Madcap Manor

  Hiya! We have a challenging Challenge at My Time to Craft but it's actually easier than it sounds! Think of how your garden is marked out - maybe it's a trellis supporting climbing plants, or a stone wall or a fence or a hedge or maybe there's an arch shading the path to your front door.  Or maybe there's a field nearby full of horses or cows that's surrounded by a wood or wire fence.  Any of those can be inspirational, whether for a scene with animals or a row of flowers. I admit, it took me a lot of thought, but I have one stamp that shows a fence and one die that cuts one.  The first card is naturalistic, using a Penny Black stamp of a winter scene. I used a Kaleidoscope ink pad in various shades of blue which is darker at one end and lighter at the other.  Blending inks directly on the stamp would give the same effect.  You can just see the line of the fence between the groups of trees.  The sentiment is by Taylored Expressions. The second card ...

  It's another Christmas card! Yes, we have a new Challenge at My Time to Craft Christmas and our theme is Plaid or Gingham. I love Plaid (aka Tartan) on Christmas cards, it makes me think of a snuggly warm rug that I can wrap myself in when the weather is cold! I have once again made a 5 x 7 inch card, and I have also used older items from my stash - it was a New Year's Resolution to USE MY STUFF but I still have so much left that I suspect I'll be making the same Resolution for the next five years! The background tartan paper came from an old pad by First Edition, it has a lovely canvas texture.  The adorable image is by Elisabeth Bell from the late, lamented 'Whiff of Joy' shop, and I coloured her with Copics and added Diamond Stickles to the fur trim on her coat. I layered the image and the paper on red and then gold Mirri card. I used some holographic gold peel-offs from Love from Lizi along the edges of the green paper and the stars in the corners are also so...

Oops! I'm so sorry, I'm late with my DT post for The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge. I was so convinced that yesterday was Monday! The trouble with self-isolating is that there is so little to distinguish one day from another! I said to my hubby this morning 'Is it Wednesday today?' He just looked at me and said dryly, 'All day.' Anyway, it's high time I showed you my card for this week's challenge! The cute Santa is an old stamp from Whiff of Joy, and I coloured him in Promarkers. I added White Blizzard Nuvo Drops to the trim on his outfit, and little blobs of red ones to the holly berries on his hat. The papers are snippets from the scrap drawer, and the narrow strip is foiled. I edged it with Red Glitter Peel-offs by Love from Lizi. The sentiment is from an old stamp by Clearly Besotted. As usual my talented teamies have some gorgeous creations on the Challenge blog, go and see! Thanks for looking, and take care. love Mags B x

Good morning, all! I hope you're looking forward to a great weekend! Q: What did Big Ben say to the Leaning Tower of Pisa? A: I've got the time if you've got the inclination! (From Timekeepers by Simon Garfield.) Our new Challenge at My Time to Craft is Christmas in July. Yes, another Christmas card - I've been making quite a few recently, and it's always satisfying to see the pile of Christmas cards growing taller! Recently I have been going through my older stamps and came across some cuties from the much-missed Whiff of Joy. This is one of the adorable Gnome stamps by Norma Fickel, it's Wee with Christmas Tree. I added Glossy Accents to the star and Xmas red stickles to the baubles. I cut out the image with a Spellbinders Labels Fourteen die and before removing the edges I distressed the edge with Tea Die Distress Ink. The snowflakes were cut from silver glitter card with another Spellbinders die which is positively ancient!! The papers ...

Good morning! There's Exciting News this morning - a brand new Challenge blog! The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge is a fortnightly Tuesday Challenge, whose theme is Christmas and always Anything Goes! I'm on the Design Team!! For my first card I have used an old Whiff of Joy rubber stamp, Willow with Candle. It's by the talented Elisabeth Bell: many of her images are now available as digis from Elisabeth Bell , but unfortunately not this one. Please read the terms and conditions very carefully. Here is my card: I layered some old Christmas paper on gold and green card, and cut the Spellbinders die from the same gold card. The poinsettia is an old Marianne die, I embossed it and rubbed some Nuvo Embellishing Mouse over the raised veins. The holly leaves are also an old Marianne die, cut from a scrap of pearlised green card. The gold-embossed sentiment is by Altenew. I added gold-coloured gems from my stash. This year I am determined not to spend the ...

Good afternoon, all! I hope you're all feeling good after a relaxing weekend! Our Challenge at Dream Valley is nice and straightforward - All About Birthdays . You can make anything as long as it's birthday-themed! Our sponsor this fortnight is the awesome Dies to Die For . Tracy is offering a £15.00 voucher to a lucky winner! For my card I used an old stamp by Elisabeth Bell for the sadly now closed Whiff of Joy. This is Willow Dancing. The papers are also very old! The ribbon came with a box of soaps at Christmas, it still smells lovely! Go and be inspired by my teamies' creations, and then join in! Thanks for looking! love Mags B x

We had good news yesterday: my daughter has been over from Ireland to have her regular blood tests to check that she's still in remission from the cancer she had in 2013. Not only is she still clear, she now only needs to be checked every 6 months instead of every 4 months! Yay!!! Now it's Thursday again, and October! I swear there are fewer hours in the day than when I were a kiddiewink, it's the only explanation for why time seems to evaporate! But Thursdays are good, because Thursday means another fab Challenge at C.R.A.F.T Challenge and this time we have a terrific sketch designed for you by Jo . (Check out her blog for a recipe for Dutch Apple Pie! Yum!) Our fab sponsors: Great Impressions and for the Top Three: Sunsational Stamps And now my card - another Christmas card! (I'm so impressed with myself for getting on with them!) I used Willow With Christmas Candle from the sadly-missed Whiff of Joy. I used a Spellbinders die to cut the blue m...

My Time to Craft! is going fortnightly just for the summer, so you have more time to join in with our Challenges! This week it's Christmas in July , which gives you a chance to get on with any cards, decorations or gifts that you intend to make for Christmas! I went with a card: The image is an old stamp from Whiff of Joy which sadly is closing down soon. I used a Spellbinders Labels 2 to cut out the image, then drew around the die and cut it by hand to make the narrow mat. The papers and sentiment are from my stash of magazine freebies collected over the years, and the ribbon came from Pinflair in Hertford, just up the road from where I live. The cluster of holly leaves was cut with a Marianne Holly Branches die, with gems for the berries and some green stickles on the leaves. Go and see the cool creations that my teamies have made, they will inspire you to reach for your Christmas stash! Thanks for looking! love Mags B x

Evening, all! I hope you're all well! I have spent some time in ye olde craft hovel today, and I've made another Santa card! This is my second-favourite Santa image, after the Penny Black one that I used for yesterday's My Time to Craft Challenge. He is an old stamp from Whiff of Joy and he seems to have been discontinued, sadly. He is such a cheery chappie! I'm sorry about the photo, irl the colours are brighter - and there's lots of glitter! I coloured Santa with Promarkers and stickled all the fur trim on his outfit. The mats were cut with Spellbinders dies. I thought the white mat looked dull, so I stamped some Whiff of Joy Christmas Swirls with Tea Dye DI and stickled them. The papers are from Hobbycraft. I used a Martha Stewart Star border punch along the horizontal piece. The little snowflakes are made with a Martha Stewart PATP corner punch, they are stickled and have gems in the middle. The sentiment is by Lili of the Valley. Now I need to say ...

For my DT card for The Squirrel and the Fox please scroll down to the previous post. Ta. Hello again! Apologies for being late with this post, too! Now that I'm a Deputy Church Warden (no need to salute lol!) Sunday mornings can be quite busy! I should have remembered to schedule today's posts. Sorry!!! Anyway, enough of my twaddle! The new Challenge at Dream Valley is to use a Tag on your creation. Our sponsor is Lacy Sunshine Stamps and a winner can choose 3 of their gorgeous images from the store! Go and see what my teamies have done with the lovely images they were given! And here is my card: The alert among you (ie everyone) will notice that I didn't use a digi image. My printer isn't speaking to my laptop for some reason, and refuses to produce anything but blank sheets of paper. (Or maybe it's pictures of a white horse in a blizzard? No, I don't think so, either.) There are three tags on the card, they are made with a Whiff of Joy die, the...

For the new challenge at The Squirrel and the Fox please scroll down to the previous post. Thanks! Hello again, my dearios! We have another challenge at Dream Valley and this time it's No Designer Paper. Our lovely sponsor is Freckled Fawn who are offering a $20 voucher to spend at their store! You really have to go there and drool over their fabulous washi tape!! Well, I don't know about you, but I found this challenge quite hard - every idea I had needed to be revised! It's not just that I couldn't use dp to mat and layer, I couldn't use it for embellishments or paper piecing, either! Thank goodness for embossing folders! I used a Cuttlebug Tiny Hearts folder to emboss the background, then went over it lightly with Worn Lipstick Distress Ink. I cut the 2 hearts with an X-cut die. Henry Mouse hugging Heart is a stamp from Whiff of Joy and I used Promarkers to colour him. (List below.) The heart has been Glossy Accented. I fussy cut him and added him w...

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, 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! It's a gorgeous autumn day and the sun is shining, so of course I'm tackling my list of Christmas cards! This was quite quick to make, apart from easing the snowflakes out of the Whiff of Joy die! The background is by Kanban, the colour is shaded from dark to light and as you can see there are little bits of silver here and there. The 3 snowflakes have been Glamour Dusted thoroughly (though it isn't showing brilliantly, I blame the photographer!) and held together with a Papermania gem brad which was originally clear so I coloured it with a Sapphire Flexmarker. The sentiment came free with a magazine last year. I'll be making more of these! But first I must clear my craft hovel - I'm sure there's a carpet somewhere under the boxes of crafty stuff! I'm entering this to the Cute Card Thursday Challenge as their theme is 'Glitter.' I'm also entering Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge as Hazel want to see Snowflakes! Th...

If you're looking for The Squirrel and the Fox bloghop please click here This gorgeous image is Willow with Candle by Whiff of Joy - she was candy from the lovely Kat! I coloured her with Promarkers - what a boon the fine nibs are for tiny areas! The holly leaves are cut with a Whiff of Joy die and have been Glossy Accented, though they don't really show here, and the berries have been stickled. The bells have a faint wash of gold liquid pearls. I used a Nestie to cut her out and did the draw-round-the-die-and-cut-out trick to give the narrow mat. The red pearlescent card and the papers are Papermania, the bp is from the A Silent Night stack - they are so fabulous! The ribbon is from stash, the double bow is made with a Bow-Easy from Quixotic Paperie The holly leaves are a Whiff of Joy die. The flowers are Wild Orchid, the glitter is Glamour Dust. Here's an inside shot, also with the papers from 'A Silent Night' The tags are Lili of the Valley. I...

Well, after yesterday's debacle I made certain that I posted this picture! The weather has been so cold and damp today! I've had the heating on - in June! Can you believe it! Anyway, this wintry card and the Whiff of Joy image, 'Willow with Hot Chocolate,' seems appropriate. Brrrr! I used Nitwits papers from the 'Joyful Hearts' and 'Still Joyful Hearts' collections, they are such a pretty blue. The doily is a Marianne die, and the label is from Spellbinders' Floral Doily Accents set. I added icicle stickles to both die-cuts. Willow is coloured in Promarkers and her mug is Glossy Accented. The sentiment is by Lili of the Valley, stamped in Broken China Distress Ink. I also distressed the edges of the papers with Broken China. The gorgeous lace is from The Ribbon Girl . The stars are from stash. I'm entering three challenges: Whiff of Joy Challenge which provided the great sketch; and The Ribbon Girl Challenge which is to use lace ...

Evening, all, I hope you're well. It's been a SCORCHIO! day - summer is here! Hooray! Unfortunately a dear friend is confined indoors recovering from an operation, but I hope this Whiff of Joy image will cheer her up. I used Spectrum Noirs to colour her. I'm a bit annoyed, because when I pulled the lid off the green pen to do the final colouring the whole nib came off and the inner tube went flying across my desk! Splodges all over my papers! Luckily none landed on the image, but I had to cut her out instead of using a Nestie. So I shall be a lot more careful with these pens in future. I'm just glad no ink landed on my background papers, which are from the first Nitwits download I ever bought, eighteen months ago, called 'Cherry Blossom. The flowers are Wild Orchid Crafts and the metal spray is from stash. The gold corners are Whiff of Joy, and so is the sentiment. I put Glossy Accents on the potion bottles. I coloured some white seam binding with Spun Sug...

Evening, all! I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while, it's been quite manic here but Ye Olde Manne and I have finally arranged a weekend away in Shropshire to visit our granddaughter. I can't wait! Unfortunately a good friend hasn't been well, so I've made her a 'cheer you up' card.  I was originally going to enter last week's challenge at Whiff of Joy which was for paper piecing, but I was unexpectedly out today and missed the boat. I used Willow with Sunhat and she's on clearance sale at the mo, so if you like her, get in quick! I like paper piecing, it can be fiddly, but I find it relaxing when in front of the tv. I used MME papers that were free last year - or maybe the year before?  I cut out her dress and hat and then glued the scarf and apron over the top, that's a bit easier than cutting out bits that have to be put together like a jigsaw! The rest is coloured with Promarkers and the flowers are 'stickled pink'. (lol...

Good morning, all! I hope those of you who have had snow aren't too discommoded! Massive apologies for the lateness of this post! We've had internet problems - so frustrating! But here I am at last for this fortnight's Dream Valley Challenge and our theme is Weddings or Love. There's a special reason for this, Mel, one of our lovely teamies got married at the weekend! Our lovely regular sponsor One Stop Card Crafts is offering a £10 voucher for the lucky winner! Now for the card: The image is by Whiff of Joy I think it's so romantic! I used stamps from their 'Christmas Swirls' collection to make an arch effect, using Broken China Distress Ink and stickles. There are more stickles on the yellow trim, and Glossy Accents on the hearts. The pretty paper is by Kate Knight, a freebie from a mag. Gems and lace are from stash. I forgot to list the Promarkers used before I put them all away - slapped wrist! Do have a look at the DT's creations, Mel (the Bride!...