Madcap Manor

  Hello, my dearios! I hope you are all keeping well. It's a grey, chilly day here in S-E Hertfordshire: winter is definitely on its way! But to cheer us all up there's a new Challenge at The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge !   I used a very, very old Stampendous stamp which is long out of print for my card.  (In fact, everything on the card, from the LotV papers to the image and sentiment are old!) O gold-embossed the Christmas tree and added tiny gems to the centres of the snowflakes.  I used a corner rounder on the image piece and the glitter mat. This really sparkles! Go and see what my teamies have been up to and join in the fun! Thanks for looking, and take care! love Mags B x

This is the last challenge of the year at Dream Valley and it will be open until 16th January! The theme is Christmas We have several amazing sponsors: Doctor Digi's House of Stamps Robyn's Fetish The Hobby House Pop over to the Dream Valley blog to see the great prizes on offer! Sadly, I wasn't able to use a sponsor image this time, as my dear old printer decided to chew up whatever card was fed into it. That kind of thing always happens t the most inconvenient time, doesn't it? So I went with a very old Stampendous stamp and some gold embossing. I layered the image onto some gold card from my stash, leaving a border on each side. The photo doesn't do the gold justice! Thanks for looking, and I hope your Christmas preparations are going well! love Mags B x

Evening, all! I hope you are enjoying calmer weather now, we have seen two days' sunshine in a row for the first time in ages! What a difference it makes! Sadly, I have had to make a sympathy card. They are so hard to make. I used a Stampendous stamp called 'Agapanthus Cluster.' I stamped it in Chipped Sapphire Distress Ink and dabbed it while the ink was still wet with Turquoise Perfect pearls, then misted it with water to set the Perfect Pearls. There's a lovely sheen when the light catches it. I can't remember where I got the coloured base card, it's been in my stash for several years! The ribbon is from Hobbycraft. The sentiment is also from Hobbycraft: it's a clear stamp and I carefully cut the words apart so that they would fit on the banner, which is from the Lawn Fawn 'Bannerific' stamp set. I added shading with a Weathered Wood Distress Marker. I hope you are all keeping well. There seem to be a lot of cold and flu bugs going around...

Evening, all! I hope you're all keeping well. We have had glorious sunshine for several days in a row, it's wonderful! My nephew was married on Saturday, so I can at last share the card I made for him and his lovely missus. The delicate, romantic image is by Whiff of Joy and I used Promarkers, with the fine pen nibs, to colour it. The hearts have Glossy Accents on them, and the centres of the blue flowers and the bride's tiara have been stickled in gold. I used gorgeous Spellbinders Decorative Labels Twenty Two, in pink and purple, to mat the image and also some very pretty paper from Pink Petticoat's Vintage Rose Collection . The label is another Spellbinders die, from the Parisian Motifs set, and the sentiment is by Stampendous. I tied a triple bow with ribbon from my stash and added a very sparkly sequinned flower. The gorgeous 3D butterfly stickers are by K & Co. I really enjoyed making this, I love creating something special for friends and family! ...

Good evening! It's been a busy day today, the most important event was when we (well, my Olde Manne) fired up the new Flymo (which we struggled yesterday to put together with much study of the instructions and helpless giggling.) It worked! Hallelujah!!! I love the fresh smell of cut grass. Well, it's July, and my sister's birthday happens on Friday. I'm very pleased with myself for wrapping and posting her presents in good time, usually it takes me by surprise and I have to apologise for being late! My sister teaches music (piano and flute) and I decided to make her a picture. The gold frame came from a charity shop, it's really pretty! I stamped and embossed the lady at the piano and the chandelier, both by Stampendous, using Versamark ink and Detail Black embossing powder. Then I sprayed Ranger Colorwash onto my craft sheet and used it to paint my background with up-and-down strokes. The Stampendous music background was stamped with Salty Ocean Distress ...

Good morning! I'm so sorry I've been MIA recently, my baby girl had her first chemo session last week which rather knocked the stuffing out of her, but luckily by her birthday on Sunday she was feeling much better. I call her my baby girl, but she's just turned 27! It doesn't seem possible! I have been crafting, I just haven't had time to blog! So today I have abandoned the washing-up in favour of writing this post, and I have 2 cards to share. First is my daughter's birthday card. The technique comes from This video tutorial by Christina Griffiths. To make the base I used a Spellbinders die and pearlised cardstock from Craft Creations . I used all the dies in the set, alternting blue and white card, and distressed the white pieces while in the die with Broken China Distress Ink. The sentiment from LotV is stamped in the same ink. I added a white organza double bow, and pearls in the corners. The most difficult aspect was getting the card out of the dies...

Yes, it's me again! After the shenanigans on Tuesday with the power cut I was looking forward to some quiet crafting time yesterday - and the washing machine decided to die! We've had it for seven years and it's been used daily, so it has served us well - but I was not happy when it flooded my kitchen floor! On the plus side, my kitchen floor is clean and sparkly. On the minus side, I had to haul sopping wett clothes to the bath and get rid of the water the old-fashioned way. Reader, I trampled them. It's a bit like crushing grapes for wine, without the delicious alcoholic result. After that I spent the evening with my Kindle. If any of you like Paranormal Romance/Urban Fantasy/ Vampires, try Karen Chance's books. Sexy vampires, kick-bottom heroines, and a fair dose of slapstick humour, too! Amazon has an anthology of the first 4 books of the  'Cassie Palmer' series in their Kindle store. The first book in the series is 'Touch the Dark.' But yo...