PICKPOINT DUCKS

This is the time of year when we seem to either have less time than usual or more time available.  If you fit into the latter category, you might want to make some cards that take a little longer than usual and/or try a new technique.  This duck family were sewn using the pickpoint pattern PPF16 "Riverside Delights". I've sewn it onto one of Regal's three panel textured white cards, and used variegated stranded embroidery thread.  Metallic threads make more of a statement, but don't photograph quite as well.

 In case you missed my last post and were wondering, the shop is re opening on Wednesday 02 January.

LAST MINUTE CHRISTMAS

LAST MINUTE CHRISTMAS CARDS

If you haven't started your Christmas cards yet don't panic (OK....well panic a little bit).  Pop in and buy some photoslot cards from Regal, find some  favourite photos (or take some especially, and make a dash to your local photo processor  and voila...instant hand-made Christmas cards!!

Regal closes up for the year tomorrow (Friday the 21st) which is why I'm posting today instead of then, to give you a chance to dash in for last minute goodies.  We don't re open until Wednesday January 02nd.

Every good wish to you all for the holiday season.

PARCHMENT WEDDING CARD

I don't imagine anyone would have the time to devote to making this card in December, so just rest a while, and take a few moments to enjoy looking at Lyn Kirkham;s masterpiece!!

FRIDAY UPDATE

Just a quick note to let Regal customers know that we will be closed from lunchtime on Friday until 02 January, and to wish all of you a happy and peaceful holiday season.

"STAINED GLASS" STICKER CARD

One of our customers, Maureen James, has kindly allowed me to show you one of her Christmas cards.  She uses stickers very effectively, using paper to add colour to the dove, and glitter glue to enhance the "stained glass".  Maureen has used one of Regal's red cards as the base for her elegant design

GLITTER CHRISTMAS CARDS

CARDS FOR A VERY HAPPY CHRISTMAS

We have a special treat for everyone....Believe it or not all these beautiful cards were made by students from grade 1 and 2 at West Launceston Primary School, and what a talented group they are.  There will be some very lucky people receiving these gorgeous glittery cards this Christmas!

ANOTHER QUICK CHRISTMAS CARD

QUICK CHRISTMAS CARD

Another of Tania's quick Christmas cards, albeit not quite in the five minute wonder category.  She has layered patterned papers onto a square Natural coloured base card, and added a double mounted panel cut with scalloped scissors, and a "velvet" Christmas ribbon.  The corner features a Christmas tree split pin.  You could easily adapt this design to use your favourite Christmas papers,

QUICK CHRISTMAS CARDS

Time is short for making Christmas cards but this example shouldn't take you too long.  The singlefold red card is available from Regal.  Tania has backed some decorative paper from their specialty paper room with gold card and then added corder stickers.  She has used the same gold underneath the red "Merry Christmas" ribbon which doubles as the greeting.  (If you are in a huge hurry you could make a similar card without the gold backing).

FRIDAY UPDATE

Regal's last demo for the year was held today.  Susan Longman did a great job showing a variety of techniques using stamps and other products.  So many people said they had learnt something new and enjoyed the session which is what we like to hear.

TWO QUICK CHRISTMAS CARDS

 Janet has used papers from Regal's specialty paper room to make some quick and cheerful Christmas cards.  If you haven't started to make yours yet these two might be an inspiration.  The first has a "present" which I suspect is made from wrapped cardboard but who can say what might be under the striped paper!!  The greeting is made from peel-off stickers but shows a couple of good ideas for card-making in general.  The first is, that gold and silver stickers can be successfully  coloured with alcohol-based marker pens - they even retain their shine.  The second good idea is that stickers don't always have to be placed in a straight line - these make a great corder decoration.  The second card is also based on a printed
Christmas paper.  This time the greeting has been made with alphabet peel-off letters on a tag.
(Sorry for the slightly dodgy photography, especially to you Janet - this is the second time.  I promise to scan your cards or use the big camera next time).

PRESENT WITH BOW

This is a pretty card by Leith Laws.  The feature is a little origami cup decorated with a button and bow.  How cute is that!!  Vintage is still popular,  but its nice to see a lot more "clean" cards featuring white as a "colour", appearing too.

DATES FOR CLASSES

Hello again

We have some dates organized at the shop which I promised to include in the blog.  The first scrapbooking class will be held on Thursday 24th of January with Susan Longman.  Susan is doing two layouts using Kaiser's "Secret Admirer" range which is due for release at the beginning of December. The first cardmaking class will be on Wednesday 06 February with me (Heather) and we'll be making flowers (and cards of course!!). If you'd like to join in, you can book in the shop or by credit card via the phone.   Regal is, of course, still holding their free demos each month (except January and December) and these will commence on Monday  February 11th with Maz doing the first one for the year which at this stage will be called "Mostly Men".  We have the class fliers in the shop at the moment, and the demo date cards should be available early in the new year.

WEEKLY NEWS

Hello again...gosh the weeks are flying by aren't they?  Just a quick note to let you know about the weekly specials over on Regal's website at www.regalcraftcards.com.au.  They have a black craft bag with detachable shoulder strap for only $12.00 (great Christmas gift!) and a ten pack of single fold cream cards at a terrific price!!  Check them out.

We had our last class for the year yesterday and made waterfall cards.  Our first card class is going to be in early February and we can take bookings now.  I'll put up more complete information next week.

Enjoy your weekend........I'll post again on Tuesday to let you know more about the classes!!

CHRISTMAS CUP CARD

CHRISTMAS TEA CUP

Maz has decorated Regal's cup and saucer card with some very pretty papers and a tag plus some punched decorations and stickers to make a really cute Christmas Card.  You could add a message inside E.g. "Sending a cup of love this Christmas" or even include a teabag ("Have a cup of tea with me this Christmas") etc.

Weekly Update

If you haven't made your Christmas cards yet, then Regal's weekend special might come in useful - 50 packs of bell cut-out cards for only $12.00.  These are doubly useful because apart from the cards, the bells make great little tags or decorations.  The second special  is 10% off double-sided tape.  I don't know about you but I go through heaps of tape, so this is a great chance stock up.  Go to our website at www.regalcraftcards.com.au if you want to order.

We've had some new things in the shop this week - notably some really nice stamp sets from Couture Creations .....And yes I was tempted even although I kept telling folks that I wasn't going to buy any as I had enough stamps.......but .really, we all all know that you can never have enough stamps,!!!!

We had our last scrapbooking class for the year this week.  Susan will be back with more classes in the new year.  As soon as the dates are finalized, I'll let you know in the shop and via the blog. The final card class of the year is next week, and is booked out.  There will be more classes in cardmaking in 2013 as well, with a variety of tutors, although I'm fairly sure I'll be doing the first one in early February.  I'll let you know as soon as firm details are available
Have a nice weekend, folks.  Catch up with you next week.

LALALAND CUTIES

I've been a bit slow to get these pictures on the blog, but I'm sure you'll agree these cute cards that Janine Smith made using La La Land stamps at the September demo (yes, sorry, I know it was nearly two months ago) are worth the wait!!  Janine has stamped multiple images, and after colouring them, has used her Spellbinders  dies to cut ovals of decreasing size.  She has then layered them up with some foam tape behind to add dimension

 Janine made quite a few lovely cards in the course of the day........and she did a Christmas demo a week or so ago as well, so expect to see more of her work in the next few weeks.

"JUST BECAUSE" SHOE CARD

How cool is this lovely card that Kay Beams made and allowed us to share on the blog?!
She has used black card and scrapbooking papers to make the shoe and  a hole punch for the top border.
The card is finished with  greeting stamped on white card and backed with a scalloped circle cut with either a die or hole punch from black card.

We had a busy and happy demo day yesterday and all slept well last night!!!  Janene made some lovely cards and hopefully inspired some new creations.  There is only one demo left for the year - Scrapbooking with stamps with Susan Longman at the end of November, but we are already planning demos and classes for next year!!!

STORYBOOK CARD

This is a little mini album I made using one of Regal's "Storybook" cards.  Each accordion card basically gives you ten white panels to decorate however you please.  I kept this one pretty simple.  Just a few edited photos of rural scenes around Launceston, printed onto normal paper (rather than the glossy photo variety), stuck onto some Kaiser paper and beige and brown backing a a couple of die cut/hole punched embellishments and stickers and that's it!  I'm really more of a small-scale scrapbooker at heart and always have fun doing little projects.  If you had relatives living away, this format would be a nice way of sharing photos of your city/house/garden/children etc., especially with Christmas coming up.  You can buy the base cards singly, and truly its worth the investment not to have to measure, cut and join them yourself.  (Well... as evidenced by the stack I have in my craft room at home, this is certainly true for me!!)

GIFT CARD

One of our younger card makers, Abby McKinlay has made a cute gift card to share with us.  She has used decorative features from Kaiser's Butterfly Kisses collection and  gold outline stickers to say "Just for You".

VINTAGE LADIES 2

This is another example of Lorraine Porter's gorgeous vintage cards.  This one combines Kaiser stamps with rolled roses and punched leaves, all arranged strikingly on a Regal singlefold black card.

We had our very first scrapbooking class at Regal yesterday.  By all accounts Susan did a great job and there were lots of smiles all around.  One of the problems of being in the shop is, of course, that like many other folks, I am working and couldn't actually go!!  For those that can take some time, though, the next scrapbooking class (with a Christmas theme - a chance to tackle last year's photos before this year's festivities roll around) is being held on November 15th.  We want to keep the classes small 10 - 12 people per session and spots are filling fast, so if you are interested I'd be inclined to book now.
We have lots of lovely new Christmas embossing folders in the shop too at the moment.  I haven't bought any yet........its not that I don't like them its just that I can't have them all and am finding it quite hard to chose!!

NOTE BOARD CALENDAR

This is the last of the photos I have to share from Lynne Armstrong's demonstration, using Regal's calendars.
Lynne has framed a piece of Kaiser paper, secured one of Regal's small calendars to the front, and then attached a whiteboard marker to the side, to make a fabulous note board and calendar rolled into one.  This would look great hanging on the wall, and certainly beats a bundle of messy sticky notes all over the fridge.

We had our first card class at Regal this week.  It was fairly hectic but most people seemed to be smiling!  We only have one spot left for the November card class, and I'm starting to plan ahead for next year.  (Yes already!!!)  The October scrapbooking class is all booked out, but we are taking bookings for the November one.  Plus of course the free demos for October and November are still to come.......

The Kaiser October release is in the shop, along with lots of other new goodies including stamps and embossing folders!  If you haven't been down to see us lately please pop in and say hello, and check out the new stock.

IRIS FOLDED DOLPHINS

This card is a survivor - its been used as a sample card on the counter, served its time on our display board and even survived a couple of months in the window.  Its a little crumpled but I thought Maz's iris-folded dolphins were too nice not to share before they reached their final resting place. The base card with dolphin cut-outs is available from Regal, and a selection of dark and light grey papers with a shiny textured silver for the "iris" were used.  A couple of  silver peel-off stickers complete the card.  (And yes....I promise to include an un-crumpled card from Maz within the next couple of weeks!!)

PARCHMENT BUTTERFLY

Parchment craft is one field of card making into which I rarely stray.  I am totally in awe of this beautiful parchment card made by one of our customers, Lynn Kirkham.  Lynn has very kindly allowed us to photograph a few of her cards for the blog, so keep an eye out for other examples of her work in the weeks ahead.  (And yes, they are all as impressive as this example!!)

3D WITH LACE

                                                                                                    

Trudy Meijer has used real lace to frame this Sparklelight 3D, which she added to a black base card.  (Both are available from Regal).  Two silver border stickers complete the front of this very elegant card.  Trudy has continued the lacy theme inside by adding a white paper panel, edged with a border punch

CUP AND SAUCER CARD

This is the third in the series of newly released shaped cards from Regal.  Tania had decorated it with some pretty scrapbooking papers and a selection of paper flowers.  Now there's a whole tea party happening in the Regal card world - teapots, cupcakes and cups!!

CUPCAKE CARDS

Here are a couple of examples of Regal's new shaped card - the cupcake card....or the Christmas pud' card, if you like.  Maz made the latter using embossed card for the base and Snowtex for the "iced" top.

I made the other one....the top was supposed to look as if it had sprinkles but looks a bit more as if it has measles!!!! If I had my time again I'd make fewer but bigger spots with KindiGlitz.  I cut a second top and fixed it to the card with foam tape for added dimension.

These cards are fun to decorate.  They  are now on the Regal website.

BUTTERFLY CIRCLES

Here is another card from Leith Laws.  She has rounded the corners of one of Regal's plain single fold cards, and then added circles of patterned paper from Kaiser's Lush collection, backed with slightly larger  plain card.  The greeting, which provides the main focus of the card,  is inside a little wooden frame, also from Kaiser. Leith has finished the card with some lovely little punched butterflies with lifted wings.

JAPANESE LADIES ON LATTICE CARDS

Mary Blyth brought lovely cards featuring Japanese ladies (from the Sparklelight 3D range) into the shop and happily for us, she is allowing me to put them on the blog.

Note the innovative way that Mary has used Regal's lattice cards - by unfolding the "doors" she's converted one card into two.  By separating some of the layers in the 3Ds she has also been able to share one picture across the last two cards.  Clever and economical - what a great idea!!

FLOWER BARROW BEST WISHES

 How cute is this card by Kay Beams, another of our lovely customers who have agreed to share some of their cards.  Kay has used one of Regal's square cards as a base, cutting the front panel back slightly with decorative scissors to reveal a strip of patterned paper underneath.  The front panel was then run through a die-cutting machine using a Swiss Dots folder.  She has paper pieced the barrow and added various embellishments.  The pretty little flowers are made by winding embroidery thread!

News from Regal

An update for folks that I haven't seen in the shop lately is that due to popular demand, we are now running monthly classes in addition to the free demos (which will continue).  At this stage we are thinking of doing one card class and one scrapbooking class each month but we may do some fine tuning as time goes on.  The October card class booked out really quickly but there are still a few vacancies for the scrapbooking one.  The latter is being taught by Susan Longman who is a well known member of several design teams as well as featuring regularly in papercraft magazines and promises to be a fabulous opportunity to learn off a very talented scrapbooker.  We've just started taking bookings for the November card class which I'm teaching(!)  I'll be doing a step-by-step construction of waterfall cards - one of those techniques that's quite hard to fathom from a book but really easy once someone shows you how.  Details are available from Regal's craft shop in Launceston.

FAN CARD

I used a Regal fan card to make this example.  If you just popped some pretty paper or fabric underneath it could easily be a five minute card, but I've done a little bit more this time around.  The paper is vellum/parchment paper, coloured with a dorso crayon (spread with some lavender oil so it has a nice scent as well).  After it was thoroughly dry I ran it through the Cuttlebug using a paisley embossing folder and then added some gold-edged satin ribbon and Kaiser flowers to finish.  Apart from waiting until the oil dried, I think that made it a 10 minute card!!

ROLLED ROSES

These lovely cards were made by Norma Johnson.  The black card features ladies from a Sparklelight topper sheet on Regal's 3 square, 3 panel craft cards.  (You can get these in bright pink and in lime green as well).

The white card features a Cuttlebug cut and emboss frame

Both cards feature hand-rolled flowers and punched leaves and have been finished with peel off stickers.

We really do have some talented customers!!

VINTAGE COLLAGE CARD

Here is another great collage card by Trudy Meijer.  She has used pages and images from actual children's books, and overstamped them with some Graphic 45 images from Hampton Art.  Lots of inking and some coiled paper roses complete the panel which has been constructed using one of Regal's brown singlefold cards as a base.

BUTTERFLY PUNCH CARD

Leith Laws made this lovely butterfly card.   She used a Regal smooth white singlefold card as a base and then added a circle of  butterflies cut from Kaiser paper with a Martha Stewart punch.  A rub-on from Kaiser completes the design.  Leith is another of our lovely customers who have agreed to share some of their work, so there will be some more cards from her in the coming weeks

VINTAGE LADIES

These cards were made by Lorraine Porter, who is well known through one of the Exeter craft groups. She has used the vintage lady stamp from Kaiser's Charlotte's Dream set to make two classic and beautiful cards.
The one on the left uses Regal's book card.  (If you look on Regal's website you'll see that its available in a selection of colours).  Lorraine has made an insert and drawn on the suggestion of pages to complete "the look".
The second card has been first backed with black card and then mounted on a Regal singlefold burgundy card.  Outline stickers have been used to finish the design.
Both cards feature an embellishment of handmade rolled roses with punched leaves.

PRINTED FELT APPLE CARD

This is one of Regal's cute apple cut-out cards.  I popped some paper scraps behind the stalk and leaves but the body of the apple is made with felt.  I inked the "bumpy" side of a Cuttlebug paisley embossing folder with silver ink and then ran it through the machine with the felt inside so that the pattern from the folder was printed onto the felt.  Its quite an effective technique, and very quick.  If you don't want to stain your embossing folder, though, it's a good idea to use a water-based ink and wash it up straight away in some warm soapy water.

FABRIC COLLAGE CARDS

These lovely cards were made by the talented Trudy Meijer, who brought in some cards to show us, and kindly agreed to let me share them with you via the blog. Trudy has used one of Regal's square gold cards as a base, and after creatively using repurposed clothing as a background, Has added various embellishments including paper flowers, ribbons. lace and buttons.  

GREEN AND GOLD SAILBOAT

Maz made this card to celebrate the success of Australia's Olympic sailors!  The striped paper comes from the Graphic45 Domestic Goddess range, and Maz has coloured the "Best Wishes" sticker with a permanent marker to make it fit into the overall colour scheme which is...of course.....green and gold!!

SPARKLELIGHT FLORAL CARD

Janet has made this pretty card using a variety of flowers and a Sparklelight backing sheet.  Sparklelight is delicately etched and it reflect lights adding  a sense of movement.  Unfortunately it makes photography difficult, so you'll have to believe me when I say that even although this card looks nice on the screen, its even more beautiful in reality.

VINTAGE FASHION CALENDAR

This is another one of Lynne's lovely calendars.  The photo is a tad dodgy because we already have it up on display immediately underneath a flourescent light and my little camera hasn't really done justice to this lovely project.  (Yes I know......I'm blaming the equipment, not the operator).

Anyway.....and more importantly, Lynne used ribbon to attach one of Regal's little calandar pads to a panel decorated with Graphic 45 paper, a handmade rosette and a beautiful pencil-coloured stamp from Darkroom Door.  (Yes.....it is hand-coloured!)  The end-result is a beautiful vintage piece that could take pride of place in any room.

KOALA CARD

Zoe made this lovely Koala Card.  She used a Regal Singlefold smooth white card as a base, and added a background of green swiss dots  and brown Bazzill card.  The cute koala is a Stamp-It stamp that Zoe has stamped out twice and coloured.  She's then cut a section from one of the images and mounted it on top of the other using some double-sided foam tape to add some height.  The greeting is an outline sticker, and the finishing touches were added with a piece of real bark for the tree branch and an actual leaf on top of the greeting.

SHOPPING BAG TILT CARD

The perspective is slightly dodgy, but hopefully you can still get the idea of this card.

 I've used one of Regal's tilt (easel) cards for the base, which I've covered in crimson and salmon paper and added a bit of bling with rhinestones. The top strip is just a piece of white card with salmon on top adorned with a couple of flower stickers (stuck onto crimson card and cut out) and a greetings sticker.

The bag is a clear sticker from the Starform
Stitch design range.  I've put some plain crimson paper under the side and some really pretty Japanese paper underneath the main design.

After that I've stuck the whole thing around three sides with a single row of double-sided tape to a piece of crimson card to make a pocket, cut it out and mounted it onto the folding panel.  Its just thse right size to add a gift card or voucher or some money or even a few mini craft supplies such as rhinestones or split pins as a gift.

Even although I've probably made it sound harder than it actually is, this is really quite a quick card to make and there are no complicated techniques to conquer.  Its really all cutting and sticking.

STAND-UP CALENDARS

Here are another couple of calendars from Lynne's demo.  Both of them are made with a similar structure - just in a different size.  You can see from the side picture how Lynne has scored and secured the base so the calendars will sit flat (e.g. for posting).  The larger calendar features Kaiser stamps which have been coloured with Copic markers.  Lynne has then added highlights by embossing the middle of the flowers with polysparkle embossing powder and adding some little rhinestones.  Little calendar pads from Regal complete the projects.

CHRISTMAS TREE

CHRISTMAS TREE CARD

Who says Christmas trees have to be green?!  In this example, all I've done is stick some little gold star split pins through some corrugated gated card and  popped it behind one of Regal's three panel Christmas tree cut-out cards (which not only provides the tree shape but hides the legs of the split pins too).  The sticker star, greeting, and blue border are optional.  I'm pretty happy with the result given how easy it was to make.  If you used stickers instead of a stamp and skipped the blue line you could mass-produce these really quickly for Christmas.  I always have good intentions of starting to make Christmas cards at this time of year but in reality usually leave it until the last minute.  Maybe I should run up a batch of these now and enjoy feeling unusually smug for the rest of the year!!

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TEAPOT CARDS - new product from Regal

This card is the very newest release from Regal......and I mean VERY new, it only came down to the shop late yesterday.  Tania and I did have a little time beforehand to play........and these are the results.  The cards hinge at the top, and are made from smooth white cardstock so they are easy to colour or stamp if you don't want to cover them with decorative papers.  We'll try and get a few more examples done in the coming weeks.

LITTLE DARLINGS BABY CARD

I just love Graphic 45 papers and the one I've used for this card is from their Little Darlings range.  I've used one of Regal's pretty blue singlefold cards as the base, and added some punched daisies with Kaiser pearl centres.  The blue panel at the bottom is edged with a Martha Stewart border punch and more pearls!

TEABAG CARD

I love folding paper - origami, iris folding, teabag folding - all of it!  This example is of the latter.  Its probably the easiest teabag fold of all, but its still one of my favourites as it can be used in so many different ways.

Start with  a square of double sided paper - thinner papers are easier to fold, but if you fold carefully and use a scorer if necessary, then scrapbooking papers are OK too.  Turn the square so that a point is at the bottom and then fold two sided in to meet at the middle to make a kite shape (you might like to crease the square diagonally first as a guide).

Make eight of these and arrange them in a circle.  Its easier if you stick down four in a cross shape first and then fill in the gaps with the other four - you're less likely to end up with unwantd spaces.

I've added a split pin as a feature - purely decorative, as it doesn't actually do anything (although its a good way to hide less than perfect centres.)  I've mounted the folded papers onto some dark blue card and then put the whole thing into one of Regal's white textured three panel circle cut-out cards.

THREE SQUARE CARD

The three-square is one of Regal's more unusual cards.  It also has three panels.  The middle panel has the three joined squares already cut out so that you can put paper or fabric or anything flat  (E.g. cork, metal, acetate etc) underneath.  The front panel can then be secured behind the feature panel to hide messy backs E.g. split pins, sewing, staples etc). Tania has used some Botany (a natural-coloured recycled paper) to make a torn border and backing for the squares.  She's then put some Graphic 45 paper behind and on top of the squares, adding a corner to the bottom edge, and finally popped on some tiny black stickers for a finishing touch.