Madcap Manor

Good mor - er- afternoon! Goodness, Saturday is speeding past, we have been madly tidying up as we're having visitors for tea. Not that the place is immaculately tidy, of course, but it's what my mother rather dryly called 'lived-in' instead of a total tip. However, all the craft things that osmosed their way downstairs since Christmas are now dumped in the Craft Hovel, and that needs tidying!!! Tomorrow. For now here is my card for this week's My Time to Craft Challenge, which is Lace . Nice and easy! it's ages since I coloured sweet Tilda, and I wanted to use the Magnolia Doohickey lace die that edges the horizontal band(I can't find it online to link to, but there are loads of gorgeous Magnolia lace dies out there!) so here she is! The sketch is from Dawny P's blog The papers are from Basic Grey's 'Porcelain' collection. The image and mat had their corners cut with a Woodware Reverse corner rounder punch. The card looks like...

Good afternoon, my lovelies! (Please scroll down for my DT post for The Squirrel and the Fox ) It's Dream Valley Challenges time again! Our new Challenge is Summer Days - now, how many of you are humming the song from 'Grease'? Our sponsor is the wonderful and witty Bugaboo Stamps - I love Bugaboo! I have had Sunbonnet Sue Strawberry Basket and Sunbonnet Sue Strawberry Jam in my files for a while now, and this challenge was ideal to print them out! In fact, there's a whole section on the Bugaboo site devoted to 'Sunbonnets' and they aren't all cute little girls! I used Spectrum Noir pens this time (the list is below) and I Glossy Accented the strawberries. I used a Spellbinders Wonky Rectangle die to cut out the image, and drew around the edge of the die on my green card and cut it out to make the narrow mat. The papers are by Raspberry Road and came free with a magazine. (Honestly, I have so many of these freebie pads, I really must get a mo...

Good evening, all! I hope you're all keeping well and that you've seen a bit of sunshine today. Is Spring finally here? Certainly the weeds think so, they are becoming quite vigorous! I've been pulling them up by the handful this last week but it seems to make little difference! But I did stop to make a card. This is for a dear friend of my daughter, she hasn't been well so we are sending her a 'care package' to cheer her up. I used this lovely stamp 'A little bit of magic might help' by Norma Fickel from Whiff of Joy's 'Get Well' set. I coloured her with Promarkers (list below) and went over the potion bottles with Glossy Accents. I distressed the image and the WoJ sentiment with Milled Lavender Distress Ink. The papers are snippets from a Papermania Capsule Collection pad. I now have the Spellbinders' Matting Basics dies A and B which I used to cut out some of the papers. It's very quick! I used an old piece of broderie an...

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...

Hi guys! I can't tell you how glad I am this week's over, I've been laid-up with tonsillitis and it was vile! I've been living on soup while the Old Man tucked into steak, pork chop, bacon sarnie... all cooked by me, please note, but just too painful to eat! My neighbour has been a Tower of Strength, she even noticed I was running low on hankies and bought me some more when she was out shopping. So I have made her a thank you card. The image and the papers were both magazine freebies, they are taken from 'The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady' - such a beautiful book, Edith Holden was an incredibly talented artist! I used Speccies to colour the image and added stickles to the flower centres, and distressed with Bundled Sage ink while still in the die. The butterflies are made with a Martha Stewart punch and also stickled. The flowers are made with two sizes of Woodware Daisy punches and have a tiny pink gem in the middle, the leaves are also from a Woo...

Hi, guys! I hope those of you who had a Bank Holiday on Monday had a good one, in spite of the rain! Here are two more of the Thank You cards I made for helpers at the Church Holiday Club earlier this month. The sketch for this one came from 'Sketch Saturday' 2 weeks ago but I made a boo-boo so didn't enter the challenge. The image is Saturated Canary and the papers are Nitwits 'Tour of London.' The swirl and the flowers are both made with Magnolia dies, and there are gems from stash in the flower centres, and the two shiny dots are stickers. The butterflies are a Martha Stewart punch, with added gems from stash, and the sentiment is my fab  Marianne die with Stickles. The ribbon is coloured with pens from the Spectrum Noirs Yellows set. This cute laddie is another Saturated Canary digi. The papers are Nitwits. I used a Martha Stewart punch for the scalloped edging, and the bakers twine is from The Ribbon Girl. More of the shiny silver Paperchase stickers...

Hi, guys! Happy Jubilee holiday to those who have celebrated! I was asked to make a card for a lady whose bridesmaids are going to be wearing the colours of the rainbow! That's one colour each, by the way, not all seven at once! This is a big card (8" x 8") because the LotV die-cut is large. I used a Martha Stewart punch around the die-cut to give the lacy border. The striped paper is Funky Hand (it was a freebie last year) - aren't those colours lovely?! Flowers are Wild Orchid, and the leaves are a Whiff of Joy die. The ribbon is recycled one of my colleagues at the Toddler Club was going to chuck it because it's not very long - so I snapped it up instead! It makes me feel so virtuous when I recycle! The sentiment is also LotV, the butterflies and flowers coloured with Sakura Stardust pens, and matted onto a piece cut with a Spellbinders Floral Doily die. All the paper lace has been distressed with Spun Sugar DI. The pink roses and hearts on the image ...

It's me again! Here's another card using the Stitchy Bear Fairy Moon digi that I used for my Dream Valley DT card. The card base is cut with a scalloped Grand Nestie and the paper (which was loose in my paper drawer so I can't say where it came from) is done with a plain one. The background for the fairy was made with Distress Inks, this time Scattered Straw, Broken China and Spiced Marmalade. I'd seen cards with elegant trellises made from die-cut flourishes some time ago, so I thought I'd try it. It took ages to organise! I used 2 Marianne flourishes, and a Magnolia one (twice.) The bases of the Wild Orchid flowers are also made with a Magnolia die, and the butterflies are Martha Stewart. The only glitz is dots of gold Perfect Pearls on the butterflies' bodies. Too late I noticed that I stuck the image at an angle instead of straight, but luckily she seems to be admiring the top butterfly, phew! That's my excuse! I'm entering this in...

This is what I've been doing the last few days, in between listening to the cricket as we RETAINED THE ASHES! It's been so exciting! The stamp is Hero Arts, and it's a delight to colour! I've been practising my shading, which I hope makes the flowers look 3D without the need to decoupage. The papers are scraps, mostly Bearly Mine Designs which are gorgeous! I requested the Bearly Mine Vintage papers last Wednesday evening, got the invoice, paid and downloaded within an hour! Fantastic service, especially just before Christmas! You might spy 2 new Martha Stewart punches, the butterfly border and the lattice one, which my DH got me for Christmas! My horrid cold has almost gone, I'm carding again, at last, and everything (except the foggy weather) is rosy! I hope you all had a great Christmas, and I wish you lots of crafting fun in 2011! Now I'm off to make a cuppa and listen to the highlights of yesterday'sVICTORY again! Obssessed? Moi? Thanks for looking! lu...