Carta bella paper

Cowgirl Graduation Card

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It’s Sneak Peek Week for Karen Burniston’s June 2025 release of ten new dies and five new clear stamps. For this cowgirl graduation card, I used several of the new sets including Leaping Animals, Movie Night Charms and Rainbow Add-Ons die sets and Movie Night stamp set.

Watch the process video to see how I made this card.

Cardbase:  Cut a 5×7-inch A7 cardbase from brown kraft cardstock. (I used a purchased cardbase and envelope.) Cover the inside with decorative paper. Clouds and sun are cut using the Rainbow Add-Ons die set.

Pop-Up:  Watch the assembly video at the bottom of the linked page for the Stocking Pop-Up as well as the video above.

Horse and Fence:  Cut one tan unicorn body from the Leaping Animals die set and from dark brown cut the tail and mane pieces. (I cut three of the tan because my cardstock was less than 80lb weight.) Use the die stencil features to draw in the horse’s eye, mouth, nostril and hooves with a thin black marker. Cut one fence from heavy white cardstock using the Farm Edges die set. Glue fence to top edge of pop-up over piece and glue horse to inner pop-up tombstone piece.

Cowgirl:  Cut out one body, one hair style, one pair pants, one collared shirt, and one women’s short sleeved top from the Paper People die set. Cut one scarf bandana and two pair of cowboy hat and boots from the Tiny Accessories 3 set. (One set of hat and boots will be used on envelope.) I used a white brush marker to age the jeans and brown ink to age the hat and boots. The brown vest was made by cutting off the sleeves of the women’s top and cutting it up the middle. The front corners of each side were trimmed off to make a matching “v” similar to the neckline of the vest. The shirt and jeans were trimmed to fit under the vest. Boots were also trimmed to fit under the jeans. A piece of hemp cording was looped and glued together before adhering under the cowgirl’s hand.

Movie Elements:  Cut out of charcoal gray the film strip, film reel film and the clapper board “V” dies from the Movie Night Charms set. Cut the clapper board large base piece from white and color in the top “V” with red marker. Use thin black marker and die stencil feature to ink in the board’s lines. Cut one reel die from silver foil cardstock. Cut off all charm loops from clapper board and film reel. Assemble as shown in video above. Fill film strip with photos. (I used digital images that were resized on computer and printed on computer paper that was covered with clear packing tape.)

Sentiments:  All the sentiments were stamped using the Movie Night stamp set with in black ink. “Ooh, plot twist!” was cut out using the smallest oval die in the Rectangles and Labels – Crosshatch die set. “Can’t wait to see what you do next!” and “Lights, Camera, Celebrate!” were cut out using the oval die in the Lorna Label Pop-Up set. “And the award for totally crushing it goes to…YOU!” was cut out using the smallest fancy label die in the Rectangles and Labels – Crosshatch die set.

Envelope:  The card fits into an A7 (5x 9-inches) size envelope with a die cut a cowgirl hat and boots the back flap using the Tiny Accessories 3 set.

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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:

Dies

Stamps

Papers

  • Carta Bella – 12×12 Double-Sided Patterned Cardstock – Cowgirl – Howdy Bandana
  • Divinity Designs – 6×6 Single Sided Decorative papers – Baby Girl Paper Pad
  • Maja Design – 6×6 Double-Sided Patterned Cardstock – Hygge
  • My Colors – 12×12 Metallic-Coated Textured Cardstock – Black Bear
  • Blue, Brown, Orange, Tan and Yellow Cardstock
  • White Cardstock
  • Park Lane Paperie – A& Cardbase and Envelope – Kraft Brown

Ink

  • Memento – Fade Resistant Dye ink – Tuxedo Black
  • Pigma – Mircon 005 Fine Tip Pen – Black
  • Ranger – Tim Holtz Distress Ink – Gathered Twigs
  • Scrapbook.com – Brush Marker –White
  • Sharpie – Permanent Marker – Fine Tip – Red
  • Stampin’ Up – Stampin’ Write Dual-Tipped Marker – Chocolate Chip

Adhesives

Tools

  • Die Cutting Machine
  • Paper Trimmer
  • Bone Folder
  • Score Board
  • Stamping Platform
  • LDRS – Stampendable Stamping Tool
  • Stamping Block
  • Scissors
  • Tweezers
  • Pencil
  • Paper Masking Tape
  • Sponge Dauber
  • We R Memories – QuickStick

Miscellaneous

  • Cousin – D.I.Y!- Natural Hemp Cord #20

Santa’s Helpers

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This card was made for Craft Roulette #187 whose parameters included a card made with cardstock and not-cardstock, Santa’s workshop colors, collar(s) element and zig-zags.

As a simple Christmas card with a pieced paper background and sentiments from the paper pad. This was a quick card to make in less than two hours. I started with the Carta Bella Letters to Santa paper pad and a mail-order catalog page of a red Christmas shower curtain to die cut three different colors of chevron background die. After separating all the pieces into a tray, I took the woodgrain frame and glued it to an A2 (4.25-inches by 5.5-inches) kraft card base. Alternating the colors, I filled in the frame.

The two sentiment cards or toppers were cut from the paper pad. Santa’s helpers with their collars was popped-up on the card front with foam dots. Small dots of translucent red Nuvo Drops were added to the elves’ shoe and hat tips. Santa’s face with “Merry Christmas” greeting were added to the card inside.

An extra red zig-zag stripe of red decorates the 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:

Dies

  • Divinity Designs – Metal Die – Chevron Background – CBD474

Papers

  • Carta Bella – 6×6 Double-Sided Paper Pad – Letters To Santa
  • A2 Cardbase and Envelope – Kraft

Adhesives

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

Tools

  • Die Cutting Machine
  • Pokey Tool
  • Scissors
  • Paper Cutter

Miscellaneous

  • Nuvo – Jewel Drops – Holly Berries

Winter mail

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Who doesn’t love getting mail! The most famous snowman, Frosty sure does enjoy his mail in this card celebrating wintertime mail. It uses dies by Karen Burniston to create a delightful pop-up card.

The main die sets used were the Mailbox Pop-Up and the Snowman Pop-Up. Watch the two assembly videos for tips on how to construct the pop-up snowman and mailbox by clicking on the links above before starting your card. (If I had been smart and followed my advice of watching the assembly videos before starting the card, I would have known I needed at least 5 inches from the card fold to have Frosty in his top hat and should have done a top fold card instead of a side fold vertical card.)

Because I constructed my card base before I watched the assembly videos, I had to make the snowman without his hat to fit in the card. I used the top hat and snowflake from another snowman die set by Karen Burniston.

My inspiration for this card was the Carta Bella paper pad that has a page of envelopes addressed to various North Pole and winter characters. I cut out several of the envelopes from the paper and scattered them throughout the card. The other patterned papers are from this paper pad as well.

I like creating an outer frame for my card bases covered in patterned papers. I used the medium sized crosshatched rectangle to cut the frames in the inside green plaid paper panels and I used one of these rectangles on the back of the card over a border made from paper leftovers from the inside of the card.

For the card front I constructed a background from three leftover pieces of the snowflake print. The snow in the foreground was cut using a nature edge die that cuts a stitched rolling hill with trees. The trees I cut off.

While the mailbox is designed to be inside the card as an interactive element, it can be simplified down to a flat element. I used the main mailbox, lid, flag and wood grained post dies. The brown wooden post I inked the dies with white ink to get it into the wood grain and then gently rubbed the piece over the ink cube to get a snowy effect. I added the Santa hat and snowflakes to give some hints, if the name on the mail box didn’t clue the viewer that it is Santa Claus’ mailbox. I leave it up to the viewer to decide if the small Rudolf is the real one or a winter decoration.

Using the die as a stencil, I colored with a white gel pen to shade Rudolph’s ears and tail and a black fine-tipped marker for his hooves. I used Glossy Accents over his red paper nose to look more like a light. For Rudolph’s eyes and the snowman’s coal eyes and buttons, I used Nuvo Drops. With both these products be sure to allow 12-24 hours for them to dry. (I swished Rudolph’s nose and didn’t notice until the glossy accents had almost set.)

Inside the card, the finishing touches include: a snowflake, a stitched heart, and the sentiment of “Season’s Greetings” from the Karen Burniston Word Set 3.  (I’ve been experimenting with various dies by Karen Burniston with the dotted outlines because they are easy to make stitched or embroidered charms and embellishments for cards. This heart is from the Circle Charm Pop-Up set.)

For the envelope, I made a snowman face with top hat from Karen Burniston’s Snowman set and glued all its pieces and back securely to the back flap of the envelope. Sometimes for thick cards to fit into a standard size envelope (A2 for this card) you need to trim a total of 1/4 of an inch off the non-fold sides of the card.

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

Dies:

stamps & Ink

  • Craft Smart – Ink Pad – White
  • Ink
  • Stamp
  • Sakura – Gelly Roll Pen– 08 -White
  • Sharpie – Ultra Fine-Tipped Marker – Black

Papers

  • Carta Bella – 6×6 Paper Pad of Double-Sided cardstock – Letters to Santa
  • Lightweight 8.5×11 inch white cardstock
  • Matte silver foil cardstock scrap
  • Colored cardstock scraps
  • A2 Envelope

Additional Supplies Used:

On the Injured List

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For a baseball fan, having your favorite player on the injured list, is bad, having yourself on the list is even worse.  This card is for a sports fan recovering from surgery.

Echo Park Paper Co. makes a Baseball mega bundle of double-sided papers and ephemera that works well with Carta Bella’s Baseball element stickers. I used items from both these sets along with the circle twisting mechanism designed by Karen Burniston to make this card.

After watching Karen’s assembly video for the Snowman Twist Circle die set, I selected the largest two circle dies, cutting the largest from sand colored paper and the smaller stitched circle from white cardstock. I used a pencil to sketch where the red stitching would be on the white circle and used a fine tipped marker to mark the baseball’s stitching.  The striped paper for the inside of the card was folded and die-cut as directed in the video. The arm piece was also cut from the striped paper.

A lightweight 5 x 6.5 inch card base was what I glued the striped inside paper to. For the outside I cut two 5 x 6.5 inch pieces of the sand colored paper. Decorating the card with the stickers and pre-cut ephemera was the fun part of the card.  Using a computer, I created the two sentiments playing off the twisting action of the batter on the circle. “It won’t be long before your back in the swing of things!”

The envelope is also decorated with a baseball sticker.

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

Materials Used:

Dies

Inks

  • Red fine-tipped pen
  • Black fine-tipped pen

Papers

  • Echo Park Paper Co. – Baseball by Steven Duncan Mega Bundle – CBBA95000TM
  • Carta Bella Paper Company – Baseball Element Sticker – CBBA95014
  • White card base from my stash

Miscellaneous

  • Sizzix – Big Shot PLUS die cutting Machine
  • Cosmic Shimmer – Specialist Acrylic Glue – 125ml
  • Fineline 20 Gauge Applicator & Bottle

It’s Baseball Season

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I have a Coach K in my life who has coach hundreds of young men to excel in the game of baseball from Little League through high school teams.  His baseball hero is Roberto Clemente. So when I saw the Carta Bella Paper’s Baseball series I immediately thought of Coach K.IMG_4945

I made an A2 size card with a fold-out shadow box inside including a dangling baseball made from two plastic baseball embellishment stickers stuck together encasing the thread. The batter was cut out as a rectangle with strips add to the sides to adhere using double-sided tape.  A circle die was used to cut the hole for the shadow box.

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I used the scoreboard card for the background of the batter. The Home Run hotdogs sign became the ads you often see around the fences and walls of baseball stadiums. The happy birthday sign was computer generated to match the style of the cards.

The concept of the open center box card was inspired by a MayMay Made it you tube video.