Madcap Manor

Hello, my dearios! I can't believe it's already the end of September! The evenings are definitely getting darker. Winter is coming! It's time once again for a new Challenge at  The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge.   I am concentrating on using up older stash, and so I dug out an old Christmas kit by  Hunkydory.    I love the image of Santa in his sleigh, it has an elegant retro feel.  I matted the background on silver mirri card and used a scallop punch to add a narrow border to the vertical strip. Have a look at the challenge blog, my teamies' creations will encourage you to join in! Thanks for looking and stay safe and well. love Mags B x

Good evening, all! I'm sorry I'm a bit late with my post for the latest challenge at Dream Valley . My hubby and I spent the afternoon sealing our new garden fence, which was quite knackering in the hot sunshine! It does look rather smart, though, and we're recovering with a glass of wine. On a weeknight - so naughty!  Anyway, you're here for papercrafting, not painting and decorating! Our latest challenge is Make It Digital (no stamping. Our sponsor is Morgan's Art World and she is offering 3 sweet images that the DT used as a prize.  I used this adorable Teddy image to make a baby card. The background paper is a digi from Nitwits but it's got no name on it, so I don't know which of Mary Fran's gorgeous collections it's from.  The yellow crochet ribbon is from my stash, and now I must make a Terrible Confession. I used a non-digi stamp for the sentiment. It's lucky I'm on the DT, because my card would not have obeyed the challenge r

Oh my ears and whiskers, I'm late! Is it Friday already? Yes! And it's time for a new challenge at My Time to Craft!   Our new theme is Inspired by Harry Potter so anything wizardly goes! Now, I'm not actually a fan of Harry Potter (I prefer the amazing books written by Diana Wynne Jones - check 'em out!)  However, a long time ago Bugaboo Stamps produced some lovely images that rather resemble characters from the series, and I have used one for my card. Sadly, they seems to be unavailable, which is a problem with using an older image. I coloured Prof not-Snape with Promarkers (it took 2 attempts with different types of grey to distinguish between his cassock and his university robe!) and added Gold Stickles around his wand and magic book.  The papers are from my snippets drawer. I layered them onto black gloss cardstock, and used black peel-offs from Love from Lizi to edge the vertical strip. I used an MFT stitched frame die (which maddeningly I can't fi

I'm so sorry I'm late with my post for The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge.   Whenever I cut down a sheet of A4 card to make an American A2 card base, I have a 4" wide strip left over. So I have made some small 4 x 4 inch Christmas cards. I used up some Christmas papers I had hanging around, and layered them on gold glitter card. Then I gold-embossed an elaborate sentiment that came with a magazine onto another spare scrap of white card, went around the edges with embossing ink and embossed again.  Finally I added various strips of ribbon from my stash and a few Nuvo drops around the sentiment. Go and see what my creative teamies have done and join in! Christmas is getting closer, after all! Take care, my dearios, and thanks for looking. Love, Mags B x

Hi there! We have a new Challenge for you at Dream Valley which is Embossing. This could be either using an embossing folder, or heat-embossing - or both!  Our gorgeous sponsor is All Dressed Up Stamps . I used one of my favourite images, but I'm sad to say she is no longer available. But do check out Wendy's images, they are lovely! I did some Faux Letterpress by swiping an Wilted Violet Distress Ink across the flat side of my embossing folder. I added my card (the same size as the folder) and taped the edges of the folder to stop it shifting, then ran it through my die-cutting machine. Then I carefully swiped Spun Sugar lightly across the raised pattern several times until the colour was as I liked it.  I added a strip of pale blue ribbon under the image and heat-embossed the sentiment in gold, then fastened it to the ribbon with foam tape. To keep the ribbon in place I also added some glue dots under where the sentiment is. (Does that make sense?)  Finally I glued on 5

Hello, my dearios! I'm sorry this post for The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge is late. I'm still having difficulty remembering what day it is! I have been playing with Distress Ink blending. I was really pleased with the background for this card, so I dug out the Frosty Trees unmounted stamp from Chocolate Baroque.  Because it's an unmounted grey rubber stamp I had to fasten it to my Misti door with pieces of rolled-up washi tape. I stamped several times in Versacolor Onyx Black and clear-embossed the image.  Then I layered it onto silver glitter card and edged it with paper from my snippets stash. No need for a sentiment as the trees have a Christmas script pattern!  Go and see my teamies' lovely creations and join in the fun!  Thanks for looking, and take care!  love Mags B x