SIX QUICK GIFT CARDS

SPARKLELIGHT GIFT CARDS

Sometimes you just need to whip up some gift cards in a hurry and this is one example of how to go about it.

A sheet of 12 x 12 card (I used Pansy Bazzill - Regal 12BA74) can be cut into 6 pieces measuring 3 inches by 6 inches.  Score and fold in half and add a Sparklelight sticker (these ones are "Occasions" SLS 2003 also from Regal), and there you are.  There are even envelopes available if you need them.

That's five minutes work for 6 gift cards!!

TWO TIMELESS CARDS

TWO TIMELESS CARDS

There are two examples from Marty to inspire you this week. Both are made with a combination of Kaiser papers (from the Timeless collection) and stamps.
The cards were made as part of a demo he did a while back on cards for teenagers and young people but the neutral colours and design make them well suited to older age groups as well.

PICKPOINT ART NOUVEAU FLOWERS

ART NOUVEAU FLOWERS

Last week's card was a quick one - this week's is not.  Pickpoint cards are time consuming, but if you enjoy sewing and/or you know someone who will really appreciate a card like this, then it really is worth the effort.

I've used a pickpoint pattern from the Art Nouveau pack, with pink metallic thread and tiny rhinestones.  All the materials, including the base card and Sparklelight greeting sticker came from Regal Craft Cards.

Pickpoint patterns come with clear instructions so even if you are a beginner, its quite simple.

Just a hint......If you're sewing of an evening a white cloth over your lap will help you see the holes if you are sewing on a dark coloured card, and a dark cloth for light cards.  Its not a huge difference but it does help!!

RAFTING TWISTER CARD

Twister Card

Twister cards are fun and easy to make.  Flowers are great but not suitable for everyone so if you want a change this is an example.  I've used gloss card from Regal as a base, and the 3D twister sheet is also from there.

BOOK CARDS FROM REGAL

BOOK CARD IDEAS

I had a request for a couple of ideas using Regal's book cards  - so here they are.

The "pages" on the first have been added with an insert with lines drawn in gold pen.  In the second example stickers have been stuck straight onto the backing.

The 50th birthday card features a 3D sparklelight picture and lots of stickers, the Mother's day card is more of a collage using paterned paper, lace, inked edges,  a hole punched layered flower, little heart-shaped gold split pins etc....and stickers.

These are both very speedy examples, but given a bit more time, I can imagine how lovely they would look with vintage papers and stamping.  The book cards are also popular for folk wanting a masculine card.  The subject can obviously be modified to suit the interests and hobbies of the recieptient.

NESTED FLOWER CARD

NESTED FLOWER BIRTHDAY CARD

Roma has put her nesting dies to good use in making this card.  She has cut her own aperture in one of Regal's smooth white singlefold cards (which has been embossed with a Cuttlebug folder), then added patterned paper behind, and to the sides of the front.

She has then cut and embossed a smaller flower shape from white card and mounted it in the middle of the aperture, with a selection of paper flowers on top.

Note the clever way that Roma has used a part of a flower to draw attention to the "70", and the subtle use of glitter glue to enhance the edges.  The card is finished with silver peel-off stickers.  Thanks for letting me show your card on the blog, Roma.

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?

VINTAGE FASHION CARDS

VINTAGE STYLE

Regal's white base cards have been dressed up a treat by Julie Scales, who has created some lovely collages from materials such as Kaiser papers, paper flowers and lace, adhesive pearls, buttons and more!!  Thanks for sharing them with us, Julie!

NEW BUFFALO ZIGZAG CARD

ZIGZAG SQUARE

Janet has used Regal's new Buffalo Zig Zag square card as the base for this birthday card, which she has decorated with papers from the Kaiser 75cents range (the name not the price!), and cards from the Captured Moments Snapshot pack.

Unfolded View

She has drawn freehand around the elements to make borders, and has added little blue rhinestones to the corner of the back panel, and a "happy birthday" sticker from Regal to the front.

As you can see from the smaller picture, Janet has hidden additional greetings inside the panel, using a panel from the 75cents paper and a stamp.

I'll be posting some more examples of the new zigzag card in the next couple of weeks!!

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.

Hangsell Tag Card

As some of you might be able to tell, this is not a real card - just a computer "mock up" to see how one of the new hangsell tags from Regal would go as a card topper.  I think the answer is "quite well", and as we can chose from white, ivory or natural there will no doubt be some real cardmaking happening in the not to distant future. (I've resisted saying "its on the cards").

The size of this card is, however, based on Regals larger white square base card so you could easily recreate something similar in the real world.  The bird on the tag is a photo but could easily be replaced with a diecut or stamp.
The greeting could be stamped with a scarlet Versacube and you could substitute Bazzill and patterned paper for the red, black and white.  Not forgetting, of course, the hang sell tag, which is real and availabe now.
 If you wanted to give a gift of some jewellery it could be secured to the tag and used as part of the card.  The natural colour would also look great with some vintage buttons attached, perhaps on a card base covered in fabric.  (Double sided Jac paper is a good way to do this).  Lots of ideas........

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"?

VINTAGE BLUEBELLS

VINTAGE BLUEBELLS

Tania has used a soft cream single fold Regal card as the base for her beautiful vintage card.  The brown background is attached with small gold split pins, and is topped with a Stamp-it script stamp, stamped in brown ink.  The torn edges have also been inked which blends the two pieces of paper together.  The greeting "Love" is a gold outline sticker, coloured with a brown permanent marker. The backing is also inked with a little brown ink, and a small hole threaded with natural twine is added for emphasis. The dark blue flowers have been cut with a die from the spellbinders range.  By simply changing the greeting, this card would be suitable for a variety of different occasions.

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.

REGAL TAGS

TAG HAPPY BIRTHDAY CARD

Tags are really useful things......quite apart from their obvious use in packaging and pricing, they are a great way to decorate the front of a card or a nice little stand alone project to add to a special gift.

Regal has just released some new tags to add to their already large range.  We can now buy large white tags in the shape shown right (in Botany) and below in packs of fifty, which is a great way to start a project - you can get straight into the fun bit of decorating without having to fiddle around trying to cut a suitable decorative tag base.

The card on the left is a regal square card, with the front panel cut back a little to reveal a decorative strip underneath.  The same paper is used to decorate the tag.  The other example shows some very simple quilling - one layer on top of the other (you can get quilling papers and tools from Regal too!!)

QUILLED TAG

Regal have lots of different sizes and colours available on their website www.regalcraftcards.com.au.  Check them out!

HOORAY ITS YOUR BIRTHDAY CARDS

HOORAY ITS YOUR BIRTHDAY!

Marty Munro made these cheerful collage cards for the young at heart at a recent demo for Regal Craft Cards.  (Lime green singlefolds are available as part of the "Mixed Brights" (XMC30) pack.)

Notice the torn edge that adds a feature to the lower card, and the hand cut "banner ribbons" on the other - both simple but effective ideas.

The decorative papers and "Hip Hip Hooray" stamp are all from Kaiser.

VALENTINE'S DAY IRIS FOLDING

FOR SOMEONE SPECIAL

One of the really nice things about working at Regal is that we often have the chance to see some really great cards made by our lovely customers.

Kay brought this one, which she has made for a special person, in today, and has very kindly allowed me to pop it up so that you can see it too!

She has used a white base card but added a red panel with a large and several small heart cut-outs.  Kay has added an individual twist by Iris folding under the large heart but adding roses to the middle, and using the iridescent paper that would more traditionally be used there as an underlay for the red panel.

The result is a beautiful card which is ideal for Valentine's Day, but which could also be given on many other occasions - thanks for sharing your work Kay.

EASEL CARD WITH COGS

EASEL CARD WITH COGS

This clever easel card was made by Roma as part of her class last year.  She has used Spellbinders dies to cut the cogs and added gold split pins for detail.

A really clever idea is the use of a wing nut as the prop for the card (complete with genuine "vintage industrial" rust!!).  It  goes to show that just about everything can be useful - just add imagination!!

FRIDAY UPDATE AND VALENTINE'S DAY CARD

VALENTINE'S DAY CARD IN VIXEN RED

We have a new colour of limited edition card in the shop -Vixen Red.  Its really bright and perfect for Valentine's Day.  Its not in our catalogue but if you mention it to Regal's mail order department they will know what you're talking about.  I might have become a bit overenthusiastic with trying to complete this card in 5 minutes as the straight lines are a bit dodgy.  If you allow yourself 10 minutes you should have this card completed properly and well in time for Valentine's Day.

As you can probably tell its just a Sparklelight sticker with a couple of layers of matting, some letter stickers and a double heart sticker (you could use stamps or punched shapes).  I've just added a rhinestone here and there for a bit of extra bling, which hopefully isn't too over the top for either a male or female.

LAYERED FLORAL BIRTHDAY CARD

FLORAL COLLAGE BIRTHDAY CARD

Tania made this pretty floral card using a white textured square card from Regal as its base.

She added lots of layers using pretty patterned papers paper flowers, hole punched flowers and leaves, decorative scissor cut edging, a punched border adhesive pearls and light card embossed with the "Swiss Dots" Cuttlebug folder.  The happy Birthday greeting is stamped.

This is not a five minute card but if you have the time and want to make something really special there are lots of good ideas that can be borrowed from this 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.

SCALLOPED CIRCLE EASEL CARD

SCALLOPED CIRCLE EASEL CARD

We have another of Roma's lovely easel cards this week.  She has constructed the body of the card from die cut scalloped ovals and decorated them with a Sparklelight 3D from Regal Craft Cards.  A "Best Wishes" sticker finishes the project.

QUICK DESK CALENDAR

Its still close enough to the beginning of the year to make up some little desk calendars.  \

Lynne made this one using a black card and a border cut from some Graphic45 paper.

Why not make a few to co ordinate with different rooms in your house or as a post-Christmas surprise for friends.

The little calendars are available from Regal.  Lynne has added a little distress ink for a vintage feel.

STITCHED ROSES

STITCHED ROSE

I find sewing onto cards quite relaxing, although I do make sure I give them to folks who have some appreciation of the time involved.  This one, however, is one of the simpler pickpoint patterns which I bought from Regal who also made the three panel black base card.

I love metallic threads on a black background, and as you can see, not just gold and silver.  Black can, however be a bit hard on the eyes for fine work.  If you put a white surface beneath (e.g. cover  your lap with a white sheet) it makes it a bit easier.

Although you can write on a black surface easily with gel pens, I added a dark pink insert - there was no point being subtle, given how shiny and pink the stitching was!