The large tree ornaments in Karen Burniston’s new Christmas Borders 1 are very mid-century modern and are the inspiration for this retro pop-up Christmas card.

The card uses decorations from three of the new die sets in the September 2023 release – Christmas Borders 1, Stocking Pop-Up, and Small Script – Christmas along with Karen’s Christmas Tree Pop-Up and Circles – Crosshatch.

Cardbase: I used a white purchased A6 (4.75×6.5-inch) cardbase and covered the outside of it with a single piece of printed rice paper using lots of glue and a brayer to smooth the paper down and adhere it to the cardstock. Inside, I cut two 4.75×6.5-inch panels of green printed paper and glued them close to the center fold but leaving a tiny gap at the fold. The white gap was colored in with an olive-green marker to match the paper.

Ornament Borders: For the ornament borders, I cut four of the main border die from the Christmas Border1 die set from a white shimmer cardstock. I also cut four of the ornament cap die from matte gold cardstock. I cut the borders to fit the width of the card. (Seven ornaments fit.) Using permanent markers to individually color the ornament balls, they allowed some of the metallic shimmer to come through the ink. Glue the gold caps to the ornaments.

Stocking: The red and white stocking comes from the Stocking Pop-Up die set as does the holly and berries. I used the stencil feature on the holly to draw leaf veins and Nuvo Drops to add dimension to the berries.

Pop-Up Tree: Watch the assembly video located towards the bottom of the linked page before starting on the tree. I used two circles from the Circles – Crosshatch set to make the tree skirt. I folded both circles in half and on the smaller white circle, I used the small die in the Christmas Tree Pop-Up set to cut the two tabs that work the pop-up mechanism for the tree. The die is centered over the fold. Cut both circles in half on the fold lines. Glue the circles onto the inside of the card leaving the tabs unglued and in the open position.  Cut the tree base from red, fold and attach to the white mechanism tabs inside the card.

Cut the four tree greenery pieces and decorate with the string of lights border from the Christmas Borders 1 die set. (I cut seven stands of green lights to use as the base and then two strands each of blue, red and yellow. For the different colored light bulbs, cut the bulbs off the colored strands and glue to the green base.) Make sure that you trim away any light strand pieces from the tree’s assembly slots.

Assemble tree as shown in the video and attach to red base.

Sentiments: On the stocking is the word “jolly” from the new word set –Small Script – Christmas. The “j” is dotted with a Nuvo Drop in red. Inside the card “Christmas greetings” uses both the shadow and script dies in contrasting green and red cardstock. A large white gift box with red bow serves a place for a personal message. The stitched rectangle and bow are from the Stocking Pop-Up die set.

Envelope: On the back of the envelope stamped in red and green are three small light bulbs and the words “Merry & Bright.” I used paper tape to mask half the sentiment to stamp in red and then masked the other half to stamp in green.

Thank you for reading this blog post. I hope this inspires you and makes you smile. Please like and leave comments 😊

Materials Used:

Dies

• Karen Burniston in cahoots with Riley and Company – Stocking Pop-Up – 1248
• Karen Burniston in cahoots with Riley and Company – Christmas Borders 1 – 1245
• Karen Burniston in cahoots with Riley and Company – Small Script – Christmas – 1244
• Karen Burniston in cahoots with Riley and Company – Circles – Crosshatch – 1057
• Karen Burniston in cahoots with Riley and Company – Christmas Tree Pop-Up – 1020

Stamps

• Woodware – Clear Stamps designed by Francoise Read – Snowman Light Bulb

Papers

• Stamperia – Rice Paper – Classic Collection – Holly & Berries
• Hallmark Cards PLC – Forever Friends Retro Collection – 8×8 Stack – A Christmas Tale
• Recollections – 8.5×11 White Gold Shimmer Cardstock
• Matte Gold Cardstock
• Green, White, Black and Red Cardstock
• Park Lane Paperie – A6 Cardbase and Envelope – White

Ink

• Stampin’ Up – Classic Stampin’ Pad – Emerald Green and Real Red
• Sharpie – Permanent Marker – Fine Tip – Olive
• Sharpie – Permanent Marker – Ultra Fine Tip – Light Blue, Lime Green, Racer Red, Yellow
• Pigma – Mircon 01 Fine Tip Pen – Black

Adhesives

• Neutral PH Adhesive by LINECO
• Fine-Tip Glue Bottle

Tools

• Die Cutting Machine
• We R Memories – QuickStick
• We R Memories – Scoring Board and Trimmer
• Stamping Platform
• LDRS – Stampendable Stamping Tool
• Stamping Cloth
• Scrap Paper To Color On
• Scissors
• Brayer

Miscellaneous

• Nuvo Vintage Drops – Postbox Red