Madcap Manor

It was for my Penny Black bunny card here I'm so happy!! love Mags B x

Good afternoon! I hope you're all ok in this snow, we've got off quite lightly in S-E Herts but I know other parts of the country are having a very bad time. Keep warm and safe! If you're looking for my DT post for The Squirrel and the Fox please scroll down to the previous post. Ta. It's Dream Valley Challenge time again! We have a gorgeous theme this fortnight: Pearls AND Lace and our sponsor is the amazing Krista Smith of   Saturated Canary One lucky winner will have $10 to spend on her gorgeous images! Krista very generously let the DT choose an image: this is Easter Dress - isn't she cute? The picture is very faded, in real life the colours are much better! I took my colours  from the papers, which are by Pink Petticoat from the Snippets box. The bracket tab is an MFT Die-namics die called, unsurprisingly, 'Bracket Tab.' The corner pieces are cut with Spellbinders Parisian Motifs dies and I added little pink pearls. There are also 2 pear...

Hi, guys! I hope you're having a happy weekend and that if you have snow you can spend the day snug and warm at home! It's time for another Challenge at The Squirrel and the Fox and our theme for this fortnight is 'Easter' or 'Passover'. Our sponsor is the lovely Sweet'n'Sassy Stamps who are offering 3 digis to one lucky winner! The DT were privileged to use a Sweet 'n' Sassy digi for our cards and I chose this lovely Cross:  I imagined that the fabric was part of Jesus' robe, which the Roman soldiers took as loot and cast dice to see who would get it, so I coloured it to look like homespun wool. Unfortunately I can't tell you what pens I used because I've lost the list! I can tell you that the papers are by Nitwits and they've been in my Snippets folder for over a year! The ribbon is from stash. The sentiments came with the image. Finally, the flourish is by Cheery Lynn. Do go and have a look at my Teamies' cr...

Yes, it's me again! After the shenanigans on Tuesday with the power cut I was looking forward to some quiet crafting time yesterday - and the washing machine decided to die! We've had it for seven years and it's been used daily, so it has served us well - but I was not happy when it flooded my kitchen floor! On the plus side, my kitchen floor is clean and sparkly. On the minus side, I had to haul sopping wett clothes to the bath and get rid of the water the old-fashioned way. Reader, I trampled them. It's a bit like crushing grapes for wine, without the delicious alcoholic result. After that I spent the evening with my Kindle. If any of you like Paranormal Romance/Urban Fantasy/ Vampires, try Karen Chance's books. Sexy vampires, kick-bottom heroines, and a fair dose of slapstick humour, too! Amazon has an anthology of the first 4 books of the  'Cassie Palmer' series in their Kindle store. The first book in the series is 'Touch the Dark.' But yo...

Good evening, all! Well, it's meant to be Spring now, but it's sooo cold, and more snow is forecast for next week! I hope you're all keeping warm, my lovelies - I have a wonderful burgundy-coloured Slanket (it's like a fluffy blanket but with sleeves) and I am living in it every evening! We had a power-cut two days ago, and spent the evening by candlelight. Thank goodness for my new Kindle, which glows in the dark so I was able to read for the 2 and a half hours we were without power! Enough of this, here's a springlike Easter card: The sweet Bunny is by Penny Black from the 'T for Transparent' Garden Friends set. I love her gorgeous straw hat! She is coloured with Promarkers and I distressed round the edge with Bundled Sage DI. The mat is cut with a Nesties Scalloped Square die. I glittered the tiny butterflies but of course they don't show too well! Papers are Basic Grey 'Porcelain' which I bought back in 2011 and which I had to for...

The lovely Hilde announces a new Challenge Blog called Crafting With Dragonflies It will be a fortnightly Challenge, and she is looking for a DT.  Go and have a look at the details on Hilde's Blog! She also very kindly gave me this award: These are the rules: 1. Thank the person who nominated you by linking back to their blog 2. Nominate five blogs with less than 200 followers. 3.  Let the nominees know by leaving a comment on their blogs. 4.  Add the award image to your site. I nominate: Annmaree of Emu Creations:  http://emuupagumtree.blogspot.co.uk/ Bernie of Bernie's Craft Closet: http://berniescraftcloset.blogspot.co.uk/ Lynne of Cards from Lynne's Loft: http://cardsfromlynnesloft.blogspot.co.uk/ Mrs F at Mike's Gal: http://mikesgal71.blogspot.co.uk/ And finally, anybody else who would like it - seriously, your blogs are so inspiring, I can't choose just one more! love Mags B x

Happy St Patrick's Day! Here's a card I rustled up to celebrate the occasion - my daughter's boyfriend is Irish and she's spending the weekend in the Republic with his family, I hope they like it! The image is a digi by The Greeting Farm called 'Good Luck Anya.'  I coloured her with Speccies and glittered the 4-leafed clovers/Shamrocks. The sentiment and row of hearts are also by TGF but I can't remember which sets they came from. The papers are by Pink Petticoat, and I distressed the edges with Frayed Burlap DI. The flowers are Prima and the die-cut leaves are by Whiff of Joy. Ribbon and gems are from stash. Nice and simple, eh? It took me a long time to make, mainly because my first two attempts at colouring Anya were really naff! I should practise with my Speccies more, the technique is slightly different than with Promarkers as they tend to be 'juicier'. We live and learn. I hope you're all staying snug and dry. The rain has bee...

Good evening, my lovely blog friends! Welcome to my new followers, I hope you like this somewhat ditsy blog!! It's Friday - huzza! I hope you're all looking forward to a great weekend! Here in the UK we will apparently be getting more rain and wind and even snow, so I hope you'll all wrap up warm and remember to take your brolly with you when you go out! It's been one of those weeks when I've been pottering in my craft hovel, working on one card here and another card there. Which is nice, but it's also a sure-fire way to miss the deadline for a challenge, which happened to me with this card and last Saturday's lovely sketch from Sketch Saturday! Too bad! This beautiful image is Silver Fairy by Sylvia Zet for Whimsy Stamps. I love her, she resembles the daughter of a very lovely friend! I fussy-cut her out, and used foam pads on the centre of her wings and also down her body and glued the ends of her wings and her hair flat, to give her a 3-D effe...

Good afternoon, all! If you're looking for my DT card for The Squirrel and the Fox please scroll down to the previous post. The Challenge at Dream Valley is to make something for a Mum, as it's Mothering Sunday here in the UK. Our lovely sponsor is Freckled Fawn who are offering a very generous $20 voucher to their online store! Their range of washi tape has to be seen to be believed!! Since every country celebrates mothers at different times of the year, feel free to create something for a lady, instead! It was International Women's Day last week - what I want to know is, why can't it be International Women's Day every day? After all, we ladies are awesome all the time, not just once a year! I'll get off my soapbox and talk about my card! Now, I have to say straight off that this is the first Centre Step Fold card that I've made and it's a bit wobbly. The template I used has long cuts down the back as well as the front; next time I make...

Hi, guys! I hope you're all keeping well. It's Mothering Sunday in the UK - I hope all you Mums out there are being pampered! It's also time for another challenge at The Squirrel and the Fox and the theme is a Spring or Autumn card (depending on which Hemisphere you live in.) Our lovely sponsor is Oak Pond Creations and Kimberley is offering a lucky winner three digis - go on over and have a look at her site, there are some gorgeous images there! The DT were given some digis to play with, and I fell for this fabulous image at once! Apologies for the faded picture, the colours are brighter irl! I used Promarkers, and distressed round the image with Squeezed Lemonade Distress Ink. The heart has been Glossy Accented. The mats have all been cut with a Nestie. The paper is Papermania Capsule Collection and the flowers are made with my faithful Woodware punches. The gems are from stash, they are transparent ones coloured with Gold Promarker. Do go and have a look a...

Good evening, everyone! I hope you're all having a good week. I've been a busy bee with the dreaded housework, it's horrible to do though it helps when something funky comes on the radio and I can dance with the vacuum cleaner! (Though not as well as Freddie Mercury does in the video to 'I want to break free!) I've also made a Christmas card, using a lovely LotV stamp, Little Ivy she is adorable! I coloured here with Speccies (list at the end) and used the Blender to give just the faintest pink shadows on her surplice. Her wings were shaded with grey then slathered with Glamour Dust. The gold metal corner came from Whiff of Joy a couple of years ago; and the green-and-gold ribbon is from Pinflair in Hertford. So is the gold paper used to mat both the image and the LotV sentiment. Gems are from stash. The gorgeous papers are 'Silent Night' by Papermania, the spotted paper is actually shiny gold dots on cream paper. I also did the inside (it'...

Good afternoon, all! It's a beautiful, warm Spring day here in S-E Hertfordshire, with sunshine and blue skies! Such a lovely change, it seems as though it's been grey and cold for months! Here's a summery card featuring Anya from the 'Miss Anya Love' set by The Greeting Farm. I've wanted this set for ages, and treated myself after Christmas, it's a bit embarrassing that I've only just inked one of these cuties up! I apologise for the wonky photo, I'm obviously no David Bailey! I coloured Anya with Promarkers, and there are stickles on the flowers and Glossy Accents on the heart in her hair ornament. The elaborate mat is a Spellbinders 'Timeless Rectangles' die, another post-Christmas purchase. The papers are Nitwits 'The Bees Knees' collection, they are so pretty! The sentiment banner is by LotV and I put a foam pad in the middle and glued down the ends to give the curve. The lace is from stash. The flowers and leaves are ...

This happened to a good friend, one of the nicest vicars I know: 1 Police ring: Say our card has been cloned; used in a shop and they've got the suspect in custody. Reel off list of suspect transactions; say they have receipts 2. They ask us to ring our bank and cancel our cards. 3 We ring off and redial to call the emergency contact number on the back of the credit card; go through security system and ask to block the cards. They say it's all done. 4 The bank offer to put us back through to the police fraud dept 5 We speak to the City of London police operations room who ask for details of the officer we spoke to, and put us through 6 The original officer says they need the cards as evidence; can we take them to a police station? We say no not til tomorrow; she offers to send a courier 7 Courier arrives and flashes ID; we hand over cards. After all they've been blocked by the bank; they are just worthless plastic now Then ring bank this morning to follow up, and discover...