Simon Says Stamp set and some pale pink ink to stamp on the card base to give more interest.  The sketch is by Jess Crafts, from her paper pad templates  here. I hope you are all getting organised for the Big Day without too many trials and tribulations,

 This Challenge lasts until January 9th 2023. Hi, guys! I hope you're all well.  This is the last Challenge of the year at  Dream Valley  and the theme is Christmas! We have three sponsors this time:  All Dressed Up ,  The Paper Shelter  and  Morgan's Art World I used Morgan's  Winter 10  digi stamp - the image looks like my neighbour, so that is who the card is going to. The papers come from an old paper pad by First Edition, and the chevron background is embossed.  I used an old Spellbinders Label die for the image, and Love from Lizi peel-ffs to edge the horizontal strip. There's still time to make a few more Christmas cards - or even start on the cards for next Christmas! - so I hope you'll join in the Challenge! Thanks for looking and take care! love Mags B x

 Hi there! It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! We have had Christmas Parties as the Toddler Club this week, and planning meetings for kids' events at the end of term.  I know meetings are necessary, but I've never liked them much!! But my daughter and grandson are visiting from Ireland this weekend, which is going to be fun! Before then it's time for another Challenge at  My Time to Craft Christmas!  We would like to see Candy Canes  this time - as an image or an embellishment or on patterned paper.  Lots of options there! I only had time to make one card this fortnight, and it's quite simple.  The patterned paper and die-cut came from an old paper collection by Papermania.  The sentiment is from an out-of-print stamp set by Reverse Confetti and the red-and-gold ribbon is from my stash.  I used Spellbinders' Labels One dies for the sentiment.  Everything is layered on gold and red card.  It looks much shinier irl than in the photo! Check out the Challen

 Hi, guys! We have a very unusual Challenge at  My Time to Craft!  which is - anything to do with Sheep.   Yarn, knitting, woolly sweaters and clothes, shepherds (good for Christmas cards!) or even... Sheep! I have 2 Sheep cards to show: one is fun, the other is romantic. This funny jumping sheep, and the punny sentiment, are by Paper Smooches (I still miss them!) The papers are from my stash, I edged the horizontal strip with scalloped borders and  Gold mirror moondust  peel-offs by Love from Lizi.  I added glitter Nuvo drops to the yellow dots on the background, but unfortunately they don't show in the photo.  Finally I added Glossy Accents to the sheep's nose and eyes. My second card could be for an engagement, a wedding or an anniversary! This card uses two adorable sheep from MFT's  Ewe are the Best  stamp set.  I masked the sheep and used an MFT  Cloud Stencil  to make a sky, and cut some pale green card for the hill.  Then I cut the scene out with a Hero Arts  Nesti