Waterfall Wallet for Mother’s Day

It’s the Karen Burniston design team challenge for April 2025 using the theme of Designer’s Choice. I made a Mother’s Day Waterfall Wallet card to showcase photos and gift cards as well as Paper People charms.

Watch the following video for specifics on how I made this waterfall wallet.

Read more below on specific customizations I made to this wallet.

Cardbase: Cut a 7×10-inch rectangle of heavy 110 lb. cardstock. Score in the middle at 5-inches and fold in half. Emboss the card front using the Pattern Plate – Tiles and largest crosshatch rectangle in the Rectangles and Labels – Crosshatch die sets. (Check your die-cutting machine’s instructions for an embossing sandwich of plates for embossing with a die.  If you don’t have an embossing sandwich, die cut the elements with the dies and glue on the panels in a faux embossing method.) Emboss a 5.5×8.5-inch panel of the same cardstock using the same dies. Wait to glue on the second embossed panel until after the waterfall mechanism and the handle loop have been attached.

Handle Loop: Cut a strip of wallet colored cardstock a half-inch x 8.5-inches. (I scored an 1×8.5-inch stripe every 1/8” on my scoreboard and then trimmed it down to a half inch so it would have subtle stripes on it.) Die cut two 1-inch circle frame/ring from gold cardstock and another four out of heavy cardstock. Keep the center circle to use as decoration on the wallet clasp. Glue rings back to back for a sturdier ring with the gold rings as the outside layers. (I used the eyeball circles from the Animal Add-ons 4 die set to create the ring.) Loop the strip through the ring and glue closed. Press a fold into the loop near the glued end to form a tear drop shaped loop. Glue the loop together just above the ring. Glue the lower section of ring to wallet back, top left corner making sure there is room to attach charms to the ring.

Waterfall Card/Photo Holder: Create the waterfall wallet as shown in the video above. Cut the card holder rectangles, but before folding the rectangle around the card, die cut a window out of the center of the rectangle. (I used the second smallest rectangle in the set.) Back the window with a 2×3-inch piece of clear acetate or plastic packaging. (Adhere with double-sided tape.) Fold rectangle around gift card and seal the end using double-sided tape instead of glue. Attach into wallet as shown in video.

Paper People Charms: Using the Paper People and Charm Rings die sets, create people that look like the mother’s children. Once a figure is completely created, glue a charm base to the back of its head. Glue the entire figure to a backing paper and cut out with scissors. Thread the largest of the paper jump rings through the charm ring and wallet handle loop ring. Glue jump ring closed. Repeat for other people charms.

Watch the video for basic instructions on the construction of the card’s prototype.

Sentiments: For the prototype card, the outside letters spelling “MOM” came from the Alphabet die set while the small letters that are on the card/photo holder pockets are from the Mini Alphabet and Numbers set. For the customized card, the Happy Mother’s Day die set was used for the main sentiment.

Envelope: This card will be hand delivered or mailed in a large 9.5×12.5-inch cardboard envelope.

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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

Papers

  • Recollections – 8.5×11-inch 110lb Cardstock – Oceans
  • Stampin’Up – 12×12-inch Designer Series Paper – Masterfully Made
  • Clear Plastic Packaging (2×3-inch rectangles)

Ink

  • Ranger – Tim Holtz – Distress Ink – Stormy Sky
  • Pigma – Mircon 005 Fine Tip Pen – Black
  • Sakura – Gelly Roll Pen – Medium – White
  • Scrapbook.com – Glitter Brush Marker – Mint Green
  • Sharpie – Permanet marker -Ulta Fine – Green

Adhesives

Tools

  • Die Cutting Machine
  • Paper Trimmer
  • Bone Folder
  • Stapler
  • Scissors
  • Paper Masking Tape
  • We R Memories – QuickStick
  • Reverse Tweezers
  • Corner Rounder Punch
  • 1/8-inch Hole Punch
  • Blending Brush

A Charming Accordion Birthday Card

It’s the Karen Burniston design team challenge for January 2025 using the theme of First 100 Craft Dies of KB Riley LLC. We were asked to make a card using any of the die sets with item numbers between 1001 and 1100. For this challenge I chose to make a six panel Charm Accordion birthday card based off one Karen Burniston made in 2018. (You can watch her video of this card at the bottom of this linked page for the Charm Accordion die set.)

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

Cardbase: The finished cardbase folds down to 3 1/2-inches wide by 4 1/2-inches tall by 3/8-inch thick. To make the cardbase, cut three of the Charm Accordion double panel die from heavy cardstock. Cut the double panels in half to separate the panels. Cut five 3/4-inch wide by 4 1/2-inches tall strips of the same cardstock. Die cut five of the tabbed square connector pieces from heavy cardstock. Watch the video on how to assemble. Cut decorative papers to create frames for each panel as directed in the video.

Charms: Two different die sets were used for the charms that dangle in the connector frames. The present with a bow, the party hat and the cupcake are from the Birthday Charms set while the butterflies are from the Charm Accordion set. I used the stencil feature of the cupcake die to color in the sprinkles with fine tipped markers.

Sentiments: The letters that spell the word “HAPPY” were cut using the Alphabet set while the word “birthday” comes from Word Set 2 -Birthday.

Envelope: Because of the thickness of this card, it would have to be hand-delivered or mailed in a padded envelope as a package.

___________________________________

Thank you for experiencing this blog post.

I hope this inspires you and makes you smile.

Please like and leave comments 😊

___________________________________

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

Papers

  • Bazzill – 8.5×11 Cardstock – Lilac Swirl
  • Impression Obsession – 6×6 Double-Sided Cardstock – Basics 1 – Yellows
  • Paper Rose – 6×6 Double-Sided Cardstock – Purple Haze
  • Echo Park – 12×12 inch Double-Sided Papers – Day In The life No. 2 – April
  • Recollections – 8.5×11 65 lb. Cardstock – Purples, Blues and White

Ink

  • Sharpie – Permanent Marker – Ultra Fine Tip – Blue, Orange, Purple, Teal, Yellow

Adhesives

Tools

JUST SEWING A HELLO

Karen Burniston Design Team September Challenge “JUST…”

Just sewing a hello to you all. The fun new sewing charms from Karen Burniston’s August 2022 release make for a cute card.  Paired with the Label Charm Pop-Up and Word Set 15, this 4.25×5.5-inch card is a quick make. 

I started with a 4.25-inch by 11-inch card base folded in half. Using double-sided tape, I covered the inside and outside panels with yellow and blue plaid paper. (My favorite technique for using double-sided tape is to place around the edge of the card, lift the ends of the tape so corners are sticky, position the covering paper, you can shift the top paper a bit before you pull all the tape backing paper strips.)

Since I used 6-inch by 6-inch paper, I opted to trim it to size after adhering it to the card.

I centered the pivot label charm pop-up die over the front of my card and die cut through all three layers of paper and cardstock. Because of its thinkness, I ran it throught my die cutting machine twice. 

Because I did not adhere the center of my decorative papers to the card base, when I die cut the front label pivot, I could snip away the decorative labels from the paper and use them to decorate my card.

I cut two blue and one yellow tabbed labels. One of the blue labels, I glued the tab to the back of the yellow label and the adhered the other blue label over the back of the yellow label to hide the glued tab. Next, I used the label frame die with the hole to cut the frame from which the charm will hang from the double decorative papers side. Mark the hole to be pierced before cutting. (I would adhere the charm to the frame using a metal jump ring at this point, but you can add it as I did after the frame and label is glued into the card. It is harder to manipulate once the card is assembled.)

Fold the charm frame and attached label together as they will go into the card. Place a drop of glue on the frame’s tab and adhere to the back side of the card front label. Glue the blue label to the inside card back panel.

I cut three white charms. Two of the charms I cut the dotted oval from to form a charm frame and an oval. I stitched around the center oval of the charm with blue embroidery floss. To assemble glue the charm frame to the solid charm and then adhere one of the stitched ovals. Turn solid charm over and repeat.

I used four word sets for this card. The word sewing, I had to splice together from the words “wish” and “sending.” “Wish” is from Word Set 2. “Sending” is from Word Set 14. You can see in the photograph the sections circled in red where glued together to form the word “sewing.”

“Just” is from Word Set 15 and “Hello” is a single large die that embossed the stitch marks for you to color in with a fine -tipped marker.

The sewing charms (assembly video) can have their loops cut off and glued in place. I free-handed the stitch marks around the label and the label window with white and blue fine-tipped pens. For the back of the card I used the white waste from cutting the front pivot label to frame, and the leftover yellow label also cut from the front. The button and thimble cover the gaps in the frame.

As with all my cards that are sent in an envelope, I have stamped the back flap to hint at what’s inside. This is an A2 envelope. The card will require extra postage in the USA because of the thickness and the added metal charm may mean I’ll send the card in a padded envelope.

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

Materials Used:

Dies

Papers

  • Catherine Pooler – Zen Plaid 6×6” Pattern Paper
  • Silver packaging
  • Blue and white cardstock scraps
  • White gold shimmer cardstock
  • Light weight white cardstock base 4.25 x11 inches folded in half
  • A2 white envelope

Pens, Inks & Stamps

Miscellaneous