Little Claire Club

For 7.50 a month plus a pound p&p you can join what is, in my opinion, a great Club. Little Claire club members receive a project pack each month containing a new stamp or set of stamps, pre-cut materials to make a card plus colour idea sheets for other projects. On top of that you get a 10% discount on all your purchases either online, by phone or at shows and a monthly newsletter. You only have to commit to 6 months at a time but once you are a member I am sure you will want to continue. I have been a member for some time and I have never been disappointed. The staff are so friendly and helpful; they make you feel like you are part of a family rather than a stamping club.

 This month’s stamp is ‘A little bird told me…’ and when it dropped through my letterbox Ijust has to stat using it immediately. I love the little bird but it would be easy to leave it out of the stamped image if you wanted to, just don’t put ink on it. The stamp came with the sentiment ‘A little bird told me……’ ‘That it’s your birthday…..’ making the stamp perfect for winter birthdays but I used the stamp for Christmas cards as you can see.

Although these three cards are all the same image and two use the same paper, I made them different by the use of colour, embelishments and even the shape.

In the first card I used a snowflake to back a white Poinsettia which I had given more glitz by covering with crystal stickles. The gem swirl is part of a larger one that was in my stash and the paper is from the K&Co 'Christmas Cheer' pad.

The second card I used a blue Sekura pen to highlight the blue swirls that were already on the paper and them added gems of the same colour. I also used a silver pen to add highlights to the holly leaves and  put 'Glossy Accents' on the holly berries to make them stand out. The paper is also from the K&Co 'Christmas Cheer' pad and the red chiffon ribbon was from my stash.

The last card is much the same using the K&Co 'Christmas Cheer' paper and a gem swirl and braid from my stash. All three images were coloured using promarkers.

The Christmas Rush

Why do I do it? Every year I promise myself I am going to be more organised and get my Christmas cards made early and every year I am rushing at the last moment trying to get them finished. This year is no exception, here we are 50 days away from Christmas and I still have nowhere near enough cards made but I thought I would show you one that I have finished.





The image is another from Whiff of Joy and of course I coloured it with Promarkers. It is matted onto silver mirriboard and the paper by Kars has glittered swirls so that saved me some time which I really need. The muff, earmuffs and boot bobbles I covered with stickles and the flowers and crystal stems are from Wild Orchid Crafts.

Thanksgiving

For those of you who don't know, Thanksgiving is a Harvest Festival celebrated in the USA on the fourth Thursday of November. The story goes that the Pilgrims started the Thanksgiving tradition when they held their Harvest festival and invited the Indians to share their feast and the Indians brought a Turkey to share. Today it is fondly known as 'Turkey Day' and it heralds the start of the Holiday season The famous 'Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade' with its marching bands and huge helium balloons brings Santa Claus to the New York store. The parade was the centre piece of my favourite Christmas film 'Miracle on 34th Street', the 1947 version although the 1994 version is good as well.

I know Thanksgiving is not celebrated in England but I spent 6 years of my married life in the States and I still have some relatives there so I have a couple of Thanksgiving cards to make each year.







The backing paper is printed from an Artylicious CD 'Essence of Nature’, which I printed out onto a pearlescent paper. This was my first venture into using CD's for backing papers and I was really pleased with the result so I will be looking into using the media more. The image is a stamp from Whiff of Joy which I coloured with Promarkers. The flowers are from Orchard Crafts and the ribbons are from my stash. The greeting I stamped using an Inkadinkado stamp and a powder from WOW! who are bringing out some nice colours. I like to make a co-ordinating box for my cards rather than an envelope or boxelope so that the flowers do not get crushed, but as this has to make it to the USA I will be wrapping it in bubble wrap as well.

The New Man in My Life

I have just realised how long it has been since I posted anything on here, I blame the new man in my life for taking up too much of my time!

Please say hello to the newest addition to our household, Brodie.

Brodie is a 10 year old Liver and White Springer Spaniel that we have adopted from the 'Dogs Trust'. He came to them as a stray found somewhere in Ireland so we do not have any history on him before he was taken into the care of the Trust. When he was examined by one of the Trust's vets it was found that Brodie had a damaged kidney and appalling teeth problems. It was decided that the best course of action was to remove the damaged kidney and while he was under anaesthetic to do what they could in the way of dental treatment.

You may remember that our previous dog, Brian, had also come to us from the Dog's Trust so that made the process of adopting Brodie much easier as we did not have to wait for a home check or Vet check. I went for another older dog because I cannot walk very far or very fast so I needed a dog who did not need more exercise than I could give him and one that would not be running around my feet and tripping me up.

When we brought Brodie home he had only had his big operation 3 weeks previously and he needed to put some weight on but apart from that he is a lovely dog. He is very well behaved and has been trained well. We think he may have been trained as a gun dog as he loves to retrieve a thrown toy but we have yet to find the command to make him give up the toy once he brings it back to you!

Our cat Oscar is still not too sure of Brodie, I am sure it will be alright but it is just taking a bit of time for them both to get used to each other. Oscar is still a bit frightened of the dog whilst Brodie can get a bit jealous of the cat.

So that’s my excuse and now I will get back to crafting.

100 Days Until Christmas

That's right, just 100 days until Christmas and that being so I thought I had better kick myself into gear and get down to making Christmas cards. So here is the first of my cards for 2010.

This is one of Lilli of the Valley's new stamps, she is called 'All Wrapped up'. Of course I have coloured her using Promarkers although I have used a couple of Sekura pens for 'Special' effects that have not been caught by the camera. I used a Souffle pen on her muff to give the impression of fur (fake fur of course because we would never use real fur) and a Gloss pen on the toes of her boots to make them look like patent leather. The papers are K&Co Tim Coffey Christmas and the embellishments are from my stash.

I have gone back to using miri board for matting which is really appropriate for Christmas but I also like it for other cards. I also used stickles on the flowers to give them some extra sparkle.

Back To School

My Nephew and Niece are both starting their last year at their respective schools so I wanted to make them a card each to mark the occasion. These new stamps from Lilli of the Valley fit the bill perfectly.




Back to Schoool Girl


Back to School Boy

I have coloured the images with Promarkers based on their school uniform colours. I used a bit of 'Artistic Licence' with my Nephews card and combined his P.E. kit and his Uniform to make the card more colourful. The charms on both cards are removable and can be used on a mobile phone or on a pencil case zip or anything else they can think of.

Wild Orchid Challenge

The Wild Orchid Challenge 4 is 'Make it Sparkle' so this card has sparkle all over from the glitterd paper to the tinsel in the flower bouqet.



The image is 'For Someone Special' form 'Ladybug and Friends' coloured with Promarkers. The papers are 'Linen Closet' by DCWV and I used mirri board for mounting to bring in more shine. The flowers are from Wild Orchid with some Diamond Stickles added for sparkle; the Sparkle Gems, Crystal Stems and Ribbon are from my stash.The flower bouquet is Ivory Flower Soft and some Tinsel Glitter from Martha Stewart. This will be my first challenge entry so fingers crossed.