Madcap Manor

 Good morning! It's a beautiful but chilly day here in S-E Herts, the sky is a glorious blue and the sun is shining! SPRING IS ON ITS WAY! While we're waiting, what is more natural than thinking about Christmas?! It's time for our 4th Challenge at My Time to Craft Christmas and our theme is Christmas Flowers. I used the gorgeous Christmas Florals stamp and die set by Concord & 9th. I used the outline die to cut out the coloured image, then cut out the letters in gold linen-effect card, using the co-ordinating word die, and glued them over the image.  The background is also linen-effect, it is from an old First Edition Christmas pad.  My teamies have produced some very pretty examples to inspire you, do go and see! Remember - in 10 months' time it will be Boxing Day, so stay ahead of the curve and start Christmassing now!!  Thanks for looking, and stay safe.  love Mags B x

Hello, Good Evening and Welcome! We have a new challenge at Dream Valley which is to Use a hand-coloured Image on your creation. Any colouring medium can be used - water colour, or pencils or alcohol markers.  Our sponsor is All Dressed Up stamps - do check out Wendy's gorgeous digi images if you haven't seen them already! This cute girlie is Look At Me. I coloured her with Copic Markers, taking the colours from the background paper, which is an old one from Nitwits. I like the way the flowers are upright while the girlie is hanging upside down!  The ribbon is from my stash, I added it level with the base of the tree to ground the image. I added sparkle pen to the flowers and also a few Nuvo Drops.  Have a look at my teamies' pretty cards to inspire you to colour an image and join the fun!  Thanks for looking and stay safe!  love Mags B x

 Hello, my dearios! I hope you're all keeping well, and that my friends in the USA and Canada and Europe are safe and warm.  I was on a Zoom call with 3 schoolfriends, one of whom lives in Massachusetts, she said the weather had warmed up to 17 degrees. 'That's not too bad!' I thought.  Then she translated from Fahrenheit to Centigrade - MINUS 8!!!!! I never was much good at maths.  All my friends thought my shocked expression was very funny! Anyway, I'm here with our latest Challenge at My Time to Craft! which is to make a standalone tag or to use one on your creation. Check out my teamies' fab examples to see what we mean! This photo isn't very clear, because the paper has silver foiling and the tag itself has a shiny surface as well as silver foil.  I used papers and elements from an elderly DCWV pad called 'Rock Star' which is long out of print, I'm afraid! I sliced 2 inches off the front of the cardbase and glued a strip of paper with

 Good morning! It's a red letter day today - hubby and I have both received our first Covid inoculation! It was all done so quickly and smoothly, in our Church Hall.  I scarcely felt the needle at all, and there have been no side effects!  Hooray for the NHS! Of course we'll continue with masks, hand sanitiser and social distancing for a long time yet.  The vaccines don't necessarily stop you from getting this foul disease, or passing it on, but if you do get it, the effects are much less severe.  The light at the end of the tunnel may be a long way off, but it's definitely there. And now on to the latest challenge at  The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge. I used items from an old kit by  Love from Lizi .  I have to use up my stash, I'm running out of room! I really like the soft colours of the papers, though they came out a bit pale in my photo.  Sorry! We also have a DT Call at the blog, hop along and see the details, all kinds of crafters are welcome. Stay safe

Hello! Good evening! And welcome! I'm sorry I'm so late with my post for My Time to Craft Christmas! it has been quite a busy day! My Olde Manne and I have appointments for our first vaccine jab arranged for Tuesday, AND I am once again a Grand Aunty! My lovely niece gave birth to a son this week and I have made and sent them a card. I'll try and remember to post it once the card is received. There IS light at the end of the tunnel, and WE CAN GET THROUGH THIS! Anyway, I'm actually here to tell you about the new challenge, and the theme is Wreaths. I used an old stamp from Clearly Besotted (love their cute stamps!) which I heat embossed in green. There are small stamps to fill in the baubles, and I heat embossed them in gold and added some Studio Katia gems on top. The bow is from the same stamp set, and is heat embossed in red. All the embossing powders came from Love from Lizi she has such pretty embossing powders.  I die-cut the image and layered it with red

 Hi, guys! We have snow! We rarely get much snow in S-E Hertfordshire, so it's quite exciting when it begins to fall. We've got about 2cm in the garden at the moment, but I doubt it will stay for long! Ironically, our latest challenge at Dream Valley is to use green on your creation! Our sponsor is Colour of Love and Heather kindly sent us some of her gorgeous images to use. This cutie is Charlie's Flower. I coloured Charlie with Copics and added Spectrum Noir Sparkle Pen to her wings and the flowers in her hair and on her shoes. The paper, ribbon and gems are all from my stash, and the cardbase and oval mat are cut from pearlised pink card.  The sentiment is cut from green mirror card with the Handwritten Happy Birthday die from Love from Lizi.  Have a look at my teamies' lovely work, and join in! For me, green is the colour of spring, so it's a good time to use pretty springtime colours to cheer everyone up!  Thanks for looking, and stay safe!  l

 Hi, guys! I hope you're all keeping safe, well and crafty! Have you found that you're reading more during Lockdown? I have been devouring books like nobody's business, mostly my favourite Science Fiction and Fantasy but also History books.  I have recently been reading a book by Bill Bryson called 'Shakespeare' which is really interesting.  We know so little about Shakespeare himself (although in the past people used to forge documents about him, and even bits of plays!) but the book looks at the context of the times he lived in.  And - yes, in the controversy over 'Did Shakespeare write his plays or was it [insert name of high-born courtier] instead, I am firmly on the side of the man from Stratford. I recommend this book highly - actually, I recommend all Bill Bryson's books! But you're here for our new challenge at  My Time to Craft!  and not my ramblings! Our theme is LOVE, since Valentine's Day is getting closer.  I used a free kit that came wi

 Good morning! How can it be February already? Time goes very oddly in Lockdown: the days seem long, but the weeks speed up! I find refuge in my craft hovel - and then have to spend ages clearing up my crafty mess!  It is time for a new Challenge at  The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge where as usual the theme is Anything Christmas Goes.   We also have a DT CALL so if you're interested do hop over to the Challenge blog for the details.  All are welcome, whatever your level of experience or your style of crafting! I managed to lay my hands on a fun Tim Holtz/Simon Says Stamp set last year which has some very fun images of Christmas cats, and this cat in a stocking makes me smile - I hope it makes you smile, too. I coloured the kitty with alcohol markers to match the papers, which I have had in my stash for several years.  I used  Mint Moondust peeloffs from Love from Lizi to edge the tree-patterned strip and turquoise Nuvo Crystal Drops in two of the corners.  The sentiment read