Madcap Manor

Good evening, all! I hope none of you is being threatened by the floods, it looks dreadful on the News. Thanks so much for all your kind words about this $%£*&&& tonsillitis, I was feeling very sorry for myself but you cheered me up. Thank you!! Amazingly, the last fortnight has flown by and once again it's time for a new challenge at Dream Valley This time the theme is 'Non-Traditional Christmas' so put away all those red and green Christmas papers and go for something completely different! What do you get when you add yellow to Red and Green? Orange and Lime! This cute Cozy Cap Mouse is by Meljen for Whimsy Stamps, he came from Bunny Zoe's Crafts I used Promarkers (the list is below) and stickled the fur trim on his hat. The heart has been Glossy Accented and there are dots made with a 'Perlen-Pen'. The papers are Basic Grey 'Life of the Party'. I used a Memory Box Frostyville border on each side, both glittered, and the LotV s...

Hi guys! I can't tell you how glad I am this week's over, I've been laid-up with tonsillitis and it was vile! I've been living on soup while the Old Man tucked into steak, pork chop, bacon sarnie... all cooked by me, please note, but just too painful to eat! My neighbour has been a Tower of Strength, she even noticed I was running low on hankies and bought me some more when she was out shopping. So I have made her a thank you card. The image and the papers were both magazine freebies, they are taken from 'The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady' - such a beautiful book, Edith Holden was an incredibly talented artist! I used Speccies to colour the image and added stickles to the flower centres, and distressed with Bundled Sage ink while still in the die. The butterflies are made with a Martha Stewart punch and also stickled. The flowers are made with two sizes of Woodware Daisy punches and have a tiny pink gem in the middle, the leaves are also from a Woo...

This is one of half a dozen identical cards I made when I had no Internet, using Nativity, a Woodware stamp by Francoise Read. Mine is an acrylic stamp, part of a set which I have had for about 4 years but it now only seems to be available as a wooden one from Woodware I heat embossed the image in gold.  I used Promarkers but I can't find the list :( - sorry! The mat is gold card, the paper is by Bearly Mine, but it's a snippet so I don't know which collection. I layered it onto blue card because more gold detracted from the emphasis on the image. The haloes have been edged in gold stickles and that's all the embellishment I used. I'm entering Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge where the theme is 'Use something more than six months old.' I'm going to love you and leave you, lovely bloggers, because I have managed to come down with tonsillitis and a nice warm bath and an early night with a bad book are calling me! I hope you're all d...

Hello, my lovelies! It's time for another Challenge from The Squirrel and the Fox and this time our theme is 'Anything Goes'!  Our wonderful regular sponsor is the fabulous Bugaboo Stamps .  If you haven't yet come across them, do go over and browse their website, their images are great and the sentiments are often very funny indeed! See what I mean? This is Ruby don't you love her hair? I coloured her in Promarkers (list below). Ruby lurves chocolate! So does the friend I made the card for! My friend and I were at a very, very long meeting last Monday night and I wanted to cheer her up. Obviously I had to go with purple for Cadbury's Dairy Milk (is it me, or has Cadbury's chocolate changed in flavour since Kraft took over? It seems rather greasy to me!) I added some silver mirri card as an extra mat for the background paper. The paper is Funky Hand Rainbow Polka Dots in lilac. I used a corner rounder punch on the image and sentiment. I stickled t...

Inky Chicks will have a new challenge fortnightly on every other Tuesday. There is amazing candy on the site! love Mags B x

Good evening, all! I have the Internet back, huzza! I've missed you!! Here's a Christmas card for a lovely friend of my daughter. She's a baker, so I used Icing the Cake by LotV, isn't she cute? I coloured her with Promarkers and stickled the flower in her chef's hat. I used a Nestie that was only just big enough, so I cut round the dog's tail so that I could ease the die underneath while I cut it out. (Does that make sense?) The sketch is from last week's Sketch Saturday, but I couldn't upload it in time. :( The papers are by Raspberry Road, they came free with a magazine - they are gorgeous! The flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts and I used a Woodware punch for the leaves. The flourish is a Magnolia die, with Hobbycraft pearls on the ends. The gingham ribbon also came from Hobbycraft. The sentiment is also LotV - since there wasn't really enough room to mat it, I went round the edge with a Burgundy Promarker. I love that you can do th...

oh dear  it is hard to type on this phonr! I won't have thr internet until fridayso i won' t be aroind your lovely blogs. see yoi at the weekend i hope love Mags B x

Hi, guys! I hope you've all had a good day! Welcome to my new followers! I'm so glad to have you along! I meant to post this card yesterday but I was at an e-x-t-r-e-m-e-l-y l-o-n-g meeting last night and didn't get home until bedtime! I love these Caroling Snowmen by Meljens Designs They are really putting their heart into their singing, aren't they? I used Promarkers to colour them - how did I manage without the removable fine nibs? The fur on their hats has been covered with glitter, and so has the fab snowflake, which is from the Spellbinders 'Create a Flake 4' which is candy I won from J and C Creations I used Nesties to cut the image and the mat and also the label, which is a trimmed-down Fancy Tag. The Postmark sentiment is by Whimsy Stamps. The papers are another freebie pack from 'Quick Cards Made Easy.' I have so many of these packs! The star stickers were a RAK from my daughter, and the ribbon is from stash. I decorated the in...

Oh wow, look what I've been given! It's for my card with Humphrey and the huge bouquet of flowers. I am over the moon! Thank you so much, ladies! love Mags B x

Good evening, all! I'm sorry this post is so late, we've had Internet problems, but my daughter is now home from a weekend away and she found the wire that had become unplugged! Next week we're going to buy a new Router - exciting times!! Just as exciting is our latest challenge at Dream Valley which is the perennial favourite Anything Goes Our sponsor is Joanna Sheen who is offering a £10 voucher to spend at her online shop. Isn't that a fab prize?! Her shop sells Crafter's Companion gear, inclucing the cute 'Humphrey' stamps and Spectrum Noir pens, so that is what I used. This sweet image is called 'Flowers for You'. I apologise for the naff picture, the green Nitwits papers are brighter and prettier in real life! I got out my Spellbinders dies for this card: the flower is made with the Rose Creations set, the oval is the largest of the Floral Ovals, and the sentiment is on a Fancy Tag. Here's an inside shot: I coloured the...

Afternoon, all! I hope you're all having a good Saturday. My, it's cold! A good day to stay indoors and be crafty! I'm cracking on with the Christmas cards, I'm up to 19 now! I bought this sweet Lili of the Valley stamp last year but found it quite hard to colour because of all the tiny details. This year I have fine nibs for my Promarkers and it was much easier! I put dots of red Stickles on the holly berries and some gold Liquid Pearls on the hanging star. I apologise for the wishy-washy image, I was using a Daylight Lamp and the inks look a bit faded :( The papers are also Lili of the Valley, from their 'Classic Christmas' pad. I got out my dies for this one - a Marianne Christmas tree which I covered in white and gold glitter; a Marianne Christmas sentiment, also glittered - it shows up better irl, but I really should have used a slightly brighter paper; and a Whiff of Joy holly die, the paper is pearlised and I Glossy Accented the berries. I'...

Evening all! And welcome to my new followers! Pull up a chair, pour out a glass of your favourite tipple, you are very welcome to this Manor of Madcapness!! While waiting for the supermarket delivery yesterday, I made 4 Christmas cards to this design: Hooray! It's a CAS card! I find CAS cards quite difficult, because if you make a mistake you can't cover it up with embellishments! I'm so pleased with this one that I made 4! The image is a Woodware clear stamp from the 'Christmas Greenery' set by Francoise Read. I stamped with Embossing Ink and then embossed with Evergreen 'Heat It Up' embossing powder. If you squint hard you can almost see how it shines! The leaves looked a bit stark left white, so I gave them a very light wash of Evergreen Boughs Distress Ink. I used a square Woodware punch to cut the images out (it JUST fits!) and glued them onto ridged gold card from the Pinflair Shop in Hertford. The ribbon came from the same place, the gold tri...

This weekend in Oz it's the Melbourne Cup, their equivalent of the Grand National, and there are big celebrations! That's the reason for this fortnight's theme of Horses, Hats or Flowers Our sponsor is the wonderful http://www.makeitcrafty.com/"> Make It Crafty - if you haven't visited them yet, do go along, there are fabulous digis, colouring tutorials and much more!I already had this lovely image which is http://www.makeitcrafty.com/summer-dreams-digi-stamp.html ">Summer Dreams I coloured her with Speccies, but I've lost my list I'm afraid. :( Her hatband has dots of orange stickles on it to match the bow, made with ribbon from my stash. I used a corner punch to round two of the corners of the image. The sentiment stamp is by Woodware. The bunting was paper-pieced, the stamp is by Molly Blooms and was a magazine freebie. The flourish is a Die-namics die, the pearls are from stash. I tinted a white Wild Orchid rose with my pens to match...

Good afternoon, all! I hope you're well, and enjoying the weekend. I am finally getting into the swing of making my Christmas cards. Here's another one using the cute LotV image 'Dancing in the Snow.' In fact, I found the coloured image while sorting my stash - she was coloured in Spectrum Noirs earlier this year, so no list, I'm afraid. The papers are from an old Dovecraft stack, 'Tis the Season.' They are nice and bright! I used a Spellbinders Star Circle die for the image mat, a Whiff of Joy die for the glittered snowflakes, and a Memory Box Holly border die with a scrap of pearlised green card. The holly berries are pearls from Hobbycraft. The gorgeous ribbon is from the Pinflair shop in Hertford (only 50p a metre!) and so is the gold star. I glittered the little girl's fur trim and also the snow, though it isn't showing too well in the pic. I'm entering http://abcchristmaschallenge.blogspot.co.uk/ ">ABC Christmas Challenge...

Evening, all! I've spent most of half term tidying, cleaning and chucking things out - whatever happened to my plans for several days' intensive crafting?! Alas, they went the way of all flesh! However, I have managed to make birthday cards for twins who will be two next week - and a right mischievous pair they are! I used these cute Lili of the Valley stamps, they are perfect for toddlers! The banners are also LotV. I coloured both with Promarkers. In this one, the wheels of the toy are Glossy Accented, and the stars in the paper have been stickled. I used a Go Kreate Frilly Square #6 die to cut out the image and emboss it with Excalibur (my gorgeous Grand Caliber machine) and distressed all the edges and papers with Salty Ocean Distress Ink. For this one, I used a Spellbinders Heart Circles die and distressed with Worn Lipstick but left the papers undistressed because they're more contrasting. The pram has been Glossy Accented. Who else had a toy pram like that wit...