Madcap Manor

Hi, guys!I hope you're all keeping well at this difficult time. I am no longer merely tidying my craft hovel, I am giving it a thorough Spring Clean! It's going to be fantastic when it's all done, but at the moment I'm at the really messy stage of clearing out all the boxes stored under the bed and finding somewhere to put them so I can hoover! Anyway, I'm taking a break to tell you about our latest Challenge at Dream Valley which is Our Four-Legged Friends. Our sponsor is the marvellous Crafty Ribbons so I hd to use ribbon on my card!! I have used a very old, very cute pre-coloured image from Lili of the Valley called Patchwork Butterfly. It's now available as a digi stamp. The papers are also very old, and were by K & Co about 10 years ago! I added some Purple satin ribbon to cover the join between the papers. The sentiment is from Simon Says Stamp's Look For The Rainbows set. Go and see the awesome cards my teamies have made, they w

Good morning! It's a beautiful, sunny day her in S-E Hertfordshire, so what better time to make a Christmas card or 2? Yes, we have a new Challenge for you at The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge where as usual it's Anything Christmas Goes. I have been posting cards to various friends and relations and quickly realised that a lot of dimension means a lot of postage. So I had a play with masking paper, a star die and some Christmas word stamps to make a (nearly) one-layer card. 'Nearly' because I worked on a die-cut piece of card a little smaller than my cardbase and glued it down flat. The words all come from Altenew's Festive Silhouettes stamp set. I stamped them in shades of Altenew green inks. Then, to define the edges, I blended on some Delicata Gold pigment ink. It has a very subtle shine when it catches the light. Finally I stamped the greeting (an old one from Clearly Besotted) in the same gold ink and clear-embossed it. In 2016, when I was bein

Well, what a topical challenge this is at My Time to Craft! At least, here in S-E Hertfordshire it's topical, as today, after days of sunshine, we had rain this afternoon! This old stamp is from the 'Tatty Button' series by Creative Expressions but unfortunately she is now out of print. She is such a lovely image that I didn't want to detract from her by using patterned paper, so this is a CAS card. I stamped her on a piece of card that I cut with a MFT die that measures 4 x 5.25 inches and coloured her with Promarkers. I added Glossy Accents to the raindrops and puddles. The sentiment (which is just right for these difficult times) is from the Happy Days stamp set from Love from Lizi, embossed in her Golden Crown embossing powder. I received both in her amazing kits, do check them out! There are some fabulous cards on the Challenge blog to inspire you to have a go at a 'Here Comes the Rain' project! Thanks for looking, stay safe, stay home and cr

Hi, guys! I hope you and your families are keeping safe and well. To while away the time at home, we have a new Challenge at Dream Valley. We'd like to see Things With Wings. Bees, Butterflies, Fairies, Angels, Birds, Aeroplanes, Pterodactyls..... Our sponsor is Morgan's Art World and there are 3 of her beautiful digis on offer for the lucky winner! Sadly I had to make this card early, so was unable to use one of her digis, but they are so gorgeous! I used a silhouette digi from Scrapper's Delights, which sadly has ceased trading. I coloured the fairy's wings with metallic gel pens in two shades of pink. The background paper is from an old First Editions pad, and I die cut the black glitter cardstock with an old die from My Favorite Things. The card is winging its way to Shropshire, to my daughter-in-law. I have been sending out some cards to friends and family recently, it seems to cheer them up! Don't forget to fly across to the Challenge Blog to s

Good morning! I hope you're all keeping safe and well at home, with plenty of time to do some stress-busting crafting! It's a beautiful spring morning here in S-E Hertfordshire, so it seems a little odd to be thinking of Christmas! However, we have a new Challenge at The Holly and Ivy to keep you company during lockdown. I have dug out a Concord & 9th Turnabout stamp to make a background, this is the Holly Berry Turnabout. I used 3 shades of green ink and one of grey for the leaves, and 4 shades of red and orange inks for the berries. The gold-embossed sentiment is from an old stamp set by Lil' Inkers which is now out of print. The ribbon came from my stash. Finally I added dots of Crystal Stickles on top of the berries. Go and see my teamies' creations on the blog and be inspired! Thanks for looking, and take care. love, Mags B x

It's 5.15 pm and I have just realised it's Friday! Not only that, but there's a new challenge over at My Time to Craft! Our theme is Easter Cuties so any adorable image related to Easter (Chicks, Bunnies, Eggs....) will be great! I have used a VERY old wood-mounted stamp from Penny Black called Bun Bun. Its copyright date is 2008, so it's now 12 years old! I colouredher with Copics, die-cut her with a Lawn Fawn Stitched Circle die and layered her onto pearlescent green card. The yellow spotted paper is also very old, and the green card is a snippet. I used a Lawn Fawn Grassy Hillsides Die to cut the edge of the card. The flower sequins are from my stash. Do hopalong (geddit?!) to the Challenge blog ro see the Easter Cuties that my teamies have made, and to say hello to 3 new members of our Design Team: Judith and Tracey and Cazro , who is returning for another stint on our loopy and lovely team! Thanks for looking! Stay safe and well and CRAFTY! love