It’s SNEAK PEEK Week for Karen Burniston’s December 2023 Release. Today we’ll focus on the Birthday Candle Add-Ons die set.
Look for tutorial on this project in the coming weeks.
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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
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
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
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
It’s the Karen Burniston design team challenge for November 2023 with the theme of “What’s Cooking” using the Oven Pop-Up die set. I chose to celebrate Pi Day with apple pie making in my card.
The card uses dies by Karen Burniston including Oven Extras and Oven Pop-Up, Picnic Elements, Tree Fruit, Bam Box Pop-Up, Street Lantern Pop-Up and crosshatch rectangles.
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 started with two rectangles of heavy weight cardstock one piece 5-inches by 7-inches and the second piece 5-inches by 11-inches, scored and folded at 7-inches. The short panel was glued to the back of the 5×7 rectangle to form an A7 top fold card. (The weight of this extra long tab is used to weigh down the floor of the card when open.)
I cut a rectangle of the red and white tablecloth paper using the large crosshatch rectangle in the Rectangle and Labels – Crosshatch die set to cover the card front. Because I cut the front decorative paper on an angle, I had some triangles of the paper left over and so I made a table on the back of the card.
Oven/Stove: I followed the basic way to make the oven and cabinets on the assembly video using the cabinet doors from the oven extra’s set. The black mirror cardstock used for the oven can be hard to get glue to stick to, so I often use double-sided tape to stick on the burners, knobs, and window acetate and Glossy Accents to attach the door handle.
Cabinets: Once the stove is attached, you can add the side cabinets. I cut the cabinets from apple green cardstock and then inked them with a brown ink to age them. The upper cabinets and lower cabinet door fronts are cut using the larger rectangle die in the Oven Extras set and then covered with the small rectangle die pieces. Upper cabinets are attached with foam tape to add some dimension to them. A stove hood was cut from silver cardstock and is hidden mostly behind the small upper middle cabinet.
Table: The table is a combination of Karen Burniston’s pop-up island using a bam box and Sandy Diller’s idea to trim lampposts from the Street Lantern Pop-Up set for the turned table legs. I used the original Bam Box Pop-Up with two of the oven cabinet pieces glued on each side of the bam box. The drawers and knobs are from the Oven Pop-Up set as well.
To make the table legs more stable, I added a piece of wood grain cardstock under the tabletop connecting the two legs as well as a thin strip of clear acetate plastic near the bottom of the legs. Tabletop is the second smallest crosshatch rectangle in Rectangles-Crosshatch set. All tabletop parts are cut from woodgrain embossed cardstock and inked with brown ink to bring out the grain. (I think if I made this card again, I would use two layers of cardstock for the tabletop and glue the items on to the tabletop before assembling it so the top would lay flat.)
Decorations: Between the two oven sets are lots of fun pieces that add dimension and realism to the pop-up scene. The Oven Pop-Up set includes the oven mitt, stove burners and knobs, oven rack and door handle. The Oven Extras set includes the cutting board and roasting pan that I used to make a small rolling pin, the knife and the green bowl that holds the apple slices. as well as three pop-up cube strips that I used to pop-up the oven rack, pie inside the oven and the items on the counter.
Apple slices are the leftover bits from cutting two burner plates. Pie crust on table was cut freehand and the burner circle die from the Oven Pop-Up set was rubbed to emboss the pie pan and then cut away to show the trimming of the piecrust. Burner circle is silver pie pan under the crust. The baked pies are cut from silver foil cardstock and brown kraft cardstock using the Picnic Elements set. Brown is inked around the edges of pie crust. The red apples are from the Tree Fruit die set.
Sentiments: All the sentiments are either stickers, journaling cards or papers from the paper collection Sunflower Market by Carta Bella. The white rug inside the card is place for a personal message and is cut using the base blanket die in the Picnic Elements set.
Envelope: A strip of pie paper is glued to the back flap of the envelope to set the tone for the card inside and are from the paper collection. Two red apples left over from inside the card were also glued on the 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
Papers
Ink
Adhesives
Tools
It’s the Karen Burniston design team challenge for October 2023with the theme of Jack-O-Lantern.
My inspiration for this card was drawn from a similar cart made by a crafting friend Jennifer Webster and the Mother’s Day flower cart I made previously.
Cart Drawer: The cart is based around the Slider Box. Watch the assembly video before die-cutting pieces. I used kraft brown 65 lb. cardstock for the box and drawer. A piece of striped satin ribbon was used as a drawer pull.
A Bam Box (see assembly video) is what pops up the green hands and message of “BOO!” which are from the Halloween Elements die set. There is space to place a special treat in the drawer over the pop-up. When the treat is picked-up the pop-up hands will make a grab at the gift recipient.
Cart Base: The cart’s frame made by die-cutting two of the Fancy Label Accordion panels and removing the center pivot panel and side tab to create a square frame. Fold in half. Glue the u-shape together. I took the two smallest of the off-cuts from the die cut to make the cart handles. (Glue the pieces back-to-back for stability.) Glue handles on to slider box at open end before adhering the u-shape frame to slider box.
Roof Frame: The striped roof awning is cut from some digital striped paper using the large scalloped edged rectangle in the Rectangles and Labels – Crosshatch set. It is held up by a frame made by die-cutting two of the Fancy Label Accordion in white cardstock and cutting off the center pivot panel and side tab. Fold each of the frames at 2 3/4-inches. Glue the frames on to the sides of the cart base, lining up the bottom edge of the white frame to the inside edge of the blue cart frame.
Cut two strips of brown cardstock 1 1/2-inches long by 1/2-inch wide. Fold each strip in half. Pinch the top halves of the roof frames towards each other to form triangular frame. Glue the frame together with the two strips.
Pumpkins: The Halloween Border die set has a row of pumpkins that are the right size to layer onto the cart sides with glue and foam squares.
Jack-O-Lantern: The four-sided jack-o-lantern lights up with an EZ-Light. I created a cube from two strips of clear packaging each folded in half and creased with a bone folder and then folding each half to the middle and creasing so that each strip has four sections to it. Weave one strip over the other to form a cube. Snake the coil of wires of the EZ-Light into the center of the cube.
Position the lighted cube and control piece onto the cart and secure with double sided tape or foam tape. Cut a rectangle of 1 1/2 x 7/8 inches from kraft brown cardstock, center over the control piece and stamp “push here” on the end that has the button.
The large pumpkin die from the Autumn Elements was used to cut out four pumpkins for the jack-o-lantern. The face was cut out using the face insert die from the Halloween Elements set. The pumpkins were inked blended and the ridges outlined with a thin black pen. A green marker was used to color the stems. To lessen light leakage, an orange square was attached to the top of the clear plastic cube and the pumpkin faces attached with foam squares. As part of the final decorations. A small pumpkin from the Skeleton and Bat set was added to the top of the jack-o-lantern.
Roof and Sign: For the roof, the scalloped rectangle from the Rectangles and Labels – Crosshatch set was used with orange and white striped cardstock. (I created my own digital paper.) The sign was created by cutting two of the sentiment oval from the Halloween Charms from black cardstock and glued them onto orange cardstock and fussy cut around the oval frame.
A strip of white cardstock 5-inches long by 1/2-inch wide was folded in half and then the folded end was sandwiched between the two ovals and the ovals glued together. (You now have the equivalent of a large paper brad with two legs.) A slit was cut in the roof fold center for the legs of the sign to slide through and be glued to the underside of the roof.
Cut two of each of the bird dies in the Halloween Elements from black cardstock. Glue the bodies together leaving the legs free. Use the legs as the tabs to glue the birds to the roof ridge on either end of the roof.
Wheels: For the wheels I made a template using middle plain and crosshatched circles from the Circles – Crosshatch set. Cut the plain circle from scrap paper and the place the crosshatch circle die in the middle of the paper circle. Trace around the center of crosshatch die. Fold the paper in half, then half again and once more in half to come up with eight sections of the circle. Using a see-through ruler, mark and draw 5mm wide spokes interesting in the middle of the circle.
Die-cut from dark brown cardstock two plain circles. (Because my cardstock was thin, I cut four circles and glue two together before cutting the spokes.) On the back side of the circles use the paper template to trace the triangles that need to be cute out using a craft knife and straight edge.
Die cut two 1/2 inch circles from black cardstock. (I used the burner dies from the Oven Pop-up set because it was handy. You could use other dies to cover the wheel axle.) Adhere half rounded pearls over the black circles, glue each gem circle to the center of the wheels to make the axle caps.
Glue wheels onto cart’s front posts. Add large pumpkins to hide the cart leg behind the wheel. Additional pumpkins cut from the Autumn Elements (large pumpkin) and Halloween Elements (medium pumpkin) and two black cats from the Skeleton and Bat set, were added to the cart legs.
Finished Measurements: This is a card/gift box is designed to be hand-delivered and measures approximately 8-inches high, 6 1/2-inches wide and 3-inches deep.
Thank you for reading this blog post. I hope this inspires you and makes you smile. Please like and leave comments 😊
For more Slider Box creations click here.
Materials Used:
Dies
Stamps
Papers
Pens/Gels
Adhesives
Tools
Bling
This card was made for Craft Roulette #183 whose parameters included a card with ribbon, circus colors, September and hand cut.
I made this card for a family member whose birthday is in September using a fancy fold display template that I had seen in a Die-cutting Essentials magazine a few years ago. I modified the template for an 8.5×11 inch piece of cardstock and to allow for the Karen Burniston Stocking Pop-Up mechanism that I wanted to use in it.
Cardbase: I started with an 8.5×10 inch piece of heavy yellow cardstock. Using a pencil and a T-ruler to mark where horizontal slots need to be cut as well as vertical scoring for the various folds. See photo for measurements. Measure the various sections and cut decorative paper 1/4 inch smaller than the measurement for each section. Glue in place before moving onto the mechanism. (I forgot and had to remove and then re-glue the mechanism.)
Pop-Up Mechanism: (Watch the assembly video for the Stocking Pop-Up located at the bottom of the linked page before starting this portion of the card.) Play with the placement of the mechanism and noise maker using a temporary tape runner before committing to permanent glue. Make sure the noisemaker doesn’t create any catchpoints with the cardbase folds. Add ribbon to the pop-up “tombstone” shape using liquid glue and glue dots before attaching the top cover piece.
Sentiments: I used Chloe’s Happy Birthday dies for the white shadow behind the script words. I sketched out the word “YAY!” on green cardstock and fussy cut the pieces out.
Envelope: The card, when folded, fits into a #10 business envelope but will require extra USA postage for the weight and thickness.
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
Adhesives
Tools
Miscellaneous
Ully Cat's World 