Sandy Dunes Birthday Card

I just got the July 2025 Simon Says Stamp Card Kit with the theme of Windows on the World. Using the Landscapes stencil from the kit, made this sand dunes scene Birthday card.

Cardbase: Start with a 4.25 x 11-inch piece of cardstock and fold in half to form a side-fold A2 (4.25×5.5-inch) card.

Stenciled Scene: Using the stencil by sticking the 4.25×5.5-inch white cardstock panel through the water patterns slots, I worked my way from the bottom up to build water waves coming ashore, then the sand dunes and finally the cloudy sky. The water used the two darker shades of blue while the sky used the lightest blue. The stencil includes three birds in flight, which I stenciled on using a fine tipped black marker.

Sentiments:  All the sentiments come from the Through The Window stamp set.

Envelope:  The card fits into an A2 (4.25x 5.5-inches) size envelope stenciled with the three birds on the back flap.

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Thank you for experiencing this blog post.

I hope this inspires you and makes you smile.

Please like and leave comments 😊

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Disclaimer: Karen Burniston products are provided free of charge by the manufacturer for review and use. All other items were personally purchased. Compensated affiliate links used where or when possible, meaning I will receive a small percentage commission from these manufacturers at no cost to you. This will allow me to add more content to my YouTube channel and help out a lot. Thank you.

Materials Used:

Stencils

  • Simon Says Stamp! – 6×6-inch Plastic Stencil – Landscapes

Stamps

  • Craft Roulette – Clear Stamps – Through The Window

Papers

  • SpellBinders – 8.5×11-inch -100lb Cardstock – Raindrop
  • White Cardstock
  • Fraser Papers for William House – A2 Envelope – Genesis Text Husk Smooth

Ink

  • Memento – Fade Resistant Dye ink – Tuxedo Black
  • Pigma – Mircon 03 Fine Tip Pen – Black
  • Stampin’ Up – Classic Stampin’ Pad – Azure Afternoon, Balmy Blue, Crumb Cake, Pacific Point

Adhesives

Tools

  • Die Cutting Machine
  • Paper Trimmer
  • Stamping Platform
  • LDRS – Stampendable Stamping Tool
  • Stamping Blocks used as paperweights
  • Scissors
  • Paper Masking Tape
  • We R Memories – QuickStick

Just Because You’re Sweet!

This card was made for Craft Roulette #162 whose parameters included a matchbook card, flowering field colors, a bird and woodgrain.

For the pop-up card on the purchased printed cardbase, I used Karen Burniston’s Frame Pull Pop-Up die set and branches and leaves from her Tree Pop-Up die set.

I followed the basic assembly video instructions for the Frame pull Pop-up using the packaging image as my design inspiration. Before I attached the mechanism to the card, I glued an inch long strip to the bottom and folded it over to form the lip of the matchbook.

Because the green background seemed bland, I covered it with a glitter gloss for some sparkle.

The blue birds were colored with markers while the tree leaves were cut from spotted green paper. I used some pink border scraps for the pink inside the woodgrain frames. The frames were embossed then die-cut and finally inked with a darker brown ink using the stenciling feature on the dies.

The sentiment comes from two of Karen Burniston’s die sets – Word Set 15- Just Because and You’re Sweet!

For the envelope’s back flap, I used a flower from a Bright Rosa stamp set stamped with pink ink.

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

  • Bright Rosa by Paula Pascual – Fern Die and Stamps – from Simply Cards & Papercrafts Magazine issue 202

Papers

  • Lawn Fawn – 6×6 Double-Sided Paper Pad – Spiffy Speckles
  • Green, Blue and Brown Cardstock
  • Green Spotted Scrap
  • Printed A2 Cardbase and Envelope

Ink

  • Ranger – Tim Holtz – Distress Ink- Walnut Stain
  • Simon Says Stamp – Pawsitively Saturated Ink – Sweets
  • Sharpie – Ultra Fine Tipped Marker- Racey Red and Orange
  • Staples – Liquid Stix – Neon Orange Chisel Nose Highlighter
  • Nuvo – Aqua Shimmer Bruch Pen – Glitter Gloss

Adhesives

Tools

  • Die Cutting Machine
  • We R Memories – QuickStick
  • We R Memories – Scoring Board and Trimmer
  • Stamping Platform
  • LDRS – Stampendable Stamping Tool
  • Stamping Cloth
  • Sponge Dauber
  • Craft Mat
  • Scissors
  • Ruler

A Hunting Cabin Birthday

A cabin in the woods, good times with friends and family are what this card is about.

This simple log cabin scene pop-up card uses Karen Burniston’s new fireplace die set and a die designed to cut out trapazoids for pop-up balls, but here I use it to cut a 6-pane window.

Card Base with Window: Starting with a 10 x 7 inch piece of cardstock, scored and folded in half to create a 5 x 7 inch top folded card base. Position the Mini-Ball Double-Ups die so that it will look good from the outside as well as the inside next to the fireplace. The orientation of the widow will be up-side down from what is on the opposite side of the card. Die-cut the window with the card open on a die-cutting machine. (This is the only time you’ll need a wide platform die-cutting machine. If you only have a 6-inch-wide machine you can cut you card base in half, cut your window and glue a strip of paper as the card hinge.)

Cut “logs” from wood grain paper, ink the edges to create roundness and glue in place both on the outside of the card and the inside wall. Cut thinner strips of the woodgrain paper for the floor of the cabin, ink edges and glue in place alternating the seams as a real floor would be installed. (I had left over pieces of woodgrain paper from cutting Karen Burniston’s Landscape Rectangle Accordion that I used to frame the window.)

The back of the card is covered with leftover pieces from this and other cards made from the Craft Consortium papers In The Forest by Clare Therese.

Fireplace:  Watch the assembly video before assembling. Cut TWO of the fireplace fronts and emboss them both to show the bricks.  I tried several different crayons until I found a three color-mixed crayon in the Crayola True-to-Life series of crayons that blended brown, black and burnt orange to color the bricks.

I glued one of the brick fireplace fronts upside down as the back wall of the fireplace. Next is the hearth piece colored to be sooty sandstone that glued to the floor of the card.

I find it easier to attach anything hanging from the fireplace mechanism before I install the mechanism. After experimenting with how best to attach the pot from the Good Luck Charms set, I ended with gluing the charm circle loop to the part of the mechanism where the Santa boots would dangle. I glued some flames to the bottom of the pot to make the fire be all around the pot. The pot moves a little when opening and closing the card.

Glue together the fire and logs and then attach the cube-like pop-up strip into the card base and attach the fire. Glue the fireplace mechanism into card base. Then attach brick fireplace front and mantel. I use thin foam squares to attach the mantel to the brick fireplace front.

Accessories:  Fireplace tools and fender are from the Fireplace Extras 1 set. The lantern is cut from silver holographic cardstock colored with black permanent marker using the small lantern die from the Camping Charms set. The fish is also cut using a die from the camping charms and uses shimmer cardstock with distress inks. The metal plate the fish is on uses the circle from the snowman set. The rugs are from the oval crosshatch set and the deer head is the Christmas animals set on a plaque cut from the smallest crosshatch labels’ set covered in Glossy Accents. The only die that is not Karen Burniston is the fishing rod by Tayored Expressions.

Card Front:  Large tree is from the Christmas trees pop-up set with the center tree inked with Mowed Lawn Distress ink. The inked small trees are from the evergreen pivot panels set. The wee birds are from the tiny trees pop-up set and the turkey is from the feathered animals set.

Sentiments:  “Happy Birthday” is a single die while “DAD” is double cut from the large alphabet dies from green and black and then slightly over-laid for a shadow effect.

Envelope:  A brown kraft paper envelope completes the card with stamped images from the companion stamps of the patterned papers by Craft Consortium.

Thank you for reading this blog post. Please like and leave comments 😊

Materials Used:

Dies

Stamps

  • Craft Consortium – Clear Stamps – In The Forest by Clare Therese

Papers

  • Craft Consortium – Premium Quality Papers – 12” x 12” – In The Forest by Clare Therese
  • Craft Consortium – Premium Quality Papers – 6” x 6” – In The Forest by Clare Therese
  • American Crafts – Peebles – Spooky – 12 x12 Double-sided – Candy Toss – 736981
  • Colored Cardstock Scraps
  • Park Lane – 6×6 Paper Pad – Silver Holographic
  • 100 lb. Yellow cardstock 7 x 10 inches
  • American Crafts- A7 Envelope – Brown Kraft Paper

Pens, Crayons, Inks & Coatings

  • Sharpie – Permanent Marker –Fine Point – Black
  • Gelly Roll 08 Pen – White
  • Pigma Micron 05 – Archival Ink .045mm – Dark Brown
  • Crayola – True to Life Crayons -Grand Canyon
  • Ranger – Tim Holtz – Distress Ink – Mowed Lawn, Fired Brick, Black Soot, and Walnut Stain
  • Ranger – Glossy Accents
  • Nuvo – Aqua Shimmer – Glitter Gloss
  • Stampin’Up – Classic Stampin’ Pad – Early Espresso

Miscellaneous

Snowy Good Morning

I love a crisp winter morning where tiny snow crystals fill the air and sparkle in the sunlight.  This is a card celebrating such a morning in lighthearted pastels. Karen Burniston dies are used for the card focusing on the Iron Fence Pop-Up die set.

To make this A2 size card, cut a rectangle 4 1/4 x 11 inches of pink heavy cardstock and fold in in the middle to make a 4 ½ inches tall by 5 1/2 inches wide card base.  Cut four decorative snowflake paper panels at 2 1/4 x 5 1/4 inches. Adhere these panels to the top of front, back and insides of the card base. Using one of the hillside edging dies, cut four hills that are 5 1/2 inches long and the lowest point is 2 1/4 inches tall. (I used white glitter card stock on the front and back sides and a textured white inside.) Glue the snowy hills to bottom of each panel of card base.

It is easiest to die cut all the pieces you will need to make both the inside and outside fences at the same time so that they are similar in colors and papers used. (I cut four fences, but I really should have cut six fences so I could have finished the back of the card with a fence too.) Cut one of the slider fence arm and one of the arm sleeve from the same paper you used for the inside snowy hills.  Cut at least six green fir trees from the Long Nature Edges set to decorate in odd numbers on the front and inside of the card.

After watching the assembly video on the re-released inside pop-up fence, assemble as directed. (I found that the best way to decorate the hills and fence is to not glue the fence tops down. You can do this latter if needed using a fine tipped glue bottle.)

The birds in the fence die set are designed as crows so they are larger than a cardinal would be. There are smaller birds in the Frame Pull Pop-Up die set that are better sized as songbirds. This assembly video also has a tip on how to make the cardinal or chickadee crest on the head of the birds.

There are different snowflakes in the three snowmen die sets by Karen Burniston. They make wonderful filler decorations for the card.

Decorate card as desired, lifting fence pikes up to slide trees under or sandwich two bird die cuts around the fence top.

The Merry Christmas inside sentiment has a shadow cut from pink glitter card which adds to the crisp sparkling snow crystals effect.

I stamped the back of the envelope with a hint as to the card’s theme using one of by favorite winter themed stamp sets designed by Sheena Douglass.

Thank you for reading. If you enjoyed this blog post, please like it and follow the blog. 😊

Dies:

Stamps & Ink

Papers

  • Carnation Crafts – Merry and Bright from PaperCrafter issue 40
  • Pink card base – Bazzill -Pink Icing – PS1 – 102
  • DCWV – The Spooky Time cardstock matstack – white glitter and textured white
  • Glitter paper – pink from my stash
  • Colored cardstock from my stash
  • A2 Envelope

Additional Supplies Used:

The Secret Garden

Greetings it’s Sue here from the Dies R Us design team with a quad-fold, garden pop-up card.

This card was inspired by some of the Tutti Designs garden dies. The card specifically uses Garden Trellis, Garden Fountain and Garden Bench Set.

I created a quad fold card base by taking two 10 x 7 inch heavy card bases and cut one into a 5 ½ x 7 inch piece and a 4 1/5 x 7 inch piece. The larger piece is scored and folded at ½ inch along long side to form a tab to glue behind the other card base that in scored and folded in the middle. This creates a tri-fold card. Cut rectangular apertures from each side large enough to fit the fountain and trellis dies. Apertures should match up when folded closed.

Now is a good time to use Distress Oxide inks and a blending brush to color the inside of the trifold card a sky blue.

Spritz lightly the 4 ½ x 7 inch piece of card base with water to make it more pliable and use a cobblestone embossing folder to create the textured “floor” of this card. Score and fold ½ inch along short side of piece. Paint or decorated the textured area before gluing tab to center back of tri-fold card.

Cut two fountains from white card stock and ink both sides of each piece using Distress Oxide inks and a blending brush. (Adding the beads is optional.) Using a needle and thread, string seed beads and then adhere with glue to fountain. Glue beaded fountain to front of card aperture, glue second fountain to inside of front aperture matching up with front fountain and hiding the threads of the beading. (My aperture was bigger than the fountain and trellis, so I used thin stirps of clear plastic that I cut form packaging to act as extensions for the bases and tops of the fountain and trellis so that I could glue them to the card base.)

Cut two trellises from white card stock and two from green paper. Cut out the ivy from the green pieces and glue to the white trellis pieces. (An alterative is to color the ivy with green markers on the white trellis.) Adhere one trellis to the second aperture on the card base and then glue the second trellis to the back of aperture matching up lattice work.

Cut a tree and leaves from the Karen Burniston Tree Pop-Up die set. Cut a number of strips of grass from green paper and glue in layers to the inside of card. Position the tree behind the bench on the center panel. (I had to cut a second trunk to make the tree taller.)  Glue down the tree then layers of grass. Decorate with birds cut from Karen Burniston’s Tiny Trees Pop-Up die set.

Cut two of the benches out of heavy brown card stock. Save the four strips that are waste from the die cutting of bench. Cut the top of bench back off one piece as shown. Snip the arm rest from the back of the same piece and trim off extra angled piece. Fold the cut back down to form seat of bench.

Fold down the cut arms. Take the wider of the saved four strips and fold in a rectangle that is 1/ 2 x 3/8 inches and glue ends together. Glue the bench seat to the whole bench piece which becomes the bench’s back. Glue the rectangles between the front curved bench legs and the back curved bench legs. Take one of the thin strips and cut in half. Fold each half into an “L” shape. Glue the “L”s under the fold arm rests and adhere “L” strip to the bench back.

Train the bench to fold up, before gluing on to card base. To glue the bench into the card. Add glue first to rectangle bottom strips and position the onto the card “floor” near the fold. Glue bench back on to center panel of card. Move the bench while glue is still wet for best positioning.

To add some activity to the card, I stamped and colored a Funky Fossil dog stamp I had with Distress Oxide – Rusty Hinge with a water brush. The ball was colored with markers and attached to the dog with a strip of clear plastic cut from some packaging. The dog was then attached to the cobblestone flap by cutting a strip of cardstock and folding into an “L” shape and gluing to back of dog and onto cobblestones.

I covered the fronts of the aperture panels and the back center panel with green patterned paper before adding sentiments.

Sentiments are foiled Spellbinders sentiments I had in my stash and a Riley & Co. sentiment that is stamped on white card stock scrap in green ink, fussy cut and adhered to the back of cobblestone panel.

Hope this fun card has provided some inspiration for your crafting. 😊

SUPPLIES Used from Dies R Us:

Other Supplies:

  • White and brown cardstock
  • Green paper
  • Patterned papers from Park Lane Paperie – Strawberry Patch
  • Clear plastic strips cut from packaging
  • Darice cobblestone embossing folder
  • Crayola Signature Brush & Detail Dual-ended Markers
  • Ranger – Distress Oxide – Mowed Lawn, Stormy Sky, Tumbled Glass, Rusty Hinge
  • Scissors
  • Needle and thread
  • Clear glass seed beads
  • Funky Fossil Designs – Clear stamps – More Furry Friends
  • Foiled sentiment strips from Spellbinders Glimmer System foils and plates
  • Riley & Company -inspirations – Find joy in the ordinary – INS-111
  • Stampin’Up Classic ink pad – Pear Pizzazz

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