It’s SNEAK PEEK Week for Karen Burniston’s December 2023 Release. Today we’ll focus on the Raising Platform Pop-Up die set.
Look for tutorial on these projects in the coming weeks.
Thank you for reading this blog post. I hope this inspires you and makes you smile. Please like and leave comments 😊
It’s the Karen Burniston design team challenge for December 2023 with the theme of “Naughty or Nice” using Christmas stockings and the idea that naughty persons get coal in their stockings while people who have been good/nice will get presents and sweet treats in their stockings.
While I used Karen’s Fireplace Pop-Up and Fireplace Extras 1 dies I did not make it a pop-up, but I did have Santa’s boots swing in the fireplace. Inside, two greenery wreaths pop-up using the Twist Flower Pop-up and Crosshatch Circles, Christmas Borders 2, Holiday Charms, Big Birthday Charms, Adirondack Chair Pop-Up and Small Script – Christmas were used for decorations and sentiments.
Before starting, I recommend watching the assembly videos of the pop-ups which are usually near the bottom of the linked pages for the various dies used.
Cardbase: I folded a 7 3/4-inch by 8 3/4-inch rectangle of white cardstock long-wise in half for the cardbase. Because my decorative papers were 4 1/2-inch by 6 1/2-inch, I centered the papers on each of the four panels.
Fireplace: The fireplace main piece was cut using white ink rubbed on the die before cutting. The mantel piece was die cut and folded in half and glued together to add dimension. Christmas decorations – candles, stockings, greenery, bows, fireplace guard and tools are all in the Fireplace Extras 1 set. I cut down the pail from the Adirondack Chair Pop-Up set to be a coal shuttle next to the fireplace. For the picture of Father Christmas, I fussy cut it from the decorative paper collection I used.
Santa’s Boots: The boots are cut from black and white cardstock using the dies in the Fireplace Pop-Up set. Use the tab atop the boots to attach red pants that were cut free-handed with a holed punched and widened to accommodate a small foam dot. The boots were coated with glitter gloss before attaching to the card. Follow the pictures above for order of assembly of fireplace and Santa’s pants and boots. The fireplace was attached with two layers of foam tape to be slightly taller than the foam dot so that the boots would swing freely.
Wreaths: Using the second largest crosshatch circle, I cut two from heavy white paper. The greenery was made by cutting off the fir needles from the branch piece in the Holiday Charms set. Stockings and their coal, teddy bear and candy cane come from the same charms set. The wrapped gift is from the Big Birthday Charms set.
Inside Pop-Up Mechanism: I added extension arms onto the Twist Flower Pop-up mechanism to form a “W” shape. (Watch this Halloween card video to see how to make the mechanism.) The circle wreaths were folded in half and glued to the two “V” arms, playing with the positioning of the circles so there are no catchpoints.
Borders: The inside border of candy canes comes from the Christmas Borders 2 die set while the coal comes from the Holiday Charms. For the back borders, the branch die from the Holiday Charms set was used. Leftover strips of decorative papers were added to the card front as borders.
Sentiments: Clear tape over red cardstock is the secret to the glossy script letters with plain white cardstock shadows. The sentiments all come from the Small Script – Christmas die set. On the front is “ho ho ho” with “Christmas greetings” inside the card.
Envelope: The stocking border from the Christmas Borders 2 set was cut from the same striped paper that was used on the fireplace stockings and glued to the back envelope flap to hint at what’s to come.
Thank you for reading this blog post. I hope this inspires you and makes you smile. Please like and leave comments 😊
Materials Used:
Dies
Papers
Ink
Adhesives
Tools
It’s the start of SNEAK PEEK Week for Karen Burniston’s December 2023 Release. Today we’ll focus on the Mini Gift Bag and the Candy Heart Box die sets.
These bags and boxes go together quickly and have two main surfaces that allow for creative decorations. It doesn’t matter whether you use solid colored cardstock or decorative patterned papers, the bags are great fun for tucking in gift cards and other small items like jewelry, small toys, car keys, candy, or crafting supplies.
Look for tutorials on these projects in the coming weeks.
Thank you for reading this blog post. I hope this inspires you and makes you smile. Please like and leave comments 😊
This card was inspired by Craft Roulette episode #191 whose parameters were a drop-down card, supper table colors, seasons element (Christmas), and shiny.
It also takes inspiration from Karen Burniston’s Oven Pop-Up.
It uses the Mini Pops-Pop-Up tiered platform die by Karen Burniston, Gingerbread Pals stamps by Kindred Stamps and Nested Rounded Corners Square Small Stitched dies by Rubbernecker Stamps.
Thank you for reading this blog post. I hope this inspires you and makes you smile. Please like and leave comments 😊
Materials Used:
Dies
Stamps
Papers
Ink & Embossing Powder
Adhesives
Tools
Miscellaneous
With Santa shimmering down the chimney with his legs swinging left and right, this card became my submission for Craft Roulette episode #191 whose parameters were a drop-down card, supper table colors, seasons element, and shiny.
I had started this card earlier in the week after discovering Spellbinders Large-Die-Of-the-Month set for October 2021, but hadn’t finished the easel stop/sentiment. It is part of my Fireplace series.
Cardbase: Cut one 5×7-inch rectangle from heavy black cardstock. Cut another piece from black using the template pictured below. Train the folds of the larger piece. This will be the bottom base with easel arm. Glue the tab on the easel arm to the back of the 5×7 piece making sure when the card is folded shut that the top 5×7’s edges are aligned with the bottom piece. Cover the card front with decorative paper as well as the bottom panel. I added decorative borders for quarter floor molding and picture rail near the ceiling top.
Fireplace and Santa: Watch the assembly video. I used two layers of cardstock for the fireplace and four layers for the candlesticks. The foam dot I used was thick, so I used two layers of foam tape to keep the fireplace higher than Santa. Glitter gloss was brushed over all of Santa as well as the fur on the stockings’ tops. The gold foil in the fireplace decorative panels is from an envelope liner.
Decorations: The set comes with dies for the greenery, tiny flowers and berries as well as the bow. I used a red glitter pen for the candle flames and a yellow marker for the flower centers.
Sentiments: The fireplace set comes with four messages. I choose “Dear Santa” to die-cut into the red hearth piece which is backed with a solid white hearth piece. Glitter gloss was applied to the red hearth. To create the easel stopper, cut an oval rug and pop it up on foam dots. Glue die-cut “Happy Holidays” onto oval. Because of my dark background paper, I added a smaller white oval for a personal message.
Envelope: I decorated the back flap of the envelope and the card back with decorative paper scraps.
Thank you for reading this blog post. I hope this inspires you and makes you smile. Please like and leave comments 😊
Materials Used:
Dies
Papers
Ink
Adhesives
Tools
This card was made for Craft Roulette #189 whose parameters included an A2 sized card using forest colours, elements starting with “H” and postage stamp(s) and/or cancellation mark(s).
I used Woodware’s Christmas Robin stamp set designed by Francoise Read as well as her Christmas Postmarks set for this A2 (4.25×5.5-inch) side-fold card with matching envelope.
The robin image was stamped on green cardstock with watermark ink and heat embossed with clear powder. I stamped a second image on white cardstock and heat embossed it with red powder. The red image, I fussy cut leaving the cancellation marks attached to the robin’s leg. The “R” tag I cut out and popped-up with foam squares as well as tying a red string to it.
The red robin was glued over the green one and red Nuvo Drops were used to add dimension to the berries.
The green card front was mounted on a fern and white flower printed paper before being attached to the kraft cardstock cardbase.
The sentiment included in the robin stamp set of “Wishing you a wonderful Christmas full of joy,” was stamped in black inside the card with a snowflake.
Christmas Postmark stamps were inked in green ink to the card back and envelope flap.
Thank you for reading this blog post. I hope this inspires you and makes you smile. Please like and leave comments 😊
Materials Used:
Stamps
Papers
Ink
Embossing Powders
Adhesives
Tools
Miscellaneous
This card was made for Craft Roulette #190 whose parameters included a fancy fold card, aquarium colors, November element and 3-item cluster.
My first thought with these parameters was to a card I had made may years ago featuring a cat looking through a goldfish bowl using Karen Burniston dies. My next thought was how to incorporate a November element. Turkey instead of cat was my answer. While the accordion/pivot card is a fiddly sort of card to assemble, I wanted a quicker version, hence the Z-fold cardbase with squares cut into them and fish with sequin shells and stars sandwiched in between sheets of acetate.
Cardbase: cut one 5 1/2-inch by 8 1/2-inch rectangle of blue cardstock and another rectangle from the same cardstock that is 5 1/2-inch by 4 3/4-inch. Score and fold the large rectangle in half to a 5 1/2-inch by 4 1/4-inch side fold card. Score and fold a 1/2-inch tab along the long edge of the smaller rectangle. Adhere the tab to one of the long edges of the other piece to form a z-fold three panel card.
Windows: Keeping the large rectangle piece of the card base fold in half, I used a 2.4-inch square die to cut through the first panel and mark where I needed to place the die to cut the second panel. I unfolded the cardbase and folded the tabbed panel back against the middle panel that had the markings of where the square die should go. Using the markings to place the die I cut the second panel’s window and made markings for where the die should be placed for the third panel’s window. After cutting the third panel, I took the square die and the next largest die with crosshatching and taped them together to form a die that would cut a frame to go around the windows. Cut six of these frames from darker blue cardstock.
Cut six squares of clear acetate or plastic film and adhere them with thin double-sided tape to the backsides of the frames. Attach frames to one side of the card base. Flip cardbase and adhere fish and decorations with glue dots to acetate making sure the placement works when the card is folded closed. When happy with the placement of aquarium items, attach the remaining three frames to sandwich the items inside the aquarium windows.
Fish: I used the fish from the Camping Charms to cut two fish from green cardstock. Then I traced their fins and scales with a green marker on both sides and then finished each side with a coat of glitter gloss. For the headwear I free-hand cut the yamaka from black and die cut the Santa hat from the Christmas Animals set.
Turkey: Because the turkey is seen from both the front and the back, I made sure to use colored cardstock that was the same on both the front and back. I only had to cut two of the decorative feather arch pieces. The beak and wattle are all cut with the same die, so I cut from orange and colored the wattle red with a marker. Textured metallic cardstock was used for the body, head and beak and wattle.
Lights: Since my family starts putting up Christmas light on Thanksgiving weekend, the light strands above the turkey and the fish with a Santa hat have multicolored lights while the lights above the fish with a black yamaka on his head has blue and white lights commonly used for Hanukkah in America. I used the light strand die from the Christmas Borders 1 set cutting the die in a variety of colors and using the black and green ones as my base strands and then snipping off other colors light blub part and gluing to the base strand. Finally, I covered the bulbs with Glossy Accents to make them look light glass blubs.
Sentiment: The sentiment is from Spellbinders and cuts in five separate pieces -H ol idays and H appy. The two words are on the front and back of each panel so that the is a continuous “Happy Holidays” being read. Thanksgiving panel in brown, Hanukkah in blue and Christmas in red.
Thank you for reading this blog post. I hope this inspires you and makes you smile. Please like and leave comments 😊
Materials Used:
Dies
Papers
Ink
Adhesives
Tools
Miscellaneous
Being grateful for having someone in your life is a good thing. Here is a card to tell that person at Thanksgiving time.
My inspiration for this 4 1/4-inch by 5 1/2-inch (A2) card came from a stamp set by The Greetery called Fall Foodie Phrases. I knew I had a number of pie die sets and ended up using two Spellbinders die sets by Tina Smith – Serve A Slice and Dish It Up. The spice dusted pie top is Nuvo Sparkle Spray in Coco powder.
The tablecloth is a corner of the Karen Burniston scalloped edge die in her Rectangles and Labels – Crosshatch set with 1/8-inch circles in the scallops made with a hole punch.
The stamped sentiments are all from the Fall Foodie Phrases set except for the inside “So grateful for all that you are, and all that you do.” which is from Taylored Expressions’ Inside Scoop – Thanks set. All words were stamped with Stampin’ Up’s Cajun Craze ink except for the word pumpkin which used Pumpkin Pie ink. A banner die from the Spellbinders Mini Everyday Sentiments glimmer plate set was used to cut the card front banner “You’re the spice to my” phrase. I used my stamping platform with a Brutus Monroe Stick & Stamp Mat to hold the small paper scraps that I stamped onto in place.
For the envelope flap I used a plaid scrap from Photoplay Say it With Stamps by Becky Moore 6×6 paper pad named Fall Plaids which I used papers from for all of the card. The Whittle Pie die-cut is by Poppystamps, Inc. which was inked with Rusty Hinge Distress Ink.
Thank you for reading this blog post. I hope this inspires you and makes you smile. Please like and leave comments 😊
This card was made for Craft Roulette. #188 whose parameters included a gift card, coffee shop colors, go wild element and number(s).
Have a friend who finds it hard to get going without coffee? This is the card for them complete with a coffee gift card.
It is made with Karen Burniston’s Coffee Cup Pop-Up that includes tabs to hold a gift card on the back side of the cup. The sweet dragon having his morning cuppa on the card front and the knight in shiny armor atop the coffee cup are also Karen Burniston dies.
Cardbase: Cut from green cardstock one 5×7-inch rectangle and one 5×7.5-inch rectangle. Score and fold 1/2-inch on the 5×7.5-inch rectangle to have a 5×7-inch rectangle with a tab. Glue the tab to the other green piece to make a 5×7-inch top fold card. Cut decorative papers to cover panels inside and out.
Dragon: (Watch the assembly video for the Knight and Dragon die set first.) I cut the dragon from two shades of green cardstock and inked some shading on him. I used the die stencil feature for his eyes, mouth and wings. His red cup is from the Coffee Charms die set.
Knight: (Watch the assembly video for the Knight and Dragon die set first.) I cut two bodies for the knight gluing them back-to-back but sandwiching the red plume behind the helmet first. Add his shield and sword before gluing on his gloves.
Coffee Cup: (Watch the assembly video towards the bottom of the link page Coffee Cup Pop-Up before starting.) I chose to use patterned paper with names of coffee drinks for the body of the cup, white cardstock for the cup lid and kraft cardstock for the cup band. The band die embossed the ridges on it, and I enhanced the ridges with brown ink. Yellow ink was used to shade the cup lid. I used the circle dies in the die set for the logo.
Sentiments: The “Go Wild!” is cut from brown paper using the die set of the same name by Karen Burniston. Th yellow banner inside says “and Slay the Day with Excalibur coffee,” which was computer generated.
Thank you for reading this blog post. I hope this inspires you and makes you smile. Please like and leave comments 😊
Materials Used:
Dies
Papers
Ink
Adhesives
Tools
Ully Cat's World 