Cowgirl Graduation Card

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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I hope this inspires you and makes you smile.

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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

Welcome to the Horse Farm

Greetings it’s Sue here from the Dies R Us design team with another barn pop-up card.

The barn pop-up is Karen Burniston’ Barn Pop Stand as are the Farm Edges fence and hills. The horses are cut and stenciled using Karen Burniston’s Horse, Unicorn and Zebra set and the hat and pitchfork come from her Tiny Accessories 3 set. “Howdy!” sentiment is also by Karen Burniston.

Cut:

2 – largest barn die out of red card stock -Cut doors out of one

1 – small “X” window from white

2 – doors “X” die out of white

1 – door railing out of white

2 – roof trim die out of white

2 – weathervanes at same time by placing silver mirror card back-to-back

3 – hay bales -color with Distress Ink

1 – pitchfork – color with markers

2 – fence out of white

3 – horse bodies

3 – horse manes and tails

1 – cowboy hat from yellow – color with distress inks and markers

2 – Howdy! – one from white and one from yellow

Cut horses and color using stencils on dies and Distress Oxide inks using large Pink & Main blender brush. (This was my first time using this larger inking brush and I was delighted with the ease of inking up the large horse pieces.  The ink blending went smoothly unlike when I use sponge inking tools.)

Glue white “X” frames to window cut outs to form a hay loft door. Using clear tape hinge door onto loft. Glue on roof trim to front and back barn pieces. Glue weather vane to inside back piece.

To assemble the sliding doors, weave the top bar end of the red door piece through the white door railing piece fold the red bar over the railing where indicated and glue bar onto top of door making sure no glue is on the railing. Glue white “X” frame over door. Repeat with second door.

The card base is a 10 x7 inch white heavy weight card stock folded in half to form a 5 x 7 inches card. Panels of printed paper were cut to cover the front and back panels (5 x 7 inches, front and 5 ½ x 7 inches, back).

The inside panels are 4 ¾ x 6 ¾ inches. I positioned and taped the inside panels with clear removable tape so that I could die cut the pop-up flaps to anchor the barn to. Using Scor-tape, I adhered the paper panels to the card base removing the clear tape once all panels were adhered.

Glue barn pieces to pop-up tabs. Cut a 1-inch strip of paper fold in half and fold to create tabs on both bottom edges. Glue two hay bales and pitchfork to one side and glue tabs down inside barn, over the card fold. This will be seen when the barn doors are opened. Glue remaining hay bale behind barn hay loft door.

Glue matching printed papers to cover over tabs inside barn. Using only a small dot of glue at inside top of barn glue barn pieces together. Fold fences in half and glue ends inside barn. Glue decorated horses to fence.

Decorate the inside and outside of card with grass and hills cut using Farm Edges die set. (I trimmed off the tractor from my hills and had to cut and move the die to get a longer hill for my 7-inch card.)

The front sentiment is cut twice and slightly off set. I used Distress Oxide ink to color the yellow layer.

Stamped a vintage stamp of a horse on the back flap of envelope.

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

SUPPLIES Used from Dies R Us:

Other Supplies:

  • Red, yellow, green and white cardstock
  • Printed papers from The Paper Studio’s Beach House pad and Graphic 45’s Fruit & Floral pad
  • Clear tape
  • Crayola Signature Brush & Detail Dual-ended Markers
  • Pigma Micron 05 archival ink pen
  • Vintage horse stamp
  • Stampin’ Up – Early Espresso ink pad
  • Ranger – Distress Ink – Fossilized Amber
  • Ranger – Distress Oxide – Ground Expresso
  • Sponge dauber
  • Stamping platform
  • Scissors
  • Tweezers

Don’t forget to come join in the fun at the Dies R Us Challenge Blog. There’s a new challenge theme offered on the 1st and 15th of each month and one lucky randomly drawn winner will receive a gift voucher prize to the Dies R Us Store.  

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click below for:

STORE

CHALLENGE BLOG

FACEBOOK

INSPIRATION BLOG

FRIENDS OF DIES R US PINTEREST PAGE

Stable Happy Mail

7 Stable-front-opened

Everyone likes Happy Mail and this one is made for a family of horse lovers. After making a z-fold card using a gate and fencing, I envisioned this horse paddock card.

5 Stable-folded envelope

The card is designed to fit folded into a #10 slimline envelope.

I laid-out the fence first on a 2 ½ inch x 12-inch strip of textured cardstock folding it long-ways in half and then scored at 3 inches and 9 inches. Draw pencil lines for the fence posts at: 1/4 inch, 1 7/16 inches, 1 9/16 inches, 2 7/8 inches, 3 inches, 3 1/8 inches, 4 7/16 inches, 4 9/16 inches, 5 7/16 inches, 6 1/16 inches, 7 7/16 inches,, 7 9/16 inches, 8 7/8 inches, 9 inches,, 9 1/8 inches, 10 7/16 inches, 10 9/16 inches, and 11 ¾ inches. Next, I evenly spaced three boards long-ways and colored in the spaces to be cut out. Using an Xacto craft knife and metal ruler I cut out the colored spaces on the folded over strip measuring 1 ¼ x 12 inches. (I recommend coloring in the cutout spaces as it gets very confusing, and like me, you have to start over again.)  (If you have the Karen Burniston Farm Edges die set or another fence die set, you could piece together the fence rather than cutting it as I did.)

3 Stable-Fence cut

The last cutting is to trim one half of the endposts off (See photo). Once the fence is done being cut, glue the wrong sides together to form a sturdy fence. I used distress inks to color the fence.

4 Stable-Fence endpost

The stable doors are sized to fit the Karen Burniston horse die. I cut three horses and decorated them differently using a black fine tipped pen and watercolor pencils. (Watch the assembly video for decoration ideas and tips). The doors are loosely based of the retired Stampin’ Up barn door set. I cut pieces of woodgrain paper to form the trim pieces and glued. The sliding door hardware is from the Stampin’Up set. Because the door is smaller than the die set door, I had to do a modified cutting of the slots that the door slides on.  I followed the door assembly method described in this video by The Creativity Cave.

6 Stable-front-unopened

The sentiments are from the barn door set. You will need to cut two pieces of wood grained paper for the stable at 4 x6 inches. Once you have cut the door slots out of the front piece, and assembled the door, you can adhere the backing piece with the grain sided facing the back side of the front. (The grain will camouflage the slot cuts. Make sure you don’t glue your acetate door mechanism to the backing piece. Test your door before the glue dries if you need to make adjustments. Stamp and cut out your sentiments and adhere behind the doors. Glue one horse head to be peaking out from the stall door and the glue door onto stable.

7 Stable-front-opened

Glue the fence endposts to the front of the stable once the doors and decorations have been added to the front of the stable. Add the horses to your paddock by gluing one to the back of the front fence and the other by using a strip of clear plastic from packaging (It needs to be sturdier than acetate.) to glue the acetate in place, first glue one side the inside of the side fencing. Fold the paddock flat to one side and see where the plastic strip folded tab ends up on the fence and, then glue to that spot.

You can write your personal message on the back of the stable.

Supplies

Stamps/Dies

Inks/Watercolors

Paper

  • Textured 12 x12 off white card stock from my stash
  • All other papers were from my scrap bin

Miscellaneous