Madcap Manor

 Yes, it's that time of year: the summer hols are over and a new school year begins.  That's the new theme at  Dream Valley   The challenge lasts one week, not two; but then we will be back to the normal schedule. This very cute image came from Bugaboo.  (I miss them so much!)  I coloured the lad and his huge pile of school items in Copics.  The papers are from a very old pad by Papermania - I thought the brightly-coloured geometric shapes of the background were suitable for school.  (Maths! Not my favourite subject!) I cut the letters from a dull silver-grey glitter card.  The misspelling is deliberate, by the way! Check out the challenge blog for more fun inspiration! Thanks for looking and take care! love Mags B x

  Good morning and Happy Monday! We have a new challenge for you at Dream Valley where we'd like to see embossing - either heat embossing or using an embossing folder. Or both!   I did both!   We were to be sponsored by the wonderful Bugaboo Stamps, but unfortunately the site is unavailable for now and so this challenge is Just For Fun. This cute image is called 'Cupcake Tower.' I coloured it with Copics for a particular friend who has been under the weather recently. The background is pearlescent card dry embossed with a very old folder and the patterned paper strip is a snippet from my stash.   The sentiment 'Friends like you are far and few' is also ancient and I heat embossed it with gold onto vellum. Finally I added some purple sequins.   My teamies, as usual, have made beautiful cards to inspire you, go and see!   Thanks for looking, my dearios, 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...

Hello, my dearios! It's a cold but sunny spring day in Hertfordshire - and we have had snow flurries! Only a few flakes at a time, and certainly not enough to settle, but even so it is rather a surprise! Spring is a very variable season! Springtime is our new theme at Dream Valley and our sponsor is the fabulous Bugaboo Digi Stamps. We were sent some images to use and I chose this gorgeous Spring Boot. So cute! I took the colours from the patterned paper, which is from the  Spring Bloom pad by Love from Lizi.  I love those pastels! Go and see my teamies' creations on the challenge blog, they will brighten your day! Thanks for looking and stay safe. love Mags B x

 Hello! Happy Monday! Yes, it's a Happy Monday because we have a new Challenge at  Dream Valley! Our sponsor is the wonderful Bugaboo Stamps and a lucky winner will be able to choose four of their fun digis! I wasn't able to use any of the fab images we were given, because my new laptop has decided it won't talk to my printer, and unfortunately the lovely digi I chose is no longer available. I love the Art Deco look of this stamp! I coloured it with Copics, then added double-sided tape to 3 of the edges and rubbed over some gilding flakes from Hobbycraft.  In the photo it looks mostly brown, but in real life there are hints of red, orange and gold, and there's a beautiful shine, too! The background paper is an old Nitwits digi paper.   I treated myself to a new set of pyjamas recently (you know your jim-jams are at the end of their life when the elastic gives way as you're climbing the stairs and the bottoms end up around your ankles.) I used one of the ribbo...

Oh my ears and whiskers, I'm late! Is it Friday already? Yes! And it's time for a new challenge at My Time to Craft!   Our new theme is Inspired by Harry Potter so anything wizardly goes! Now, I'm not actually a fan of Harry Potter (I prefer the amazing books written by Diana Wynne Jones - check 'em out!)  However, a long time ago Bugaboo Stamps produced some lovely images that rather resemble characters from the series, and I have used one for my card. Sadly, they seems to be unavailable, which is a problem with using an older image. I coloured Prof not-Snape with Promarkers (it took 2 attempts with different types of grey to distinguish between his cassock and his university robe!) and added Gold Stickles around his wand and magic book.  The papers are from my snippets drawer. I layered them onto black gloss cardstock, and used black peel-offs from Love from Lizi to edge the vertical strip. I used an MFT stitched frame die (which maddeningly I can't fi...