Madcap Manor

 Hi there! Welcome to the 500th Challenge at  My Time to Craft!  Our theme is Numbers  - we'd like to see numbers on your background, focal point, sentiment, ephemera, whatever strikes your fancy. My first card uses an old Tim Holtz 'Bingo card' embossing folder and the  Faux Letterpress  technique.  Since 'Bingo!' is also an expression meaning 'You got it right!' I made a Congratulations card. For my second card I used individual number stamps and dye inks to make a colourful background.  It needed a bit more pizazz, so I added blue mirror card behind the sentiment. Check out the Challenge blog for more inspiration! Thanks for looking and take care! love Mags B x

 Edited to add: oops, I made a mistake when scheduling this post, apologies that it's late! Good morning, my lovelies! It's January 24th, and it's only 11 months until CHRISTMAS EVE! I mentioned this to my hubby and he groaned and covered his face with his hands..... Anyway, this means there is plenty of time to get your Christmas Thing going, and at  The Holly and Ivy  we are here to help.  Yes, we have a new challenge for your entertainment! I only realised when I posted that this is the same layout for my card yesterday at Dream Valley! The cute image and the papers are by Doodlebug from their 'Let It Snow' Collection.  I added a red cardstock mat and some white Love from Lizi peel-offs. I also dotted stickles on the snowflake centres and the pom-pom on the penguin's hat. Check out my teamies' fun inspiration and join in the challenge! It's never too soon to start making Christmas creations! Thanks for looking and take care! love Mags B x

 Hi there! We have a new challenge at  Dream Valley  to brighten your Monday! We would like to see Square cards.  Our sponsor is the fabulous  Polkadoodles  an I used  Winnie Sunshine Little Friends  which was one of the digis kindly given to the Design Team to work with. Ain't she sweet? I used some very old papers from my stash, plus some matte silver-grey cardstock for the mats.  The image and lacy mat were cut with old Spellbinders Labels One dies, and the sentiment is an old die by Love from Lizi.  I also used  peel-offs  by Love from Lizi to edge the horizontal strip. Check out the challenge blog to see inspiration using more Polkadoodles images! Thanks for looking and take care! love Mags B x

 Good morning, all! There's a new challenge at  My Time to Craft Christmas  which is to use patterned paper.  I used some old digi papers from Nitwit Collections'  Mooey Christmas .  I made 2 cards, following a  template  by Jess of Jess Crafts. The template easily makes 2 cards from a sheet of 6 x 8 paper, but I used 2 sheets and swapped the elements around. The Christmas tree dies are called  Woodlands  and are by Tim Holtz for Sizzix.  I cut them in pearlescent green card, glued them onto white paper and trimmed around the edges.  The sentiment is one of the  Winter Scripty Sentiments  by Lawn Fawn. If you're like me you'll have a lot of patterned paper in your stash, so this is a very useful challenge to encourage you to use some up! Check out the blog to see more inspiration - and remember, you can enter up to THREE times, so you can use even more papers! (It makes space to buy some more, of course!!) Anyway, thanks for looking and take care. love Mags B x

 Hi there! It's never too soon to start thinking about next Christmas! So we have our first Challenge of 2023 at  The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge  to inspire you! Remember, it doesn't have to be a card! I have used papers and ephemera from last November's kit by  Love from Lizi  for a card. I used a no-scraps template by  Jess Crafts  for the patterned paper, and some pearlised pink cardstock for the background.  The sentiment is one of the  Simple sentiment strips - Christmas  by Taylored Expressions. If you're not 'all Christmassed out,' take a look at the Challenge blog and join in - you'll be glad you did when November rolls around and you have a good stack of Christmas cards, tags etc all ready to go! Thanks for looking and take care! love Mags B x

 Happy New Year! Our new challenge at  Dream Valley  is all about new beginnings: a new house, new job, new retirement, new baby,,,, anything new! My daughter is expecting a baby girl in March, so it was easy to come up with a 'new' subject for this card! This digi image is an old one from  Pink Gem Designs  and is out of print, but there are so many adorable images still on their website. I coloured the baby with Promarkers, for a change, and added sparkle pen to the bubbles, although it doesn't really show.  The paper is from the snippets drawer, and the sentiment is an old one from Mama Elephant. Check out the Challenge blog for more inspiration! Thanks for looking and take care! love Mags B x

 This is tough for me, because there are so many techniques I enjoy! It's a bit like being asked 'What's your favourite book?' To which my answer is always 'The one that I'm currently reading.' Anyway, I love using patterned papers on my cards, but rather than use a sketch I decided on paper piecing for a change.  I used an old  Woodware  stamp by the brilliant Francoise Read, it's called 'Large Patch Tree' and unfortunately is out of print.  But check out the other stamps she has designed, so many are great for paper piecing. One of the good things about paper piecing is that it's so easy to make 2 cards at once. I used 2 green patterned papers, a scrap of red tartan paper, and some red card.  I stamped the tree on all the papers and fussy-cut them out.  Then I went around the cut edges with a black marker to hide any imperfections in my cutting!  I stamped the image again on 2 4 x 6 inch pieces of white card and assembled the trees like a q