A CARD WITH AN ACETATE FRONT

ACETATE PANEL CARD

Although its not evident from the picture, this card features an acetate front that makes the design elements appear to "float" in front of the background panel.

Sharon has die cut the front of a Regal single fold card to make a decorative edge (pink with white spots) and secured a panel of see through acetate (also available from Regal) underneath. She has then used fussy cut pictures backed with double sided Jac paper (Regal again!) to decorate the front.  If you don't have a suitable die you could cut a decorative edge with scissors or just make it straight about 2.5cm below the fold.

If you are looking for something to do that is a bit different but doesn't involve complicated templates this could be the card for you!

Well, this is my last "ghost post".  Marilyn will be doing the card posts as well as the updates from now on. It's been so nice to have the opportunity to share card making ideas.  Cheers!

I

FAIRY CARD

CARD FRONT

It's easy to focus on the front of a greeting card and forget that there are at least two panels inside and one on the back as well that all invite decoration.  Janet has gone one step further by using a three panel card and adding a variety of papers and elements from Kaiser;s "Fairy Garden" range to produce a really sweet fairy-themed card.

The largest die on the front is also from Kaiser - the "whimsical circle frame".  Other elements have been fussy cut and mounted with foam tape to add dimension.

This would obviously be a lovely birthday card or maybe a very special greeting from the tooth fairy?

INNER PANELS

A CALENDAR FOR DAD

FATHER'S DAY CALENDAR

Here's an idea for a father's day card that will last for over a year.
(You can, of course adapt it for any occasion).

Just start with a centre stepper card (STE1), decorate it with co ordinating papers (these were from the small pad in the Kaiser High Tide collection) and add a 2018 calendar and you're done!  All these things are currently available from Regal Craft Cards, including the double-sided tape to stick it all together!

TIP - when you're fussy cutting around objects with fine detail, such as the wheel, leave a small border - it saves having to deal with all the little inny-outy bits and looks good too!

FISH THEMED CARDS

FISH CALENDAR CARD

It's just possible that during the holiday period a few folk might be fishing, so these cards seemed appropriate.  The first, as you can see, has a calendar attached so it can be used all year.

I started with a centre stepper card from Regal, and added lots of blue and green inks and stamped images (I like to think it looks better off-screen (?!)).  The images are from a Kaiser paper but you could stamp some as an alternative.

The second card also uses an image from the same sheet of paper but I've added a postcard picture and a piece of thread - this is a genuine 5 minute card.  The background is a silver single fold card in a DL size.

FISHING CARD

CHILDREN'S CARDS WITH BUTTONS

Fun Birthday Cards with Buttons

Here are two cute cards that Sharon made at her recent "Buttons" demo for Regal Craft Cards.  No dies required - she has cut all the pieces by "eye".

Die-cutting machines are great but back in the day we all used scissors so don't forget that is still a very viable option!

Basically, the ingredients for these cards are singlefold cards from Regal, patterned and plain papers and some alphabet and peel off stickers.  Find the way you like best to stick them all together and you're good to go!

RIBBON WRAP DRESS CARD

RIBBON WRAP DRESS CARD

This is such a simple idea, and as with the best of them I hadn't thought of doing it before I saw Marilyn's card.  She had cut out the shape of a dress, and carefully wrapped it with blue ribbon, adding a sparkly blue ribbon "belt" to finish.

The finished dress has been mounted onto a white singlefold card from Regal Craft Cards.

I can't wait to start wrapping other shapes.....if you do Halloween, a mummy would be an obvious choice, but trees would be effective (maybe even wrapped in twine for a natural look) or maybe actually wrap present shapes for your
Christmas cards.  The possibilities are endless!

A MULITFOLD CARD FROM SINGLEFOLD CARD

MULTIFOLD LAYERED CARD

 If you like to add a lot of decoration to your cards, here is a simple variation of a single fold card that might appeal.

SIDE VIEW

The back panel is scored and folded in half, the front panel is scored into two small sections of the same size at the end of the panel, and two slightly larger sections each measuring half the width of the remaining front section.  I've probably made it sound harder than it is, as the aim is simply to get three folds of ascending size from back to front.

 I've used a sewing theme for my embellishments which include stamped and fussy cut images, real buttons and stamped paperclay.  Because I have added a fair bit of weight to the front of the card, it tends to want to flatten out, and fall over.  To stop this happening I've threaded some twine through a button at the front and tied it behind.  This adds to the overall design theme, but if you had a more delicate theme you could use gold metallic thread, or make slotted pieces of the cardboard to the sides.

As usual, I have used a card from Regal Craft as the base - in this case, an ivory single fold.

3D SKATEBOARDER STEPPER CARD

STEPPER CARD WITH SKATEBOARDER

Regal has two pre-made stepper cards, and both of them can be decorated in so many ways!

Marilyn has used the newer centre step card to make this cool card which would particularly suit pre-teen boys -  a group for which cards can be a bit of a challenge.

The skateboarder is from a Sparklelight 3D sheet, the paper decoration and signs were fussy cut from Kaiser paper and the card has been finished with a Happy Birthday sticker.

GATEFOLD PENCIL CARD

PENCIL CARD

Here's a different way to use Regal's new DL gatefold card.

Add a little paper to the front two panels and cut the tops to points, to make pencils!!  I didn't use templates, just stuck the paper on "extra large" and trimmed it back to fit.  I randomly cut one edge of the the main colour to look as if the pencil had been sharpened, and used a 10c piece to get a rounded bottom on the tip.

The pencil paper on the back panel is by Kaiser and I've onlycut around the very top of the pencils before sticking it on.  The band is made from the other side of the same paper (including the bottom margin).  The "buckle" is a gold circle cut with a nesting die, with a smaller circle (still using the same sheet of decorative paper) within.

This would be a fun card to give to a child with a little packet of real colouring pencils inside, and perhaps a sketch book or colouring book , or even a pack of blank cards and a Bright Ideas Pack as a present!  Older children could make the card themselves.

HIBISCUS STEPPER CARD

HIBISCUS STEPPER CARD

Red and black aren't traditional tropical colours but they work together beautifully in this card that Marilyn has made using Regal's new white centre stepper card as a base.

She has fussy cut hibiscus flowers from a piece of patterned Kaiser paper, and coated them with dimensional magic to create a high gloss raised finished.  The front of the card has been covered in black and the green (red's comPlementary colour) of the leaves and the covering of the back panel, gives a sense of extra dimension.

Marilyn has extended the red, black and white scheme to her greeting which she has made using a peel-off sticker on a tag, tied to the side panel of the card.  All in all, this appears to be a very dimensional card - but one which folds nice and flat for posting!!

TWO CARDS FOR EASTER

EASTER BUNNY CARD

Sharon and Maz have been having fun making these cute Easter cards, using Regal card bases, some hole punched and cutr shapes and a bit of  imagination.  Notice, for instance how the bunny's nose is made from an upside down heart.

Don't be afraid to draw in details such as facial features, and use materials creatively - the bunny's basket, for example is a piece of trimmed burlap ribbon.

Raid the craft supplies for embellishments - paper flowers, rhinestones, buttons, twine etc.  Most of all have fun!!

EASTER CHICKEN CARD

SWEET BIRTHDAY CARD

HAVE A SWEET BIRTHDAY

How cute is this cheerful card that Tania made, using Regal's XSQS2 lime green card as a base.
She's added a punched border, matted pictures fussy cut from Kaiser papers, and a greeting made with black alphabet stickers.

I often forget that when just the right greeting sticker is not available that alphabet's are always at hand.  You can even use permanent markers to colour them however you want!

WHAT A HOOT BIRTHDAY CARD

WHAT A HOOT

And yes.....we do requests.....
I mainly post cards made on Regal Card blanks, but we had a special request to put this one up and here it is!!

The base is folded corrugated card but the tags are made by Regal, and all the other "ingredients" are available in the shop at the time of writing.

The owls are from a sheet of A4 paper and have been assembled as mini paper tole, by cutting out a few of the bits and mounting them with foam tape on top of the base image.

The starts at the top are split pins and the wording is made with Kaiser letter stickers using my first principle of using letter stickers - if you don't think you'll get them straight in a sane time frame, go for a deliberate "casual" look!!  The angle of the photo does make the card look a bit askew, though, but I promise that is OK in real life!!!

CONGRATULATIONS CARD

WATCH CARD

Hello, a super simple card from me this week.  All I've done is take a piece of paper from the Graphic 45 range which featured pocket watches and re-arrange it a bit.  The backing is the reverse of the paper.  The band of the watch is part of the border, as is the accent under the greeting.  A bit of "scissor surgery" has removed the tops from a couple of the pocket watches and turned one into the winder for the wrist watch and the other into the buckle.  I've punched three holes and added a strip of black to complete the band.  The seconds inset in the clock has been highlighted with Dimensional Magic, and three little adhesive pearls have been added to the peel-off greeting.  Its not quite a five minute card but it is very simple!!  As always I've used a Regal Card as the base - this time their black singlefold.

ZIGZAG OWL CARD

OWL ZIGZAG CARD

Here, as promised, is another example of Regal's new Buffalo zigzag square card.

This one does fall a little bit into the "too much is not enough" category, but it was fun to make, with owl print paper from the specialty paper room, lots of border stickers, owl stickers stuck onto coloured card and  cut out, plus some mesh trim, a Sparklelight greeting sticker and more......

The heart is one of Regal's pre-cut gold hearts, embossed using a Cuttlebug  and inside the card are two owls, fussy cut from the patterned paper with a couple of heart stickers overhead.

I'm thinking perhaps a non-traditional engagement card?

ULTRA-EMBOSSING

AUTUMN LEAF ULTRAEMBOSSING

Here are a couple of cards I made for a recent demo that illustrate a really simple yet effective technique.  I don't know if it has an official name but we'll call it "Ultra embossing."  Its just a matter of embossing your base paper (I've used shimmer card in both examples), then embossing a second time, cutting out elements of the design and mounting it on top of the base using foam tape (or silicone glue) for added dimension.  The white on white gives the most impressive result as the shadows are deeper but the Autumn leaves are still obviously dimensional.

ULTRA-EMBOSSING EG2

If you are using more than one colour, you only need to cut small pieces of each and position in the folder over the leaf (or whatever part) you want to cut out.  The embossing folders I've used are from Couture Creations.

I've made the base panels 6 inches by 4 inches and slipped them into Regal's white textured photoslotted cards.  I've inked around the edge of the autumn leaves card with gold and brown ink.  You'll have to take my word for it that it looks better in reality than the picture, as the gold really shines through.

BIRTHDAYS ON THE MOVE

LITTLE TOOT DL BIRTHDAY CARDS

How cute are these DL cards, topped with pictures fussy cut from Kaiser papers (the Little Toot range), and stamped greetings

These cards were made as part of the "Cards for Children and Teenagers" demo that Marty Munro did for us late last year, but they could be used for all sorts of occasions.  The bottom one might be just the thing for a recently retired "grey nomad"?

DIAMOND CARD WITH PURPLE FLOWERS

PURPLE FLOWERS

This card was made for the "Cards with Sparkle and Shine" demo that I did recently for Regal Craft Cards.  Unfortunately the "sparkle and shine" hasn't translated so well to the web page so you will have to take my word for it!!

The base card is one of Regal's XDI1 diecut diamond cards (all the hard cutting out is already done for you) which is a textured white in colour. The edging around the centre is a peel off sticker (silver) and the corners are filled with mesh.  The large stamp has been stamped in purple ink and then heat embossed with polysparkle embossing powder.  The smaller flowers have just been stamped onto pale purple paper with Versamark and similarly heat embossed.  They really twinkle in reality.  The centres of the smaller fussy cut flowers feature cut off pieces of trim, with the centres coloured with a Kaiser pen.  The stamps were made by Darkroom Door.  All of the products used were available from Regal Craft Cards at the time that the card was made.

TWO MORE CARDS FROM MARTY

FLORAL CARDS USING KAISER PAPERS

We have another couple of cards, made by Marty Munro, using Kaiser papers.  Notice the fussy cut butterfly and flower, as well as the stamp used in last weeks examples, but looking rather different!  See too how Marty has used the double sided aspect of the paper to make the zig zag card.

PLAYING CARDS PLUS CARD

LOTS OF CARDS

This card, by Marilyn is a great example of how arranging simple elements can produce a really effective and seemingly (although not actually) complicated card.

The cards and other pictures have been "fussy cut" from Graphic45 paper.  The wooden hinges are from Kaiser, all all the bits are assembled on a Natural singlefold card from Regal Craft Cards.