Madcap Manor

 Good morning! I hope you're all well.  I have scheduled this post, as when the challenge at  The Holly and Ivy  goes live I will be at Church, arranging flowers to celebrate the Queen's Platinum Jubilee.  For celebrations we always have a stand by the main door and one by the altar, and smaller arrangements along all the windowsills.  The Flower team are so talented, it will look fabulous! But you're here for our new Challenge! I wanted to make a CAS card using this pretty blue as my 'white space.'  I made a panel slightly smaller than my card base and scored 2 lines on the left and at the bottom, then used my Cropadile to round the top right corners.  The snowflakes are cut with Lawn Fawn's  Stitched Snowflakes  dies from a scrap of rose gold non-shed glitter card from Tonic.   The sentiment is embossed with rose gold, the stamps are from a very old Bo Bunny stamp set, and I rounded the top right corners.  On reflection, I should have used the same blue card,

 Hi there! It's time for a new Challenge at  Dream Valley  and the theme is Summer Colours.   It's astonishing to realise that next Wednesday is June 1st - where did May go??? And of course next weekend we have the celebrations of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee and an extra Bank Holiday.  I'm involved in a Fun Day at my Church, we are all hoping and praying for fine weather. But you want to know more about the Challenge! Our gorgeous sponsor is  All Dressed Up Stamps  and Wendy has sent the DT two of her adorable digis to use.  Seriously, check out her shop, her images are fabulous! I used  Little Flower Girl  she is so cute! I used a gorgeous paper from an old paper pad by My Mind's Eye called 'Howdy Doody.'  Such bright colours! I layered the image on yellow and orange cardstock and matted the paper onto orange: we have marigolds in the garden which are bright orange and look fantastic! The sentiment is the  Painted hello die  by Simon Says Stamp.  I tried t

 Good morning, all! Welcome to a new Challenge at  My Time to Craft Christmas ! Our theme this time is Wreaths  - not just standalone wreaths but wreaths on a door, wreaths on cute critters, any variation on the theme! I have made cards with standalone wreaths, though with different techniques. For my first card I used a die from Tonic Studios that came with a magazine.  I cut it once in textured dark green card and once in lighter green mirror card.  I glued them down onto the die-cut base slightly offset. The silver metal snowflakes are table confetti, I added a few red nuvo drops and a bow.  Papers and ribbon are from my stash and the green striped paper is edged with  Love from Lizi Sway peel-offs . Card 2 is stamped. I used the  Every Good Thing  layering stamp set by Pinkfresh Studio to stamp the base of the wreath in two colours.  I added tiny images of leaves, poinsettias and pinecones.  The sentiment is an old one by Clearly Besotted and the gold card and gingham papers are fr

 Good morning, all! We have a new Challenge at My Time to Craft! for your delectation and delight. Our theme this time is Thank you. It's always useful to have thank you cards on hand!   My first card is simply embossed. I used Simon Says Stamp's Thankful Flowers stamp set and their Bold Thanks die . Both came in a card kit a couple of years ago but are still available in their website (if you can afford the extra 20% VAT that the UK Government now adds to everything.) I used gold embossing powder and gold mirror card and layered the image onto black and gold card. This is very much inspired by Amy R's series of Black, White and Gold cards - the link is to her playlist at Prairie, Paper and Ink on Youtube.   For my second card I used the Pinkfresh Studio Fuchsias washi tape and Matching Die for this card. They are part of the March 2022 release. I fell in love with this beautiful washi, it's even more gorgeous in real life than in a photo! I add

  Hi there! We have a new Challenge at The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge. Yes, we're halfway through May, but we can make Christmas cards all year round! I had a play with making a different fold for my card this time.  I cut off a section on the front of a side-folded card base in blue and added papers to the inside and outside.  The topper and sentiment, which both have gold foiling, were glued only to the front flap; the star is also gold foiled. Everything came from a card kit that came with a magazine earlier this year.  It's a simple card, but the gold foiling gives it some pizzaz! Check out the Challenge blog and my teamies' fab creations, they'll inspire you to join in! Thanks for looking and take care. love Mags B x

  Good morning! Welcome to a new Challenge at Dream Valley. Our theme this time is add Embellishments so dig out your favourite embellies and have fun!   Our sponsor is Crafty Sentiments Designs and I have used the adorable Couples digi stamp for an anniversary card. The patterned paper came from my Snippets drawer. I coloured the bears with Copics and the sentiment came from an old Hero Arts stamp set. I used several embellishments: Peel-offs from Love from Lizi; some heart confetti from an old bag of sequins by Little Things by Lucy ; and some twine from my stash.   Check out the blog for more inspiration!   Thanks for looking and take care!   love Mags B x

  Good morning! We have a new Challenge at My Time to Craft Christmas to inspire you to make a Christmas card! Our theme is Sleds or Sleighs think Santa's sleigh, children sledding in the snow, bringing home a Christmas tree tied to a sledge...   And it doesn't have to be a Christmas card! I have a very old book by an inspirational crafter named Valerie Janitsch, which includes a template for a small sleigh to decorate the festive table, and here it is: I will make several of these and fill them with chocolates. I used double-sided patterned paper, some bobble trim and some gold cord for the bows.   I also made a card using 'Christmas Delivery' by Newton's Nook which sadly is no longer available. The paper is from an old Kaisercraft pad, and is perfect with the stamp! I chose Copics that matched the colours in the paper for the image, and the green ribbon is from my stash. Finally, the sentiment came with the stamp set.   Have a look at the examples on the

  Hi there! We have a new Challenge at My Time to Craft and our theme is Around the House. Think kitchens, living rooms, conservatories, bookshelves, flowers in a vase, furniture, a fireplace, reading a book, playing a computer game or Scrabble...   As an ex-Public Librarian who lives in a house with bookshelves everywhere, I went with reading and books!   My first card uses a Lili of the Valley coloured image called Story Time.   Such a cute scene! The background paper is a scrap from a Nitwit Collections set. I see that now they are producing paper pads in collaboration with Crafter's Companion, as well as their own digi bundles.   My second card uses a stamp set by Simon Says Stamp called 'To Thine Own Shelf' which is sadly unavailable. I used various brightly-coloured dye inks to stamp a very graphic design. I'm very good at smudging designs like this, being too impatient to let the ink dry properly, but this time I did it all right first time!    Do chec

 Hello, my dearios! It's time for another challenge at The Holly and Ivy. I upcycled a card I received last Christmas, I love the elegant foiling of the image on the dark blue background. I used Octagon nesting dies by Spellbinders to cut the pale blue border and the image.  The gold mat was made by tracing the outline of the smaller die and cutting it with my trimmer; I did the same technique for the card base using the largest die. A very simple card, but I like the unusual shape. Check out the challenge blog and make a Christmas card! You'll be glad to have a stash of cards ready for December ;) Thanks for looking and take care. love Mags B x

  Good morning! It's a Bank Holiday in the UK: you can tell because it's a grey, dreary day with the likelihood of rain later. It's a running joke that Bank Holidays usually mean rain! Whatever the weather, I hope you all have a good day!   Our latest Challenge at Dream Valley is a corker: Four-legged Friends. Yep, any animal with four legs will be good, whether wild or domesticated!   I have two sets of rubber stamps by Katzelkraft (the link is to the page that lists the sellers of their stamps by country.) I used one of Les Chiens for my card but I also have Les Chats Russes. Such fun, quirky images!   Anyway, on to my card. The dachshund is perfect for a mini slimline. The background paper is from my stash and the mat is pearlised. The sentiment is from an old Clearly Besotted sentiment set. The dog was so easy to colour, as there are shading lines on the images and a coloured example on the packaging - in shades of green!!   Go and see my teamies' cre