Madcap Manor

Good morning, all, from a sunny and chilly S-E Herts! I hope you all had a lovely Christmas! Ours was quiet, mainly because we were both going down with colds!! Now things are getting back to normal, and we have our last CRAFT Challenge of 2017, which is Anything Goes. I have made a birthday card for an old friend, using one of Bugaboo Stamp's fun images. This is Gus Birthday - Golden Years. The sentiment reads 'If these are the Golden Years, I am NOT impressed!' The papers are from stash and I used an MFT Vintage Buttons die (sadly unavailable) and some blue Centura Pearl cardstock for the embellishments. Our fab sponsors: Digital Delights and Bugaboo Stamps My teamies have left some great inspiration on the Blog, do go and see! Thanks for looking! Wishing you all the best for a happy and healthy and crafty 2018! love, Mags B x

Afternoon, all! Once again I apologise for any typos, I am still using the elderly laptop with the dodgy keyboard! At The Squirrel and the Fox we are being especially challenging this time - make a card for a bloke! So put away the ribbons and lace and flowers, you won't need 'em!! Our sponsor is the fabulous Sweet'n'Sassy Stamps who are offering a lucky winner 3 free digis from their store! The DT have used some of their gorgeous images: this one is the Lighthouse digi stamp. It is perfect for my brother's birthday later this month, as he and his family like to go sailing. I used some cloud patterned paper from stash for the background, then cut out an island shape in brown spotted paper. The image is coloured in Promarkers, with lots of gold glitter on the lamp,hallenge! and I cut it out and added it with foam pads for dimension. The 'sea' is torn strips of patterned blue paper, with stickles along the white edges, which is sparkly in real l...

For my bloghop post please click here Good morning! It's time for another Challenge at The Squirrel and the Fox - where has the last fortnight gone?! This time the theme is 'Things With Wheels' and our wonderful sponsor is Bugaboo who are offering 7 digis to one lucky winner! Gus is one of my favourite Bugaboo characters, and here he is on a child's ride! I love the sentiment, which came with the image. I had to colour the toy car in British Racing Green, because my hubby's first car was that colour. I used Promarkers (the list is below). I Glossy Accented the car and Gus's spectacles and added green stickles to his party hat. I used a Nestabilities Deckle Rectangle die to cut him out. The papers are K and Co 'Hopscotch' I think the paper with the old-fashioned toys on it is so sweet! Here's the inside view, also using papers from the same pad: The chevron striped ribbon is from The Ribbon Girl . I used black half-pearls from my s...

I am waiting up for my daughter to return from a weekend away, since she doesn't have her keys! So I thought I'd post this card now, especially since next week looks quite busy again! This is for my brother, who in spite of living slap bang in the middle of the country (Derby) took up sailing 5 years ago! The cute image is LotV. Unfortunately I forgot to write down the Promarkers I used - sorry, chaps! The papers are Nitwits from my snippets box. The shiny stickers are Paperchase. The twine is from The Ribbon Girl. eta I'm entering Pixie's Snippets Challenge after too long a time away from the Playground! And that knock on the door is my daughter! I'll love you and leave you, my dearios, and hopefully see you again soon! Take care! love Mags B x

Afternoon, all! It's time for another Dream Valley Challenge! This time we'd like to see something for a special man or boy in your life. We have two sponsors this time: one lucky person will win a £10.00 gift voucher from One Stop Card Crafts A second lucky person will win 4 images of their choice from Sassy Studios I made a card for my daughter to give my hubby for Father's Day. The inspiration comes from Rubber Stamping by Kim Reygate which was one of the books that got me into cardmaking. Anyone who has read the book or visited her blog will recognise the technique of embossing and sponging on the torn paper. I used a background stamp by Great Impressions which I think came from Sir Stampalot and stamped on white card with embossing ink, then covered it with glitter embossing powder. A wave of the heat gun and a Harry Potter chant of 'Meltiamus!' and there was the white-on-white pattern. Next came the fun bit, sponging Distress Inks (Peeled ...

As you can see, my first attempt a scheduling a post didn't work! Apologies for being late with this fortnight's Dream Valley card. Hi guys! I hope you're all enjoying lots of lovely sunshine! Once again it's time for another challenge at Dream Valley ! The last challenge was quite tricky, but this time we have a lovely simple one - HUMOUR We have two wonderful sponsors this time each with a fab prize: Bugaboo is offering $21 to spend on their gorgeous images and there's a £10 voucher on offer from Crafty Emma's Store Jodie very kindly let the DT have some of her fab fun images - I used one of her wonderful drawings of Gus , who always makes me smile. I love the sentiments that come with the images, too! The papers are from the 'Togetherness' stack by Cosmo Cricket. I distressed the edges with Antique Linen Distress Ink (it seemed the most appropriate choice!) I used a Woodware corner punch to give a bit of interest. The ribbon and shell...

Oh dear, it's raining again! Of course today's the day my daughter decides to do loads of washing, both clotheshorses are groaning under a weight of wet washing!! Today's card is for our Church Administrator, who retired on Thursday. He was always wonderful when I forgot my keys to open up the hall where we hold our Toddler Groups! He was even more wonderful this week when I dropped my keys down the grate covering the Church hot air heating system! My middle name really should be 'Plonker!!!' I got out my dies for this one. The base, circles and scallops were all cut with either Grand or ordinary Nesties and layered together. I used oddments of card and also a scrap of spotty paper from Nitwits. The sentiment is from a set by The Greeting Farm, and the cute duck was a freebie many moons ago when I was starting carding and came with one of those 'Let's Make Cards' packs.  It's going to be my second blogaversary in May (where does the time g...

Look who's sponsoring Dream Valley Challenges this fortnight! It's Bugaboo Digi Stamps ! A lucky winner will get $21 to spend in their online store! So get crafting your card, layout, altered item - whatever strikes your fancy as long as it follows the theme Just For Men If anyone wants to 'try before you buy' there's always a 'Friday Freebie' available on the Bugaboo website, too. Here's what I did. This groovy dude has been hanging about on my laptop for quite a while - isn't he cute (in a totally Goth way, man!)? I used the current sketch at Sketch and Stash and used papers from a Bo Bunny pad, called 'Blast Off' that I got last year. The stars were cut from a scrap of holographic gold card using an X-Cut die. I also used my faithful old Martha Stewart zig-zag punch. The ribbon and gems are from stash I'm trying very hard to use up my stash and not buy anything new - I haven't any room for anything new!!!! I can't list the S...

...and what did we see, we saw the sea!' Morning, all! My, it's a cold, grey day today! I hope you're all keeping warm! Just a quick post to show an experiment I did yesterday. I masked the stamps (Woodware) to make the smaller ships look as if they're just coming into view, and to add the waves. I used Faded Jeans Distress Ink, and also some shimmer paints that came free with a mag last year, in green, gold and blue. They shine quite nicely when the light catches them, but of course the camera doesn't pick it up! The sky has some more ink sponged here and there to give an effect of blue sky and scudding clouds. The frame is silver glitter paper cut with a Nestie with the middle cut out, the sentiment is a peel-off. Not the most sophisticated or elegant effort, but I had fun! I'm going to enter the Deep Ocean Challenge whose theme is 'Light Blue' Thanks for looking, and have a good day! luv, Mags x