Madcap Manor

  Hello, my dearios! I hope you had a good weekend. Unfortunately my daughter and her family, who were going to visit from Ireland in July, have decided not to risk the trip until later in the year. It is so frustrating, we haven't seen them since Christmas 2019! Well, we'll have to wait and see what happens. In happier news, there is a new Challenge at Dream Valley and the theme is All Occasions. Our sponsor is The Paper Shelter and the DT received an adorable image to work with!  THIS CHALLENGE IS OPEN UNTIL JULY 24TH These little mice are so cute! I used some gorgeous papers from 'Love Story' by First Edition and my mats are ivory Centura Pearl card by Crafter's Companion. The lace came from my stash.  Take a look at my teamies' creations on the blog for some great inspiration!  Thanks for looking, and take care!  love Mags B x

  Hello, my dearios! For our new Challenge at My Time to Craft we have a lovely summery theme - All Things Beachy.   I really miss the seaside and walking along a beach hearing the waves break against the shore, it's such a calming sound. Never mind, hopefully next year we'll get a chance to go!  I have used stamps from the Hunkydory Cardmaking Collection Issue 5 which has a seaside theme. For the beach I tore a piece of tan cardstock and stamped it randomly with grey and brown polka dots to give some texture. The sea is blended Distress Inks, and I stamped and clear-embossed a wavy pattern onto it. I stamped out images from the stamp set, coloured them with copics and fussy-cut them. The sentiment is also from the same stamp set.  I really miss the sea, we often holiday in Suffolk and Norfolk to go birdwatching, it's such a great break from living in a commuter town!  Anyway, do go and sea (!) my teamies' creations, they are so inventive and I'm sure they&

  Good morning! I hope you're all keeping well. We have another Challenge at The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge - this Challenge lasts a month, so you have plenty of time to make a Christmas card! We will be back on July 22nd. I have used a die-cut image from a Hunkydory magazine to make a tall and skinny card. I apologise for the glare, the paper is glassy and also foiled.  Everything came from the magazine, which was published last year.  I glued to background paper and the die-cut frame flat, then raised the image on fun foam for dimenssion.  The 'with love' tag is also popped up on 2 sides with fun foam, to keep it flush with the image. It's a shame that the gold foiling doesn't show, it's very pretty! Do go along to the Challenge Blog, where you will notice that my card is in the wrong place because I added it wrong! What a plonker! Thanks for looking, have a great day, and stay safe. love Mags B x

Hi there! We have a new Challenge at My Time to Craft Christmas - Christmas is getting closer! My favourite Christmas Stamp is 'Antique Santa' by Penny Black, it's one of the first stamps I bought 11 years ago, and it's gorgeous! He is a dream to colour. The background paper, ribbon and sentiment are from my stash.  Do join us and share your favourite Christmas stamp!  Thanks for looking and take care!  love Mags B x

  Good morning from a bright, hot, summery S-E Hertfordshire! It has been SCORCHIO! for the last few days - I felt quite sorry yesterday for the Croatia and England teams having to play football in this weather. (Don't mention the Cricket. On a perfect wicket for batting England collapsed horribly and New Zealand deservedly won the Test Series.)  Our new challenge at Dream Valley is very appropriate: Summer Fun. Our sponsor is the awesome Bugaboo Stamps. I love them, especially the 'oldie' characters Stella and Gus, they are so funny! I used Stella Teenagers and Flowers for my card, which was one of the digis that the DT received from Bugaboo. Isn't she great? I used a very bright paper from the Over the Rainbow paper pad by Dovecraft for the background and matched some of the colours when colouring the image. The ribbon came from my stash. The sentiment is stamped in >Atlantis Green embossing powder from Love from Lizi, it has flecks of gold in it whi

Good afternoon, my lovelies! I hope you're all looking forward to a relaxing weekend. We have had an exciting week chez the Manor - we have a new car! Yes, we traded in our black Ford Focus for... a black Ford Focus! 'Here come da new car, same as da old car!' It's very nippy, but most important of all - I set the radio to receive cricket broadcasts.  There is also a new challenge at My Time to Craft! and our theme is Things in the Sky. That's birds, aeroplanes, balloons, bats - but they have to be the focal point of your card, just adding a tiny butterfly won't cut it, I'm afraid.  I went with Balloons. I am very proud of the background, which I made with Broken China Distress Oxide and a stencil.  The die-cut balloons are from a box magazine by Hunkydory, and I used red and green mirri card to make them. The strip at the bottom is from an ancient paper pad that was also a magazine gift, and I edged it with blue peel-offs by Love from Lizi.  The sentime

Evening, all! I'm sorry I'm so late with this post, I was convinced all day that today was Monday!!! Wot a plonker!  Even though it's summer here in the Northern Hemisphere, it's not too soon to start on your Christmas creations! At The Holly and Ivy we are here to help! As usual, the theme is Anything Christmas Goes!   I have made a Tall and Skinny card, using Woodware's Nutcracker stamp, designed by the very talented Francoise Read. I stamped and clear-embossed him on Arteza watercolour paper, and used watercolour pencils. The colours are quite soft and more subtle than alcohol inks, and I like the faded vintagy look it gives. The background paper is from my Christmas stash, and the holly leaves are glittered.  I really enjoyed colouring this image (I was listening to the cricket on the radio at the time, of course! Painting and cricket seem to go well together!) I must do more watercolouring, it's very relaxing. Anyway, now's your chance to pop ove

 Hello, my dearios! Well, it's flaming June and here in S-E Herts we have had grey skies and drizzle all day.  At least it's not cold!  I can't think of a witty segue from that, so I'll just say: we have a new Challenge at  My Time to Craft Christmas ! Our theme this time is Santa. I have been a wee bit obsessed with Bridge cards recently! I've been following this video from Sasha Reade, I find it easier to follow than Splitcoast Stampers' tutorial.  I used Christmas paper from my stash and MFT's cute 'Jingle All the Way' stamp set. Sadly, it's no longer available on their website. The dancing Santa and the Christmas tree came from the set, I coloured them and fussy-cut, then added a silver star gem to the tree.  The sentiment is also from the stamp set. (I wanted to use 'Rockin' around the Christmas Tree' but the sentiment I have didn't fit!) Rock on over to the Challenge Blog and see what my lovely teamies have made, and jo