Madcap Manor

Good morning! There's a new Challenge at Dream Valley to cheer up your Monday! Our theme is Your Favourite Colour Combo . Our sponsor is the gorgeous Polkadoodles. I have used the beautiful Winter Time Octavia . My colours are blue and yellow, with silver. This is a fabulous image to colour! The papers are from my stash. I used a silver Bubble Peel-off and a Handwritten Happy Birthday die , both from Love from Lizi. Nikky kindly sent some adorable images for my teamies to use, and they have created some gorgeous inspiration for you on the blog! Do join in the Challenge and show off your favourite colours! Thanks for looking, and have a good week! love Mags b x

Good morning! Welcome to a new Challenge at Dream Valley! I hopt that will cheer up your Monday! Our new theme is Clean and Simple and if you'd like to check what that means, have a look at this Glossary from the "Less is More" blog. Our sponsor this fortnight is LeAnn's World 101 and I used the lovely Princess Alea. (Unfortunately Etsy won't let me link to her shop.) I used a mask and Distress Inks to make a green hillock and a sky background, then I masked the green again and gave the sky a quick spritz with Nuvo Mica Mist in Antique Gold. It gives a subtle sheen, with a few splatters as well. I fussy cut the image and added her to the scene with wet glue, then put Stickles on her tiara and necklace, and Spectrum Noir Sparkle on the embroidery on her dress. The sentiment is from Altenew's Fresh Freesia stamp set. I matted the image on a scrap of pink paper from my stash that matched her pink dress exactly! It's so satisfying when that happe...

Hi, guys! As you read this I will be travelling home after a week spent in Shropshire, close to where my son and his family live. It's a beautifulpart of the country, stuffed full of history and with some fabulous walks by the River Severn. Of course, as a fan of Ellis Peters' 'Brother Cadfael' mediaeval mystery series I love exploring round Shrewsbury, where the stories are set! Do visit, if you ever have the chance. Anyway, I have scheduled this post, and I hope I've got it right! Our challenge this time is simply - Birds. I have a gorgeous pink flamingo on my card! I have been sorting through my card kits and came across one from Simon Says Stamp last year which included the One Cool Pineapple stamp set, which is still available to buy on its own. I LOVE this stamp set! I stamped and coloured the flamingo and used a circle die to cut it out, then added streaks of Copics in blue to make the water round its feet. I also gave the water some sparkle with a ...

Good morning, and happy Friday! I hope you're all looking forward to a FANTASTIC weekend! If you join in with our new challenge at My Time to Craft you certainly will, as our new theme is Fantasy. (See what I did there?) I have a card for a little girl here, using the adorable Magical Day by The Greeting Farm. The unicorn paper is from Chasing Rainbows by First Edition. I made the image into a banner, adding some Nuvo Drops along the top. The ribbon is from stash and the sentiment came with the image. Go and see the fantastic creations made by my teamies over on the Challenge blog! Thanks for looking! love Mags B x

Hello there! I hope you're all keeping well. We havea new challenge at Dream Valley which is to use a Hand-coloured Image . I used a lovely image from our sponsor Fabrika Fantasy. This is Spring Fairy and I loved colouring her! The papers are Nitwits' Bonnets and Bowties digi papers. I added a pink ribbon from my stash and a die-cut sentiment. Have a look at my teamies' creations, using some adorable images from our sponsor! Thanks for looking, andhave a good week! love Mags B x

Hiya! We have a great new Challenge at My Time to Craft - Check It Out! That means: use checks, or plaids or ginghams in your creations! I used up some papers from an out-of-print Basic Grey pad called 'Lauderdale.' The cute lion stamp came with a magazine a couple of years ago, I gold-embossed him and coloured him with Distress Markers. My fab teamies have left some terrific inspiration for you on the Challenge blog, do go and Check It Out!!! I hope you all have a lovely weekend. Thanks for looking! love Mags B x

Hi, guys! We have a new challenge at Dream Valley and it's to use yellow and black on your project. Our sponsor is the gorgeous All Dressed Up and Wendy kindly gave us a couple of her adorable images to use. I chose Magical Woodland it is so cute. The background is made with the Honeybee layering die set from Birch Press, and I used up scraps of orange, black and yellow card forthe die-cutting. The die-cut sentiment uses a Love from Lizi die and a snippet of black glitter cardstock. Have a look of my teamies' creations, they have made some very pretty cards! Thanks for looking and - Bee Happy! love Mags B x

Hi, guys! It's a Bank Holiday here in the UK, and as is traditional we have grey clouds and showers! All the more reason to get into the craft room, I think! Last time at Dream Valley we had a girlie theme; this time it's the boys' turn! Our sponsor is Sheepski Designs and the lovely Andrea is offering a prize of 3 images from her shop. She also gave the DT some fab images to use - check out the Dream Valley blog to see what my talented teamies have done with them! I used Taking Pics and coloured him with Promarkers then fussy-cut and mounted on foam tape. I used a Spellbinders Labels Two die to cut spotty paper for the background, and drew round the die onto blue card and cut it out for the mat. The check paper also came from my stash. I found a little black-and-white camera sticker and coloured it to match, then added a Happy Birthday die-cut from Love from Lizi. Finally I added Glossy Accents to the camera apertures. I'm really pleased how this tur...

Hello, my dearios! I hope you all had a relaxing weekend and are now rarin' to go! We have a new challenge for you at Dream Valley - Only Girls Allowed. Our lovely sponsors, Star Stampz and Cute N Crafty. Both have gorgeous girly images, do check them out! I used Spring Flower from Star Stampz. The papers are from an old pad by First Edition. I used green mirror card for the scalloped oval, and green glitter peel-offs by Love from Lizi to edge the central panel. The daisy lace and gold gems are from my stash. My teamies' have done a marvellous job, as usual, showcasing images from our sponsors - do go and see! Thanks for looking, and have a good week! love Mags B x

Hi, guys! I hope you're all keeping well! We have a new Challenge at Dream Valley and it's a lovely, girlie theme - Pink Birthday. Our fab sponsor is Fabrika Fantasy and the DT were lucky enough to be given some images to work with - I chose the darling Flying Elf. So cute! I chose the Promarker colours from the background paper, which is a very old piece by Kanban, and has lovely silver foiling which really gleams in the light. Because I didn't have quite enough to stretch across my card I added a matted scrap of an old Nitwits paper down the middle to hide the gap. The elf's hair and dress, and the dragon's horns, have Spectrum Noir sparkle added to them. The silver-embossed banner and sentiment are also old, they are by Clearly Besotted. I added pink Nuvo drops around the scalloped mat which I cut with a Spellbinders die, and inked the edge of the image with Spun Sugar Distress Ink. Is this pink enough, do you think? So if you want an excuse to ...

Good morning, my lovelies! Our new Challenge at Dream Valley is so cute, it's All About Bears. Our sponsor is the amazing Dies to Die For I have been a big fan for many years! At my Church's Toddler Group which I help to run we are a bit low on birthday cards for little boys, so my card for this Challenge is one of several that I'm donating. I used one of my favourite Lili of the Valley stamps, sadly it doesn't seem to be available any more, but do check out their website and Etsy shop for adorable images! I paper-pieced all the balloons, adding Promarker alcohol pens to give some shading for dimension, and also Glossy Accents for some shine. I used the 'out of the box' technique, cutting around the tops of the balloons before using a stitched circle die to cut out the image. Then I added fun foam behind the image to give some more dimension. The papers were hanging around in my stash. I went around all the edges with Broken China Distress Ink. ...

Hiya! There's a new Challenge at Dream Valley which is to make a Shaped Card - but not a square or rectangle! Think circles, ovals, hexagons, teacups, cupcakes..... We have TWO gorgeous sponsors this time: Cute'n'Crafty and Star Stampz. I have made a Rocker Card - the link is to a useful YouTube tutorial - using Birthday Pebbles by Cute'n'Crafty. I used a Scalloped Circle die for the rocker base, as I find that's a bit more stable. The circle-patterned paper came from an old magazine freebie and the gold-embossed sentiment is by Paper Smooches. I used Broken China Distress Ink round the main image and the sentiment, and Spectrum Noir Sparkle on Pebbles' hat and bow tie. I apologise that this post is a day late! Thanks for looking, and have a great week! love Mags B x

Hello, my dearios! I'm here with a quick post before I stagger upstairs to change the sheets. Since I am under 5' tall and the bed is over 5'long, this takes a while! However, it's all exercise, innit? I was sorting my wooden stamps the other day when I found a very old stamp by Inca Stamps called 'Lift Off'. I embossed the image and sentiment in silver - the sentiment is also very old! I also embossed the glittered strip, with Nuvo Silver Moonlight embossing powder, as the cheap glitter paper I have tends to shed! All the papers and the blue card for the mats are made with Snippets - hooray! One day soon I hope to be able to close my drawer full of scraps! Now I'm away to join in the fun at Pixie's Snippets Playground! Thanks for looking! love Mags b x

Good afternoon, all! We have a new challenge at Dream Valley - Four-legged Friends. I used an adorable digi from our sponsor Di's Digi Stamps called Hey Ho Hey Ho Mice - so cute! The papers are from Basic Grey's 'Out of Print' paper pad, which is now actually out of print! The ribbon is from my stash. I added Wink of Stella to the flower petals and Nuvo Drops to the flower centre. My teamies have used a wonderful assortment of images on their creations, do take a gander! Thanks for looking, and have a great day! love Mags B x

Hi, guys! We have a gorgeous new Challenge at My Time to Craft - Pink and Girly! Today I have 2 CAS cards to share, both to the same design but with the papers reversed. Here is the second: Everything except the main sentiment, which is from an old Simon Says Stamp kit, came from the January 2019 kit by Love from Lizi.   I used Lizi's Silver Dollar embossing powder on the big sentiment. The bottom sentiments are both glittered stickers. I also used some silver glitter Peel-offs as a border between the two papers. Finally I added some pink Nuvo Drops. Take a look at my teamies' fab, girly creations, then get out all your pinkest craft supplies and join in!! Thanks for looking, and have a great weekend! love Mags B x

Hi, guys! Well, apparently today is 'Blue Monday' which is the most depressing day of the year, according to an advert put out by a travel company back in 2005! I wonder why they chose gloomy (in the Northern Hemisphere) January to advertise holidays in sunnier climes?! However, there's a simpler solution to cheer everyone up - a new challenge at Dream Valley! We have a really unusual theme: Use a Doily and a Brad. Our sponsor is the gorgeous All Dressed Up Stamps. Wendy very kindly sent the DT a couple of very pretty images touse - check out what my teamies have done on the Challenge blog! Unfortunately my printer gave up the ghost over New Year just at the time I needed toprint my image out! Fortunately I had another sweet ADU girlie already printed out. Phew! This cutie is Flyaway Butterfly. I used papers from a very old pad which came with a magazine, and cut the edge of the pink piece with a Spellbinders Scalloped Borders One die. I used the Doily to d...

Good morning! There's a new Challenge at My Time to Craft! and our theme is Winter Birthday. I have made a card for a bloke, in wintry shades of blue and white, as I have a birthday for an important Olde Manne in my life coming up soon! The papers are very old, I found them in my stash when sorting ye olde craft hovel. I embossed a sentiment from Simon Says Stamp's Big Scripty Sayings in their Steel Navy embossing powder, which is lovely and shiny. I added sparkly baker's twine, and 3 snowflake sequins, and also dots of Navy Blue Nuvo Drops. My teamies have left some gorgeous inspiration for you on the blog - check it out! Cheerio, my dearios, I hope you have a great weekend! Thanks for looking! love Mags B x

Hi, guys, from a grey and chilly S-E Hertfordshire! My daughter-in-law loves the Santoro Gorjuss range, and luckily I have a few Gorjuss stamps, so I combined my favourite with some glittery, shiny snippets for her card this year. I coloured the image with Copics and added a flower sequin over the skull ornament in her hair. I fussy-cut her, then layered her onto a circle distressed with Spun Sugar DI. The sentiment is cut with a Love from Lizi birthday die from shiny pink paper that was originally a card base. Yes! I'm using stuff up!! Ok, back to yet another Grand Tidy-Up of ye olde craft hovel. I'm being ruthless, RUTHLESS I TELL YOU! I hope all is going well for you all - it's nearly the weekend, huzza! Thanks for looking! love Mags B x