Great Gifts Product Review: Cupcakes for Clara

If you have a little girl, or know a little girl, this post is for you!

I have been excited about writing this Great Gifts Product Review post from the moment a special envelope with these products arrived in my mailbox.

Cupcakes for Clara

Clara is a grumpy little girl in paper-doll format, created by the lovely Laura Clempson in the UK, whom I have been corresponding with for some time now.

My package for review was wrapped in bright orange paper (my favourite - maybe that's why I've taken such a liking to Clara!) and contained the following items:

(+) Clara doll + a full set of Signature outfits.
(+) Clara doll + a full set of Winter outfits.
(+) A set of 4 single outfit cards for Clara.
(+) A little note from Laura on a "Cupcakes for Clara" notecard + her gorgeous business cards.

If you want to know more about Clara, you should follow my steps!

1. I started by visiting Cupcakes for Clara.
2. I wanted to find out a little bit more about Clara's character, so I clicked the link all about Clara!

Clara has her own little story, and her personality really shines!

Some things I love...


(+) The Clara dolls come with a lovely large envelope, perfect for storing Clara and her outfits once they have been cut out.
(+) Paper dolls inspire imaginative thinking - in my opinion, there are just too many battery-operated toys out there.
(+) Clara and her clothes are printed on nice, thick card stock, perfect for the wear and tear of play!
(+) Laura has created a fantastic little character with a BIG personality!  These make perfect envelope gifts (the right size for sending a lovely gift in the mail).

Some things that I think would be fun...

(+) Clara's story is great, but as a new-ish reader, I only found a few brief mentions of her twin sister Macy.  Even though I know it's ALL ABOUT CLARA, I was curious about Macy and I figured that Laura had probably developed her character a little more at some point before I started reading, so I went to the "search" box and typed in "Macy" - sure enough, I found a little bit about Macy!  Would love to see a little link to the Macy story in the "all about Clara" section (even if it's waaaayyy down at the bottom, out of sight, so as not to make Clara grumpy).

(+) I think Laura may have a Clara storybook in the works, which I think would be a fantastic addition, to bring Clara's story together with the paper dolls.

(+) Don't you think it would be great to have a kid's design challenge to create outfits for Clara?  After all, they are the ones who play with Clara.

Want more Cupcakes for Clara?

(+) See more dolls and outfits (plus other fun things) in the shop
(+) Follow Cupcakes for Clara on Twitter
(+) Visit the Cupcakes for Clara Facebook Page

...and here's the really fun part!


We're hosting a Cupcakes for Clara GIVEAWAY later this week!! Be sure to follow along, and stay tuned!


Interested in having your product included in a "Great Gifts Product Review"?  Connect with me at thepetitcadeau {at} gmail {dot} com for more details!

Birthdays for Children: "Star Light, Star Bright" Free Printable

When I came across this free "Star Light, Star Bright" printable I could not resist sharing.

Image Source: Frog Prince Paperie

It would make such a lovely gift for a little girl. Print out, place in a decorative (white, perhaps?) frame and VOILA, a pretty and thoughtful gift (and you can guarantee they won't get two!)

Visit the Frog Prince Paperie to download yours!

Envelope Gift Series: Balloon Bouquet

Continuing  with the Envelope Gift Series - inspired gifts that can be sent in the mail - I absolutely couldn't wait any longer to share this idea with you! It's -so- creative!

Victoria, from A Subtle Revelry, comes up with the most fabulous ideas.  I was inspired by her birthday balloon idea, and decided to create one of my own (a simpler version, with all of the balloon notes from me).

Image Source: A Subtle Revelry

Here's how I did it:

Step 1: Gather your supplies - Balloons of your choice, a balloon pump, and a permanent marker of some kind.

Step 2: Blow up the balloons using the pump (this makes your gift a little more hygienic!) and write a note on each balloon.

Step 3: Let the air out of the balloons, package together with a card or note and - you have a sweet and thoughtful envelope gift, ready to send in the mail!

I used free printable cards (great for SO many occasions!) from How Does She (featured in the early days of The Petit Cadeau Blog) and included a little note with instructions.

A fun and light-hearted gift for a friend to receive in the mail!

Gifts of Love for Coffee Lovers

Have a coffee lover in your life?
Need a little last-minute idea for Valentines Day?

Eat, Drink, Chic has these fantastic free printable "Je T'aime" coffee cup wrappers!

As we celebrated Valentines Day over the weekend, I can share a few of my little projects with you now, just in time for the day of love.

I snapped a quick picture of our coffee before it was gone!

Want your very own coffee cup wrappers? You can visit Eat, Drink, Chic, download the PDF files, and have a cute, thoughtful gift in a couple of minutes!

"Just a Little Something" for Valentines Day

It's Valentines Week, and while I don't feel that I'm over-the-top into Valentines day, I did feel like baking a little treat for our weekly playgroup.

I had seen the perfect wrapping inspiration for packaging individual cupcakes, and thought I would give it a little Valentines Day twist.

It's so easy, anyone can do this (and if you're not a baker, you could even package up store-bought cupcakes).

1. Supplies Needed:

(+) clear plastic glass (or you could use real glass for a fancier look)
(+) clear or printed food treat bags
(+) printed Valentines - do you recognize these from last week's printable roundup?
(+) one-hole punch
(+) ribbon, string, or wool of your choice
(+) cupcakes (of course) - I chose the Red Velvet recipe from Faking Fancy Cupcakes!

2. Place cupcake in the clear cup or glass

3. Wrap cupcake + glass in your wrapping of choice (the glass makes packaging SO easy, and they are also easy to transport!)

4. Tie your package with ribbon or string, and attach a printed Valentine of your choice!

My inspiration for this post came from the blog Cookie Madness.  You can use clear bags for any-time gifting!  The presentation is so simple, but so effective, don't you think?

Image Source: Cookie Madness

Here are my cupcakes, all packaged and ready to go to their new owners.  There are quite a few leftovers, so I know what I'll be snacking on for the next few days! om nom nom!

You might just brighten someone's day with one of these sweet individually wrapped goodies!

Happy Gifting!

Keeping Warm: Gifts for Men

Looking for a unique way to keep toes warm this winter?  Stuck on a creative gift idea for a man in your life?

How Does She's tutorial for a manly sock bouquet starts off with "men are not easy to buy gifts for"....
How True.
Since it's Winter now, I thought it would be "cool" (ha, ha) to share this small round-up of manly gift ideas, all related to, wait for it, socks - hey, it's cold out there, and socks keep you warm and toasty!

Clockwise
(+) How Does She gets really creative and makes a boring gift of socks into a sock bouquet (complete with rolling-sock-into-flower instructions).

(+) For the DIY type, The Pretty Blog features a free printable wrapper for groom's socks.  

Who knew I could write a whole post all about gifting socks?!

Printable Valentines: Round Up

I think it's fun to send Valentines,  just as a little something to brighten someone's day!

If you have small children in your "world" (nieces, nephews, etc.) it's cute to send them something in the mail.  Kids LOVE mail.  I can remember getting secret valentines in the mail as a young child, sent by older cousins and being SO excited.

It's also a bit of fun to send a card to friends (single or not) and to have a thoughtful card for someone special.  Here's my round-ups of cute (and FREE) Valentines cards and tags!

1. Perfect for kids!  These are the printable Valentines that I sent in the mail last year from pumpkins and posies. I particularly love the "I'm wild about you"!

2. I came across these "how do I love thee" cards from EAB Designs recently and thought they were fantastic - you could hide them around the house for a loved-one to find.

3. Kiki creates has these little printable lovelies on her site.  What's your favourite?  I particularly like the "love arithmetic" - you+ me=awesome!

4.  My new friend in blogging Adriana Willsie has these great Valentine notes as free printables if you sign up for her mailing list (totally worth it!)

5. For a customizable option, these printable Valentines coupons from Love Vs. Design are gorgeous. Now that I've discovered their site, they have so many GREAT printables - I will feature some more in the future!

6. The green gal offers this free printable - a simple "love you" message with a non-traditional colour palette makes it nice for the men in your life.

All images from their respective authors

(design template from The Common Jar)

...and if you want to know what Valentine idea I'm using this year, I'm not revealing until next week (because my husband reads my blog!) so you'll just have to wait and see!

Project Letter Writing

Don't you just love real, tangible mail?

I do.  I don't get nearly enough of it (and you probably don't either).  Today I checked the mail after two snowy days hoping for some great find, aaaaand Nada.  Two flyers.

This is part of the reason why I like shopping online, because the result is that there are little goody packages waiting in the mail for me :)

On the VERY last day of January (luck? fate?) I stumbled across Project Letter Writing from the blog a la mode (like the name!).  The whole idea is that you write a letter or a card (yep, with pen and paper) to someone once a month.

Can I just say. I. love. this.

I do send things in the mail (usually handmade birthday cards) fairly frequently, but I just love this letter writing idea.

As it was already the last day of the month, I figured I should get to work, so I headed to my crafty cupboard to see what I could find.

(Realization #1: I have cards of various sorts, but absolutely 0 stationary.  Must fix this).

Anyway, I decided to put together a little something really quickly.

I had recently printed these lovely little notecards from Becky Higgins, and the "hello" card was just perfect.

Image Source: Becky Higgins

I simply added it to a blank card and attached a little knotted ribbon embellishment.  Voila!

So my first letter is written and mailed (just in time).  I'll be more organized for February.  I'd like to send a letter to someone different each month.  Some months it might be combined with something from my Envelope Gift Series.

Do you like to send and receive mail?  You should join in Project Letter Writing (you never know when someone might send you a letter back!)

Valentine's Day Gift Toppers

Hi, all! It's Katie from the crafty blog, Lemon Jitters. 

I'm so glad to be visiting you here at The Petit Cadeau! I wanted to give you guys some non-traditional Valentine's day gift options. And I have to say - I occasionally like to get away from the same old red+pink Valentines. So I thought I would make something in a softer palette that didn't scream "Valentine's Day!" I created a free printable of gift bag toppers for you to use for small gifts.

Steps to create cute little gift bags:

1. Click here to download an 8.5x11 page of toppers (eight toppers to a page). Each topper is 3.25x2.5in - feel free to resize to match the size of your treat bag. These are perfect for a 3in width.

2. Print page.

3. Cut each topper out. 

4. Fold on the white line in the middle 

(you can see where the hearts turn to face the other direction - that's where you fold).

5. Optional: Round the edges of your topper with a corner-rounder.

6. Tape or staple to top of your goody bag.

If you aren't into candy, how about packaging up gum or a yummy tea?

Enjoy spreading Valentine's Day cheer to your child's classmates, your co-workers or friends!

Note from Alison: If you love this printable and plan to use it, please leave us a comment to let us know! We'd love to hear from you! Be sure to visit Katie's blog, Lemon Jitters for more fabulous DIY projects!

**Printable files are intended for friends and followers of The Petit Cadeau Blog.  Please take a moment to follow us in the right-hand sidebar, or join us on Twitter or Facebook**