Madcap Manor

 Morning, all! It's time for a new challenge at  Dream Valley ! We'd like to see shaped cards - any shape except square or rectangular. I made a heart easel card for one of the Mums who attended our Church Toddler Group (Early Birds) with her gorgeous little girl.  Sadly, the family has returned home to Slovenia, as they were finding it too expensive to live in the UK.  Fortunately her husband is an HGV driver, so he had a job waiting for him already, and she is a psychiatrist and will be working from September.  We will all miss them! Anyway, this is the card I made for them to wish them well. The gorgeous paper is from an old First Edition pad and has a spot gloss finish on the roses.  The die-cuts are made with a Spellbinders die set and I dry-embossed them to emphasise the detail. Check out the lovely cards made by my teamies and have a go at creating a shaped card yourself! Thanks for looking and take care! love Mags B x

Hi, guys! I hope all is well with you. This Bank Holiday weekend we were visited by our children and both grandchildren, which was lovely! The house is very quiet now..... Time for a new Challenge at Dream Valley which is to make something with More than One Fold. I made an easel card. The adorable image is Springtime by All Dressed Up stamps. So sweet! I added butterflies cut with a die by Joy! Crafts which I can't find to link to, sadly. There are pearls along the butterfly bodies and also in the corners. The stopper is made with strips of card and papers, gold-embossed with a Lawn Fawn Scripty Saying sentiment. The ribbon is from stash. We have two sponsors for this Challenge: Oddball Art and All Dressed Up. My teamies have made some lovely examples to inspire you with interesting folds, do take a look! Thanks for looking! love Mags B x

Hi, guys! Happy Monday! At Dream Valley we have a nice, straightforward Challenge this fortnight: Add a Doily Our sponsor is wonderful All Dressed Up Stamps . As well as digis, Wendy's images are available from Little Darlings Rubber Stamps at Sugar Nellie and Noor Design I made an easel card, using Little Flower Girl. The doily is in the top left corner, and was made with a Cheery Lynn French Pastry doily die. The papers are by K & Co, they are very old and have lost their cover! The dragonfly used as the easel stop is also from the same very old collection. The sentiment is by Lawn Fawn and the ribbon and lace are from stash. The butterflies are by Joy! Craft from Noor Design. The flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts. Thanks for looking! love Mags B x

Hi, guys! I hope you're all having a good weekend! At My Time to Craft this fortnight we would like to see Easel Cards . Here is a link to Christina Griffith's instructions on how to make one, and also some variations. She also has a video. I made a 'twisted' or 'skewed' easel - they look very impressive but they are actually quite easy! I used a Sarah Kay image from Stampavie - sadly, the firm has closed down, because of what Bev Rochester calls 'epic piracy. So sad. I coloured her with Copics and added Glossy Accents to her watering can. The image is die cut with a My Favorite Things Die-namics stitched oval die, and I distressed the edges with Broken China. The 'Thanks' die-cut is by Clearly Besotted and I added Glamour Dust for sparkle. The papers are First Edition Floral Pavilion. The stopper is a LotV sentiment, raised on foam pads. I added 2 tiny crystal butterflies and some gems from stash. Do have a go, especially if y...

Hi, guys! Our Challenge this week is to make a card for a lady - either for Mother's Day or for any other female! Our sponsors are Little Miss Muffet Stamps I made an easel card, using lots of pink! The adorable image is Kiki Bloom . I cut my bases using a large Go Kreate Frilly Frames #2. I used Worn Lipstick Distress ink to colour it, then used an Interference Red perfect Pearls Mist to give it some shine. The papers are from the Bonnets and Bowties paper pad by LOTV, and the sentiment is also by LOTV. The white swirls and the dragonfly are cut with Magnolia Doohickey dies. The flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts. For the base I used the same papers and also a piece of ribbon and some lace from stash. Go and see what my teamies have made, then dig out your prettiest, girliest stash and join in the Challenge! love Mags B x

Good morning! Mahoosive apologies for the lateness of this post, I was so convinced I had scheduled it for Monday that I forgot to check!! Don't you hate it when that kind of thing happens? Or is it just me that it happens to??! Anyway, welcome to another Challenge at Dream Valley and it's a romantic theme this time - Wedding . My children's friends are all at the age when weddings loom on the horizon, so these cards are becoming increasingly useful - in fact, my card was made with a very special wedding in mind! Our sponsor is the adorable Lacy Sunshine Stamps and the lucky winner will be able to choose THREE of Heather's cute digi stamps! A fabulous prize! So what did I do? I made an easel card! I used a 6 x 6 inch card for the skeleton of the card with the fold at the top, just folding down the top flap to meet the fold. Then I mounted card and paper cut with varying sizes of Nestabilities Labels One and Grand Labels One dies. The pale blue card is Centur...

Good afternoon! I'm sorry I'm a few hours late with my card for Dream Valley I just had to listen to the cricket: we won, but it was a damn' close-run thing! Anyway, this time we would like you to show off your Fancy Folds . Our sponsor is Whimsy Farm Twine and one very lucky winner will be able to choose 3 spools of the most gorgeous twine! I also used twine (from The Ribbon Girl ) on my easel card. The image is by Hero Arts, Clear Design - Layered Flowers . I stamped the big bloom 3 times on orange paper and decoupaged them with thin foam tape. The leaves were stamped and fussy cut from a scrap of green Nitwits paper from the snippets box. More Nitwits papers, from the Bees Knees set, were used for the background paper and also the Memory Box Spring Border die. The sentiment tags are LotV and the orange tag is by Spellbinders, from 'Framed Tags One.' They all have orange gems added to them to look like fasteners. I glittered the edges of the petals w...

Huge apologies for being so late with my post, it's been another manic day but the sitting room is clean and almost all the presents are wrapped! I'll have to makes swome more tags, though, 27 wasn't enough because everyone else wanted to use them, too!! Here is my card for the latest challenge at The Squirrel and the Fox and it's a card for Christmas! Our sponsor is the amazing Bugaboo Stamps and one lucky winner will be rewarded with 7 digistamps! Here's my card, made with a Bugaboo image of the gorgeous DeDe: I'm sorry about the naff photo! I made the easel card base with a Go Kreate Frilly die, and the star die is by X-cut. The snowflakes are cut with Spellbinders Create-a -Flake 4 dies. The papers are from a freebie pack from a magazine. I Glossy Accented the baubles that DeDe is holding and stickled the red tinsel hanging round her neck. I cut her out and added her with foam pads. Unfortunately I chucked out the list of Promarkers I used :( ...

Good afternoon! I'm sorry this post is a bit late, we had a big Baptism this morning, and then there was the excitement of a trip to Saino's! Anyway, better late than never, and I'm here with the latest Dream Valley Challenge . (You may want to grab a cuppa, this is a long post!) This time the theme is CASE the DT Our wonderful regular sponsor One Stop Card Crafts is offering a £10 voucher. Our other wonderful sponsor this fortnight is Crafty Ribbons who are offering one of their gorgeous 'Bev's Bags' of ribbon. Ok, I had to have 'CASE' explained to me. Apparently it means either 'Copy And Steal Everything' or 'Copy And Selectively Edit.' I prefer the second definition! Basically we're asking you to pick one of the DT's cards on the Challenge blog and use it as your source of inspiration. Simples! But PLEASE can you state in your post just whose card you picked and which bits inspired you? Thanks! I've Kept It S...

Oh dear, it's raining again! Of course today's the day my daughter decides to do loads of washing, both clotheshorses are groaning under a weight of wet washing!! Today's card is for our Church Administrator, who retired on Thursday. He was always wonderful when I forgot my keys to open up the hall where we hold our Toddler Groups! He was even more wonderful this week when I dropped my keys down the grate covering the Church hot air heating system! My middle name really should be 'Plonker!!!' I got out my dies for this one. The base, circles and scallops were all cut with either Grand or ordinary Nesties and layered together. I used oddments of card and also a scrap of spotty paper from Nitwits. The sentiment is from a set by The Greeting Farm, and the cute duck was a freebie many moons ago when I was starting carding and came with one of those 'Let's Make Cards' packs.  It's going to be my second blogaversary in May (where does the time g...

The current challenge at Anyone for Anya is to make a circular card, so I had a go at a skewed easel card. It's not very skewed at all, I got the fold wrong! Here's the front: I used a Marianne die to give the base dimensions. Papers are Vintage Rose by Craftwork Cards, and they are gorgeous! They were a freebie with (I think) Quick Cards. I'm always a bit nervous about using very busy paper, but I hope the pearlised teal card gives enough contrast. The image is CC Designs, and the stamped ribbon and bow are a new stamp from LotV which arrived yesterday! I stamped the bow twice and glossy accented it and decoupaged it with foam pads. I glittered round the striped paper and added glitter to her buttons and flowers and glossy accents to her shoes. Here's the inside: The sentiment is also LotV, and I just raised it on pads to act as a stop. The card is going to a darling little girl who will be 6 soon, and who has long blond hair like the image! I do like to tailor cards ...