Karen Burniston Designer Challenge 89: The First 100 Dies - Butterfly Circle Charm Pop-up
January 08, 2025
Welcome to our January Designer Challenge with a theme of "THE FIRST 100 DIES". I challenged the team to make a card featuring any of our dies numbered between 1001 and 1100 - the first 100 dies of our brand. These dies were released between May 2017 and June 2019 - a testament to their timeless appeal. For my card and video I am teaching an alternate assembly of the Circle Charm Pop-up to create a chain of rings with dangling butterflies. I gave myself a secondary challenge to put away the patterned paper this month and create a card with solid colors. It forced me out of my comfort zone but I ended up really liking the simple yet vibrant look to the card.
Learn this card technique by watching the full tutorial here:
My card is a landscape 6" x 4.5" card that can be mailed easily in an A7 envelope. When closed the five butterflies are stacked on top of each other. The borders are from Border Blends - Argyle and the greeting from Word Set 1 - Greetings.
Open the card and the front ring pivots to the inside, where five rings of dangling butterflies are revealed. I kept the same simple styling throughout the card, using just 5 bright cardstock colors plus white and black.
This technique will be a great one to customize with different colors, patterns, textures and themes. There are solid circles in the die set that can be used to cover the rings if you prefer solid circles popping up, or try a combination of rings and circles. Change out the butterflies for any of our charm sets to customize the theme. Or use the butterfly design but change the greeting to birthday, thank you or Happy Mother's Day. As with all Designer Challenge videos the goal is to spark an idea!
Ready to give this card a try? Here are the dies and supplies I used in the video:
Let's take a look at how our talented Design Team interpreted THE FIRST 100 DIES challenge. In each case you can click the designer's name to go to their blog or social media post where you'll find additional photos, supply lists and, in some cases, videos!
Nicky Foden made a poppin' pink window card featuring the Katherine Label Pop-up and various birthday elements. Nicky has created a full photo tutorial for her card so be sure to click over and see all the great tips and tricks. I particularly like her method of making the twine swirls and her signature white pen detailing. So creative!
Ken Chien celebrates Chinese New Year by cleverly converting a squirrel die into a snake! I especially love Ken's signature mixed-mechanism effect (Oval Frames plus Spinner Square) plus the use of the Howdy die on the front of the card styled to resemble Chinese characters. Click over to Ken's Instagram to see this card in action.
Lois Bak made a birthday card using a card assembly of the Tag Book Pop-up. She used several of the early die sets that include birthday-themed pieces and styled them to perfection. I love the hint of patterned paper showing behind the pop-up in the base tags. Be sure to click over to Lois's blog to see the rest of this card. Gorgeous!
Frances Byrne created an absolutely delicious Fancy Label Accordion featuring the Ice Cream Sundae. The way she rotated through colors, matching the diagonal striped paper to the coordinating solids is so striking! Be sure to click over to Frances's blog for more photos of this amazing card.
Sandy Diller made a side fold Twist Panel birthday card for a friend. The landscape orientation of the card changes the panel set to vertical and gives it an entirely different feel than a top fold Twist Panel Card. She incorporated her friend's favorite colors into this fun card.
Sue Small-Kreider made a wonderful staggered Charm Accordion in a birthday theme. This will make a wonderful display piece and I particularly like how Sue spelled out HAPPY through the pages of the accordion. Be sure to click over to her blog where you'll find a process video for this card and additional photos. Beautiful card!
Suzanne Smit cleverly converted the Tree Pop-up into a bouquet of flowers. She was in need of a sympathy card and this was perfect for it. What a great idea to use the tree as a floral bouquet! Click over to her blog to see the card front, featuring her own calligraphy. Lovely!
Jen Webster finishes us out this month with a bright and happy Tag Book birthday card. I love Jen's signature coloring skills on the animals and the way she twisted the Border Blends - Party borders together for a custom border. Be sure to click over to her blog to see the card front. Fabulous!
Well I hope you are inspired to take a look back at some of those early dies. Join us next month on Wednesday, February 5, 2025 for Designer Challenge 90 with a theme of BOUQUETS. The team will be incorporating bouquets into their cards (and bouquets do not necessarily have to be flowers!)
Happy Crafting!