Mail

Love Notes – A Pop-Up Valentine

| ullycatdesigns

IT’S TIME for the Karen Burniston Products – KB Riley LLC January 2026 Release Blog Hop. (See GIVEAWAY details at the end of this post for blog hop list.) The Design Team have come together with Karen today for a fun blog hop to celebrate the release of 10 new dies and 5 new stamp sets. Sneak peeks of the new release started last week, and the dies are available to pre-order NOW!

Today’s card uses the new dies of Stage Pop-Up and Grass Stage Add-Ons and two new stamp sets – Love Notes and Stage Scenes.  The card also uses previously released die sets of Mailbox Pop-Up, Fence Add-Ons and Greeting Labels.

Watch the process video to see how I made these cards.

Stage Pop-Up Base: Using the Stage Pop-Up die set, cut two of the largest die from patterned cardstock. Cut six of the rectangle decorator dies from the same patterned paper. From green cardstock cut two of the grassy stage-side strips and two of the smaller grass strip from the Grass Stage Add-Ons die set.  Glue the decorator rectangles on to the front panels of the grassy stage-side strips.  Assemble the stage platform as shown above in the video.

Fence: Cut two of the fence pieces from the Fence Add-Ons die set. Trim off the right end large post and small tabs on each end to create a symmetrical fence with a large center post that is 4-inches wide. Repeat with second piece. Glue the pieces together matching up the fence pickets.

From green cut twice the short grass die from the Mailbox Pop-Up set and then cut each of them in the middle. Glue these pieces to the ends of the grass strips cut from the Grass Stage Add-Ons. Center and adhere the grass strips on the bottom edge of both sides of the fence. Trim the grass flush with the fence edge.

Mailbox: Cut the mailbox, lid and circle dies in the Mailbox Pop-Up set from silver cardstock. Cut the same pieces from the back side of the silver cardstock so you will have the reverse set of pieces. (A suggestion that I should have done when I cut my reverse pieces, is to lay a thin piece of paper on your cutting mat then then the sliver cardstock silver side down. Then the dies and top plate. This will help eliminate all the scratches that will be embossed onto the reverse silver side.)

Cut from brown, two mailbox posts and glue them to the center post of the fence on each side. Glue the Two lid pieces back-to-back. Glue the front mailbox piece onto the top of the brown post. Adhere the back mailbox piece back-to-back with the front mailbox with no glue on the front edge where the lid will be slid into it. Trim if necessary and glue the lid into the mailbox.  Add silver circles to the mailbox sides to cover the holes. Add the red flag to the front.

Tiny Envelopes: Cut seven of the envelopes in the Mailbox Pop-Up set from thin white cardstock. Fold on the side stitch lines. Glue one envelope together as shown in the video above. Cut one set of the tiny hearts in the same die set from red. Glue hearts to envelopes top flaps with a dot of glue.

Sentiments: Stamp seven of the Love Notes sentiments on thin paper and cut out with a square die and trim to fit into the envelopes. (I used the stitched 1 1/8-inch square die in the Greeting Labels set and trimmed on the stitched lines to get a 1-inch square.) Add a ¼-inch strip of thin paper to the back of the note to go in the mailbox envelope as shown in the video. Write “Lift” on one side and “Pull” on the other side of the strip. From Stage Scenes the “Push” with arrows was stamped on white and glued to the bottom of the stage to help the card recipient know how to open the stage card.

Envelope: The card fits into an A7 (5x 7-inches) size envelope with one of the Love Notes sentiments stamped on the back flap.

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Thank you for experiencing this blog post. 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

Stencil

  • Waffle Flower – Plastic –  Birthday Puppies

Papers

  • Simple Stories – 12×12 inch Double Sided Cardstock – Garden Party Collection – Tea Garden
  • Thin White Copier Paper
  • Silver Foil Cardstock
  • Brown, Green, Red and White Cardstock
  • Park Lane Paperie – A7 Envelope – White

Ink

  • Memento – Fade Resistant Dye ink – Tuxedo Black
  • Pigma – Mircon 01 Fine Tip Pen – Black

Adhesives

Tools

  • Die Cutting Machine
  • Paper Trimmer
  • Bone Folder
  • Stamping Platform
  • LDRS – Stampendable Stamping Tool
  • Stamping Blocks used as paperweights
  • Scissors
  • Paper Masking Tape
  • Tweezers
  • We R Memories – QuickStick

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, February 9, 2026. 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 – https://karenburniston.com/blog/january-2026-release-blog-hop/

Lois Bak – https://clownmomcreations.blogspot.com/2026/02/karen-burniston-new-release-blog-hop.html

Sue Small-Kreider – YOU ARE HERE

Frances Byrne – https://stampowl.blogspot.com/2026/02/karen-burniston-kb-riley-llc-january.html

Jennifer Webster – https://www.jlwebstercreations.com/2026/01/karen-burniston-kb-riley-llc-january.html

Suzanne Smit – https://knutselsuus.blogspot.com/2026/01/kb-riley-llc-januari-2026-release-blog.html

Nicky Foden – http://mymessycraftroom.me/2026/01/28/little-bitty-pretty-one-karen-burniston-january-release-blog-hop/

Sandy Diller – https://sandydiller.blogspot.com/2026/01/new-release-blog-hop-2026.html

Thank You To Our Mail Carrier

| ullycatdesigns

For all the packages and envelopes that our mail carrier has so carefully placed in our mail box or placed by our front door, I wanted to say thank you to her. So, a mail truck thank you ornament was created.

I primarily used Spellbinder’s Food Truck and Sunday Drive collection dies to create this mail truck.

I cut two of the food truck die from an 8.5 x 11-inch sheet of white cardstock. I next cut panels that were 2.75 inches wide and scored at 3/8 inches on each side. (See downloadable PDF file of templates.)

mail-truck-piecesDownload

The top of the windshield strip is .25 inches tall which is not on the template. The front panel is scored across at .875 inches and the side tabs are cut away. This forms the front slanted hood.

Glue all the panels to one of the truck pieces as shown in the photo making sure that all panels are parallel to each other and tabs are all on the inside of the truck.

Glue up a mail carrier using people dies from the Sunday Drive collection (I used the Sunday Sunset Drive for this and freehand cut the hat which our mail carrier wears.) Attach mail carrier to seat panel. (It is easier at this point to letters and packages to the seat panel at this point than to add them once the truck side is attached to the panels.)

Glue the panels to the second truck piece starting at the front and working towards the back.

The roof panels as shown on the template have tow holes punched into them for a string to tie them shut and form a loop to hang the truck from.  I had to notch my tabs to fit over the cab panel. You could avoid this by attaching the roof panels first and then the other panels.

The truck is designed to fold flat, so allow enough string to allow for it being flat.

I decorated the truck using the circle dies in the Food Truck set and the steering wheel from the Sunday Drive set. The strips were cut from some scrap strips of red and blue papers. The headlights and taillights use the smallest circle die from the Food truck set. (I used yellow glitter cardstock for the headlights.)

The “US MAIL” on the sides and the “THANK YOU” on the back were cut using Karen Burniston’s Mini Alphabet.  (I cut three “O”s glued together to make a slider on the string to help keep the roof shut.)

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

Postman’s Retirement Birthday

| ullycatdesigns

Happy Mail! What better way to celebrate one’s birthday, than by retiring.

Retirement Bday-Front letters down

That’s what a family friend did recently when he retired after 30 years delivering mail.

Retirement Bday-Front letters halfway

This card was created using Concord & 9th’s Mail Drop die and stamp set. My husband wrote the messages on the letters since I did not have any stamps that would provide the sentiments we wanted in the small space we had to work with on the letters.

Retirement Bday-Front letters up

Inside I used an older Stampin’ Up “Happy Birthday” stamp.

Retirement Bday-inside

I used the mailbox lid stamp from Concord & 9th’s Mail Drop stamp set on the envelope flap.

Retirement Bday-Front envelope

SUPPLIES USED:

Dies

Stamps

Paper

Miscellaneous

Happy Mail

| ullycatdesigns

happy Mail card envelop 1

Happy mail is when you get note from someone you haven’t heard from in a while. Happy mail is opening an envelope and getting good news.  Happy mail makes you smile.

I love getting interactive cards. Not only do they stand out as different, but they make me think that someone went to a lot of trouble to design and get the mechanics right on how it works. Concord & 9th’s new Mail Drop stamp and coordinating dies are happy mail for me.

happy Mail card envelop 2

I made this test card from the set as a birthday card, but the other phrases in the set allow for creativity and customization.  Getting the slit in the correct spot on both the envelope and the backing panel took several tries.  I recommend watching this video to get it right the first time.

Long Live Snail Mail!