Stuarts Valantines Day Card

Today Little Claire have launched their digi stamp challenge and they are giving away ten digi stamps, so join in the fun and get crafting (you don`t need to use a Little Claire digi stamp, but you must use a digi stamp). The design team were asked to make a card each to help encourage everyone to enter the competition. Take a look at the design team members cards on the Little Claire blog, they have some good ideas to inspire you.

I wanted to make a Valentines day card for Stuart (I used to be a new romantic but these days I`m just an old romantic) and this challenge was the perfect opportunity - this is my card.

 

 

I downloaded the Litte Claire digi stamp Be Mine Toadstool in to Serif Craft Artist Pro 2, which is my personal choice for a graphics software package. I have made a link to the Serif shop but if you wish to buy this fabulous piece of kit then check out the Create & Craft website because they have sold it for as little as £4.99 + postage in the past.

 

I knew that I wanted to put the image into a 3.5" circle (sorry but I`m just old fashioned about some things) so I drew a 3.5" circle on the blank work page on the computer screen using the shapes button on the task bar. The image looked too small inside the circle so I re-sized it until it looked good. Then I deleted the circle and printed the design onto 280gsm paper/card. I cut out the design with my 3.5" circle die.

 

I chose some papers from the Serif Beach Party digi kit and printed them onto 220gsm paper.

TIP: When using this graphics software I always chose an A4 blank page to work on and using the guide lines I draw the finished card size - 6" x 6". I then drag (from the materials section)  the designs I wish to use as backing papers onto the page and then crop them to just slightly lager than the finished piece of paper required. Then I arrange the cropped papers on the page ready for printing. Remember to leave a border around the edge of the A4 paper as your printer will leave a border when it prints. I find that spending the time doing this gives me an idea of how the papers will look together and I use less  print paper and ink.

 

I cut the printed papers to size and layered them on  to black paper  and stuck it all onto the card.

 

Now I coloured the digi stamp topper to match my printed paper colour palette and stuck it onto a black scalloped die cut circle.

TIP: If you create a soft blue glow around the outside of the image it will make the design pop.

 

Finally I stuck the topper onto the card and added embellishments and a sentiment.