Scottie Dogs

Shary here and today I'd love to show you some new goodies from Little Claire in a card I have made. I've used the new Pastel Tartan and Ombre paper pads and I've given you a little sneak peek of the new monthly stamp set "Scottie Dogs".

Here's my list of products I have used.

Paper Stack Ombre - £4.99

Paper Stack Pastel Tartan - £4.99

Scottie Dog stamp set - 

Versamark Ink Pad - £5.60

Memento Black Ink Pad - £3.90

Embellishments

Instructions:

1. Cut a piece of Ombre card 1/2cm smaller than your card blank. Stamp out the three Scottie dog images all over the ombre card using Versamark and then clear emboss. Ink the edges in a contrasting ink and then using the same ink gently wipe over the embossed dogs to make them pop a little more.

2. Stamp out the three Scottie dogs image again onto the same Ombre card stock in black ink and clear emboss. Paper piece the dog's coats and collars with some of your chosen pastel tartan paper.

3. Layer onto a piece of larger pastel tartan paper and then make a border using a decorative edge punch. I then adhered this to the bottom of the main image block. 

4. Next add a ribbon where the tartan paper meets the ombre and adhere at the back. Take a small strip of the tartan paper and adhere to the centre of the ribbon lengthways. 

5. Add a sentiment from the same stamp set and then add your embellishments.

I hope I've inspired you to use some of the lovely products in the Little Claire Designs store.

Shary

x

Elegant Owl Thank You Card

Morning all, it is Avril here and it is my turn to do a tutorial, using one of the fabulous Digi Stamps.  I have made it quite easy and elegant, hope you like it, and give it a try.

Products needed to make this card:-

Little Claire's Owl Tree Silhouette 

Little Claire's Outline Stickers - Vehicles

7 x 7 inch White Card Blank

2 Sheets of Silver Mirri Card

1 Sheet Black Leather Effect Card

2 A5 Sheets of Papermania Capsule Collection - MONO (2 different designs)

Black Ink Pad

Double Sided Sticky Pads

Glue

X Cut Rectangle Die

Small Butterfly Punch

Large Flower Punch

Small Flower Punch

Leaf Punch

Gems

To put the card together you will need to:-

1. Make a Matt with the Silver Mirri and Black Leather card and Adhere to Card Blank
2. Make 4 Squares from the Patterned Paper, 2 of each design, add a Silver Matt to the back and adhere to Card.
3. Print out Image on good quality printer card.
4. Use the Rectangle Die to cut around image, use the Black Ink Pad to go around the edge of the image.
5. Add a Silver Matt around the image and using double-sided sticky pads, adhere to the middle of the card.
6. Punch out from left over card - 3 Large White Flowers, 3 Small Black Flowers, 3 Leaves in White and 3 Small Butterflies using the Black card.
7. Take the Black Ink Pad around the white punched Flowers and Leaves.
8. Arrange the flowers and leaves around the top right of the Image and add gems to the centre of the black flowers.
9. Arrange the Black Butterflies on the left hand side of the image.
10. Add the Thank You sentiment to the lower right hand side of image.

I hope you like my card and have a go at making it, I hope you agree that is is Elegant, and perfect for a Thank You card.

Lovely Little Claire Digi stamps

We have a huge selection of digi stamps on our web, lots of your favourite designs all ready for your to download for your crafting projects, once downloaded they are yours to keep forever - you make them any size you wish and colour to your choice, fantastic!

If you feel like giving our digi's a try, we have 2 FREE digi's here and this is our free digi Giraffe image with a card from Diane (the sentiment is a digi too!):

designed by Diane

How gorgeous is that? And then this is our other free digi with a lovely card designed by Helen:

designed by Helen

So, if you haven't dipped your toe into the world of digi's - what are you waiting for, give it a try for free!

Competition Winner:

From our blogpost of 21 January when we asked you 'what kind of superwoman are you?' the lucky winner chosen at random is:

Karen Woodall - who said: I absolutely love these stamps. I love gardening when its nice and warm in the summer and the flowers are out. I work in an office and run around all over the place as I manage a unit for St John Ambulance in my spare time. Looking after 50 kids and 14 adults. Feel like I need a Superwoman cape at times.

well done Karen, please contact Carol who will send your Superwoman stamp set out to you together with the pack to make this lovely card below x

designed by Helen

Before we go; we will be exhibiting at the Craft4Crafters Show at the Westpoint Arena, EXETER from Thursday 29 January to Saturday 31 January, come and see us (and all our goodies) if you can!

Little Claire xxx

Little Claire Likes 'Monday Project' - Silhouette Lighthouse

Welcome to our Monday project - 'Little Claire Likes'. Where we share a project every Monday using one of our much loved stamps.

Today, we are showcasing one of our Silhouette stamps - 'Silhouette Lighthouse'.

Our featured stamp set can be purchased at the special price of £4.50 (normally £6.50) until Thursday, 29th January 2015 or whist we have stock.

Here is Heidi's card made using this great stamp set along with a fabulous new paper stack from Little Claire called 'Ombre Paper Stack'. This new paper stack works perfectly with all of our 'Silhouette' stamps. You can find them on the website Here.

Here is the list of products used :

Little Claire 'Silhouette Lighthouse' stamp set - £4.50

Little Claire 'Ombre' Paper Stack £4.99

Dovecraft Kraft Card pack - £1.99

Versamark 'Watermark' ink pad - £5.60

Memento 'Black Tuxedo' ink pad - £3.90

Blue card, black embossing powder and die-cut shapes from stash

Heatgun, sticky tape and sticky pads.

Card Instructions :

(1) Cut blue card and 'Ombre' paper to fit kraft card blank.

(2) Cut a square of kraft card and one of blue, stick together.

(3) Cut a square of 'Ombre' paper. Using Versamark ink pad, stamp up image.

(4) Cover image with black embossing powder and heat with heat gun.

(5) Stick image down onto blue and kraft matt.

(6) Stamp up sentiment into corner of image,

(7) Die cut border, starfish and anchor from spare blue and kraft card.

(8) Wrap brown twine around the image and tie a bow. Stick to card blank.

(9) Attach other elements and stick down to card.

We do hope you have enjoyed our tutorial today, please do check out our range of new paper pads on the website HERE.

The Little Claire Team

xxxxx

Snowman bunting

Marianne here today with a project for you. I wondered what to make and as so many people last year said they wished they had started their Christmas cards earlier I decided to encourage you to do just that. It is never too early to start and as Christmas gets near you will be so glad you did. 

Little Claire have some wonderful Christmas stamps which you can find here and this one combines 2 of my favourite things, a snowman and bunting.

You will need

Snowman bunting stamp

Alcohol markers

Memento Tuxedo black stamp pad

First Edition Vintage Noel paper pad 

Martha Stewart holly border punch

Memory Box bunting die

Sue Wilson filigree poinsettia dies

Star Dust Stickles

Red pearls

6"x 6" white card blank

Green and white card

1 Fold the front of the card blank back in half. Cut a piece of red embossed paper 13.8cm square and 2 pieces 13.8cm x 6.5 cm. Attach these to green card leaving a small border. 

2 Stamp the snowman image and sentiment onto white card. Colour with markers. Layer onto green card leaving a small border.
3 Cut 3 pieces of the poinettia paper 13.8cm x 5cm. Punch both of the long edges with the holly border punch.

4 Attach the red papers to the three sides of the card blank. Attach a poinsettia strip to the centre of each of the smallest panels and a strip to the right hand side of the large panel.

5 Attach half the image to the front so that other half overhangs the edge.

6 Die cut 2 poinsettias for cream and red papers from the paper pad. Attach at the top lefthand and right hand corners as shown. Finish with a red pearl in the centres.

7 Die cut 3 pieces of bunting using paper oddments in red and green. attach to the inside as shown.

8 Finish with Stickles to the snowman's hat and snow. 

January Digi Blog Project

Hello it`s Allison here and I hope you're all well and ready for some crafting.  

 

 

This is the card which I am calling "Rainbow Dragonflies" and it`s what I would call an arty card, here is what you will need:

 

Little Claire digi stamp - Silhouette Flower Border

base card - 14.5cm x 14.5cm

pale blue card/paper

black card/paper

matt printer paper about 220gsm

pastel chalks and some cut-n-dry

Versa Fine - black

Woodware sentiment stamp

thin pale green ribbon

glitter glue

grey coloured gems
 

Re-size the digi stamp image until it measures 12cm across the bottom line of the stamp and 5.5cm from the bottom of the stamp to the top tip of the dragonfly wing.

Copy and paste the re-sized image and crop it down until only the dragonfly remains. Position and rotate the dragonfly above the original silhouette image, *copy + paste the new dragonfly, move it to a suitable position and slightly reduce the size*. Repeat from * to * once more.

 

Make sure the image is at least 14.5cm below the top of the page, then print onto 220gsm Matt print paper.

 

Colour the printed image with pastel chalks. Tip: I finely (in pencil) draw the card size onto the paper around the image, this gives me an area to work in when applying the chalks.   When applying the chalks I use small circular motions and blend each colour into the next. I use cut-n-dry to apply my chalks.

 

 

Stamp the sentiment using the Versa fine. TIP: do a test stamp onto a bit of scrap paper to make sure the letters are in a straight line.

 

Colour the dragonfly wings with a fine tip turquoise pen and with a fine paint brush apply the glitter glue. Allow to dry then spray the image with hair spray to set the chalks.

 

Glue the ribbon along the bottom of the silhouette (I prefer to wrap the ribbon around to the back of the paper).

 

Cut to size and layer up all the papers onto the card.

 

Finish off the embellishments by adding grey coloured gems to the centre of the flowers. Tie a bow from the green ribbon and stick onto the ribbon already attached to the card.

 

Finally sit back and stare at your handy work all day long.

We are slowly coming to the end of this month...

...and before we do we want to show you some more cards made with our January club stamps;
'Superwoman'

A fantastic set of stamps for just £8.99, make lots of different cards and here is a selection from our Shary which we don't think you have seen yet, here is gardening lady in a super frame:

Here is the career lady, great for a new job, the blue top of the clipboard has been glossy accented:

and our ultimate Superwoman, the multi-tasking lady keeping very busy!

Which person are you?  Are you a happy gardener or a career girl or a superwoman mixture of everything?

Carol is a happy gardener and thinks nothing of shifting big heavy bags of gravel around!

Gill is a career girl and is happy at the laptop creating new ideas.

Steve would like us all to think that he is a multi-tasking icon, but really he is simply adept at starting lots of projects and leaving them all over the place!

We'll give one set of Superwoman stamps plus the project pack which contains everything to make this card:

designed by Helen

to the lucky winner drawn at random on Tuesday 27 January '15, good luck!

Little Claire xxx

Look what we've got!

Freshly delivered - and a great price too:

We have a fantastic selection of the NEW Dovecraft 99p stamps just arrived and very nice they are too and best thing we are offering ANY 3 for just £2.50 - so head over to our web and grab a bargain!

We need to say a 'very well done' to one of our teamies; Marianne who recently had two pages in Making Cards magazine devoted to her makes using our 'Man of My Dreams' stamp set:

Here's Steve's photo's of the magazine, he found it on sale in Sainsburys...

This issue of Making Cards is on sale now and it really is a great project from our Marianne!

Here are Marianne's cards in close up:

All three images (along with lots of text) are included within this wonderful stamp set which was our Club Set for December, a great price at just £8.99.

Lot's of goodies from us today, don't forget about those cute little 99p stamps - a real bargain x

Little Claire x

Little Claire Likes Weekly Project - 'Let's Do Lunch'!

Good morning,

 

'Let's do Lunch' is a really cute little stamp set that we are showcasing in our Monday, 'Little Claire Likes' project this week.  This sweet little set is just right for all occasion cards.  The elements are separate, which makes it great for stamping up individually.

 

Heidi has made a quick and easy card using the stamp set.  You can pick up this set for only £3.50 (normally £5.50) for a limited time only - until Thursday, 22nd January 2015 on the website HERE.

Here is her card :

Products Used :

Little Claire 'Let's do Lunch' stamp set - £3.50
Dovecraft 6x6 White Cards and envelopes - £1.99
Little Claire 'Dinky - Dotty' paper pad - £2.99
Memento 'Rich Cocoa' Inkpad - £3.90
Red Berries Distress Ink Pad
Promarker Pens
Spellbinders 'Labels 22' Die
Red Ribbon
Red Pearls

How the card was made :

(1) Stamp up image onto white stamping card, colour in, die-cut and ink edges.
(2) Stamp 'tulip' element from stamp set around the bottom of card front.
(3) Colour in using Promarker pens, ink edge of card blank.
(4) Stick down two squares of red dotty paper from 'dinky' pad, overlapping in centre of card.
(5) Stamp up sentiment, edge with ink.
(6) Stick image down, then sentiment overlapping onto paper.
(7) Add red ribbon and tie a bow.
(8) Add red pearls to top of card and image.

Thank you for stopping by the blog today and don't forget our special offer on this cute little stamp set.  We also have lots of new products on our website.

The Little Claire Team

xxxx


 

Monthly Challenge # 53 - Bright & Beautiful Theme

Hi and welcome to another challenge, our first in 2015.

Thank you to all of you that took part in our December challenge, we had lots of lovely entries for our 'Special Card' competition.

Our winner, chosen randomly is :

Stella - Challenge entry # 44

Well done Stella! Please can you contact Gill (gill@littleclaire.co.uk) who will forward on your prize.

Now to our new challenge, where our theme is 'Bright & Beautiful'. So we would like to see lots of lovely papers, flowers and any other embellishments to make your cards 'Bright and Beautiful'!

Our prize for this month is :

It includes :

8 x A4 Assorted Die-Cut Sheets
1 x Sunflower Stamp set
1 x Book Owl Stamp set
1 x 'And So To Bed' stamp set
1m Tartan Ribbon
1m Red Dotty Organza Ribbon
1 metre Green Dotty Organza Ribbon

Our Design Team have made some gorgeous cards to brighten your day!

Starting with :

Diane who has used

'Sweetest Wishes' stamp set and
'Dinkies' Gingham & Dotty paper pads

Francy who has used
'It's a Pleasure' Silhouette stamp

Gaynor who has used
'Single Flower' stamp

Heidi who has used
'Flowerhead', 'Butterfly' and 'No Butterflies' Dinky stamps and
'Dinkies' - Mini Gingham Paper Pad

Helen who has used
'Tulip Bunny' and 'Love and Hugs' dinky Postcard stamp

Marianne who has used
'Swirly Birds' stamp set

Shary who has used
'Rainy Day' stamp set complete with wellies!

Here is a list of our rules, please read and follow before entering our challenge.

Can we please ask that your card/creation is an original design of your own and not a copy or remake of another card. This is plagiarism and these entries WILL NOT be included.

(1) You DO NOT need to use a Little Claire stamp to qualify for the prize draw.

(2) You may enter the challenge UP TO 3 TIMES ONLY PLEASEand you may combine with other challenges.

(3) You MUST follow the challenge theme and NO BACKLINKINGplease, new cards only.

(4) Please provide a link to our blog in your post.

(5) Please leave a link (via link below) to your actual card, not just to your blog.

(6) Please turn off Word Verification on your blogs, it makes it so much easier & quicker to leave a comment on your blog.

The challenge finishes on Friday, 13th February 2015 @ 16.00pm and the new challenge (# 54) will be open on Saturday, 14th February 2015.

Have fun creating your cards and we look forward to seeing your entries, good luck!

The Little Claire Design Team

xxxx

Friday Blog Project - Football Hedgehogs

Good morning, everyone - it's Helen here with this week's Friday Blog Project.

I've made a very quick and easy card using one of my favourite Little Claire stamps, the very cute 'Football Hedgehogs'.

Here's what you'll need to make the card:

'Football Hedgehogs' stamp

'Dictionary Definitions' stamp set

dark brown card

kraft paper

red gingham paper

white stamping card

Tuxedo Black Memento ink

Onyx Black Versafine ink 

black self adhesive gems

Card Candi

colouring medium of your choice

And this is what you need to do:

1. Stamp the hedghog image on to a piece of white card measuring 10cm by 6cm using the Memento ink pad.  Colour in the image using your choice of colouring medium as shown below:

2. Mat the image panel on to a piece of brown card measuring 10.5cm by 6.5cm as shown in the photo below:

3. To make the base card, cut two pieces of brown card measuring 28cm by 6cm.  Score each piece at 14cm and fold to form two narrow pieces as shown in the photo below:

4. On to each of the folded cards, mat a piece of kraft paper measuring 13.5cm by 5.5cm and a piece of red gingham paper measuring 13cm by 5cm as shown in the photo below:

5. When you assemble the card, use a card blank to guide you as to the gap between the two separate pieces - if you do this then you can be sure that your card will fit in the envelope and won't be too wide.  Lay the two folded pieces in front of you with a card blank above, as shown in the photo below:

6. Put some double sided tape on the two shorter sides of the image panel (I used two narrow pieces right to the edges) and then use the gingham squares to help you work out where to attach the image panel as shown in the photo below:

Stamp one of the 'Dictionary Definitions' stamps using the Onyx Black Versafine ink pad and then cut out.  Attach this to the top right hand corner of the image panel as shown in the photo.  Finish the card with black gems and red Card Candi.

And here's the final card again:

The great thing about this stamp is that you can personalise it by changing the colour of the scarves and background to suit the recipient!

I hope you've enjoyed my little tutorial and that I've inspired you to have a go at making one of these cards.  Just before I go .......

Blog Competiton Winners!

Here are the two lucky winners of our blog competition from last Wednesday:

 Audrey Sharples who said: Definetely a cat person but I would not hurt any other animals. The pads would be so useful in lots of different projects. Audrey xx 

Karen Petitt who said:  No way ever can I choose between cats and dogs - love them both!
I've had cats for more than fifteen years and my little JR Terrier is about ten years old now and he is my first dog and I am not sure if I can ever be without dogs again but then my really happy ideal is to have two cats and one dog lol!
Thanks for the chance, sorry to waffle lol Karen x

Well done to you both, please email Gill with your details and choice of Dinkie Pad (either Dinkie Gingham or Dinkie Dotty).

Have a lovely weekend

Helen x

An Altered Notebook ........................

Hi everyone, it's Lynsey here to share a tutorial with you today to make an altered notebook.   These make great little gifts for family and friends and are good for using up little scraps of paper.

Materials: 

Digi Image - Digi Bird Table

Neenah Card stock

Distress Ink - Spun Sugar

Copic Markers

Ribbon

Scraps of patterned paper from stash

Card stock

Value Jotter Pad

Cream Paint

Tim Holtz Sizzix Sizzlits Decorative Strip Alphabet Die - Wanted 

Sewing Machine

1. Resize your digital image to suit the size of your notebook and print out on the neenah card stock.

2. Colour the image using copic markers or medium of your choice and ink round the edge of the image using spun sugar distress ink.

3.  Cut a piece of card stock large enough to cover the front of the jotter pad with a small boarder around

4. Cut scraps of pattered paper to size to layer onto card stock and paint the edges with cream paint for a shabby chic effect.  

5. Sew or use faux stitching around the coloured image and paper pieces. 

6. Layer the paper onto the notepad along with a piece of ribbon as per the photo. 

7. Die cut the letters to spell notes and glue to the notebook to finish.

There you have a quick and easy pretty notebook.

Thanks for stopping by. 

Lynsey x

Little Claire Digi-Stamp Challenge # 1 - 'Open Theme'

Good morning and welcome to our very first Digi-Stamp challenge.

We do hope you will join us each month. Our new challenge is designed to encourage all of you 'digi-stamp' lovers in Blogland, to dust off those beloved digi's and take part.

We will still be running our usual monthly challenges and our Digi-Stamp Design Team ladies : Allison, Anne, Avril, Lisa, Lynsey, Mags, Margreet, Sarah and Susan, will be working along side the existing Little Claire Design Team of Diane, Francy, Gaynor, Heidi, Helen, Marianne and Shary.

Our first theme is an 'Open' one.  We are looking forward to seeing all of your entries and we ask that use only digi-images on your cards. You do not have to use Little Claire digi-stamps to enter, but should you wish to and would like to purchase any of our lovely digi images, just pop on over to the Little Claire website HERE, where we have a wonderful selection to tempt you.

All we ask when entering our challenges, is that you please follow the rules below, have fun and get your creativity flowing!

We have a wonderful prize on offer for the winner of our first challenge :

(our free digi-stamp)

TEN - Little Claire Digi-Stamp images
(of your choice)

Our new Digi-Stamp Design Team have been playing with lots of the digi-stamps. Here is lots of fantastic inspiration for you to feast your eyes upon!

Firstly, we have another new digi-stamp design team member to introduce to you all.

Anne Ruffles.

Hi I am Anne :
I have been an avid crafter for as long as I can remember; ranging from knitting, bobbin and needle lace making, parchment craft and more recently sugar craft and cake decoration. Card making always ran alongside my other crafting projects. Over the last few years, and particularly since I retired from teaching, a year and a half ago, I have been indulging my passion for card designing and making, so my other crafty projects now have to fit in. My husband Ken and I love to travel, so am always on the look out for ideas to incorporate into my designs. On the home front, if Ken can’t find me indoors or gardening he knows where to look…..up in my ‘shed’ card making.

Anne's blog : http:// craftyanneecan17.blogspot.com

Welcome Anne!

Digi-Stamp Design Team Cards

Alison's Card using
'Bee Mine Toadstool' digi-stamp

Anne's card using
S/W Flower digi-stamp

Avril is poorly this month, get well soon!

Lisa's card using
'Chair Man' digi-stamp

Lynsey's card using
'Birdhouse Garland' digi-stamp

Mags' card using
'Elephant's in Squares' digi-stamp

Margreet's card using

 'Bird's in Squares' digi-stamp

Sarah's card using
'Two Owls' digi-stamp

Susan's card using
'Cat on Branch' digi stamp and 'Silhouette Flower Border' digi stamp

Also two of our regular team members, have made cards for this challenge, using Little Claire digi-stamps.

Helen' card using
'Digi Boat' and Digi-download - 'Seascape' paper

Marianne's card using
'Silhouette Boat' digi-stamp

 Our Digi-Stamp Challenge Rules :

Can we please ask that your card/creation is an original design of your own and not a copy or remake of another card. This is plagiarism and these entries WILL NOT be included.

(1) You DO NOT need to use a Little Claire digi-stamp to qualify for the prize draw.

(2) You may enter the challenge UP TO 3 TIMES ONLY PLEASEand you may combine with other challenges.

(3) You MUST follow the challenge theme and NO BACKLINKING please, new cards only.

(4) Please provide a link to our blog in your post.

(5) Please leave a link (via link below) to your actual card, not just to your blog.

(6) Please turn off Word Verification on your blogs, it makes it so much easier & quicker to leave a comment on your blog.

The challenge finishes on Tuesday, 10th February 2015 @ 16.00pm
and the new challenge (#2)
will be open on Wednesday, 11th February 2015.

We do hope that you will enter our challenge and that you have been inspired by our teamies cards.

Thank you for entering our challenge, good luck!

The Little Claire Design Team

xxxx