Karen Burniston Designer Challenge 42: Heart Tree Pop-up Card

Happy February!

For our challenge this month we are incorporating hearts into a card of any theme. For my card and video I cover the Christmas Tree Pop-up with hearts from the Love Charms to create a heart pop-up tree.

Learn how to make this card by watching the full YouTube video:

This card measures 5" x 6" when closed and will mail in an A7 envelope. For the front of the card I used our Border Blends - Argyle plus the Love Charms.

Open the card and the heart tree pops up. The labels come from the Paper Frames Pop-up set and the greeting is from Word Set 9 - Love.

The Christmas Tree is covered in hearts, mostly from the Love Charms, but also incorporating some small hearts from the Paper Frames Pop-up and the Heart Pivot Panels set. The conversation hearts are cut out of a thick white cardstock and then rolled with an inked brayer using various Distress Oxide inks.

Want to give this card a try? Here are the links for the products used on my heart tree card:

Now let's take a look at the wonderful creations by our talented Design Team. For each of these cards you can click on the name of the designer to go to their blog post for more photos, supply lists and, in some cases, videos.

Fran Sabad chose non-traditional colors for this soft and sweet Valentine featuring the Paper Frames Pop-up and the Safari Animals. It's so serene and pretty with the pastels.

Sandy Diller combined the Twist Panel Pop-up with the Heart Pivot Panels for this exquisite love-themed card. The metallic papers add a touch of shine and the combination of patterns is delightful.

Karen Aicken made this delightful Happy Anniversary card by turning the Cupcake Pop-up into a generic platform using a rectangle die. She then decorated with a cute couple made with our Gnome and Santa die set. The hearts, the rainbow, the confetti paper - what a delight!

Kelly Booth created this fabulous four-panel slimline in a Love theme. I adore how she styled the frames on the front with the Tiles Pattern Plate for texture. Inside, the Mini Pops set is used to animate her little vignettes, including Love Charms and owls from our Feathered Animals set. Fabulous!

Lois Bak made this eye-popping black and red Valentine featuring the Rockin' Rectangle Pop-up die set. I love how she created a shadow layer for the greeting die by tracing the die onto black cardstock and cutting it out. She also extended the arrow from the Love Charms to fit her large heart. Perfect!

Frances Byrne created this slimline card with an offset gatefold card and it's fabulous! I particularly like how she used the Slim Frames with mirror cardstock for this high fashion card. The mirror is animated using the Mini Pops Pop-up die set.

Join us next month on Wednesday, March 3, 2021 for our next Designer Challenge. The theme is BLACK, WHITE & A POP OF ?.

Happy Crafting!

Karen Burniston Designer Challenge 41: Pompom Slimline Pop-up Card

Happy New Year!

We're kicking off 2021 with a simple challenge theme - Thinking of You. It's more important than ever to check in on your friends and family and the perfect way is with a cheerful card.

For my card and video I was inspired by a class card I designed with a pompom closure. I was also inspired by the Pantone colors of the year. The result is a slimline card with a gatefold opening, pompom closure and Mini Pops pop-up inside. 

Watch the full YouTube tutorial to learn this technique:

The card measures 3.5"x 8.5" when closed. It will fit in a No. 10 business envelope but will require extra postage because of the pompom. I used our Slim Frames, Border Blends - Party and Word Set 10 on the front of the card, along with flowers from the Woven Basket Box Card.

Open the gatefold card and a basket of flowers pops up, attached to one of the angled platforms from the Mini Pops Pop-up die set. 

Because I was working in a small area, I trimmed the Woven Basket to a smaller size. 

The inspiration for this card was one of my recent class cards, featuring the same basic construction.

Want to give this card a try? Here are links to the dies used. For papers I just used stash papers that matched my chosen color scheme.

Now let's take a look at the wonderful creations by our talented Design Team. For each of these cards you can click on the name of the designer to go to their blog post for more photos, supply lists and, in some cases, videos.

Frances Byrne made this absolutely stunning slimline card featuring side-by-side Adirondack chairs. I love how she incorporated the Backyard Charms, including those adorable fairies.

Sandy Diller extended the Triple Flip die set so it has five flips to fit a slimline card. How clever! I love her addition of the Border Blends and the striking color scheme.

Kelly Booth made this impressive double ball Elmo slimline card. I love how she created the hands by using a flower die for fingers! So clever!

 

Karen Aicken created this bright and cheerful slimline card with the Heart Pivot Panels inside. I just love the rainbow of hearts, both in the paper and the pop-up. A card to brighten any mailbox!

Lois Bak created a lovely Katherine Label Pop-up card featuring lovely patterned paper and matching colors. I love the simple elegance of this card.

Fran Sabad made this absolutely darling Heart Pivot Panels card featuring the Snowman. This is such a great combination of dies, colors and styling.

Well hopefully these cards inspire you to send a little bit of happy mail to someone in your thoughts. Join us next month on Wednesday, February 3, 2021 for our next Designer Challenge with a theme of "Hearts!"

Happy Crafting!

Karen Burniston Designer Challenge 40: Swirling Snowflakes Pop Up Card

Welcome to our December Designer Challenge. Our theme this month is to use our new Mini Pops Pop-up in a card of any theme. I am showing how to use our smaller pop-up ball die, the Bitty Ball Pop-up, to animate the Mini Pops platforms, decorated with snowflakes from our Holiday Charms set.

Learn how to make this card by watching the full YouTube video here:

My card is top fold and measures 6" wide by 5.5" tall when closed. On the front of the card I went with a simple lead-in using the Long Nature Edges and the Christmas Trees Pop Stand for the tree. To create a closure I used ribbon and a sewed-on snap closure and button. The ends of the ribbon are attached to the back of the card.

Open the snap to release the card, which springs open and reveals a forest surrounded by swirling snowflakes. The greeting is our large Merry Christmas die. In addition to the two snowflakes in the Holiday Charms, I also used the small snowflake from our Snowman die set.

In addition to the Mini Pops platforms used in the card itself, I also added them around the ball so that the snowflakes would appear suspended. I attached two trees to the ball and then added another tree attached to the first one. The 3D tree expands as the card opens, but folds flat for mailing.

Ready to give this card a try? For papers I used white, shimmer white, glitter white, gold metallic, green and brown from my stash.  Here are the dies and other supplies:

Now let's take a look at the wonderful creations by our talented Design Team. We've also invited a former DT member, Summer Hills-Painter, to be a guest designer for this challenge. For each of these cards you can click on the name of the designer to go to their blog post for more photos, supply lists and, in some cases, videos.

Karen Aicken made this very clever lift flap card with the Mini Pops inside. This is a great adaptation of the Fancy Label Accordion to create a different style card. I love the pops of color on the inside.

Frances Byrne made a wonderful slimline card featuring a snowman and forest on the Mini Pops platforms. What a clever idea to use the snowman's head for the title on the front!

Sandy Diller cleverly cut the Mini Pops spiral out of clear and doubled it for a long spiral full of birthday goodies. She also animated the greeting label, made using the new Slim Frames die set.

Lois Bak also made a slimline card with a wonderful scene. This one uses the Sleigh on the front, plus the Christmas Animals reindeer and the lights from the Holiday House as the reins. Then inside she has a fabulous scene with Santa and Mrs. Claus plus a tree, all animated with the Mini Pops.

Fran Sabad created these super cute gift tags using the spiral from the Mini Pops inside to animate the snowflakes. I love her styling of the Snowman, having him looking up at the swirling snow and creating a hat with a circle die.

Summer Hills-Painter joins us as a guest this month with this wonderful slimline card featuring the Mini Pops and our new Holiday House, among others, all decorated into a gingerbread town. This looks delicious enough to eat!

Join us next month for our first Designer Challenge of 2021. The theme is Thinking of You and it will be posted Wednesday, January 6, 2020. 

Happy Crafting!

Slimline Pop 'n Swap Card - Welcome Winter

For this month's Designer Challenge I taught a modification of the Pop 'n Swap die set to create a side swing arm. I mentioned in the video that this technique would work for any theme, so I thought I'd try a winter-themed version.

This is a slimline card measuring 3.5" x 8.5" when closed. The background is made using our new Snowflakes Pattern Plate and Crosshatch Long Rectangles die sets.

There are three styles of snowflakes in the pattern plate, so I cut it out of three colors and then snipped out matching snowflakes from each color to paste over a white pattern plate, creating the three-color plate. Then I repeated the process two more times with the remaining partial pieces so that I ended up with three full pattern plates, all with 3-colors of snowflakes. From there I just cut and spliced to fit my card.

Once the card is open two snowmen appear on the swing arms, the lower one peering through the window.

I used our new Slim Frames die set on this card for the window frame and the oval greeting frame. I also used the two snowflakes from the new Holiday Charms die set.

Learn the technique for this card by watching this Autumn-themed version full video tutorial:

Here are the dies I used on my winter version:

Karen Burniston Designer Challenge 39: Autumn Slimline Pop 'n Swap Card

Welcome to our November Designer Challenge. To celebrate the dies in our newest release that are designed for long cards, I challenged the team to make slimline-sized fall-themed cards. Their cards are, as usual, spectacular and you'll find the photos and links at the bottom of this post.

For my card and video I had an idea for a clear-front card where you'd be able to see through a window in the Pop 'n Swap die set in the closed position and then open it to swing the arms and reveal something underneath.

Learn how to make this card by watching the full YouTube tutorial below:

My card measures 3.5" x 8.5" in the closed position. The clear front to the card only extends 5" from the left side and tucks under a leaf to stay closed.

Open the card and the swing arms start to move. The main pop-up lifts and you can spy a new scene being revealed through the window.

Once open, the swing arms reveal a turkey, leaves and pumpkins while through the window a pumpkin/acorn scene is revealed.

This would be a great technique to try in other themes. A Christmas version might use greenery on the swing arms and a cute Santa, reindeer or mouse revealed through the window. Or how about a birthday version where an age swings out instead of the turkey? Balloons, candles and cupcakes could be used to create the scene.

Ready to give it a try? Here are the dies and supplies I used in the video. The patterned paper is a very old Bo Bunny design from my stash.

 

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Let's take a look at the awesome inspiration from the team for this month's challenge. Make sure you click their names to head over to the blog posts, where you will find additional photos, supply lists and even videos in some cases.

Sandy Diller cleverly adapted the Woven Basket Box Card into an apple basket that she animated inside a slimline using the Mini Pops Pop-up. I love all the beautiful fall colors and the mix of our autumn dies with the new Crosshatch Long Rectangles and Long Nature Edges.

Lois Bak combined our new Crosshatch Long Rectangles, Mini Pops Pop-up and Long Nature Edges die sets with our autumn dies and Woodland animals for a gorgeous pop-up pumpkin patch. I love her teal pumpkin and the apples in the mix. The inking is so vibrant and beautiful!

Fran Sabad has three cards to share this month, featuring our new Holiday House die set on a slimline. I just love her colorful villages! Make sure you click over to her blog to see the other two cards.

Kelly Booth created this gorgeous vertical slimline with a clever use of a circle element on the Flip Frame pop-up inside. Those bright happy clouds and the googly eyes on the fox add to the sweetness. Beautiful palette! 

Frances Byrne created this lovely top fold slimline featuring a mix of dies from our new release plus several previously-released dies. This is a great illustration of how our releases are always meant to coordinate with previous ideas plus create new combinations and looks. I love Frances's crumpled leaves and the Gnomes holding the leaves!

Karen Aicken made this absolutely stunning clear-panel slimline where an autumn-scene is visible when the card is closed and then it reveals a different scene upon opening, complete with spiral leaf pop-up. Definitely click over to Karen's blog to see a video of this card in action. Gorgeous!

Hopefully these cards have put you in a festive fall mood. Join us on Wednesday, December 2, 2020 for our next Designer Challenge with a theme of Mini Pops Pop-up. We'll be showing off this new generic pop-up die set in a variety of ways. 

Happy Crafting!

Karen Burniston October 2020 Release Blog Hop

Welcome to our Karen Burniston Products - KB Riley LLC October Release Blog Hop. I'm joining our Design Team for a fun blog hop to celebrate the release of 10 new dies. Sneak peeks of the new release started last week, and orders will start shipping the first week in November.

This release includes:

• A new interactive die set - Mini Pops Pop-ups
• Add-on die set for the Surprise Ball Pop-up and Bitty Ball Pop-up die sets - Animal Add-on 3 (creates a Penguin; Deer and Moose)
• 3 Slimline Sized Die Sets - Crosshatch Long Rectangles; Long Nature Edges and Slim Frames
• 2 New Pattern Plates - Snowflakes; Holly
• A new charm sets - Holiday Charms
• New frames to work with our Fancy Label Accordion - Fancy Winter Frames
• Stand Alone Die Set - Holiday House

Pre-orders are available now on the website. Shipping of pre-orders starts the first week of November in the order received.

 

GIVEAWAY:

To celebrate the release each of the blogs on the hop 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, November 2nd 2020. Lots of chances to win some goodies, so just leave a comment on this post or any other blog hop posts to enter!

 

For my project I wanted to show off how well our new dies integrate with our previously-released dies. This is part of our brand philosophy - that new dies are always backwards compatible with your existing collection. For this project I was inspired by one I made years ago using dies from my licensing days. Now that the Holiday House is available again, it was the perfect time to make an updated version of this project.

 

 

Watch the video tutorial for this card on YouTube here:

 

This is a 4-page Fancy Label Accordion with the new Fancy Winter Frames used to decorate a couple of the pages. I also used the new Long Nature Edges for the stitched snow hills and small tree edges. The larger trees came from the Evergreen Pivot Panels.

 

Open the card to reveal a pop-up within a pop-up. The Evergreen Pivot Panels create the secondary pop-up for the four trees in the center.

On the first interior page I assembled the new Holiday House. This is an updated re-release from my licensing days. The die set includes all of the accessories shown except for the snowflake and tiny bow, which came from the Evergreen Pivot Panels.

 

 

The center two pages feature the Evergreen Pivot Panels integrated into the Fancy Accordion. I also used the stitched hills from the Long Nature Edges to make the background hills.

 

On the final page I used our Word Set 3 for a greeting, plus more trees and a snowflake.

 

All of the patterned papers are older designs from my stash. 

Ready to keep hopping? Here are the links to the other stops on the hop.

Karen Burniston <--- YOU ARE HERE
Frances Byrne
Lois Bak
Karen Aicken
Fran Sabad
Sandy Diller
Kelly Booth

Here are links to the products used on my project:

Cheers Rockin' Rectangle and Twine Pop-up Card

For our Designer Challenge yesterday I posted a video tutorial for using the Rockin' Rectangle Pop-up die set for a shaped-window card with the added element of pulling up a piece of twine to animate more items.

I thought it would be fun to make the card again but in a different theme. For this version I used the Happy Hour Charms, Cheers and Sweet Treat Charms, but then also filled in with decorator pieces from other sets.

This is a landscape A2 sized card with a martini-shaped window. For the front of the card I used our Crosshatch Ovals, Happy Hour Charms, "hello" from Word Set 6 - Summer, the watermelon slice from our Sweet Treats Charms, the tiny flowers from the Tree Pop-up, and the leafy vine from the Flip Frame Pop-up. One nice thing about our pop-up dies is that they come with so many decorator pieces the can then be used for other fun combinations.

Once open the Rockin' Rectangle lifts and rocks the martini, plus pulls up the twine. The flower charm is from our Backyard Charms set and the greeting is our Cheers die.

The twine I use for this technique is a thicker hemp twine. I used small jump rings to attach the charms to the twine, then used pliers to squish the jump rings so they wouldn't slide along the twine.

Learn this technique by watching this video:

Here are the dies that I used for my Cheers version. The paper is an older Pebbles design called Mocktails.

 

Karen Burniston Designer Challenge 38: Inspired by Lois Rockin' Rectangle Penguin Card

Welcome to our October Designer Challenge. The theme this month is "Inspired by" where we each chose a card from a teammate to be our inspiration card. I chose this cute card by Lois Bak as my inspiration card. I liked how she used the Rockin' Rectangle Pop-up die set in a landscape orientation card and incorporated a penguin-shaped window into the front of the card. 

For my version I used the penguin from our Winter Animals die set. It was much smaller than Lois's stamped penguin so I also incorporated a twine feature to pop-up two more penguins.

Watch the full YouTube video tutorial to learn how I made it:

The card measures 5.5" x 4.25" when closed, so a standard landscape A2. I followed Lois's lead on a polka-dot paper to look like snow and some curvy snow banks below. The trees and snowflakes come from our Winter Charms die set. I used a labelmaker for the greeting.

Open the card and the Rockin' Rectangle brings up the penguin that was visible through the window and in the process also lifts a piece of twine, suspending two more penguins. 

To keep the center penguin weighted to stay right-side-up I added a snowflake under one wing.

Want to make your version of my version of Lois's card? Here are the dies and supplies I used on my card. The polka-dot paper is an older Echo Park design.

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Now let's take a look at the cards the team made from their inspiration muses. In each case you can click on the designer's name to head to their blog post and see more details on their card plus a link to their inspiration.

Fran Sabad took inspiration from Kelly Booth to create a sweet stacked ball Elephant card in bright fun colors. I love those big round eyes and the great combination of patterned papers.

Frances Byrne's muse was Karen Aicken. Frances was inspired to use the Explosion Pop-up in a slimline card. This birthday card would brighten anyone's day and I love how Frances matched the colors and styling of her die cut cupcakes to the patterned paper.

Karen Aicken took inspiration from me to create a billboard version of a ball pop-up. She went even further with this idea, though, by incorporating a clear billboard to make the elements appear to float. This is such a beautiful and striking card. 

Kelly Booth's muse was Frances Byrne. Both Kelly and Frances love owls, so Kelly took inspiration from a stacked ball owl from Frances to create her own woodsy version. It's always fun to make a stacked ball animal that matches one of our smaller animals and Kelly did that here with this vibrant special birthday card.

Sandy Diller took inspiration from Fran's fairy Charm Accordion to make her own autumn-themed version. I love the white pumpkins and the fun garden scene that Sandy created to travel the length of her card.

Lois Bak's muse was Sandy Diller. Lois took inspiration from a Halloween-themed woven basket box card that Sandy made. Lois expanded the idea (literally) by doubling the basket to make a double-wide. She filled it with all sorts of boo-tiful elements.

Hopefully you found plenty to be inspired by with this month's challenge. Join us next month on Wednesday, November 4, 2020 for a Designer Challenge with a theme of Slimline Cards. We'll all be making long cards in the popular slimline style.

Happy Crafting!

Stamptember 2020 Simon Says Stamp plus Riley and Company

Today is the day for the limited time offer of an exclusive clear stamp set from Simon Says Stamp featuring Riley and Company. The links are in the supply list below. I was lucky enough to get an advance copy of this adorable, sweet and hilarious stamp set and thought it would be just perfect to use with the Parcel Pop-up Magic Card technique.

This card measures 5x7 when closed. It features a magnetic flap closure, a clear panel front and a bottom fold. I was delighted to discover that our Tiny Accessories glasses fit the stamped characters perfectly.

Open the magnetic flap to reveal the first greeting, stamped on the decorator flap die from our Flap and Closure set.

Open the card and the magic happens. The Parcel Pop-up mechanism slides the transparency upward until it overlays perfectly on the version that has been colored. It appears as if the stamp has magically turned to color.

Here's a close-up of the tag that slides up. I used Copic markers to color the characters. The stitched square comes included in the Parcel Pop-up, as does the small tag at the bottom of the card. The large tag comes from the Circle Tag Book. Because the stamp was wider than the Parcel Pop-up, I had to make an adjustment to the pop-up by widening it. I did this by cutting a second mechanism, cutting it up the middle, and gluing the halves to the full pop-up. The new halves provided the back arms for the pop-up, now moved outward to accommodate the tag. To cover the front of the now-wider pop-up I used our Crosshatch Rectangles instead of the square that comes included in the Parcel.

Want to give this technique a try? Here is the video tutorial for how to turn the Parcel Pop-up into a Magic Card.

And here are the links to the products I used. Remember the stamp set is available only while supplies last and only at Simon Says Stamp. SSS also sells our dies as an option.

 

Christmas Greetings Evergreen Pivot Panels Tag Book

Our brand focus has always been to create die sets that build on and coordinate with the dies from previous collections. The idea is that you are building a collection and nothing becomes obsolete because newer dies will provide fresh combinations and new looks. This card features six of our die sets released in four different collections. Our Pivot Panels die sets are designed to work on their own in a card or, as an option, they fit perfectly in our Tag Book Pop-up.

This card measures 3" x 6" when closed and can be mailed in an A7 envelope. The front features the Snowman and the reindeer from the Christmas Animals.

Inside the card I swapped the pop-up mechanism that comes included with the Tag Book with the Evergreen Pivot Panels instead. I added a greeting using Word Set 3 - Holiday.

If you'd like to give this card a try you'll find the assembly videos for the dies on their product pages.