Gnome Surprise Ball Christmas Card

Merry Christmas!

There's gno place like gnome for the holidays! (See what I did there?) I thought it would be fun to style our new Surprise Ball Pop-up die set as a Christmas gnome.

The front of the card measures 7" x 7" when closed. The flaps come from the Flap and Closure die set, moved closer to the center for more overlap. I loved the characters in the Photo Play patterned papers so I styled our Snowman die to match the one in the paper. The closure is a combination of ribbon, star brads and magnets. 

Release the closure by lifting the right side of the ribbon. The gnome springs up from inside the card. I created his hat using our Rectangles Crosshatch set, cutting on the diagonal twice and then once across the bottom. The circles for his hands and pompom come included in the Surprise Ball set. The oval for his nose came from our Ocean Animals set. The other ovals from our Ovals Crosshatch set. I used yarn to make the beard and hair. Ribbon is used for his sleeves.

The gnome will rotate on a hidden brad and a second greeting "Ho Ho Ho" is attached to the back panels. Our Alphabet set was the perfect size.

Gnomes are hot right now, so this card could be changed to another season easily by changing the colors and styling of the gnome so he's more of a garden gnome. Here are the products I used on my Christmas version.

Happy New Year and may your days be Merry and Bright!

Pop-up Cards class projects - December 2019

My last class of the year is this Wednesday, December 18th at Scrapp'n Savvy in Conroe, TX. As of yesterday there were 2 seats left, so call the store quickly if you want in on this class.

Because it's so close to Christmas I chose not to make holiday cards for this class. We will start with a Surprise Ball Pop-up card with a generic theme of "oh happy day" that can be used for most occasions. 

The card measures 5x7 and also features our Flap and Closure die set. Decorator dies were pulled out of other pop-up sets including the cute little heart tree from the Oval Frames Pop-up die set and a bird from the Frame Pull Pop-up. The beautiful bird paper is from Bo Bunny. Other patterned papers are Echo Park.

Next we'll make a birthday card using the Gift Pivot Panels (the die set is included in your kit). These papers are also Echo Park.

This card is a standard A2 size and will mail easily. It's decorated with our Crosshatch shape dies, Celebrate and Border Blends - Party die sets.

Students please bring these tools/supplies to class:

• Scissors
• Adhesives - tape runner, strong glue capable of making a fine line, mini glue dots, pop-dots (optional)
• Paper piercer
• Quickstick or tweezers for assembling the little presents
• If you have them - clips for holding things together while glue dries. This could be large paper clips or bag clips or binder clips.
• If you have one - a needle threader to pull the twine through the closure.
• Print outs of these two cards OR plan to take photos of the originals with your phone/tablet to refer to in class.

I will have a full trunk show with me as well.

See you soon!

Thanksgiving 2019 Photo Collage Memory Card

We had a very relaxed Thanksgiving this year with just the four of us. 

We wore comfy pants.

We ate ham.

And just for fun, we made paper turkeys.

I asked each family member to style two turkeys from our Feathered Animals set using their own creativity. No rules or restrictions. I then took a photo of each family member holding their turkeys and documented it all on a Photo Collage card.

The Photo Collage is really the perfect crossover die between cardmaking and scrapbooking. This card could be added to a larger scrapbook page or mini-album, or it could be mailed to someone as the perfect little mini-memory card. 

The card measures 5.5" square when closed. For the front of the card I used our Alphabet and Numbers set plus the Autumn Elements set.

As the card opens the Photo Collage starts to twist and expand.

Once open, all 8 turkeys and the small photos of us holding our turkeys are revealed. It was a bit of a challenge to find spots for 12 frames without catch points, but I eventually got it. 

The Tiny Accessories sets were also out on the table in case anyone wanted to accessorize. As you see below, we have a Saints turkey (John's favorite American football team) a pilgrim turkey, and a graduation turkey.

Learn the assembly of the Photo Collage die set by watching this video:

This could be a fun activity for other holidays, too, styling bunnies for Easter or reindeer for Christmas. Here are the products I used on my Thanksgiving version. The papers are all older ones from my stash.

 

Karen Burniston Designer Challenge 28: Surprise!

Happy December! 

For this month's Designer Challenge the theme is Surprise! The team was challenged to use either the Parcel Pop-up die set or the Surprise Ball Pop-up die set for a card of any theme. Both of these dies have a "ta da!" surprise reveal.

For my card and video I wanted to fulfill a request by Michelle J. on our Karen Burniston Pop-up Peeps Facebook group who requested a video tutorial for styling the Parcel Pop-up like a present where the lid slides up as the card opens. I went with a 5x5 gatefold card with an extra flap for animating the pop-up. The flaps are made with our Flap and Closure die set.

Watch the video to learn this technique:

When closed, this card measures 5x5. It stays closed through the use of a elastic bead/button closure. The wreath is made using the vine from the Flowers and Bee die set. The box and tag dies come included in the Parcel Pop-up die set. The buttons, bead and elastic are just supplies I had on hand in my stash, and patterned paper is from Bo Bunny. The greeting stamp is a very old one from my stash and I'm not sure the manufacturer.

The bead makes an easy handle for lifting the elastic up and off the button to release the card.

Once open, a present is revealed.

Lower the bottom flap and watch the lid of the present lift up, revealing two cute reindeer peeking out of the box. The reindeer are made using our Christmas Animals die set. To reverse the direction of the second reindeer I die cut the body and then flipped it over before decorating.

This card makes a beautiful display piece and can be decorated for any gift-giving occasion. So think birthdays, weddings, graduations, retirements, etc. 

Ready to give this card a try? Here are links to the dies and supplies used on my card.

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Let's take a look at the wonderful inspiration by our talented Design Team.

Parcel Pop-up Cards

Helen Cryer created this gorgeous Parcel Pop-up with an explosion of stars lifting out of the box. I love the mix of blues and greens for this Helencredible card.

 

Kelly Booth is a master of color and this cute clear-front bottom-fold magnetic top fold Parcel Pop up is no exception. I just love the snowy scene she created with stamps mixed with dies.

 

Surprise Ball Pop-up Cards

Karen Aicken made her DC card early. A couple of months ago we did a product swap event with the design team of Pear Blossom Press where both teams used their EZ-Light sets with our pop-up dies. Karen made this magical light-up Surprise Ball and it's absolutely gorgeous. I love her choice of a two-flap front that allows most of the ball to be viewed in the closed position as well.

Lois Bak cleverly created a globe from the Surprise Ball for this great space-themed encouragement card. She used a belly band to trap the card closed with a stamped sentiment on the band. So clever!

Frances Byrne delights with this snowman Surprise Ball card. What a great idea to use the ball as snowman with a hat created with layered die cuts. A snowman scene also adorns the belly band on the front of the card. Fabulous!

Fran Sabad also created a Surprise Ball with a snowman theme, but hers features stamped snowmen (and a penguin) on the ball and flaps. The Surprise Ball is designed to be able to spin on a brad in the card so all sides can be viewed. I love how Fran has the greeting visible in the closed position atop the ball.

Sandy Diller also lit up the Surprise Ball with snowflake-shaped windows in the sides of the ball that shine beautifully when lit up. The white and gold foil color scheme is so elegant. Sandy used a belly band to hold the card closed.

Thank you to everyone for following us through all our Designer Challenges of 2019. We have been blessed to have such talented designers showcasing our die sets. Join us next year (see what I did there) for our first Designer Challenge of 2020, on January 8th with a theme of HEARTS.

Happy Crafting!