Madcap Manor

Good morning! I hope you are all keeping well. If you wear spectacles, do you find that they fog up a bit when you're wearing a mask? I haven't yet found a way to stop that, but it's only a minor inconvenience, really! Now to our new challenge at The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge and I have once more delved into my old stash for my card. The digi image is no longer available, it came from Stitchy Bear, which is now closed. I coloured the lantern with copics and added Spectrum Noir Shimmer around the candle. The paper came free with a magazine long ago, and the gems are from my stash. I didn't have room for a sentiment! I'm enjoying rooting around in my files, finding printed digis that I had forgotten about. I aim to use them all up before starting again! It makes me feel very prudent and frugal to use up my stash like this, though I apologise if you see something you like that's now unobtainable - sorry! My teamies have made some lovely inspiratio...

Hi, guys! It's time for another CRAFT Challenge and this week it's our regular Christmas theme. Our sponsor is Stitchy Bear and I used this lovely Holly Bough It's a 5" x 7" card. The papers are all from LotV's Classic Christmas paper pad. I layered them on red and gold cardstock for some festive bling. The sentiment is by Clearly Besotted. I added Wink of Stella to the bow, and Glossy Accents to the berries. Go and be inspired by my teamies' Chrimbo Creations! Thanks for looking! love Mags B x

Good morning! It's Christmas at CRAFT Challenge this week! We have two ace sponsors: Stitchy Bear Stamps Yours or Mine Papercrafts I used a lovely Christmas Lamp digi by Floppy Latte Designs for Stitchy Bear. I coloured the image with Copics and added Glossy Accents to the berries, silver Wink of Stella to the knob on top of the lamp, and clear WoS to the candle flame. The ribbon, paper and sentiment are all from stash. I used a Martha Stewart Snowflake Punch Around the Page set for the border. Go and be inspired by what my teamies have made, and join in! I'm going to be listening to the Cricket today! Come on, England! Thanks for looking, and have a great day! love Mags B x

Our new challenge at C.R.A.F.T Challenge is a topical one - Valentine or Love . this cute digi is Country Hearts designed by Floppy Latte for Stitchy Bear Stamps. I embossed the card front before adding the image, which is coloured with Promarkers. The image is edged with papers cut with a Fiskars Bubbles punch. The sentiment is by Paper Smooches, and I used a matching die to cut out the banner. Finally, I went over the hearts with a Wink of Stella pen. Our Sponsors: 1 Stitchy Bear Stamps have a $10 voucher as a prize Please note that now if you are in the EU and want to buy a digi from them there is a new system in place, because of the new EU VAT laws for digi downloads. Like so many other very small businesses, Stitchy Bear have had to change their methods and send purchases by e-mail, but it's well worth the wait! At least they are still in business, thank goodness! 2 Yours or Mine Papercrafts also have a $10 voucher as a prize. Have a look at my teamies...

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...

Lime, Yellow and Orange! Aren't these just gorgeous?! We had such a lot of lovely creations for our 'Distressing' Challenge last time! It's so inspiring to see so many different variations on the theme! This fortnight we're sponsored by The prize for a very lucky winner is a $10 voucher for their store. The DT was lucky enough to have some wonderful images to work with - hop over to Dream Valley and have a look at my teamies' wonderful creations! I have used Fairy Moon one of the lovely silhouette digistamps. I immediately thought of the posters by Jan Pienkowski that everyone had on their walls when I was at Uni: amazingly detailed fantasy silhouettes on backgrounds of swirling colour. So I had a go with Distress Inks (in Spiced Marmalade, Peeled Paint and Wild Honey) and my mini-mister, following Tim Holtz's Youtube tutorial here . I printed the image over the top of the coloured card and cut her out with a Nestie circle die. ...

We had loads of fantastic creations for the last Challenge at Dream Valley , thank you everyone who joined in! This fortnight's Challenge is nice and topical - it's 'Easter'. You don't have to make a card - an ATC or tag or Easter bonnet or jewellery or a box or... Wherever your mojo takes you, really! Our sponsors are the fab Stitchy Bear Stamps and the prize is a $10.00 voucher to spend in their shop. "Hi my name is Stitchy and I am Co-Owner of Stitchy Bear Stamps...we started this store April 1st, No Fooling haha..I live in upstate New York with my husband and two TEENAGE adults haha, I do say that loosely as they think they run the show here, NOT... I been creating stamps for a little less than a year now and I am totally addicted to the craft..I started about 4 years ago making digital scraps and I knew there was much more out there, so a friend of mine introduced me to digital stamps...and the rest they say is history...I look forward to seeing all the b...