Tuesday, 31 January 2012

Day 2 of Our Brand New Garden Collection and Another Chance to Win!

Welcome to Day 2 of our Garden Collection Showcase!

A big thank you to everyone who left us a comment yesterday - we're glad to hear you loved the "Deckchair" stamp as much as we do.

The lucky winner of one of the "Deckchair" stamps is:

Rosemary Lethbridge

who left this great comment:
"Sitting in my garden chair
Feeling sun warming my hair
Wishing I could stay all day
But impatient to get up and start to play.
Ideas flowing in a flood
Starting crafting never seemed so good.
Thank you Claire for doing it again
Huge possibilities with this stamp remain."
Thank you, Rosemary!  Please e-mail your postal address to helen@littleclaire.co.uk so we can get your stamp sent out to you.

And now on to today's stamp which is the beautiful "Birdhouse Garland" - another stamp that we are sure you're going to love.  It's available here on the Little Claire website.

We're giving you the chance to win one of these stamps - all you need to do is leave us a comment before our next blog post tomorrow morning letting us know what you think of today's stamp and we'll choose someone to receive a stamp.

And here's some more inspiration from the talented Design Team:
Next from Georgina who has separated out the parts of the stamp to make a tag card:

Next from Helen R who has used of one of the "Little Beauties" tag sentiments :

Next from Helen N:

And a card from Heidi again using one of our "Little Beauties" tag sentiments:

from Gaynor:

And finally a card from Donna who has used one of the sentiments from our "At Home" set:

and finally one from Maxine:

Aren't they gorgeous?  Don't forget to leave us a comment before tomorrow's post to be in with a chance of winning a "Birdhouse Garland" stamp - we look forward to reading what you think about it!

And we'll be back tomorrow with another showcase and another chance to win!

Monday, 30 January 2012

Day 1 of Our Brand New Garden Collection and a Chance to Win!

This week on the Little Claire website we are launching our brand new collection of stamps the "Garden Collection" - five gorgeous designs that we know you are going to love!

Each day this week, one of the stamps will be added to the website and we will be showcasing the stamp here on the blog with a range of cards made by our Design Team.

We're also giving you the chance to win one of the stamps each day.  All you need to do is to leave us a comment here on the blog before midnight telling us what you think of the stamp and we'll choose a lucky winner to receive a stamp tomorrow morning!

And so on to today's stamp which is the beautiful "Deckchair" stamp which you can find here on the wesbsite - it evokes thoughts of summer days and birdsong.

And here's some inspiration from our Design Team:

first of all, a card from Donna which also uses the little circular sentiment from the "Sunny Days" set:

next one from Gaynor:

and from Georgina who has also used one of the "Little Beauties" tag sentiments:

and from Heidi again using one of the "Little Beauties" tag sentiments:

from Helen N:

from Helen R:

and finally from Maxine:

Aren't they gorgeous? 

We'll be releasing another lovely stamp design tomorrow so make sure you come back to find out what it is and to see some more cards from our Design Team.

Plus don't forget to leave us a comment before midnight tonight for the chance to win a "Deckchair" stamp!

Saturday, 28 January 2012

Brand New on the Website - Gorgeous Peel Offs

Just added to the Little Claire website are five new sheets of gorgeous peel off designs featuring the Cutie Patootie characters, the Swirly Whirlies, Henny Penny and a couple of lovely floral designs.

Take a look in the 'what's new' section of the Little Claire website here to see the different designs available.

And here are some cards made by Helen featuring the brand new peel offs and also some papers from our new paper packs 'Spring Drop' and 'Back to Basics III'The papers in these pads are beautiful - lovely colours and small scale designs which are perfect for cards:








And we also have a short video featuring these cards (and a couple more) plus a little tip for adding the facial features to the Cutie Patootie peel offs!

Another Little Claire Video - Claire's Super Six



Here's another video showcasing our new range of men's stamps Claire's Super Six with a demo from Helen of one of the cards she made with the 'Going Out' stamp and also showing a range of other great cards made by other members of the Design Team.

Helen uses one of our brand new products acrylic dries clear craft glue - perfect for paper piecing.  You can find it here on the website.

Friday, 27 January 2012

Save the Date - More Chances to Win!


Can you guess what it is?!

This is a sneak peek of one of the new stamps we'll be launching on the Little Claire website next week - we know you're going to love them!!

Each day on the blog we'll be showcasing one of the stamps and showing you some inspiration from our talented Design Team.  There will also be the chance to win a stamp each day so make sure you keep checking back.

See you on Monday morning with our first showcase ......

A Little Bit of Masking ....



This week's blog project comes from Helen N who has made a variation of a card from one of the classes she did last year called 'One Stamp Five Ways'.  She has used her one of her favourite Little Claire stamps 'Single Flower' and has made a card using masking - she had requests after the class to put step by step instructions on the blog so here they are!

To make the card you'll need the following:

Little Claire 'Single Flower' stamp
pale purple spotted paper
kraft paper
purple self adhesive gems
Promarkers - Pear Green, Bluebell, Orchid, Cool Grey 1
corner rounder punch
post it notes

And here's what you need to do:

1. Cut a piece of kraft paper measuring 13cm by 13cm and a piece of pale purple spotted paper measuring 12cm by 12cm.  Use the corner rounder punch to round two of the corners on each piece of paper.  Attach the pieces to the base card with the curved side towards the bottom of the card:

2. Stamp the Single Flower image on to a post it note, putting the top of the flower as near to the top of the sticky part of the post it as you can:

3. Cut the image out of the post it note - you only need the head of the flower and the top part of the stem:

4. Cut a piece of white card to measure 8.5cm by 9.5cm.  Stamp the Single Flower image once in the middle of the piece of card:

5. Stick the post it note flower (the mask) over the top of your stamped image, placing it carefully so it is stuck directly over the base image:

6. Leaving the mask in place, stamp the Single Flower image twice on the white card, once to the left of the middle image and once to the right of the image.  Each time, be careful that only the flower heads overlap:

7. Remove the mask carefully from the white card (if it is still sicky enough you can keep it to use it again) and then colour in the three flowers using Promarkers:


8. Mat the coloured image panel on to a piece of kraft paper measuring 10cm by 9cm and stick on to the card:

9. To finish, put self adhesive gems in each corner of the stamped image panel and add either a stamped or peel off greeting:

We hope you like this week's project - masking is a really effective and easy technique - just remember to choose a stamp that is easy to cut out!

We'd love you to leave us a comment to let us know what you think about the card!!

Thursday, 26 January 2012

As Featured in Making Cards Magazine ....


If you've seen the latest issue of 'Making Cards' magazine, you might have spotted this great card made by Sandra Jordan on page 81.  Sandra is one of our club members and has sent us this photo of her card so that we can share it with everyone.

Sandra has used one of our Cutie Patootie stamps, Chimney Sweep Bert and also one of our Little Beauties tag sentiments - these are available as stamps or as die cuts.

It's a gorgeous card with lots of beautiful punched detail and the flowers and buttons finish it off perfectly.

If anyone else has had a card published made with Little Claire goodies or has won a challenge blog with a Little Claire card then we'd love to hear about it.  Send us an e-email with all the details and a photo to: helen@littleclaire.co.uk

Tuesday, 24 January 2012

Our Last Showcase Winner and Some Cards from Heidi

Congratulations to Claire who has won one of our 'Going Out' stamps from the last showcase of the new 'Super Six' stamps on Saturday.  

And here's what Claire said:
"This stamp is ideal for putting your own 'stamp' on it by choosing your favourite colours, fashions or trends to make the card, by using pens, papers, fabric and other textures. Such a fabulous set or 6 for those Men cards! Thanks to all at Little Claire for their hard work for us crafters!"

 Please e-mail helen@littleclaire.co.uk with your full name and address, Claire and we'll get your stamp in the post to you!

 We'll have more stamp releases very soon so keep an eye on the blog to make sure you don't miss out!!

In the meantime, we'd like to share some of the cards that the very talented Heidi made when she was demoing at the Esher Show over the weekend.

First of all a gorgeous card made with our Henny Penny stamp and also using Georgina's Buttons and Stitching Stamp set:

Next a beautiful card using one of our Cutie Patooties, Mary Splashing plus a sentiment from the Super Six Sentiments set:

And finally, a card made with our brand new 'Sunday Morning' stamp, Georgina's Buttons and Stitching set and a sentiment from the Claire's Sentiments set:

As you can see, Heidi has used a range of our stamps on her cards showing just how well everything works together!  If you want to find out more about the products, just click on the names and you'll link through to the Little Claire website.  If there's ever anything you can't find on the website or you need more information, you can always give us a ring on 0151 342 5715.

We love to get your feedback - let us know what you think about Heidi's cards and also if you came to see us either at Esher or at Houghton-Le-Spring over the weekend.

Monday, 23 January 2012

Cutie Patooties - Sweep

Had a good weekend?  We hope so, just about to go for tea and want to share this lovely card which was sent in by one of our customers, Tracey Chapman.

Tracey made this for her Mum's birthday and as her father was a Chimney Sweep - then our 'Cutie Patootie' Sweep proved to be just perfect, her mum was impressed and very moved!

Don't the blues & browns go so well together?

Saturday, 21 January 2012

Final Day of Our Showcase - 'Going Out' and a Last Chance to Win!

Welcome to the final day of our showcase of our new Claire's Super Six range of men's stamps.

We really appreciate all the comments we've received from you during this showcase week - it's been great to get such positive feedback about the stamps!

First of all, the winner of one of the 'Later, later' stamps from yesterday's post is:

Helen T

who said:

"More great inspiration from your DT - and another great stamp that could also work for anyone who love listening to the Radio or Music. Keep up the good work :-)" Congratulations, Helen - please e-mail helen@littleclaire.co.uk with your full name and postal address so we can send your stamp to you!

And so now on to our final showcase of 'Going Out' - another great stamp suitable for lots of ages, occasions and techniques. The stamp is here on the Little Claire website together with the rest of the Super Six. Don't forget there's a SPECIAL OFFER PRICE if you want to buy all six stamps. Further details here on the website.

You can find lots of inspiration in the gallery on the website for this stamp but here are some of the cards made by our Design Team:

from Donna:

next from Gaynor also using 'Georgina's Buttons and Stitching Stamp Set':

from Georgina using one of our Little Beauties tag sentiments:

from Helen N who has paper pieced the coat and decoupaged the scarf and suitcase:

from Helen R:

from Maxine:

and Heike:

and finally Heidi:

Today is your final chance to win one of the stamps - just leave us a comment before midnight tomorrow night (Sunday). We've extended the time you have to leave your comment because it's the weekend and this is our last showcase!

The lucky winner will be announced in our post on Tuesday so make sure you check back then!

Friday, 20 January 2012

Showcase Day 5 - Another Chance to Win!

A big thank you again for all your great comments - our new men's stamps are certainly proving to be very popular and we hope you like today's showcase just as much!

First of all, the winner from yesterday who will receive a 'DIY' stamp is:

Lynn 

who said:

"Another great stamp and some fab inspirational cards from the DT. I would love to win this stamp as it would be perfect for my hubby and useful for other male cards too (and female if they're into DIY). Thanks for the chance to win."

Congratulations, Lynn!  Please e-mail helen@littleclaire.co.uk with your full name and postal address so we can send your stamp to you.

Today we're showcasing the very laid back 'Later, later' - have a look here on the website to see the stamp and the great gallery of inspiration from the Design Team.

Don't forget to leave us a comment before midnight tonight to be in with a chance of winning one of today's stamps.

And here are some cards we've picked out to share with you:

First of all, one from Donna:

Next from Gaynor who has also used one of our Little Beauties tags:

Next from Georgina who has used one of our 'Sentiments Mix' stamps:

Next from Helen N who has paper pieced the middle of the radio:

Next from Helen R who has also used the sentiment from 'Room With a View Tree':

One from Heidi:

And finally one from Maxine:

Don't forget to leave us a comment before midnight tonight to be in with a chance of winning one of today's stamps.

And we'll be back tomorrow with the final day of our showcase so don't forget to check back for another chance to win!!