Madcap Manor

Hi, guys! Dashing by (late!) with my DT card for The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge. The cute mouse is a digi from the sorely-missed Meljen. So cute! The paper is from a very old Papermania pad, and the sentiment is by Lili of the Valley. Thanks for looking, and apologies that I'm late, we had both grandchildren to visit last weekend and time flew away with me! Thanks for looking! love Mags B x

Hi, guys! I hope all is well with you. This Bank Holiday weekend we were visited by our children and both grandchildren, which was lovely! The house is very quiet now..... Time for a new Challenge at Dream Valley which is to make something with More than One Fold. I made an easel card. The adorable image is Springtime by All Dressed Up stamps. So sweet! I added butterflies cut with a die by Joy! Crafts which I can't find to link to, sadly. There are pearls along the butterfly bodies and also in the corners. The stopper is made with strips of card and papers, gold-embossed with a Lawn Fawn Scripty Saying sentiment. The ribbon is from stash. We have two sponsors for this Challenge: Oddball Art and All Dressed Up. My teamies have made some lovely examples to inspire you with interesting folds, do take a look! Thanks for looking! love Mags B x

Good morning! I hope you are all keeping well. Our new CRAFT Challenge is to make something for Father's Day or for the blokes in our lives! I used The Dragon and the Knight for my Father's Day card, it's such a cute image! I used a Woodware corner punch to decorate the corners. The background paper is from an old magazine freebie. The DAD die-cuts are made with an old Die-namics alphabet die. The silver card I wanted to use was too bright, so I covered a scrap of card with several layers of silver embossing powder and used that instead. Our sponsor this week is: Doctor Digi's House of Stamps and our Sponsor for Star of the Month is: Star Stampz Now I'm off to do a huge tidy up, as both the grandchildren are coming to visit and I must move stuff out of the reach of little hands! Wish me luck, I'm going in! Thanks for looking, and have a fun weekend! love Mags B x

Hello, me dearios! I hope you're all having a good weekend, whether at work or at play! Our new Challenge at My Time to Craft! is this fabulous Sketch by Jo! Isn't it great? Just perfect for a card I wanted to make for a friend of my daughter's, who has just had a bonny, bouncing baby boy! I used the adorable Butterfly Baby by Krista Smith, now available in rubber from Little Darlings Rubber Stamps. Too darn' cute! I coloured him with Copics, and slathered Icicle Stickles over his wings. I distressed the edge with Broken China Distress ink, and did the same with the mat, which is cut with a Spellbinders Heart Circles Die. (The link is to the main Spellbinders site, Google the die to find local sources.) The paper is a snippet, I'm not sure who it's by. The flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts, the leaves are cut from a snippet of green card using a Woodware punch. I glittered the flowers with Glamour Dust. The sentiments are from an old 'Ba...

Good morning!I hope you're all looking forward to a good weekend! It's Thursday, which means a new theme at CRAFT Challenge. I hope you all had fun on our Birthday blog hop last week! Today we have our monthly Christmas theme. I used Christmas Baubles from our sponsor Pink Gem Designs. I used Copics to colour the image, and added Wink of Stella to the stars and gold Stickles to the snowflakes. The gems around the red mat are from stash, and so is the bakers' twine. The background paper is from an ancient Papermania pad. Our sponsor this week is Pink Gem Designs. Thanks for looking! love Mags B x

So sorry, everyone, I thought I had scheduled this! Oops! Here is our new Challenge at The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge where it's always Anything Goes I made three cards this time, using pre-coloured toppers from an old set by Lili of the Valley with some green or red cardstock and some gold card to layer. The papers are from my Christmas stash. Very simple, and I tried to match the papers to the colours of the toppers, which all have added Stickles on the fur trim for some shine. Thanks for looking! love Mags B x

Good morning! It's a grey, drizzly day here in S E Herts. A good day to hop over to Dream Valley and check out our new challenge, Things with Wings. So - fairies, birds, bees, aeroplanes - as long as it has wings it's ok for the challenge! I went with a cute image from our sponsor Sasayaki Glitter. This is You Blow Me Away isn't she sweet? I added glitter to her wings and the centre of the flower in her hair. I used a Spellbinders' Labels Four die to cut out the image, and layered it onto an Elegant Labels Four mat. The Butterfly is also cut with a Spellbinders die. The flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts and the ribbon and pearls are from stash. The background paper is a snippet and the sentiment is from an old Lili of the Valley sentiment set. Go and see my teamies' pretty creations and then join in the fun! Thanks for looking, and I hope you have a good week! love Mags B x

  Happy Birthday To Us Happy Birthday To Us Happy Birthday Dear CRAFT Challenge Happy Birthday To Us! Can you believe it? CRAFT Challenge is already  8  years old. Originally started by Tracy from Just Tracy Crafts and with a DT mostly recruited from Trimcraft forum members (Hence the term CRAFT Challenge, which stood for Crafters Residing Are Friendly Trimmies. Or if you wished alternative meaning of Can't Remember A Flipping Thing) on the 4 th  of May 2009. We have now grown to be a large team of Design Team Members from all around the world, supplemented with several Guest Designers who join us for a month or a week at a time. We have always welcomed all kinds of craft, not just paper craft (unless specifically stated so in the challenge at the time) and are happy to have such a large group of faithful followers. So, how are we going to celebrate this milestone? Well, how else can we celebrate than to have our...

Good morning! I hope you are all having a good weekend! We have grey skies and a chilly wind here in S-E Herts, but on the bright side I have seen several Swifts flying by in the last couple of days, which means that Summer is on its way! On to our new Challenge at My Time to Craft! and it's to make something For the Men in Our Lives. Yes, one of those tricky creations for a bloke! I've made a Father's Day card - I know the actual day isn't until June, but I thought I'd be efficient and make one early! I used the Balloon Bouquet outline die from Simon Says Stamp and cut it in black card. I glued it to the card front, which is covered with paper from an old Studio Calico Kit. Then I cut the die again from snippets of coloured card and inlaid them. I gave them some sparkle with a Spectrum Noir clear sparkle pen. The sentiment is from an old set by Clearly Besotted, sadly it's now out of print. Do go and see my teamies' gorgeous creations for ...

Hi, guys! We have a Technique Challenge at CRAFT Challenge this week: 3D Decoupage. The cute Cat image is from Kenny K. I printed 4 images, all the same size, to cut my layers from, and coloured then with Warm Grey Copic markers. The striped paper is very old, I think it was from Papermania, but the pad has lost its cover. The ribbon and sequins are from stash. The gold-embossed sentiment and black pawprints are from the Nine Lives set by Paper Smooches. Our sponsor this week is the fabulous Kenny K Have a look at my talented teamies' 3D creations, they will inspire you to have a go! Thanks for looking! love Mags B x

Good morning! It's time for another Challenge at The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge and we are on Number 5 already!!! I have made a CAS card, stamping with rainbow colours. I used a stamp from the Avery Elle Noel set, and Simon Says Stamp hybrid inks (which came with a kit) in rainbow colours. The background paper is a snippet. I layered everything onto blue and then silver cardstock. The ribbon is from Hobbycraft, the gems are from stash, and the snowflake sequins are from Little Things From Lucy, On the inside I stamped and gold-embossed 'born is the King of Israel' from the Lyrical Script set by Altenew. Thanks for looking, and have a good week! love Mags B x

Good morning! Happy Monday! We have a Bank Holiday today in the UK - I hope we have good weather! It's a running joke here that on Bank Holidays we usually get rain!! We also have a new Challenge at Dream Valley which is to use Blue and Yellow on your creation - which doesn't have to be a card! I have been tidying my Craft Hovel yet again, and came across my stamps from The Greeting Farm. They are lovely stamps, such great images and such high quality red rubber. They are easier to stamp than clear stamps, I think. Anyway, when my printer ran out of ink so I couldn't print out an image by our sponsor Cute as a Button Stamps I chose an old Anya stamp from The Greeting Farm. Sadly, I can't find her on the website. I cut her out with a Spellbinders Oval die and layered her onto a Spellbinders Scalloped Ovals mat, and added her to the card with foam tape. I added Spectrum Noir sparkle to the flower in her hair, and a gem from stash. The paper is also from s...