Madcap Manor

Oh dear, it's Monday again! Back to work day! However, to cheer you all up we have a new Challenge at Dream Valley! Our theme this time is Your Favourite Colour Combination Well, you'd think that is a pretty straightforward theme, wouldn't you? My trouble is, I have so many favourite colour combos! So I cheated a bit and thought of the card I wanted to make, and the friend who it's for, and worked backwards. My lovely neighbour is undergoing chemo for breast cancer: it's going well, but the treatment is making her feel grotty, so I wanted to make her a card to cheer her up. Voila! I had my first colour - PINK! I love PINK and GREEN and also PINK and BROWN and there was my colour combo, all ready and waiting! Our fab sponsor this time is the amazing My Mum's Craft Shop . They stock one of my favourite stamp companies, Paper Smooches, and I have used the adorable Cutesaurus stamp set. So cute! I used an A5 card for the base and covered it with the pink fl...

Good morning! I hope you're all having a lovely weekend! Today I have a morning at Church doing my Deputy Church Warden stick - oo, that sounds exciting doesn't it? (Or not!) Mostly it's switching lights on or off, and unlocking or locking doors! it's a tough job but someone has to do it lol! Enough of this blether, you're here for the next Challenge from The Squirrel and the Fox and this time it's another theme you'll love: Inspired by a Song or Movie Our wonderful sponsor is Kenny K who is offering a great prize of 5 free digis!!!!! The DT was very lucky to be able to use some of Kenny K's fab images for this Challenge. I chose the 1920s Socialite - isn't she glamorous?! In keeping with the image, I went for an Art Deco look. I can't remember what the papers are, they were loose in my collection, sorry! I cut the striped and looped papers at an angle so I could make the chevron effect and the corner pieces. Both are mounted on gold ...

Good morning! I hope you're all having a relaxing Saturday with a minimum of housework and a maximum of crafty time! There's a new Challenge at My Time To Kraft which is Use Craft . (Did you see what I did there?!) As long as we can see Kraft on your artwork, it's all good. Colour on it, emboss it, mat and layer it - however your fancy takes you! Now, I have to apologise for this dull picture, irl the colours are much prettier! I made my card base from Neenah Desert Storm Kraft card, and it's cut to the American A2 size (4.25" x 5.50") and i rounded the bottom corners with the faithful Corner Chomper by We R Memory Keepers. I stamped the background with Versamark, using a background stamp by Hero Arts/Basic Grey called Circles and Diamonds . I went over the circles with a teal gel pen from Sakura. It's shinier than shown on the photo! The chipboard butterfly is from Maya Road, I've had it for ages! I covered it with paper from the Basic Grey ...

Evening, all! I have been paper piecing some thank you cards, since I needed a bunch, using Penny Black flower stamps Gossamer 3865K and Whispers 3377K This one is made with blue Snippets - paper piecing is such a good way to use up scraps of paper! Though even so I have to force myself to throw away the snippets left after fussy cutting the design! And I apologise for the naff photo, the card base is in fact white! And this one is, of course, made with pink snippets. the very tiny areas are coloured with felt tips. The banners are by Lawn Fawn and I edged them with Spectrum Noir pens in the appropriate colours, to look like mats, and put them on foam adhesive to give some dimension. Two very simple cards, with no glitter or Glossy Accents, just stamped and cut papers! An ideal technique for quietly cutting out while watching tv! I'm now off to enter Pixie's Snippets Challenge Thanks for looking! love Mags B x

Hello, my dearios! I hope you're all keeping well! I have been practising with my Promarkers recently! I belong to a facebook group, Donna-Marie's Cards and Promarker tutorials and Donna has produced an e-book on colouring. It's with the permission of letraset, of course. All money raised will go to a homeless charity. Her tutorials are very detailed, and well worth £12! Here is Bubbles who I coloured along with one of the tutorials. I am so much happier with my colouring, it's much smoother and more defined! I edged the image with a Fiskar's Scallop Sentiment punch. The black paper for my mat was dull, so I livened it up with some clear embossing, using a background stamp by Impression Obsession called Circle Fusion 2 CR002. I think I ordered it from Simon Says Stamp. The background paper is from a Christmas pad by Dovecraft called 'Noel.' I added glitter to the star, bubbles, and the dots on her dress. The sentiment and heart are from a Hero...

Good morning! When you read this I will be in Derby with the Olde Manne, the kids and kid-in-law and the gorgeous granddaughter! My niece was married on Sunday, and we all stayed overnight at the hotel where the reception was held. A Four Star Hotel, how posh! In the meantime, here is the new Challenge at Dream Valley . Our theme is Summer . Now, in the UK Summer quite often includes rain, a cold wind, and even hail - but we're going to be optimistic and go for sunshine, the seaside, ice cream - anything summery! Friends in the Southern Hemisphere, I hope this Challenge will remind you of warmer days to come! Our fabulous sponsor is Robyn's Fetish and I have used an image which I've had on my laptop for ages but never got around to using: It's a Dragonfly Day . I used Promarkers, and covered the Dragonfly's wings with stickles and its body with Glossy Accent. The background paper with the butterflies is one I bought years ago, when we still had a local cra...

Good morning, all! I hope you're having a great weekend! This is a scheduled post, as on Sunday I will be at my niece's wedding! Our Challenge this time at The Squirrel and the Fox is to use Ribbon AND Lace not one or the other but BOTH! it's an excuse to make something girly and pretty! Our sponsor is the wonderful Robyn's Fetish and the DT were lucky enough to be given some gorgeous digi stamps to work with! This fabulous image is Christie Angel. I think she has a cute 'folk art' vibe so I made a 'folksy' card. I coloured her with Promarkers and then cut her out and popped her onto foam pads. The yellow mat is cut with a Spellbinders Lacey Square die, and the quilt paper is cut with a plain square die. The bright papers are snippets from my stash, but I forgot to note where they came from. Sorry! The ribbon is from Hobbycraft and the white broderie anglaise lace is from my sewing basket! The sentiment is embossed in blue and covered with...

Good morning, all! I hope you're enjoying your weekend! My house is full of people - my daughter is over from Ireland, and my son, daughter-in-law and baby granddaughter are here from Shropshire. We have a family wedding tomorrow, my niece is getting married! It's time for another Challenge at My Time To Craft! and it's a technique that is very popular: Paper Piecing! My card is very simple because I wanted the Penny Black image 'Love Blush' to stand out. (Sadly, it looks as though the stamp is discontinued, at any rate, I can't find it online.) It is very fiddly to cut out all the petals! I used Lotv Bonnets and Bowties papers. I stamped the image on 3 pink papers and 1 green one, and then I stamped the image in the middle of my card blank. Then it was a matter of finding my scissors and snipping away - it took quite a while! i did cheat a bit and coloured the very narrowest sections with felt-tips! The banner is the Bannerific set by Lawn Fawn. I ...

Good evening, my lovelies! I'm just popping by quickly with a card I made using the Starburst technique and some Lili of the Valley papers. (The link is to one of many Youtube videos, this is also known as the 'Sunburst' technique but 'Starburst' is the name of the faster-than-light travel in the tv series 'Farscape' and since I'm a big fan.....) I made several like this while watching the World Cup last week. Once the papers are cut it's easy to put them together. The sentiment is also LotV and is gold embossed, and the ribbon is from my stash. The only thing to watch out for in this technique is to make sure that directional patterned papers are cut and glued in the right direction so that eg hearts are all the right way round. My daughter came over from Ireland because she had her latest blood tests and report on whether she is still clear of her cancer and I'm delighted to say that she is still in remission! Then tomorrow the Old ...