Growing a year older should be celebrated. This show-stopper card is for a 9-year-old.

For this card I used two new dies from Karen Burniston’s December 2023 release – Birthday Candle Add-Ons and the Topper Tags – as well as her Fancy Label Accordion, Fancy Winter Frames, and a few other previously released die sets to decorate.

Before starting, watch assembly videos for the linked die sets. The videos are towards the bottom of the linked pages.

Accordion Frames: Cut four accordion frames using the Fancy Label Accordion die set. They will be decorated AND THEN assembled. It is much harder to decorate a fully assembled accordion card when you cannot flatten the various moving panels and frames. (I assembled this card as I would normally, but the candle and heart add-ons are designed to be assembled with with the accordion frame behind the add-on panel and not as I did by putting the frame’s center post in front of the panel.)

Candles Add-Ons: The Birthday Candles Add-On cut a pivot panel that attaches to two Fancy Label Accordion panels. It also has dies to cut and stencil four candles and their flames. Cut one candle panel from a solid color cardstock. Cut another from decorative paper. Train the folds on the solid color panel as directed on the packaging. Using the largest decorator label from the Fancy Label Accordion set, cut a frame from the decorative paper. (The section between the two label cut outs will fall out and the frame can be cut down the center fold.) Glue the frame onto the panel matching up the edges.

Assemble and decorate the candles using the die stenciling feature or use decorative papers. (Because I needed to celebrate a 9-year-old’s birthday, I did not use all twelve candles that the panel will hold. I decided to add a number 9 as another candle by cutting a “9” using the Numbers die set and cut the top of a candle with the flame attached to the back top of the number.) The flames I cut from a background paper I had made using glitter ink and drew the black burnt wick onto them.

Once the panel is fully decorated, work on the accordion frames that it will be glued onto. Glue two frames together using the outer long tab. From one panel cut the label panel along the pivot point making sure to keep the label attached to the pivot bar. Cut the other label, but the cut will look different than the other panel. See photo below. Add glue to the back side of the candle panel and attach it to one of the label panels. Add glue to the other end of the candle panel and attach it to the other label panel. (See 2^nd photo under tags for what the back side of the attached candles panel into the accordion frames.)

Tags: Cut two tags using the second from the smallest tag die in the Topper Tags. (If your paper is a single-sided decorative paper like mine was, cut two more tags that cover at least the part of the tag that will not be covered by the fancy label panel. Glue the tags together as shown in the photo below.) Attach the back of the tags to the fancy label panels on their backsides.

Decorations: The Birthday Charms die set are used for balloons, party hats and cupcake. Three colors of bakers twine are used for the balloon strings and for tag ties. A thin black pen was used to draw the balloon strings onto card back. The frame borders are cut from white copier paper backed with a wide double-sided tape using the polka-dot frame die from the Fancy Winter Frames.

Once the frame borders are adhered, attach the end accordion frames to the candle frames. Add balloons to the folds and then glue the fancy labels together.

Sentiments: Add the sentiments once the accordion frames and fancy labels are all attached together. “Happy Birthday” uses two dies – Happy Birthday Shadow and Happy Birthday. “Just for You” uses three die sets – Word Set 15, Word Set 8 and Mini Alphabet. The “You” is cut from a phrase die and its shadow is created by tracing the outside of the die and fussy cutting. (You could use other word dies for the “You.”)

Envelope: The closed card fits into an A7 (5×7-inch) envelope.

Thank you for reading this blog post. I hope this inspires you and makes you smile. Please like and leave comments 😊

Materials Used:

Dies

• Karen Burniston in cahoots with Riley and Company – Birthday Candle Add-Ons – 1258
• Karen Burniston in cahoots with Riley and Company – Topper Tags – 1253
• Karen Burniston in cahoots with Riley and Company – Word Set 15 – Just Because – 1205
• Karen Burniston in cahoots with Riley and Company – Mini Alphabet and Numbers – 1197
• Karen Burniston in cahoots with Riley and Company – Happy Birthday Shadow – 1179
• Karen Burniston in cahoots with Riley and Company – Fancy Winter Frames – 1145
• Karen Burniston in cahoots with Riley and Company – Word Set 8 – Congrats – 1077
• Karen Burniston in cahoots with Riley and Company – Fancy Label Accordion – 1043
• Karen Burniston in cahoots with Riley and Company – Numbers – 1031
• Karen Burniston in cahoots with Riley and Company – Happy Birthday – 1030
• Karen Burniston in cahoots with Riley and Company – Birthday Charms – 1004

Papers

• Violet Studio Designs – 8×8 Single-Sided Paper Pad – Hoppy Easter
• Yellow 110lb. Cardstock
• Blues, White and Cream Cardstock
• White Copier Paper

Ink

• Sharpie – Permanent Marker – Ultra Fine Tip – Black
• Sharpie – Permanent Marker –Fine Tip – Blue. Green, Orange and Yellow
• Pigma – Mircon 01 Fine Tip Pen – Black
• Gel Pens – Multiple Colors
• Sakura – Gelly Roll Pen – Medium – White
• Spectrum Noir – Sparkle Glitter Ink – Candlelight

Adhesives

• Neutral PH Adhesive by LINECO
• Fine-Tip Glue Bottle
• Scrapbook.com – Double-Sided Tape -6-inch wide
• Clear Tape

Tools

• Die Cutting Machine
• We R Memories – QuickStick
• We R Memories – Scoring Board and Trimmer
• Scissors

Miscellaneous

• Three Colors of Bakers Twine