Santa Stop Here

Fur babies can enjoy the winter holidays as much as their human parents. This little pup doesn’t want Santa to forget her. She’s got her Santa hat and lights on her house as well as a sign asking Santa to stop.

The card front uses the dog from the Dog House Tiny House Add-Ons cut three times to make her stand out from the busy background paper. Dog bones from this set were also added to hint at what is to come on the inside.

To create the dog house, cut out and assemble a red Tiny House. (See assembly video.) I used the same red lightweight cardstock for the side panels from the add-ons. I choose not to ink the dies to print the siding lines, but rather to emboss them and then, using a white ink cube, to add a powdery dusting of snow.

For the colorful lights, use the lights from the Holiday House die set. (I used shimmer paper and colored them with fine-tipped markers.) The wreath is also from the Holiday House. Pup is added to the front of the dog house with a thick foam dot.

The snowy look on the roof was created by painting a thick coating of glitter gloss and using Effect Snow around the edges. To hold up the “Santa Stop Here” sign, a grassy strip from the Mushroom Tiny House Add-Ons set was cut, Effect Snowed, and glued to the card base and dog house. The sign is made from three of the school signs from the Church and School Tiny House Add-Ons set.

White octagons from the Bam Box Pop-Up die set are placed in opposing corners like snowballs for personal messages. Snowflake borders cut from shimmer paper using the Long Nature Edges 2 set.

Card backs are just as important as fronts. This one is decorated with left over strips.

The back flap of the envelope hints at what’s to come with the Santa capped pup.

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

Materials Used:

Dies

Papers

  • Echo Park Paper Co. – 12 x 12 Double-Sided Cardstock – A Perfect Christmas by Lori Whitlock – Christmas Collage – APC135008
  • Red Light-Weight Cardstock – 8.5 x 11
  • Colored Cardstock Scraps
  • White A7 Envelope

Pens & Inks

  • Blue, Red, Yellow and Blue Fine-Tipped Markers
  • Gelly Roll 08 Pen – White
  • Pigma Micron 05 – Archival Ink .045mm – Dark Brown
  • American Crafts – Metallic Markers – Silver

Miscellaneous

Happy Christmas Basket

There is something magical about going to a Christmas Eve Candlelight church service on a frosty evening. That is the feeling this basket card is hoping to invoke.

This Christmas card features some of Karen Burniston’s December 2022 release die sets – Wide Woven Basket Box Card, Church School Tiny House Add-ons and Bam Box. All of the pieces were cut from two types of white cardstock with silver ink added to some pieces. Vellum was used behind the windows.

Church: The assembly of the church starts with the Tiny House base with its windows cut out while still flat. (Save the window frames to glue back into openings.) Cut rectangles of clear vellum to be glued on the inside of the church over the window openings. Trim excess vellum away from round window as needed. Coat the two roofs with glitter gloss. Coat window frames and door frame with glitter gloss. Using door die as a stencil, color door handles silver. Color the two crosses silver and glue together. Color the two halves of the tall charm holder on the church tower silver.

Assemble the tiny house as directed in assembly video. Don’t fold back bottom tabs, but rather trim off the tab on the house side, leaving the back or pointed side’s tab attached. Follow assembly video for the church tower. After adding the Bam Boxes, cut a rectangle to fit on the inside of the church to cover the other half of the church front. (This piece will stabilize the church when attached to the basket and will block light if you add LED lights.)

Wide Woven Basket: This die set makes it easy to create a rectangular pop-up basket. (Prior to this set you had to die cut an extra set of pieces to widen the basket sides and grass.

When used with the previously released Woven Basket Box Card, you cut two sets of the original size sides and two sets of the wide size sides. Follow the directions on the package or the assembly video to weave the basket and join the sides together. (I colored both sides of the ropes with silver metallic pen and then coated with a glitter gloss brush pen before attaching them.)

Adding Crossbars of Grass: The Wide Woven Basket Box Card includes the wide grass crossbars. (I cut four to make a full basket.) I trimmed away the grass leaves where the church would be. The front tab on the church is NOT attached to the crossbar, but rather acts as a guide for when the church and basket are folded closed.

Bam Boxes: To animate the basket when it comes out of the envelope and pops into shape, two small “Bam Boxes” were used. Watch the assembly video first. The church also uses two Bam Boxes. These easy to make rectangular boxes are powered by a small rubber band. (I used #8 size bands.) These go in diagonally opposite corners of the basket or church. Once glued in, the basket or church will only fold flat in one direction, so make sure both church and basket fold in the same direction. (I recommend using a heavy weight cardstock for bam boxes and letting each stage of gluing dry before moving onto the next step. I found that making a bunch of Bam Boxes at one time is useful for having some ready made to use on other projects.)

Tag, Bells, Holly and Berries: A tag is tied to the handle of the basket for a personal message. It is cut using the tag die from the Karen Burniston Tag Book die set. The bells are charms from the Church School Tiny House Add-ons colored with a silver gel pen. Karen Burniston’s Pattern Plate of Holly was coated a glitter gloss while the berries were colored with a silver gel pen. The holly leaves and berries were cut apart for decorations on the basket, tag and in the basket grass.

Sentiment: The “Happy Christmas” is from the Karen Burniston Word Set 3 -Holiday. It was cut three times from white, and the top layer was not weeded out of its original piece of cardstock while it was being colored with a silver gel pen. The three layers were glued together before being attached to the front of the basket.

Lights: I added an inexpensive string of LED fairy lights to the inside of the church. (You can find these at Dollartree and Poundland stores.) Because the lights restrict the movement of the Bam Boxes inside the church, the lights need to be removed to fold flat.

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

Materials Used:

Dies

Papers

  • Brazzill – 12×12 Smooth Cardstock – Coconut Swirl
  • White Heavy Weight Cardstock

Pens & Brushes

  • American Crafts Metallic Marker – Silver
  • Gelly Roll – Gel Pen – Silver
  • Nuvo – Aqua Shimmer Brush Pen – Glitter Gloss

Miscellaneous

Popping The Question

Hi Crafty Friends,

Welcome to our Karen Burniston Products – KB Riley LLC December Release Blog Hop. The Design Team have come together with Karen today for a fun blog hop to celebrate the release of 11 new dies. Sneak peeks of the new release started last week, and the dies are available to order NOW!

This proposal is literally popping the question!

Karen Burniston’s December 2022 release includes the Surprise Cube Pop-Up, Slider Box and Wedding Charms die sets used to make this proposal box.

Three decorated Surprise Cubes comfortably fit inside the slider drawer. (See assembly video for Surprise cubes.) Using the smallest crosshatch rectangle from the Slider Box set to hold the big question, it was glued to one side of a cube when flat. Placing this cube in the bottom of the drawer it tends to stay inside the drawer when the other cubes pop out. (Slider Box assembly video)

Four different charms- groom tux, bride wedding dress, double wedding rings and clicking champagne glasses – from the Wedding Charms set cover the sides of the cubes.

The tiny crosshatch squares and triangles included in the Surprise Cube set along with matting squares and triangles make for quick decorating. The Mini Alphabet letters spell out the proposal.

Not ready to pop the big question? Then try these die sets for asking someone to the prom, wishing a Happy Birthday or a Happy Christmas. The drawer will fit a gift card under the three cubes.

This release includes:

  • 2 new charm die sets
  • 1 new stand alone die set
  • 2 new Tiny House Add-Ons sets
  • 2 new Pop-up die sets
  • 1 new Woven Box Basket die set
  • 2 new Crosshatch die sets
  • 1 new Box die set

Dies are available to order now on the website.

GIVEAWAY:

To celebrate the release Karen Burniston and each of the Karen Burniston – KB Riley LLC Design Team members will be giving away a $25 Gift Certificate to some lucky person who comments on our blog posts, so make sure you join the hop and comment on everyone’s blog post. Winners will be randomly chosen from ALL of the blog hop comments received on our blog posts by Monday, 19th December 2022. Lots of chances to win some goodies, so just leave a comment on this post or any other blog hop posts to enter! Don’t forget to leave some way for us to contact you, in case you are a lucky winner!

Karen Burniston 

Lois Bak 

Sue Small-Kreider – YOU are HERE

Karen Aicken 

Jennifer Webster 

Frances Byrne 

Nicky Foden 

Sandy Diller  

Suzanne Smit

Fran Sabad 

Go Bears Father’s Day Card

It’s time for another Karen Burniston Design Team Challenge. This month we were asked to use the Fireplace Pop-up die set to celebrate a specific holiday.

I have Father’s Day, which in the USA is in June which is not necessarily when American football is played, but once a fan of a sports team, always a fan of a team. GO Bears!

Card Base: The card base is an A7 size. I took a medium weight piece cardstock cut to 10 x 7 inches and folded in half. The base was what I glued decorative papers to as well as attaching the fireplace pop-up mechanism and floor flap.

Bears and Accessories: The bears, their football helmets and footballs, beer mug, and pizza are all Karen Burniston dies – colored to match the Chicago bear’s uniforms. Beer mug is made from Coffee Charms (mug) and Happy Hour Charms (foam) and a pizza (circle from a snowman set). Pizza box is my own creation. (You could change up the sport by using any of the new Sports Charms.)

TV:  The TV is the fireplace mechanism with a print of bears game covering the top portion while the bottom portion acts a table.

Flip Floor: I have made another flip floor for a Halloween card using the furniture from the family room die set. What I learned from my previous card is to use strong tape. I used duct tape on this card and full pieces of suede paper (for carpet) and wood-grain to make the flap have a sturdy hinge. The flap is cut to stop just before the TV table and locks under the right end table.

Lamps:  To make the lamps feel in proportion to the size of the room, I placed them on end table cubes which also act as the locking device for the flip floor. The lamps are part of the Karen Burniston Family Room die set. I placed a thin foam square under the lamp shades to made them curve round.

Furniture: I turned the chair of the Family Room dies set into a table by gluing a rectangle over the arm rests instead of adding the seat back. The back of the sofa is just the seat portion left flat. I cut pieces to cover the black base of the sofa.

Sentiments: Using contrasting colors to cut background plaques for the front sentiment of “GO Wild!” makes them standout on the busy patterned paper. The Father’s Day sentiment comes with its own shadow background in the die set.

CRX Sheet: Because of the flip floor and locking mechanism being atypical for what most card recipients expect, I have included a sheet with directions for opening and locking the card open. (You can download for free.)

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

Materials Used:

Dies

Papers

  • Photoplay Paper – 12 x12 Double-sided coated cardstock – 1st and Goal-FBL3192
  • Hot Off The Press – 8.5 x 11 – Smoke Suede – 10434
  • Spellbinders – Santa Lane – 6×6 Paper Pad – Wood Boards
  • EKSuccess – Martha Stewart Crafts – 12×12 Double-sided Paper Pad – Gothic Manor – 48-20301Colored Cardstock Scraps
  • Computer and color printer
  • White A7 Envelope

Pens & Inks

  • Blue, Red, Yellow and Blue Fine-Tipped Markers
  • Gelly Roll 08 Pen – White
  • Pigma Micron 05 – Archival Ink .045mm – Dark Brown
  • Ranger – Tim Holtz – Distress Ink – Antique Linen and Fossilized Amber

Miscellaneous

Sneak Peak – Bam Boxes

Here are some sneak peaks at next week’s release of new Karen Burniston dies. Dies will be available on December 12, 2022.

Bam Boxes are small (1 1/2 x 3/4 inches) that are pop-up cubes that make it possible to animate a basket or tiny house open instantly when removed from an envelope. They also allow for objects to be placed almost anywhere inside on a scene card and pop-up instantly when the card is opened. Below are some examples.