Madcap Manor

Hello, my dearios! I hope you all had a lovely Christmas! My grandson (and his parents!) came over from Ireland and we all spent time in Shropshire with my granddaughter (and her parents!) It's very rare that we all manage to get together, since we all live far apart, so it was a very special treat! I am now at the slightly gloomy stage where everyone has gone home and it's time for a Grand Tidy Up! It's astonishing how much clutter is created when a very lively 2-year old boy is staying! Though I confess I did enjoy laying out train tracks all over the floor and playing with the train! Now I'm taking a break, with a cuppa, to tell you about the new Challenge at My Time to Craft. The very topical theme is 'New'. That can be New Home, New Job, New Baby, even New Stash! My nephew and neice are expecting a baby next month, so of course I went with 'New Baby.' We don't know if they're having a boy or a girl, so I went with lilac for the co...

Hello, my lovelies! I hope you're all keeping well and keeping on top of all the Chrimbo shenanigans! To take your mind off things we have a new Challenge at My Time to Craft! which is More Than One Fold But No Easels! I don't know about you, but an easel card is my default for more than one fold, so I was a bit anxious about this one. However, in the nick of time Jennifer McGuire posted a video on how to make a Double Z-fold card which fits the bill! This is the outside, which looks like an ordinary Z-fold, but when you open it..... I used a printed ready-made card base and stamped and embossed an old Hero Arts stamp across the internal section, masking areas for the sentiments. I coloured the flowers with Zig brush markers. The sentiments are stamped with gold Delicata ink. This was made for a birthday at the end of October, I am pleased to say that the recipient liked it! There is some gorgeous inspiration on the Challenge blog, go and see! Thanks for look...

Hello, everyone! We have come to our last Challenge for 2018 at The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge. The next challenge will be on January 8th. I am busy making multiples of cards (I still haven't found the box where I carefully packed my Christmas cards and stored them 'somewhere safe' - fatal, I know!) This design is based on some old Christmas paper with vintage images of Santa. The paper is gorgeous, it's textured to feel like canvas and is by First Edition: it came in a mega-pack from Love From Lizi.   I cut the image and the gold mirri mat with stitched oval dies by My Favorite Things.  The sentiment was loose in my Christmas stash box, I think it was a magazine freebie. Wishing you a creative week! Thanks for looking. love Mags B x

Hello! Today we have a new challenge at Dream Valley which is the last one of the year. And of course the theme is Christmas! We have several lovely sponsors this time, do check out the Challenge blog to see who they are as well as the lovely creations my teamies have made, using images kindly given to us by the sponsors. I have friends and family in Scotland, so when I saw this cute Highland Christmas image from Di's Digi Stamps I just had to make her into a card! I coloured her with Copics and added red Stickles to the holly berries and white glitter to the trim on her hat.  The papers are from my Christmas box and I matted them on antique gold paper using  scalloped dies.  The sentiment is embossed in gold using a Lawn Fawn Winter Scripty Saysings stamp. The star stickers are from stash. I hope you're all able to take some time to relax as the run-up to Christmas gets going! Thanks for looking, and have a great week! love Mags B x