Little Claire October digi Stamp Challenge



Today Little Claire are launching their October digi Stamp Challenge and the theme is Ribbons & Pearls. I thought that as this is a magical time of the year I would do a magical/mystical type of card for my inspirational card as part of the design team. If you would like to take part in the challenge just make a card using a digi stamp and ribbon & pearls and send a photo of it to Little Claire and you could be the lucky winner of this prize.......

FIVE - LITTLE CLAIRE DIGI-STAMPS

I thought I would do more in-depth recipes for cards made using digi images because it is sometimes difficult to work your way around a computer if you are not confident and believe me the digi images are so easy to use. The first thing I will mention is that I use Serif Craft Artist as my graphics program and if you have a different graphics program it will still do the same things as my Serif but I can not talk you through it the way I can with a Serif program.

what you will need:
Lttle Claire Whisper a Wish digi stamp
Little Claire dinkie text To Lovely You
Little Claire dinkie text Happy Birthday
black Versa Fine ink pad
5 3/4" x 5 3/4" white base card
Serif Craft Artist graphics program
Daisy Trail Midnight Garden digi kit - bought from the Serif Daisy Trail on line shop
blue line card
good quality 220gsm mat white print paper
220gsm white paper
black card scraps
lacy butterfly die
solid butterfly die
Midnight Blue Cosmic Shimmer
blue & purple chalks and Cut n Dry to apply chalks
black fine tip pen
Glossy Accents
3 small pearls
small pearl heart embellishment
Gelly Roll silver glitter pen
8mm wide black lace
Gutermann blue metallic thread & needle

Open up the Serif Craft Artist program on your computer and select "blank project" from the Get Started section.
Select A4 portrait from the Page Set Up section by double clicking on it.
Craft Artist will now take you to a page with digi kits on it and if you have purchased the Winter Garden digi kit it should appear in this section. Scroll down until you get to the Materials section and select the blue mushroom image by right clicking on it and it will appear in the Materials Sidebar. Click on the Done button at the bottom of the digi kit browser to close it.
On your A4 work space you will notice two rulers above and to the side of the workspace and if yours is like mine it opens by default in cm so to change this hover your cursor in the corner where the two rulers meet and right click, select inches from the drop down box.
You need to draw guide lines so move the cursor to the left hand ruler and left click and drag the red guide line out to 4 3/4". Hover the cursor over the ruler at the top and drag the red guide line down to 4 1/2".
Bring the blue mushrooms background image from the Materials section of the side bar by left clicking on the image and drag it onto the A4 work area and place it at the top of the work area within the guide lines.
Re size the image by hovering the cursor over the white square at the corner of the image till a double headed arrow appears, left click and drag the image to the correct size. If you need to adjust the size further repeat the last steps with any of the white squares.
You need to move the image from the edge of the work area because when you print an image the printer will leave a white border around the edge of the A4 paper and you do not want this to appear on your background image. You will notice a grey square with cross hairs at the top left of the image, left click and drag the image to a more central position on the work area.
Place the 220gsm white mat print paper in the printer.
Click on the file tab at the top of the screen and select print from the drop down box, select properties from the print pop up box, select photo from the properties pop up box and then select OK from the tab at the bottom.
When the image has printed take the paper and place it back into the printer exactly as it was loaded before (this is important because you are going to over print the digi stamp and it is essential that the images line up).
Left click on the insert tab at the top of the screen, select photo from the drop down box, select from file from the drop down box, select the Little Claire Whisper a Wish digi stamp from the place you filed it which will be displayed in the insert photos box, click on the open tab at the bottom of the box.
A cross with a box beneath it will appear on your work area, left click and drag the cursor, as you do the digi stamp image will appear.
You need to make the digi stamp transparent so you can see the background behind it and place it in the correct position for printing, so take the cursor over to the transparency slider bar at the right hand side of the screen, left click the button and drag it half way along the slider.
Grab the grey cross hairs and drag the digi stamp until the bottom of the image lines up with the bottom of the background.
Re size the digi stamp as before by left clicking on the white squares at the corners and drag to size.
Make the image no longer transparent by placing the cursor over the transparency bar button, left click, drag the button to the left till it reads 0%.
Remove the background image by clicking on it and then press delete on your key board.
Over print the digi stamp image using the same print technique used before (the printer will only print the black of the digi stamp as it assumes you are printing onto white).
THAT IS THE END OF THE COMPUTER/PRINTING STUFF FROM HERE ON ITS NORMAL CRAFTING......

You may find that you can see the background through the silhouette image and if this is the case simply colour in the image with the black fine tip pen (very therapeutic).
Cut the image to size (4 1/2" x 4 3/4").
Using the Gelly Roll silver glitter pen draw a faint line over the spiders web.
Run he edges of the image along the black Versa Fine ink pad (don't be too heavy handed as the Versa Fine ink pad is very juicy and you don't want to have splodges).
Apply the Glossy Accents to the dew on the mushrooms and allow to dry.
Mat and layer the image onto white 220gsm paper.

Cut the blue linen card to mat and layer onto the base card but do not stick down.
Stick the image topper to the blue linen card.
Stamp the Little Claire dinkie text "To Lovely You" and "Happy Birthday" using the black Versa Fine ink pad.
Cut the sentiments to size.
Colour the sentiments using the purple and blue chalks and applying with the Cut n Dry foam.
Stick the sentiments onto the card.

Cut a piece of the black lace so that it can lay on the card and wrap around the back of the card.
Take the Gutermann blue metallic thread, thread the needle and sew a running stitch along the edge of the lace.
tick the lace onto the card, wrap around the back and secure with tape.
Stick the blue linen card onto the white 5 3/4" x 5 3/4" base card.
Stick the little pearl heart embellishment to the card.

Using the butterfly die and scraps of black card cut out a lacy butterfly about 4cm and a small solid butterfly (my die has both of the butterflies but if you do not have the solid butterfly simply colour in the printed butterfly on the topper with the black fine tip pen).
Spritz the lacy butterfly with the Midnight Blue Cosmic Shimmer and allow to dry.
Stick the solid butterfly flat onto the card.
Fold the wings of the lacy butterfly back along the body and stick to the card covering the solid butterfly.
Stick 3 small pearl gems along the butterfly`s body.

USING A GRAPHICS PROGRAM IS ALWAYS A BIT SCARY AT FIRST BUT THE MORE YOU USE IT THE MORE FAMILIAR YOU WILL BECOME WITH IT AND THE RESULTS ARE AMAZING, SO PLEASE PERSEVERE.........