Karen Burniston Designer Challenge 15 - Christmas Tree!

Happy November!

Christmas is fast approaching so for this challenge we thought we'd inspire you with cards using Christmas Trees. Get ready for some jaw-dropping inspiration by the team below. Of course I say this every month, but this month they REALLY hit it out of the park. Like out of the park and across town. Just sayin'!

For my card and video I combined the mechanism from the Snowman Twist Circle die set (with an extra two folds to alter the action) with the trees from the Evergreen Pivot Panels. Our die sets are always backwards-compatible with the dies from previous collections. After all, you're investing in tools that don't wear out, so our goal is to bring out new dies that also bring new looks (and techniques) to previous dies. 

Here's the full YouTube video tutorial for this card:

This top-fold card measures 4.25" x 5" when closed, so it will mail easily in an A2 envelope. I decorated the front to match the styling of the interior.

As the card starts to open the forest starts to twist up into place. Watch the video to learn how I adapted the pop-up mechanism of the Snowman Twist Circle to create this effect.

Once the card is open a forest of Christmas trees is revealed. The trees lend themselves well to this technique because they are small and look great bunched together, but do experiment with other small items to make different scenes. Perhaps our charm sets or nature/animal dies.

Want to give this technique a try? You will find our die sets at independent craft stores and some of your favorite online retailers worldwide. For USA customers, we've added a list to our website of local stores who carry our products. We'd love for you to shop local when you can - we need to support our local stores! Click here to check: Where to Find Us. Here are the products I used in the video. 

 

Get ready for a dozen AHHHHMAZING cards from our talented design team. If you click their names you'll go to their blog posts, where you will find supply lists, tutorials, videos and more! 

Summer Hills-Painter starts us off with this hip holiday Evergreen Pivot Panels card. I love the way she cut the interior paper using the Rectangles Crosshatch to give the interesting edge detail and then drew colors from the paper for her pop-up trees. This card is so joyful with the pretty bows topping each tree. Fabulous!

Karen Aicken created this absolutely gorgeous neighborhood house by combining the Christmas Trees Pop Stand die set with the House and Fence die set. She used the mechanism from the pop stand for all three pop-up elements. I love the white patterned trees with wreath toppers and the big round baubles for the greeting areas.  Karen also shares a really great tip for how you can do a wide card like this and still fit it into a standard Big Shot for cutting the tabs. Click over to her blog to learn her method.

Frances Byrne created this festive triple tree card using the Christmas Trees Pop Stand and a wonderful mix of patterns for the background. Stripes and harlequins with mod fresh colors - perfection! Plus Frances added a stamped Santa for an extra touch of whimsy. Love it!

Fran Sabad created two cards for the challenge using the Christmas Trees Pop Stand for both, but with different styles. The first is an elegant card, using whites and metallics for a classy feel. The second has traditional colors and the mouse from the Christmas Animals decorating the tree for a fun whimsical feel. What a great illustration of how dies are simply tools for your imagination and you are always in control of the colors, textures and styling. Same die, two feels!

Kelly Booth rocks her signature teal color in this amazing Christmas Trees Pop Stand card. I love the mix of colors with the plaid and the pretty garlands. The front of the card is just as lovely, so definitely click over to check it out. I love Kelly's ability to mix solids with a touch of pattern. 

Shelly Hickox is celebrating the birth of her first grandchild this week. Congratulations, Hickox family! Lucky for us, she already had her challenge card ready to go and it is a stunner! The styling on the Sleigh for the front of the card with the wooden paneling is exquisite, and then when you open the card up pops a forest of trees from the Christmas Trees Pop Stand die set adorned with a deer and a cardinal. What a Shellypiece!

Sandy Diller cleverly cut the tree from the Christmas Trees Pop Stand die set right into the front of the card so she gets a double-sided pop-up! What a great technique! And it gets even better, because if you click on Sandy's name you'll go to her blog post where she had posted a full YouTube video for this card. Sandy explains things so well and I definitely encourage you to subscribe to her YouTube channel.

Helen Cryer always finds the perfect mix of paper and colors to create incredible cards. I love this combination of the Twist Panel Die Set along with the Evergreen Pivot Panels. The red trees are so festive! As I always say . . . Helencredible!

Irene Mendes made a floating forest of trees using the Christmas Trees Pop Stand on the floating floor mechanism from the House and Fence Pop-up. I love how the deer from the patterned paper is hidden behind the forest on the back wall of the card. The wreaths hung on top of the trees are a great touch! Exquisite!

Lois Bak really knows her way around creating a scene and this Explosion Pop-up card is no exception! I love how she combined the tree from the Christmas Trees Pop Stand onto the pop-up and then decorated the room with accessories from the Sleigh set. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

But wait! Here's a bonus card from Lois for her daughter who lives in sunny Florida. How clever to decorate the Palm Tree Pop-up for Christmas! I love it!

So how about it? Have these ideas inspired you to decorate a few paper trees of your own? Pop-up Christmas cards are keepers! Join us next month, on Wednesday, December 5, 2018 for Designer Challenge 16, with a theme of "Ink it!" - the team will be showing off pop-up cards featuring inking techniques. We hope you'll join us!

Happy Crafting!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Karen Burniston Designer Challenge 13 - House!

Happy September! It's been a busy few days already with the September Release now available for pre-order on KarenBurniston.com as well as the announcement of three new Design Team members, expanding our team from seven to ten. For this month's challenge the theme is House, and team members were instructed to create a card of any theme but incorporating either the House & Fence Pop-up die set OR the new House Pivot Panels die set OR some sort of house image from a stamp set or paper.

For my card and video I decided to use the House Pivot Panels for a Halloween card, also using the new Halloween Charms. I thought it would be fun to cut a house-shaped window (you know me - I never met a pop-up card that wasn't calling out for a window! grin) into the front of the card to line up with one of the pop-up houses when the card is closed. Watch the video to learn this technique:

My card is a landscape A2 card - 4.25" x 5.5" when closed, and will mail easily in an A2 envelope. I used the Circles-Crosshatch set for the rings on the card's front and the Halloween Charms to decorate. All of the papers on my card were just old ones from my stash.

As the card opens, the House Pivot Panels start to pop-up.

Once open a neighborhood pops up, perfect for Trick-or-Treating. 

Here's a closer look at the houses, cut from solid colors of cardstock. I stamped the yellow ones with an old spider web stamp from my stash. The "Halloween Hello" stamp is from a Stampin' Up! set of the same name. I glued the moon charm to the back of a chimney so it floats above the houses and then attached one of the bat charms to the moon.

Our products are sold at independent and online retailers throughout the world. We are always looking for more retailer partners, so please ask for our products at your local stores. Otherwise, we do sell on our website. New dies will start shipping September 10, 2018. Here are the links to the products used on my card:

We're excited to have our new team members joining in for this month's challenge. If you're new to our challenge format, our design team members post their challenge creations on their own blogs on the first Tuesday of each month. (*Next month we're a week later) Then, on Wednesday I post a compilation blog post (you're reading it!) including my card and video for the challenge as well as photos and links to each of their projects. You are highly encouraged to click the name of each designer to visit their blog (in a new window, so no worries about losing this post if you click) to see more photos, full supply lists and tips about their individual projects. Let's start with our three newest members:

Sandy Diller (Arizona) was on the Design Team during my licensing days and we were thrilled when Sandy applied for an expansion slot. She not only creates amazing combinations with the die sets, but also teaches cards on YouTube. For this month's challenge she created a double floating floor using the House & Fence die and then crafted the most amazing picturesque property, complete with matching dog house! So clever!

Irene Mendes (Portugal) has an amazingly soft, pretty, layered style that works beautifully with our dies. For this Tag Book she incorporated some gorgeous papers and house elements to decorate. We are excited to welcome Irene as our fourth international Design Team member. (Note: her blog is easily translated using the translate button at the top of the blog page.)

Lois Bak (Florida) has been wowing us with her clean, classy style with clever touches and tons of whimsy. Lois incorporates a mix of stamps and blending techniques into her projects for beautiful results. For this challenge she created a 3-page Fancy Accordion card featuring the Fancy Flourish Frames and some sweet home-themed stamps. I like Lois's choice to start with a mountain fold on the Fancy Accordion so the first label will fold inward.

Shelly Hickox (Mississippi) combined the House Pivot Panels with the Twist Panel die set plus some of our Halloween dies for an absolutely spooktacular card. Check out the clever and unique ways she styled each house in this chilling pop-up neighborhood. Amazing!

Frances Byrne (Australia) used the new House Pivot Panels in the Tag Book die set for a holiday card in a fresh mod color scheme. I love how her patterned paper seamlessly integrates with the row of house. She also used the perfect greeting stamps for the theme. So festive!

Kelly Booth (Arizona) created a new home card using the House Pivot Panels with the Twist Panel die set. What a great color scheme for this card. I love, too, how Kelly used the Happy portion of the Happy Birthday die with a decorator house for the front of the card. Gorgeous!

Karen Aicken (Canada) shows an awesome combination of both Pivot Panels die sets - the Evergreen and the House. She created a row of trees and houses to mix up the look. It's a wonderful color scheme for a Thanksgiving card. So pretty!

Fran Sabad (Kentucky) created an absolutely darling little elf village for this holiday card using the House Pivot Panels. What a wonderful mix of stamps, dies and papers. Everything about this card is made of happy!

Summer Hills-Painter (California) posted her in-progress photos of this incredible inked background and everyone was excited to see the finished card. This is an incredible mix of the House Pivot Panels and Twist Panel for a fabulously eerie neighborhood. I love how Summer used the brick stencil feature of the House & Fence set to put a brick texture on the small houses. Amazing!

Helen Cryer (England) also mixed the House & Fence with the House Pivot Panels for a charming neighborhood. Helen has such a talent for mixing pretty patterned papers and creating such sweet scenes. I love the bunting on the front of the fence and the clever way she used the small foliage piece from the House Pivot Panels to fill in the larger Tree. Helencredible!

What amazing inspiration for home-themed cards! We're proud of our amazing team, representing five different states and five different countries. Join us next month on Wednesday, October 10th for our Designer Challenge with a theme of "Happy Fall, Y'all!" - the team will be making autumn-themed cards.

Happy Crafting!