Our Final Blog Project of 2011!

Hello and welcome to our final blog project of 2011 which, appropriately, is a great desktop calendar made by Heike:

And here's what you'll need to make this project:

Little Claire "Oh Man" stamp set

smooth white card stock

textured cardstock in white, turquoise and black

circle and scalloped circle cutting dies

Tuxedo Black Memento ink pad

Promarkers - Dusky Pink, Tea Green, Cool Aqua, Turquoise, Khaki, Burnt Sienna, Umber, Ice Grey 1, Cool Grey 3, Cool Grey 5, black

black Card Candi

2012 calendar tab

Velco

adhesive (including 3D foam)

die cutting machine

corner rounder

toolbox essentials

And here's what you need to do:

1. Take a piece of white textured cardstock measuring 12.5cm by 25cm.  Fold in half to create a 12.5cm square then fold the front in half again.  Round the corners of the square section:

2. Cut a piece of white textured cardstock measuring 12.5cm by 12.5cm, round the top corners and attach to the front:

3. Cut a black 11.5cm square and a square measuring 11.1cm from the turquoise cardstock.   Round the bottom corners and mount on to the bottom of the calendar:

4. Trim a piece of black cardstock to 11.5cm by 6cm and a piece of turquoise cardstock to 11.1cm by 5.6cm.  Mount on to each other and attach to the card front:

5. Cut a circle out of smooth white cardstock and stamp the image on to it:

6. Colour in the image using Promarkers.  Mat on to a black scalloped circle:

7. Stamp the sentiment on to a 7cm by 1.5cm piece of smooth white cardstock.  Mat on to turquoise cardstock (7.4cm by 1.8cm) and black cardstock (7.8cm by 2cm).

8. Cut a piece of black cardstock that is 0.4cm wider that your calendar tab and twice the height of the calendar tab plus 0.8cm (Heike used a calendar tab measuring 7.4cm by 4.7cm so she cut the blakc cardstock to 7.8cm by 10.2cm).  Fold in half, crease well and stick on to the bottom of the calendar.  Attach the calendar tab with Velcro (this makes it easier to exchange the tab year after year):

9. Attach the image to the front of the calendar using 3D foam.  Add the sentiment and two pieces of Card Candi:

10. Finish off by arranging the Card Candi next to the calendar tab:

We hope you've enjoyed the blog projects brought to you by the Design Team during the past year - we've got lots more planned for the New Year so make sure you check the blog every week for a new project! 

We'd love to hear what you think of this week's project too!

Looking back.....

With the New Year fast approaching, we thought that we would take a look back on a selection of cards from 2011:

Butterfly Tree designed by Helen Nile

First-off is a lovely card made using our ever popular Butterfly Tree set, this card features the main Butterfly Tree image from the set of 9 stamps....

Catapult Bert, designed by Georgina Sweetenham

Our recent launch of our 6 'Cutie Patooties' saw some gorgeous cards coming through from our DT's and this card featuing Bert & his catapult is just one example of many lovelies!......

Elephants in Squares, designed by Donna Moseley

Here's a card that you may remember made using our 'Elephants in Squares' design, such a lovely stamp with many possibilities, hope you can see on the pic how Donna has decoupaged the elephants and look at the little bow for his tail, aaaaaw!!....

Great Outdoors, designed by Louise Hall

Do you remembere our 'Great Outdoors' set? This was released earlier in the year and is so handy for all those who love the great outdoors!  We like the way that the signpost is blank to add your own greeting or place......

Sunny Days, designed by Heike McIntosh

'Sunny Days' features our little hedgehog mowing the grass wearing his knotted hanky....

RWAV - 4 Seasons, designed by Heidi Green

This card made by Heidi uses 2 'seasons' from our 4 Seasons set which gives you an image for every season!  Spring, Summer, Autumn & Winter - so a stamp set that you can use all year round!

Cats in Squares, designed by Helen Richards

'Cats in Squares' is one of our all time favs, and this pink version is a refreshing change - it's super girlie for all of those female feline fans.....

Claire's Owls, designed by Maxine Norman

T'woo little owls sitting on a branch, what can they be talking about?

RWAV Wardrobe, designed by Gaynor Bloor

Such a lovely card featuring our RWAV (room with a view) Wardrobe stamp set - TIP: if you have this set then a bit of Mirri card on the inside of the wardrobe door makes a great mirror!

And finally we couldn't sign off without showing a selection of our 'Henny Penny' cards, this girl is our favourite design just now, we absolutely LOVE her!  Everyone needs a Henny Penny in their stash, how can you resist her, so cute.
We hope that you have enjoyed our little 'look back' and it has given you some inspiration especially on these dark nights, get your stash out and CRAFT!


Happy New Year everyone, with lots of love from the Little Claire Team xxx

P.S. If you would like to comment, we would love to know which is your favourite card or design from us during 2011 x

Happy Christmas and Our Classes for the New Year!

We have lots of exciting things planned for 2012 including gorgeous new stamp releases and classes in different areas of the country!

Here on the Wirral, the following events are already on the website:

Make and Take Using Our Brand New Garden Stamps

Friday 27 January 2012 - 6.30pm to 8.00pm

Come and spend a relaxing evening with the LC team making a selection of cards using our brand new range of beautiful Garden Stamps (to be released in January) Be the first to use these new designs! The cards will be suitable for lots of different occasions and we know you're going to love them.

We'll be serving tea and coffee and other treats and there'll be the chance to shop too!!

Cost - £10.00 (all materials provided)

Saturday 25 February - 9.00am to 12.00pm or 1.00pm to 4.00pm

Butterfly Tree

This class is all about one of our most successful stamp sets, the gorgeous "Butterfly Tree" set. You'll make a range of cards using the various stamps in the set, suitable for different occasions.

Cost - £20.00 (all materials provided)

Saturday 25 February - 9.00am to 12.00pm or 1.00pm to 4.00pm

Made for Men

Probably the most difficult people to make cards for - men! In this class we'll be giving you lots of ideas for making men's cards using stamps from the brand new collection newly designed by Red Gingham Designs (be the absolute first in the world to use these stamps)

Cost - £20.00 (all materials provided)

**Special Offer - if you book a place on both classes, you'll pay the discounted price of £35 for the two (if you want to take advantage of this special offer, please phone us to book)**

Saturday 28 April - 9.00am to 4.30pm

A Day With Little Claire - Wirral

Come and spend a relaxing day with us making gorgeous cards using Little Claire products.

Three of our talented Design Team members will be there together with the rest of the Little Claire team!

During the day there will be three classes, each lasting two hours and our tutors will guide you step by step through making gorgeous cards.

Our shop will be open for you to stock up on crafting goodies during the day. You’ll need to bring your own lunch but we’ll supply the tea and coffee.

Everyone who comes along will receive a goodie bag to take away with them.

Cost - £49.00 (£20 deposit required, all materials provided)

And for those in the Kent/Crawley areas:

Saturday 26 May - A Day With Little Claire - Crawley

Come and spend a relaxing day with the LC team at Maidenbower Junior School making gorgeous cards using Little Claire products.

During the day there will be three classes and you will be guided through making fantastic cards step by step by our talented designers.

Our shop will be open during the day for you to stock up on crafting goodies. You'll need to bring your own lunch all materials and lots of refreshments will be provided throughout the day.

Cost - £55.00 (£20 deposit required, all materials provided)

Sunday 27 May - A Day With Little Claire - Kent

Come and spend a relaxing day with the LC team at Harrietsham Village Hall making gorgeous cards using Little Claire products.

During the day there will be three classes and you will be guided through making fantastic cards step by step by our talented designers.

Our shop will be open during the day for you to stock up on crafting goodies. You'll need to bring your own lunch but all materials and lots of refreshements throughout the day are provided.

Cost - £55.00 (£20 deposit required, all materials provided)

If you want to book places on any of these classes, have a look at the website here or phone us on 0151 342 5715.

We'd like to share photos of the cards made at our recent Speedcrafting classes with Helen N.  Our challenge was to find out how many cards our ladies could make in an hour and the answer was five!!  All the cards were made using our beautiful die cuts - three from the Cutie Patootie sheet and two from the Red Gingham Christmas sheet. 

And finally, everyone here at Little Claire would like to wish you a very Happy Christmas!  We hope you have a fabulous time and we'll see you back here again very soon!!

Final Day of Our Customer Gallery

Welcome to the final day of our Customer Gallery!  We hope you've enjoyed seeing all the gorgeous cards from our talented customers - it's been great to see what everyone has been making with our stamps.  If your card has been featured, don't forget to check back in the New Year for details of our prize winners!

The first of today's cards was made by Maggie Palmer using part of our 'Room With a View - Four Seasons' set - Maggie has paper pieced the curtains to match the backing paper on the card.  It's a gorgeous card, Maggie and very neatly made!

And our final card is from Jane Orson using the 'Little One' stamp - a beautiful, clean design which sets off the stamp perfectly.

A big thank you to everyone who sent us photos of their cards - we hope you've enjoyed being featured on our blog and Facebook page as much as we've enjoyed looking at all your cards!

Customer Gallery Day 9

It's Day 9 of our Customer Gallery and today we've got two more great cards from Kay Coney which we're sure you'll love!

First of all, a lovely card made with the 'Lots of Fun' set - beautiful colours and a great easel design:

And next, a gorgeous stepper card made with 'The Right Time' stamp set, lovely colours and very neatly made:



We'll be back tomorrow with the final day of our Customer Gallery.  We'd love to read your comments about today's cards and don't forget to have a look at our post from earlier today - a last minute Christmas treat box from Maxine!

Weekly Project - Last Minute Christmas Treat Bag!

This week's blog project is from Maxine and it's a great treat bag - perfect for any last minute gifts!

Here's what you'll need to make the treat bag:

one of the stamps from the Red Gingham Christmas Text set

black ink pad

white card stock

red 12 by 12 red card stock

ribbon

double sided tape

foam pads

small cello bag

border punch

And here's what you need to do:

1. Stamp the circular sentiment stamp twice.  Cut out the sentiment by hand or using a punch and cut the inside circle out of the second stamped sentiment and ecoupage the centre of the sentiment.  Add a scalloped corder using the red card stock.

2. Cut a 12" by 4" strip of red card and score at 5" and 7".  Punch a scalloped edge:

3. Cut a 4" by 4" strip of red card and score at 3".  Adhere this to the end of the 12" strip by sticking the 1" score line to the back, fold over to form the flap on the top of the bag:

4. Fill your cello bag with chocolates and seal.  Adhere this to the top of the bag just below the flap:

5. Seal the gift bag using double sided tape and decorate your bag with the sentiment and a ribbon bow:

We hope you like this treat bag - it will make a lovely last minute gift!  We'd love to hear what you think.

Customer Gallery Day 8

Today we're sharing some great men's cards which were sent to us by Gemma White - we've already featured one of Gemma's cards but she sent us a lovely selection so we thought we'd show you two more of them!

Gemma's cards use different parts of the 'Lazy Days' stamp set:



Both cards show off the stamps really well and are beautifully coloured.

We'll be back tomorrow with some more cards - please leave us a comment to let us, and Gemma, know what you think about today's cards!

Little Claire Customer Gallery Day 7

It's Day 7 of our Customer Gallery and there's still more to come!

Today's card is from Stef Adams who has made this beautiful tag card using the 'Flowerhead Stamp' and also one of our tag cards.  In the photo above you can see the front of the card and here's the back:

Isn't it elegant?  We love the design so thanks to Stef for sending it to us.

We'll be back tomorrow with some more cards but please keep leaving us comments to let us know what you think!



Customer Gallery Day 6

Welcome to another week of great cards from our customers!  As we explained on Friday, we received so many photos of lovely cards that we've decided to extend our Customer Gallery for a bit longer and the prizes will be announced in the New Year!

The first of today's cards is another from Anne Chilvers - this one using 'Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow'.  Take a closer look at the card to see the beautiful background Anne has created.

And today's second card is another card from Beryl Martin using part of the 'Room With a View - Four Seasons' set - Beryl has used beautiful colours and great embellishments on the card.

We'll be back tomorrow with some more customer cards and don't forget to leave us a comment to let us know what you think about today's cards!

Customer Gallery - Day 5

We hope you've been enjoying our Customer Gallery this week - we've shared some beautiful creations with you and the good news is that there is more to come next week!  Originally we'd intended to run the Gallery for a week but we received so many great cards that we've decided to carry on next week too!  Our winners will then be chosen after the Christmas break - a lovely New Year surprise for some of you!!

Now on to today's two cards which were sent to us by Maureen Palethorp.  First of all, a beautiful card made using the 'In the Garden' stamp:



And next a card made using the 'Three Owls Stamp' - love the glittery owls on this one!

Two more great cards and there will be more to share with you next week so make sure you keep checking back.  And please leave us a comment to let Maureen, and us, know what you think of today's cards!

Customer Gallery - Day 4

Today we've two beautiful cards from Maggie Palmer to share with you.  For this first card she has used 'Mr Darcy's Christmas Post' - Maggie explained to us in her e-mail that she has two Westies called Ollie and Fin so she had to add an extra Westie to the design! 



For her second card, Maggie has used  the 'Little One' stamp - another beautiful Christmas design:

We'll be back tomorrow with more great cards from our customers - don't forget to leave us a comment to let Maggie, and us, know what you think of today's cards!