Madcap Manor

Yes, our next C.R.A.F.T Challenge is Christmas! . Get ahead of yourself, every Christmas card made before December is a bonus lol!!! I don't think I've ever made one this early.... I used the beautiful Lady Jane by Scrapper's Delights and coloured her in Promarkers. I followed a tutorial in Donna-Marie's Colouring e-book though using different colours. I can highly recommend this book, it has taught me a lot. AND all the money goes to a homeless charity, too! The green mat is a Spellbinders Floral Oval die, and I added some red spotted paper from the snippets drawer. I used glittered poinsettia paper from a Christmas Vintage 12" x 12" pad by First Edition which came from Hobbycraft last year. The ribbon is from stash, and the Lili of the Valley sentiment was stamped in Tsukineko Delicata Gold Ink. We have one sponsor this week, Scrappers Delights I'm sure you have all begun to notice that some digistamp companies have closed or are no longer...

Hello, my dearios! I hope you're all keeping well! I have been practising with my Promarkers recently! I belong to a facebook group, Donna-Marie's Cards and Promarker tutorials and Donna has produced an e-book on colouring. It's with the permission of letraset, of course. All money raised will go to a homeless charity. Her tutorials are very detailed, and well worth £12! Here is Bubbles who I coloured along with one of the tutorials. I am so much happier with my colouring, it's much smoother and more defined! I edged the image with a Fiskar's Scallop Sentiment punch. The black paper for my mat was dull, so I livened it up with some clear embossing, using a background stamp by Impression Obsession called Circle Fusion 2 CR002. I think I ordered it from Simon Says Stamp. The background paper is from a Christmas pad by Dovecraft called 'Noel.' I added glitter to the star, bubbles, and the dots on her dress. The sentiment and heart are from a Hero...

Hello! I hope your Sunday is going well! I have a thrilling trip to Saino's to do the weekly shop today, but I hope that later on my Mojo and I can get together over a brew and make a card!!! It's time for another challenge at The Squirrel and the Fox! Where has the last fortnight gone??!! Our challenge this time is Something Spooled - that means you can use anything that comes wrapped around a spool or whatever - Ribbon,lace, twine, string - anything like that! Our amazing sponsor is the fantastic Make It Crafty and a very lucky winner will have $Aus10 to spend at Zoe's fabulous online store! Can you tell that I'm a big fan?! I decorated a tin that used to contain peppermint sweets, using a gorgeous MiC image on the lid: And here's a side view: I used Promarkers to colour Rosabelle and fussy cut her out. I stickled the roses, and added a bit of Glossy Accents to her jewels. The paper on the top and round the tin are from the 'Fairy Belle' 6 ...

Good morning! One of the most interesting things for me about being on a DT for The Squirrel and the Fox , which is an Australian Challenge Blog, is how I now comprehend how the seasons are reversed between here and Down Under. Yes, I knew it intellectually before, but now I can experience it via the Internet. While we are (supposedly) heading into Summer, Down Under it's Autumn, heading into Winter. I hope your weather is better than our cold and grey Spring, chaps! *waves to Aussie friends* Our new Challenge is Winter or Spring and we have the fabulous Saturated Canary as our Sponsor! The amazing prize for one lucky winner is 2 - yes, TWO! - digis! I wish I could enter - though to be honest I have a mahoosive file on my laptop of SC images already!!! This card is made with one of them, this is Picnic and she really speaks to me of Summer with her picnic basket full of goodies to eat and a blanket to sit on! The papers are an old My Mind's Eye set called 'Bloom a...

Good evening, all! Thank you for your kind words last week when my daughter had a hospital appointment. Unfortunately she has been diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma, which is a type of cancer that often attacks people in their 20s and 30s - but it has been caught early, and the prognosis is very good! There's a 90% chance of a complete cure. The next 6 months will be tough, as she must have chemotherapy once a fortnight, but she is determined to make the best of things. It helps that she has very good friends - and so do I, including you guys! The ribbon for the disease is coloured violet, so I hunted through my snippets box for purple papers, which I distressed with Dusty Concord Distress Ink, to make this card for her. The gorgeous image is one of Krista Smith's amazing artworks: this one is an older digi called 'Chasing Butterflies' but I can't find her in Krista's shop. I coloured her in Promarkers, using the wonderful thin nibs, and the list is be...

Good morning, lovely bloggers! I'm scheduling this post, because when you read it I will be at the Alexandra Palace, at the Big Stamp and Scrapbooking Show! I've been saving up for this ever since Christmas! Here is my second card as Guest Designer for My Time to Craft . (I am still so excited to be their GDT! :)) The theme this week is 'Up In The Air' - your focal point should be something that flits through the air, like a butterfly or aeroplane or airship or - a balloon! I've used another Woodware image from the Patch A Flight set. I love the Woodware patchwork images, they'd be ideal for paper piecing with those little snippets that I can't help saving! This one was coloured with Promarkers, however. The papers were free with 'Quick Cards Made Easy' magazine last year. I used a Martha Stewart punch on the green mat of the horizontal row, and tiny silver pearls from my stash. The sentiment came with the stamp set. The white card has been ...

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...

Afternoon, all! There's another challenge at Dream Valley and since it's February (already! Who stole January??) we're looking forward to the most romantic day of the year - St Valentine's Day! We are sponsored this fortnight by the wonderful Meljen who very generously let the DT use some of her fabulous designs! One lucky winner of this challenge will be able to choose FOUR digis from her shop! Isn't this a fun image for a Valentine card? Actually, my first two cards went in the bin because the layouts looked all wrong, then I decided to go for a semi-circle (to echo the round apple - oo gosh how arty!) and it worked! It's all part of the learning curve! I used Grand Nesties and the base is made from pearlised card from Craft Creations The green paper, which you can't really see, was a magazine freebie. The heart is a die by Cheery Lynn, the flowers are Wild Orchid. Simples - eventually! Go and have a look at the fab, romantic creations by m...

Hi, guys! Sorry I haven't been around a lot lately, I am having a Grand Tidy Up of the WHOLE HOUSE and it's taking forever! Honestly, the amount of JUNK one collects over 25 years is astonishing! Thank goodness I can listen to my iPod and dance around! However, I've made time to make this card for my daughter's friend who's getting married next month. Her colour scheme is green, so I used papers from the DCWV 'Mariposa' stack, which are lovely! The image is LotV, of course, coloured with Promarkers, and I stickled parts of her dress, and also around the edge of the image. I used a Martha Stewart Hearts punch as a background for the green ribbon (from Hobbycrafts). The flowers are Wild Orchid, mostly, and the leaves were cut with a Magnolia die. Here's the inside, the wheel-shapes were cut with a MS Deep edger punch - an idea I got from a card by Bev Rochester on the Lili of the Valley 'Inspiration' section. I could spend hours browsing all the ...

My Goddaughter has graduated from the University of Kent at Canterbury! It's no time since she was a baby yelling at the Vicar at her Baptism... The colours, yellow and silver, are the colours on her hood. The gorgeous Hedgie is Penny Black, of course, from Craftsulove coloured with Promarkers. I'm entering the Penny Black Saturday Challenge Papers are Papermania Rich Yellows stack, which I've had for an age, and the backing card is silver, from my local shop. Flowers and that fab crystal stud are Prima, from stash, I've used a Martha Stewart border punch, and the candy is a pressie from my daughter, from Paperchase. Sorry I haven't been around: it was my birthday last week and I got lots of loverly crafty stuff, and I've spent too much time playing and following the cricket, and not enough blogging or doing the dreaded housework! I'll have more cards to show you this week, promise! Thanks for looking! luv, Mags x Recipe: Penny Black Slapstick Stamps 'A...