Madcap Manor

Good afternoon from sunny Hertfordshire! Well, it's sunny now that the freezing fog has lifted.  Brr! It's so wintry these days - but we can all cheer up by making cheerful Christmas cards! Yes, it's time for a new Challenge at  The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge.   We also have a DT Call  so if you've ever wondered about joining a Challenge Design Team, check out the blog.  All welcome, no matter your level of experience! I was tidying my Craft Hovel and came across an old set of papers and die-cuts by  Hunkydory Crafts  which came with a magazine a long time ago. I can't remember what this fold is called!  Here is the inside: Everything is from the kit, which includes some very pretty foiling.  The inside sentiment is 'To the Lovebirds at Christmas' and I know just who I'll be sending it to in 11 months' time! Check out the blog for more inspiration and for details of the DT Call. Thanks for looking and take care! love Mags B x

Hello, my dearios! Welcome to another challenge at My Time to Craft Christmas. Our theme is Off the Page - that is, have your focal point overlapping the edge. Check out my teamies' creations for some ace examples. I went with a Z-Fold card. The topper is another Hunkydory Magazine die-cut and the papers are from my stash.  I used a dull gold cardstock for layering and also for the 'Noel' sentiment (an old Sizzix die) and the heart on a ribbon (an even older Memory Box die.)  The brown pearls are also from my stash, I had to glue them in place because they had lost their 'stick'! I hope you're all looking forward to a happy weekend.  Thanks for looking and take care! love Mags B x

  Good morning! It's time for more Christmas crafting at The Holly and Ivy. As usual, Anything Christmas Goes.   I have used up more of the items that came with a box magazine from Hunkydory at the back end of last year. Their kits are so gorgeous! This gnome is so cute! I raised the silver-foiled topper and the sentiment on foam pads and added some blue glitter bakers' twine.  An easy design, but quite effective, I think. Go and see the cards and tags that my teamies have made and be inspired! Thanks for looking and take care! love Mags B x

  Hello, my dearios! Good news - Dream Valley is back after a summer break and our first theme is Christmas in July. This 5 x 7 card is made with items from a magazine kit from last year by Hunkydory Crafts. I layered a patterned paper from the kit onto silver mirri card from my stash then added the die-cut frame with one layer of foam tape and the innermost arch with two layers of foam tape, so it has lots of dimension.  The sentiment says 'Festive Wishes' and also came with the kit.   My teamies have made some gorgeous cards to inspire you, check them out! I love Hunkydory, especially their Christmas designs, the foiling they use is definitely fetive! Thanks for looking, stay safe and well, and Happy Christmas! love Mags B x

  Hello, my dearios! For our new Challenge at My Time to Craft we have a lovely summery theme - All Things Beachy.   I really miss the seaside and walking along a beach hearing the waves break against the shore, it's such a calming sound. Never mind, hopefully next year we'll get a chance to go!  I have used stamps from the Hunkydory Cardmaking Collection Issue 5 which has a seaside theme. For the beach I tore a piece of tan cardstock and stamped it randomly with grey and brown polka dots to give some texture. The sea is blended Distress Inks, and I stamped and clear-embossed a wavy pattern onto it. I stamped out images from the stamp set, coloured them with copics and fussy-cut them. The sentiment is also from the same stamp set.  I really miss the sea, we often holiday in Suffolk and Norfolk to go birdwatching, it's such a great break from living in a commuter town!  Anyway, do go and sea (!) my teamies' creations, they are so inventive and I'm sure they&

  Good morning! I hope you're all keeping well. We have another Challenge at The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge - this Challenge lasts a month, so you have plenty of time to make a Christmas card! We will be back on July 22nd. I have used a die-cut image from a Hunkydory magazine to make a tall and skinny card. I apologise for the glare, the paper is glassy and also foiled.  Everything came from the magazine, which was published last year.  I glued to background paper and the die-cut frame flat, then raised the image on fun foam for dimenssion.  The 'with love' tag is also popped up on 2 sides with fun foam, to keep it flush with the image. It's a shame that the gold foiling doesn't show, it's very pretty! Do go along to the Challenge Blog, where you will notice that my card is in the wrong place because I added it wrong! What a plonker! Thanks for looking, have a great day, and stay safe. love Mags B x

Good afternoon, my lovelies! I hope you're all looking forward to a relaxing weekend. We have had an exciting week chez the Manor - we have a new car! Yes, we traded in our black Ford Focus for... a black Ford Focus! 'Here come da new car, same as da old car!' It's very nippy, but most important of all - I set the radio to receive cricket broadcasts.  There is also a new challenge at My Time to Craft! and our theme is Things in the Sky. That's birds, aeroplanes, balloons, bats - but they have to be the focal point of your card, just adding a tiny butterfly won't cut it, I'm afraid.  I went with Balloons. I am very proud of the background, which I made with Broken China Distress Oxide and a stencil.  The die-cut balloons are from a box magazine by Hunkydory, and I used red and green mirri card to make them. The strip at the bottom is from an ancient paper pad that was also a magazine gift, and I edged it with blue peel-offs by Love from Lizi.  The sentime

Hello, good morning and welcome! It's another cold, grey May day in S-E Hertfordshire, very suitable for doing some festive and cheerful Christmas crafting! And we have a new challenge at The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge to inspire you!  I have chosen to make some tags this time, using up scraps of card from a Hunkydory magazine gift from last year. The papers are in fact border designs from some of the cardstock that came with the kit.  I added snowflakes made with an MFT Die-namics layered snowflake die set - maddeningly, I can no longer find it on their website, so it must be out of print. The snowflakes are cut from no-shed glitter cardstock by Tonic, and the ribbon and baker's twine came from my stash.  I made 4 of each design - they were a bit fiddly, but I'm pleased with the result. Check out my teamies' gorgeous creations on the blog, and join in the challenge! It's never too soon to start Christmas crafting! Thanks for looking and take care! love Mag

  Hello, my dearios! I hope you're having a good weekend. I apologise for being a day late with my DT post for My Time to Craft Christmas - we had an unexpected visitor yesterday, a good friend who used to live nearby, and I was so excited by the novelty of seeing someone who's not my olde manne that I forgot my post! All is back to normal now, and I can tell you that our theme is Baubles. This pretty image is another from a kit by Hunkydory, which I have had for years.  The background paper and the circular die-cuts have gold foiling on them.  I popped the innermost circle with the image onto foam for some dimension and did the same with the sentiment circle. It was quite tricky lining up the inside circle with the border, but I managed it after a couple of attempts! My teamies have left some gorgeous inspiration for you on the blog, check it out and join the fun! After all, 8 months today it will be Christmas Eve..... Thanks for looking and take care! love Mags B x

  Evening, all! It's time for another Challenge at My Time to Craft Christmas our 6th Challenge already! This time our theme is Winter Wonderland , in other words, make a scene!.  I have made a Double Z-Fold card - Here is a tutorial by Jennifer McGuire. I used another old topper set by Hunkydory with this cute woodland scene.  There is a silver border around the image and the small squares on the inside.  The sentiment square reads 'To a Special Friend this Festive season.' My teamies have made some lovely creations featuring all kinds of scenes, do take a look and be inspired! Thanks for looking, and stay safe and well. love Mags B x

 Good morning! We have a new Challenge at The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge.    I have been going through my stash with the proverbial fine-toothed comb and discovered a couple of Christmas magazines from Hunkydory which came out last year, so I decided to use them up. This image is absolutely perfect for a good friend who is a birdwatcher and who likes his mulled wine at Christmas! The background paper is by Nitwits, and I used a strip of gold-edged card from the magazine to 'ground' the picture.  A quick card to make, but I'm pleased with it! Go and see my teamies' creations and join in the fun! Thanks for looking, and stay safe! love Mags B x

Good morning! I hope you're all keeping well. Can you believe it's already March? Spring is on its way, but that doesn't mean we can't carry on making Christmas cards!  Yes, we have a new Challenge at The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge. These fortnights go by so quickly! 2021 is The Year of Using Stuff Up, and for my card I went with an old Hunkydory topper and papers set which is long out of print! I made a cardbase out of blue Centura Pearl card and rounded the corners.   The background came with the kit, I used blue Love from Lizi peel-offs to border it, and added a piece of pearl trim.  Then I put Platinum stickles in the middles of the snowflakes in the background and added the toppers with foam tape.  I love that sweet Robin! Fly over to the Challenge blog to see what my teamies have done and have a go yourself! Thanks for looking, and stay safe and well. love Mags B x

Hi there! I hope you're all keeping well. I have been busy wrapping presents for the family to post tomorrow. Not long until the Big Day! In case you still need some encouragement to make a Christmas card, we have the last Challenge of the year at The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge.   T his Challenge lasts until 18th January 2021.   I used another topper and card set by Hunkydory Crafts to make a card and a tag to go with the present for my lovely next-door neighbours. This set is no longer available, but they have some gorgeous Christmas things on their site! Other than the gorgeous green mirri card around the images there is no extra bling!  It's hard to realise that we are approaching the end of 2020. This year has dragged so much at times, and of course we've still got a long time to go before the virus is gone. However, we've made it this far, we can carry on for a couple more months!  Stay safe and well and keep crafting!  love Mags B x

  Hello, my loves! There is a new Challenge at The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge so now is a great time to add to your stockpile of Christmas cards! The Big Day will be here sooner than we think!  For my card I used an older collection from Hunkydory Crafts - I have collected quite a few of these over the years, and it's high time I used them up! I had a go at another slimline card, this one is 3.5" by 7.5". The background has a very subtle blue stripe, and a spray of snowflakes on the left.  I layered it onto gold mirri card for some festive bling! The gold-edged images and the striped strip came from the kit, and I added 5 star sequins from my stash. The text is the first verse of 'We Three Kings.'  Thanks for looking, stay safe, KEEP CRAFTING AND CARRY ON!  with love Mags B x

Hello, my dearios! I can't believe it's already the end of September! The evenings are definitely getting darker. Winter is coming! It's time once again for a new Challenge at  The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge.   I am concentrating on using up older stash, and so I dug out an old Christmas kit by  Hunkydory.    I love the image of Santa in his sleigh, it has an elegant retro feel.  I matted the background on silver mirri card and used a scallop punch to add a narrow border to the vertical strip. Have a look at the challenge blog, my teamies' creations will encourage you to join in! Thanks for looking and stay safe and well. love Mags B x

Good morning, my dearios! I hope you're all keeping well. Our son has come up from Shropshire to stay for a while. He has an operation on Friday to replace his faulty heart valve, and he'll be convalescing with us for 4 weeks afterwards, so we are going back into Lockdown to shield him. Not that Lockdown is much different from normal life, we aren't what you might call gadabouts! A brisk stroll around the local bird reserve is more usual than a trip to the Bright Lights of the Big City! Just as exciting for you lovelies - The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge is back after our summer break! I have made a pyramage card, using an old Hunkydory kit. Instead of using foam pads between the layers I used doubled pieces of card to keep the profile low for posting = and to use up some of the tons of white card scraps that I have! The image is very pretty, it has gold foiling. I have a lot of Hunkydory kits gathered over the years, it's high time I actually used them

Hello! First of all I must apologise: although I made my card before our break in Ireland to visit my grandson (and his parents) I completely forgot to upload the image to the Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge for today's new challenge post. Ooops!! Here is my card, which is made using paper and image from an old set by Hunkydory. I layered everything with silver mirri card, which echoes the silver foiling on the image and sentiment. Easy and very pretty - I really like Hunkydory! Do go and see the creations which my lovely and FAR MORE EFFICIENT teamies have left on the challenge blog to inspire you! Thanks for looking, and I hope you're having a good week. love Mags B x

Hello, my dearios! In 9 months time it will be Boxing Day! (Where has this year gone?) But don't panic, we have a new challenge at The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge. The blog post isn't up yet, but don't worry, it will be there later today. I used some Hunkydory papers and toppers that came free with a magazine quite a long time ago to make 3 cards. The sentiment says "From our home to yours at Christmas." This one has a shopping theme - I'm never so elegant as these ladies when shopping! And this one has an image of a sketchy poinsettia! Do join in with the Challenge, it's never too soon to start making Christmas cards! Thanks for looking, and have a great day! love Mags B x

Good morning, all! Phew! It's already a scorching day here in S-E Herts, so it's a little odd to be posting Christmas cards for The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge. Our challenges are always Anything Christmas Goes. I made 2 cards with decoupage sheets from Hunkydory that I've had for ages! I added silver mats and a silver-embossed sentiment. I used silicon gel to adhere all the layers together. I love this old-fashioned pillar box, it reminds me of one that stood outside my grandparents' house in Newcastle-upon-Tyne! Both images have touches of silver foiling - so pretty! My teamies have made some gorgeous cards to inspire you, go and see!! Thanks for looking and have a good day! love Mags B x

Evening, all! I don't know where this month is going, it's already time for a new Chllenge at The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge! As always the theme is Anything Goes for Christmas. And of course you don't just have to make a card! I found some old Hunkydory Christmas designs (they were in a box under the sofa!). The toppers are foiled and very shiny! All I added to this card was a piece of organza ribbon and a silver mat: I must use up some more of my Hunkydory goodies! Thanks for looking and take care! love Mags B x