Madcap Manor

Good morning! Last Saturday I made a shaker card for the current Challenge at My Time to Craft which is to use sequins, buttons or both. While I had my sequins and the button tin out, I thought I'd make another card, using Bubble Bloom Felicity by Woodware. I've had this stamp a while but never used it - it is Never-before-used-Schtuff or NBUS for short. The inspiring Darnell coined the phrase and acronym. If you haven't discovered her blog do go and see, her creations are lovely and she is so funny! Anyway, here is my card: Very CAS! The buttons are from my late Mother-in-Law's button tin, they have a pretty pearly sheen. The sequins are from Little Things by Lucy from her Tutu Sparkly Shaker Collection. So pretty! The leaves are coloured with Copics. I hope you all have a great weekend! I have scheduled this, as tomorrow Ye Olde Manne and I are going to a wedding! A rare excuse to wear my Posh Frock!!! Thanks for looking! love Mags B x

Good morning! At CRAFT Challenge this week we'd like you to be Inspired by a Book. Mine is 'Treasure Island' by Robert Louis Stevenson. Arrr, Jim lad! The image is an old one by Bugaboo Stamps . I used some very old pirate buttons, cutting off the shanks before gluing them down. The blue strips are supposed to represent the treasure trail - in hindsight I should have stamped arrows along each strip! Hindsight is a wonderful thing! I used stickers for the sentiment, and the paper is from stash. As Lord Melchett said in the Blackadder II episode 'Potato,' - "With a Yo Ho Ho and perhaps I might venture a bottle of rum into the bargain." Our sponsor is wonderful: Bugaboo Stamps Go and see my teamies' creations - you may well be inspired to read the books they have illustrated! Thanks for looking and have a great weekend! love Mags B x

Goooood Morning!!! I hope you're all enjoying the weekend! Our next challenge at My Time to Craft is to use Sequins or Buttons or Both on your creation! This is a great challenge, as you can add sequins to a girly 'make' or buttons to a 'boy' one! I went with a Shaker card for a baby. I think it looks as though she is sitting in one of those soft ball play areas! The adorable little elephant is from a Simon Says Stamp set, Wild About You - the stamps came with their April kit, I don't have the dies! Even though the price has gone up a lot since the fall in the £ since last June, I just can't stop my subscription to these gorgeous kits!!! We are eating a lot more vegetarian dishes as a result, they are cheap and delicious and my veggie daughter approves! Back to the card. I stamped 3 pale pink hearts around the elephant and used Glossy Accents to glue some sequins about her. I added a pink one near her ear, but when I added more sequins la

Good morning! Today our new CRAFT Challenge is our regular Christmas theme. This cute Heart Swag Snowman is from our sponsor DRS Designs. I used up some more old Christmas paper from my stash for the background, the silver ribbon is from Hobbycraft, and the silver-embossed sentiment is from an old Clearly Besotted stamp set. Our sponsor: DRS Designs My teamis, as usual, have made some gorgeous inspiration for you, do go and see! Thanks for looking! love Mags B x

Hi, guys! It's a lovely, sunny day in S-E Herts, so of course it's time for another Challenge at The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge! I have been having a massive tidy of my craft hovel and found a lot of very old Christmas papers, so I made 3 Starburst/Sunburst cards. The link is to Youtube. The Christmas tree is a Spellbinders die, I filled in the holes with red stickles. The sentiment is by Hero Arts. The holly die is by Whimsy Stamps and the sentiment is from the same Hero Arts set I layered it on gold card, and the sentiment is by Lil' Inkers. Fun cards, and brilliant for using up snippets! PS Here is a video on making a side starburst card, for some variety! Have a good week! love Mags B x

Hi, guys, our new Challenge at Dream Valley is to have differently coloured hair on your project. Don't do what I did!!!!! I didn't read the requirements properly - what a plonker! So please imagine that the dancer on my card has purple, or blue, or orange or pink hair! The image is an old one from the greatly-missed Saturated Canary. I used paper from a very old magazine freebie paper pad; the sentiment is from an old Clearly Besotted stamps set which sadly seems unavailable. The ribbon and gems are from stash. Our sponsor this fortnight: PPinkyDolls Art Thanks for looking! love Mags B x

Good morning! There's a new challenge at CRAFT Challenge and it's quite an unusual one: Use White and ONE other colour! I used this lovely Shell Border Stamp from Eureka Stamps. I coloured it with Copics and added Glossy Accents to the shells. Our sponsor this week is Eureka Stamps I hope all is well with you and that you will have a relaxing Easter break! Thanks for looking! love Mags B x

Hi, guys! I have been on my Church's Flower-arranging Team for the past few years, guided by a wonderful lady named Shirley. She is a Jedi Master and I her humble Padawan. She has a wonderful phrase to remind us not to make the arrangement too tight: "Leave room for the butterflies!" She is moving away this Spring to be nearer her daughters. I will miss her so much, even though I know it's the right thing to do. I wanted to make a very personal card for her, so I used a stamp set that came free (along with a stencil) with a cardmaking magazine a couple of months ago. Hydrangeas and butterflies are featured! I coloured the images with Copics having added the butterfly above the flower. I rounded the corners and added Spun Sugar Distress Ink around the edges. The sentiment says: "If nothing ever changed, there'd be no butterflies" which I thought was quite appropriate. I added clear Wink of Stella to the blooms, butterfly wings and caterpillar

Good morning! I hope you're all having a good weekend! Our new Challenge at My Time to Craft is to use No Designer Papers. I went with dry embossing and inlaid die-cutting to make my card. The most important thing to remember about embossing your background is to die-cut first! Squished embossing is not very pretty - go on, guess how I know! Anyway, I cut the hearts using a nesting die set and some card snippets to give an ombre effect before embossing the background with a Sizzix folder. Then I used a scrap of typing paper to back the aperture and glued the hearts onto it. I added clear Wink of Stella for some shimmer. The gold-embossed sentiment is from Super Script stamp set by Altenew. My teamies have all been so inventive with their creations, do pop over to the blog to see what they've done! Thanks for looking. love Mags B x

Good morning! We have a great new Challenge at CRAFT Challenge! It's a Colour Combo: Gorgeous, or what? I used Love to Dance by our fab sponsor All Dressed Up Stamps. I love Wendy's beautiful, charming images! The papers were created by our Boss, Jo . I used a Spellbinders Labels 20 die to cut the mat. I also used a Spellibinders Foliage Two set for the white die-cut flourishes. The flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts and the lace is from stash. Our sponsors: All Dressed Up Paper Nest Dolls Go and be inspired by my teamies' fab creations! Thanks for looking! love Mags B x

Good afternoon! We have another challenge at The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge. As always the theme is Anything Goes - as long as it's Christmas! I have made a very simple card, using a die-cut, gold glitter paper, and an embossed sentiment. The die is by Memory Box, and I glued some gold glitter card behind the entire top piece to give a slightly raised effect when I glued it to the base card. The gold-embossed sentiment is, I think, an old magazine freebie. I doodled a frame around the sentiment using a metallic gel pen. Thanks for looking, do go and see my teamies' lovely festive creations and join in our Challenge! love Mags B x PS Ooops! I scheduled this for 1 am instead of 1pm! Oh dear, what a plonker!!! What a good thing that I checked before bedtime!!!!!

Good morning! Welcome to the start of a new week, and a new Challenge at Dream Valley! The theme this fortnight is Our Four-legged Friends. I used an adorable image from Di's Digi Stamps who is our lovely sponsor. This is Squisshy Kitty - she is so cute! I coloured her with Promarkers and added gold Stickles to the centres of the daisies. The mat is cut with a Spellbinders' Stately Circles die which unfortunately seems to be out of print. The paper is from a magazine freebie many years ago and has a linen-effect print on the background. The stickers are from Paperchase and the ribbon from stash. The sentiment is from an old banner set by Clearly Besotted. Have a look at my teamies' Four-legged Friends creations and be inspired to join in! Thanks for looking and have a good week! love Mags B x