Madcap Manor

Good morning! I hope everyone has had a wonderful Christmas! I spent a morning with the Flower Arranging team decorating the Church - I love flower arranging, though this year the holly we used was very beautiful but had lethal prickles, 'as sharp as any thorn'! Then we had a fun Christingle on Christmas Eve, and on Christmas Day we sang all my favourite Christmas hymns! My daughter's Young Man came over from Dublin to spend the holiday with us, which has been lovely! And now it's time for another Challenge at The Squirrel and the Fox . our last Challenge for 2013 is everyone's favourite - Anything Goes. Our sponsor is the cute and quirky Sweet'n'Sassy Stamps who will reward one winner with 3 digis from the store! Not bad, eh?! I used this adorable Fenton Frog digi, which comes with the sentiment 'Oh hoppy day!' (lol!) And it isn't a Christmas card!!!!! I printed out Fenton 3 times, then printed him larger and cut out the 'hoppy...

Good morning! I hope you're all having a splendid weekend! We have had a wonderful time with our lovely little Granddaughter (and her Mum and Dad, too!) I love being a Grannie! Today it's time for another Challenge at The Squirrel and the Fox . this time we have a lovely theme - 'Things With Wings' . Our fab sponsor is Hobbybook and a lucky winner will be able to choose 5 digi images! I used this little cutie, she is 'Pearlsticks Fairy.' The papers were free with a magazine a long time ago! I used a Spellbinders Gold Labels Four die for the mat. I distressed round the image with Tattered Rose DI. The flourish, the flowers and the corner piece are all Marianne dies, and the butterflies are a memory Box die. The fairy's wings are glittered with Diamond Stickles. The sentiment is by LotV. The crochet lace is from stash. I also added clear gems to the flowers and to the fairy's hair sticks. Do flutter over to the blog to see my Teamies' fab ...

What a week! It began with a builder coming to look at a cracked gutter. It ended with urgent work to repair rotten timbers in the roof. ARRRGGGGHHHH!!!!! However, my son and his family are on their way to us to stay for the weekend, and there is a delicious chick pea curry simmering on the stove, so all is not lost. And I made a card! While sorting through my old wood stamps I came across this shadow stamp, by Anita's. I stamped it in Olive Versacolor ink and added three brads that came from Lakeland in the days when they still did crafts. The borders are a stripy paper from the snippets box, and the sentiment is by Docrafts. The trickiest bit was cutting the white stamped card to the right size so that it would be balanced! CAS cards often take me just as long as more complicated cards, and I always have to chuck out my first efforts before I get it right! I'm entering The Glitter n Sparkle Challenge who want metal on your submission - the brads are all metal. Tha...

Evening, all! This is just a fly-by post to share a very quick card that recycles a card I received a couple of years ago. I needed an ultra-quick birthday card, so I used a punch by Leone Em to cut a basket out of a snippet of textured and pearlised card. Then I fussy-cut the shiny roses, which already had the gems on: the red one at the front is raised on foam pads. I also used foam pads for the sentiment. Et voila! Now I'm off to The Playground to enter Pixie's Crafty Snippets Challenge I hope you are all keeping well! Have a good week, and thanks for looking! love Mags B x

My brother was 55 today! here's the card I made for him. He is red-green colour blind, so I used yellow and blue to make a strong contrast on the image. The stamp was given to my daughter when she worked at Waterstone's Bookshop by a lovely lady who used to come in and chat about crafting. This old Kadoodles stamp was one that she no longer wanted, and it's perfect for my brother, so I borrowed it! The papers are from stash, I've had them for ages!! I used promarkers to colour the lad and his dog, and used a Spellbinders Deckle Rectangle (one of the first I ever bought! If only I'd known then how my die-addiction would grow!!) to cut him out. The very shiny stickers are from Paperchase. Alas, they seem to have been discontinued, they are brilliant for male cards! The indigo twine was also borrowed from my daughter! The sentiment is by LotV. You might say that this card is a joint effort between my daughter and me!! Thanks for looking! I'm entering the...

Evening, all! While our Internet was down last week I tidied my craft hovel (again!) and came across a set of decoupage sheets that were free with a magazine. The sheets are from Crafts U Print and I used two of them to make some quick cards. The first is a New Home card: The top flap has been cut round with my Xacto knife and the decoupage has been put together with thin foam pads to give just a slightly raised effect: A bit of gold stickles and it was done! The second card is very Art Deco: The background paper is made by me: I sponged Weathered Wood and Faded Jeans Distress Inks onto card, then stamped with a small flourish stamp in Weathered Wood and also Silver Color Box ink. Again I used thin foam pads: I used Waterfall Stickles this time, along the borders of the image and the sentiment. It took longer to cut out all the elements than to assemble the cards! Thanks for looking, see you tomorrow with 2 DT cards - if Mr Blogger posts them for me, that is! Sta...

Good afternoon! I hope you're all ok in this snow, we've got off quite lightly in S-E Herts but I know other parts of the country are having a very bad time. Keep warm and safe! If you're looking for my DT post for The Squirrel and the Fox please scroll down to the previous post. Ta. It's Dream Valley Challenge time again! We have a gorgeous theme this fortnight: Pearls AND Lace and our sponsor is the amazing Krista Smith of   Saturated Canary One lucky winner will have $10 to spend on her gorgeous images! Krista very generously let the DT choose an image: this is Easter Dress - isn't she cute? The picture is very faded, in real life the colours are much better! I took my colours  from the papers, which are by Pink Petticoat from the Snippets box. The bracket tab is an MFT Die-namics die called, unsurprisingly, 'Bracket Tab.' The corner pieces are cut with Spellbinders Parisian Motifs dies and I added little pink pearls. There are also 2 pear...

Hi, guys! It's been a busy old week - we have had repair work done on our roof, bits of mortar fell out from under the tiles, which is never a good sign! But everything's right and tight now, which is a relief! This week I have mostly been making cups of coffee for the builders!! However, I have made one card since Tuesday, and here it is! Brace yourselves, chaps, this is BRIGHT! It's for my Daughter-in-Law, whose birthday is next week. The weather forecast is for a grey and cold day, so I hope this will cheer her up! The image is Shopping Willow from Whiff of Joy . I coloured her with Promarkers (list below) and added Glossy Accents to her boots and gold Stickles to her necklace. I die cut her with a Spellbinders Labels Ten and drew round the outside for the narrow mat, and distressed with Tea Dye ink. The papers were free last year with 'Cardmaking and Papercraft' magazine. I used a Magnolia Doohickey die for the borders and the stickled pink heart is a Ma...