Madcap Manor

Well, wouldn't you know it! Our new Challenge at Dream Valley is Summer Colours just when the weather has changed from hot and sunny to cold and rainy! Time to stay indoors and craft, I think! Our Sponsor this fortnight is Crafty Sentiments and the DT recived some of their lovely digi stamps to use in our Challenge. I used Looking Up which is so cute! My papers are from a very old Papermania pad. I used a Spellbinders' Captivating Squares die (now out of print) for the image mat, and an old My Favorite Things 'Plentiful Petals' die for the flower. I edged the green paper with a ribbon from my stash, and also a Jade Green Glitter peel-offs by Love from Lizi. The sentiment die is the Simon Says Stamp Bold Hello die. Go and see my teamies' bright and cheerful creations and join in the summer fun! Thanks for looking, and stay safe. love Mags B x

Evening, all! I hope you are all having a good weekend. The evenings are getting noticeably longer now, and Spring is on its way! Though on sunny days the sun shining through the windows shows me that they really need a good clean! Are you planning your holibobs yet? Because our new Challenge at My Time to Craft! is Travel. So that means boats, aeroplanes, cars, motorbikes - you get the idea. I have this very, very old wood-mounted stamp, I've had it for years. It's not the easiest to stamp, being big and also full of tiny details. I tried embossing in white and painting a wash of watercolour over it, and it just did not work. Then I tried Versafine Onyx Black, which is so good for fine detail, but it was too stark. Sepia Versafine was just dull. Finally I went for Mama Elephant's Stargazer pigment ink. Success! It was annoying that my previous ideas didn't work, but all that practice in stamping meant the final image came out really well!!! I added a ...

Good morning! I hope you're all well, and looking forward to a good weekend! Thursday is CRAFT Challenge day and we have multiple themes this week: Autumn or Halloween or Thanksgiving Plenty of choice there! I went for an autumnal Shaker card, using Berry Wreath by DRS Designs. The background paper is from an ancient pad which has lost its cover! I dry embossed it before cutting the aperture for the shaker - which meant that the original embossing was squashed! However, it makes a rather nice crinkled effect, so that's ok. The wreath is coloured in autumnal shades with Copics. I die cut the MFT 'Thanks' die 3 times and glued them together to make a raised sentiment. Our sponsors this week are: DRS Designs and Doctor Digi's House of Stamps Thanks for looking, and have a great day! love Mags B x

Our new Challenge at Dream Valley is Not A Square Our sponsor is the awesome Live and Love Crafts oh, I could spend ages drooling over their gorgeous site! Anyway, here is my card. It's a Christmas one again! I used a new die, this is the Snoflake Fusion Cover Up die-namics die by My Favorite Things, which unfortunately now seems to be unavailable since I bought it a couple of months ago :( I cut it in white card and layered it on gold mirri card. The poinsettia is a Marianne Die sprayed with shimmer spritz. The ribbon is from stash. Don't be Square, join in our Challenge! :) Thanks for looking! love Mags B x

Hi, guys! We have a technique challenge at My Time to Craft and it's Paper Piecing . That's the technique where, instead of colouring in your image, you stamp it on coloured papers, cut out, and pice them together like a patchwork quilt. For the background I used Snow Drifts Cover Up by My Favorite Things. The papers are Beach Boardwalk an older paper pad by Carta Bella. The yacht image is from Lawn Fawn's Float My Boat and the sails and hull are paper pieced. Go and get some inspiration from my teamies' gorgeous creations, they will inspire you to join in! Thanks for looking! love Mags B x

Good morning! Our CRAFT Challenge this week is to use Bling! . Gems, pearls, gold or silver card, glitter - you name it! Our fab sponsor is Scrapper's Delights and the team were given some totally adorable images to use! There is a sale on, too! The cute image of a girl opening a present immediately made me think of a tag. I used a Sissix Tim Holtz tag die to cut two, one out of paper and one out of card to strengthen it. The papers were a RAK from my daughter. All the edges are distressed with Tea Dye distress Ink to give a shabby chic look. The strip of striped paper on the left has been edged with a Fiskar's Threading Water punch, and a length of lace added over the top. The rolled roses are made with an MFT Die-namics Mini Rolled Roses die and the centres filled with gold Glamour Dust. The Butterfly (Martha Stewart Punch All Over the Page) has more Glamour Dust edging the wings, and gems along its body. The gem swirl came from Hobbycraft. The image was ...

Edited to add: I'm so sorry, folks, I scheduled this post wrongly and sent it to Draft by mistake. Good morning, all, I hope you're having a great weekend! We had a brief visit from my son this week, on his way to see some of his friends; and then from my daughter, who is off to a baby shower today! Then tomorrow a young lady who I've known since she was 2 is getting married! It's lovely to see children growing up - but why does it have to happen so fast???!! Enough of this philosophising, it's time for another challenge at My Time to Craft and this week it's a spookily seasonal theme - Hallowe-e-e-e-n! Now, I don't actually 'do' Halloween trick or treating myself - I know several elderly ladies who lock their doors and switch off the lights because they're frightened of the 'tricks' that might be played on them. I also think that letting children go around knocking on strangers' doors asking for sweets isn't very safe: so ...

For my DT card for The Squirrel and the Fox please scroll down to the previous post. Thanks! This fortnight's challenge at Dream Valley is a seasonal one - Halloween! Our sponsor is Di's Digi Stamps (which was Di's Digi downloads but she has a new site.) I used one of her adorable images for my card, this is called 'All Aboard' and she's available from the 'Halloween' section of the website here I love the traditional orange and black colours used for Halloween and Autumn cards! I couldn't actually decide what paper to use for my background, so I dug out various papers from my snippets Box and glued them at an angle to a snippet of white card. The vertical piece looks white in the photo (my camera skillz are not the best!) but in real life it's a pale blue. I used nesties to die-cut the image,which is coloured with Promarkers, and the mat is done with a Lacey Circle Nestie, using pearlised black card from Paqpermania. The spiders are cu...

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...