Christmas Dance

Here's a Christmas card I made over the weekend using another Lili of the Valley stamp which has been sitting on my shelf unused for, ahem, quite a while!  I've followed the sketch from the current challenge at Lili's Little Fairies and used paper from the Dovecraft Princess Fairytale pack and the ribbon and card is from my stash.  I've added some little sparkly gems in different sizes and a sentiment from Craftwork Cards.

Some challenge for my card:

Lili's Little Fairies 

Winter Wonderland - 'here come the girls'

Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge - 'include a sentiment without the word Christmas in it'

Christmas Stampin' All Year Long - 'anything goes' 
Milk Coffee Challenge - 'lots of layers'

Little Claire Wirral Workshop

We had a great day yesterday at the Little Claire Wirral Workshop!  It was lovely to see everyone again and I hope those who attended enjoyed it as much as we did.  The ladies who attended the workshop were divided in to groups and did three classes during the day - one with myself, one with Gaynor and one with Gill.

Here are the cards the ladies made during my class:

For this card I used the lovely Pom Pom Dahlia stamped on to kraft card and then coloured with Promarkers.  I used some twine and paper from the Dovecraft Tea Party pack plus some kraft paper.

Next a card using Mary Splashing plus Georgina's Buttons and Stitching Stamp Set.  The paper is from the Tea Party pack again and I used the gorgeous Glitter Sparkle Sheet over the top of the stamped and coloured image for a bit of bling!

This card was made with the very sweet And So to Bed stamp and paper from the Tea Party pack as before.  I die cut the base card plus the layers using the Grand Scalloped Squares Nestabilities.

Next another card which I die cut myself - this time using the Grand Labels Four Nestabilities.  The stamp is called Rainy Days and the paper (you've guessed it!) is from the Tea Party pack.

Finally a tag card.  The card base is from Little Claire here and the paper is available here (not from the Tea Party pack for this one!).  The stamp I used for this one is Flossie Daisychain and the circle sentiments are from a brand new sheet of mixed designs.

I'd like to enter my cards in the following challenges:

Party Times Tuesdays - 'anything goes + kraft' (first card)

Passion for Promarkers - 'cut it out' (third card)

I Love Promarkers - 'floral image' (first card)

Moving Along With the Times - 'garden or flower' (first card)

Crafty Ann's Challenge - 'stitching, real or faux' (second card)

Crazy 4 Challenges - 'paper piecing' (fourth card)

Addicted to Stamps Challenge - 'card for a woman' (first card)

Joanna Sheen Challenge - 'flower power' (first card)

Sweet Stampin' Challenge - 'anything but square' (last card)

Stampin for the Weekend - 'sparkle and shine' (second card)

I was also really surprised and very pleased this morning to find that I've been picked as one of the top three  in the 'Someone Special' challenge on the Joanna Sheen Challenge site - thank you!

Introducing Loverly Jubblies Daisy

A brand new range of gorgeous stamps called 'Loverly Jubblies' has just been launched on the Little Claire website - you can find them here on the website.  The two little characters are called Robert and Daisy and I made this card with the Daisy Bunting stamp - isn't she sweet?

The paper I've used is from a new Paper Cellar book of 6 by 6 designs which I treated myself to last week and I've added some kraft paper, lace and self adhesive pearls.

I've had a great day today at the Little Claire Workshop Day here on the Wirral - it was lovely to see everyone again and I hope everyone who was there enjoyed it!  I'll be back tomorrow with some photos of the cards I designed for the day.

In the meantime, I'd like to enter my Daisy card in the following challenges:

The Crazy Challenge - 'feminine/girly'

Craft Your Passion - 'photo inspiration'

Simon Says Stamp - 'anything goes'

Crafty Creations Challenge - 'what little girls are made of'
Polkadoodles - 'shabby chic/vintage'
Saturday Challenge - 'cute and fluffy'

In Print Again - Creative Cardmaking Magazine

I'm very excited to say that some of my cards also feature in the latest issue of Creative Cardmaking magazine!  If you look at pages 68 and 69, you'll see my cards for the £10 Challenge all made using the very cute Flossie Die Cuts together with some other goodies from Little Claire - patterned and kraft papers, Card Candi and some of the Die Cut Sentiments.

In all, I made six cards and here they are:

And here's how the magazine article looks:

I'd like to enter my cards in the following challenges:

Partytime Tuesday - 'anything goes plus kraft'

Creative Inspirations - 'anything goes'

Crafty Creations Challenges - 'that's what little girls are made of'
Crazy Challenge - 'feminine/girly'

Quick Cards Magazine Issue 100

Issue 100 of Quick Cards magazine has just gone on sale and if you turn to the back of the magazine, you'll find the first Little Claire page!  The company will be featuring in each issue of the magazine with a card project, a 'favourite product' as well as lots of news from Little Claire.

The card for this first page is one of mine using 'Flossie with Birds'.  I also used 'Georgina's  Buttons and Stitching Set' for the cross stitching to make the patchwork background and for the buttons on the card.  Finally, my sentiment came from 'A Little Bird Told Me'.

This is the page from the magazine:

I'd like to enter my card in the following challenges:

Totally Papercrafts - 'all buttoned up'

CES Challenges - 'button it'

Ladybug Crafts Ink Challenge - 'birthday'

Divas by Design - 'buttons and/or bows'

Penny's Paper Craft Challenge Blog - 'happy birthday'
Southern Girls Challenge - 'get your girly on'
Milk Coffee Challenge - 'lots of layers'

Made with a Cherry on Top!

Today's card was made with a Lili of the Valley stamp that I've had in my stamp box for quite a while but just hadn't got round to using.  It's a really cute design and nice and easy to colour too.

For my card layout I followed the sketch at Papertake Weekly and I used Nitwits papers layered up with kraft paper.  To finish the card off, I added some self adhesive pearls and gems.

I'd like to enter my card in the following challenges:

Papertake Weekly 

Lili's Little Fairies - 'diamonds and pearls'

Paperplay Challenges - 'animal antics'

Paper Sundaes - 'let's get cute'

Creative Craft Challenges - 'animal antics'

Shopping Our Stash - 'starts with a b' (baking)

And I'd also like to say a big thank you to Michele at Passion for Promarkers for picking me as one of the top five for the 'pink, pearls and lace' challenge!  Much appreciated and a lovely surprise!

And another big thank you to I Love Promarkers for my prize for winning the 'let's go shopping' challenge  - I'm looking forward to spending my voucher.  Also much appreciated and another lovely surprise!!

More New Stamps from Little Claire - Changing Tree

I'm back with another brand new product from Little Claire - the wonderful and versatile Changing Tree!

It's a three in one (plus more!) stamp set in which you get the tree and then three sets of little stamps to make all sorts of combinations of designs.  You can either keep to the groups the images have been put in or mix and match for a completely unique design plus the little stamps can be used for accents, to create borders etc.  You can see the set plus lots of inspiration from my fellow Design Team members here on the Little Claire website.

On my first card (above) I've used the owl and birdhouse stamps together with some flowers.  The paper I've used is from a magazine freebie pack and I've added some pearls and a peel off greeting.  I inked the edge of the image panel with Cool Peri Adirondack ink.

For my next card I used the wedding stamps including the sweet little sign post that comes with the set.  This time my paper is from Dovecraft and I've used some self adhesive gems to finish the card.

Finally I used the music stamps together with some paper from HOTP which has a music background on it.  I finished this one with some paper flowers coloured with a brown ink pad.

Lots of possibilities!

I'd like to enter my cards in the following challenges:

The Paper Shelter - 'things with wings'

Alphabet Challenge - 'f is for feathered friends'

Make My Monday - 'birds or animals'

Challenge Up Your Life - 'owls' (first card)
Passion for Promarkers - 'die cuts'

Put Out the Bunting - New from Little Claire

Brand new on the Little Claire website today is a great set of bunting stamps - just perfect for summer cards and the upcoming royal celebrations!  You can find all the details plus lots of gorgeous cards made by the DT members here on the website.

I've made two cards with the stamps and combined them with the Little Claire Beach Huts set.

In the set you get a strip of 'ready made' bunting with little embellishments between the flags, other separate elements plus a complete bunting alphabet:


My top tip if you want your bunting evenly spaced and with the little twiddly bits on it is to stamp the 'ready made' bunting to suit the length of your message, then stamp your bunting letters and cut them out and glue them over the top.  It might sound time consuming but you get evenly spaced bunting plus the little extra ornaments perfectly placed too!

My second card also uses one of the Little Claire tag cards - I only wanted three panels so just trimmed the last one off:

The 'sand' is some torn Bazzill dotty paper and I've coloured the ribbons using two colours of Promarkers so they match the colouring on the images perfectly.  It's something I've always meant to try and I think I'll be doing it a lot more now!

I'd like to enter my cards in the following challenges:

That Craft Place - 'anything but square or rectangle' (second card)

Crafts 4 Eternity - 'something new' (the stamps!)

Shopping Our Stash - 'water related' (the beach)

Sweet Stampin' - 'use more than 1 ribbon'

A big thank you to everyone at Winter Wonderland - I had a lovely surprise yesterday when I found out that I'd won their recent 'think pink' challenge - thank you! 

I'll be back tomorrow with another great new idea from Little Claire - you're going to love this one too!!

New Challenge at The Squirrel and the Fox - Food

Today we've got a brand new challenge for you at The Squirrel and the Fox - food!  For more details and to see all the gorgeous cards made by fellow Design Team members, click here.

Our challenge is sponsored by Make it Crafty who are offering the lucky winner AU$15 to spend in their online store.

We were able to choose images to use for our cards from the Make it Crafty store and I picked 'Ginger House Wife' which you can find here on the website.  I used some pale blue gingham paper and some kraft paper to layer it up plus a piece of blue ribbon with white stitching to match my colour scheme.  Finally I added Card Candi in two colours.

I'd like to enter my card in the following challenges:

Crafty Catz - 'stripes or checks'

The Stamping Boutique - 'anything goes'
2 Sisters Blog Challenge - 'use a digital image'

and finally, a big thank you to everyone at the 2 Sisters Challenge Blog for picking my card as the winner of the last challenge!  It was a lovely surprise so thank you again.

Presents for You ....

 There's a Design Team call at the moment on the ABC Christmas Challenge Blog at the moment so I thought I'd give it a go!

The challenge title is 'H is for Hardware' which means something metal on your card and I chose to use some sweet little heart brads that have been sitting on my desk for ages.  The image I've used is called 'Presents for You' and it's a My Favourite Things stamp that I bought when I won a voucher for an American store on a challenge blog.

The paper I've used is from Craft Creations and I added some white sheer ribbon from my stash.  The die I used is a Marianne one.

As well as the ABC Christmas Challenge, I'd also like to enter my card in the following challenges:

I Love Promarkers -'let's go shopping'

Cute Card Thursday - 'metallica'

Moving Along With the Times - 'Christmas'
Sparkles Christmas Challenge - 'favourite colour combinations' (purple and white)
Joanna Sheen Challenge - 'for someone special'
Craft Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge - 'lots of layers'