Karen Burniston Designer Challenge 63: Snowman!

Welcome to Designer Challenge 63 with a theme of Snowman! This month I challenged the team and our guest designer to create a card featuring a snowman. You are in for an absolute treat with all their creative and stunning snowman cards. 

For my card and video I took inspiration from a piece of Maja Designs Gingerbread paper from their Happy Christmas line. I thought it would be fun to make a pop-up ball gingerbread snowman.

Learn how I made this card by watching the YouTube tutorial here:

My card measures 5" x 6" in the closed position with 3/8" gusseted folds. It will fit (barely) in an A7 envelope, but I recommend a bubble mailer for this type of card. The closure is a pivot flap closure like the one from Designer Challenge 62, but this time designed to fit a larger card that will accommodate all three ball sizes. The greeting "Sweet Christmas" was created by combining words from You're Sweet and Merry Christmas. To style every element as a gingerbread cookie I cut the pieces from brown cardstock and then highlighted (purposely imperfectly) with a white pen to look like piping.

Open the card and the gingerbread snowman springs up. He sits on a plate made with our Circles - Crosshatch die set with smaller gingerbread cookies sprinkled on the plate. Both the plate and the snowman spin in the card on a brad.

The structure of the snowman is made by stacking all three ball sizes: Mini Ball, Bitty Ball and Surprise Ball. All the accessories for the snowman are from the Snowman Add-ons die set. I cut them from gingerbread colors with white pen detailing for icing.

The measurements for this type of card and built-in closure will work for double-ball characters as well. To make a removable character, mount the character on an oval or diamond and then tuck the ends under cardstock strips attached to the card. Ready to give this card a try? Here are the dies and supplies used on my card:

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Now let's take a look at the wonderful Snowman inspiration by our talented Design Team and guest designer. In each case you can click the designer's name to open their blog post in a new window. On their blog posts you'll find additional photos, supply lists and, in some cases, even videos!

Karen Aicken received plenty of gasps when she posted her amazing Woven Basket Box Card featuring a snowman, street lantern and white Christmas tree. This card is so gorgeous!  I love Karen's color scheme of white, black and gold for this card. The bow on the hat and the twine scarf are perfection! Click over to Karen's blog for a video on this card. Amazing!

Nicky Foden made an amazing card for the challenge and on her blog post she's showing you exactly how she did it. This is SOOOO CLEVER! She made the card base using the Slim Flaps and Frames die set as a flap book that creates all these different snowmen. Can you imagine all the fun if this showed up in your mailbox?! It's just amazing clever and unique. Fabulous!

Jen Webster shows off her amazing coloring skills with this adorable Little Labels Pop-up card. The snowmen are all so delightful and happy. I love all the different looks and expressions she created. Make sure to click over to her blog post so you can see the equally impressive card front, with even more happy snow fellas! Such talent!

Lois Bak combined our Snowman Pop-up die set with our Christmas Tree Pop-up for a double dose of pop-up holiday fun! This card is sure to delight the recipient plus it makes such a nice decor piece. I love all of Lois's brightly-colored circle decorations on the tree. Click to her blog to see the great card front. Love it!

Fran Sabad created a removable snowman pop-up card and I adore her color choices here. She paired the pop-up snowman with smaller snowmen plus the snowflake border from Long Nature Edges 2. Be sure to click over to Fran's blog to see the equally stunning card front. Spectacular!

Suzanne Smit always adds such fun details to her cards. I love this scene of Snowmen having fun with an Ice Cream Sundae. Who would have thought to put chocolate syrup dripping on a snowman?! Suzanne, that's who! This card makes me smile. Click over to her blog for more details. Brilliant!

Sue Small-Kreider created an entire snow family for the challenge and between this blog post and three more after it, she walks you through exactly how to create each member of the snow family. What a delightful creation with so many custom details, like Junior's cap and Mama's shawl. I LOVE IT! Click over for more info.

Sandy Diller created an absolutely BRILLIANT card with Frosty doffing his cap. She used the Mailbox die to create the action and you'll definitely want to head over to her blog to learn how she repurposed the mechanism to use in this way. This card featured great colors plus Sandy's signature tone-on-tone snowflake embossing. So clever!

Frances Byrne created a wonderful gatefold card to accommodate a removable 3-layer snowman and a smaller snowgirl. I LOVE Frances's use of the Gnome Mini Ball Add-ons to create snow braids for the girl plus a fun stocking cap. She also used the Snowman Add-ons on the front of the card to make a big snowman face. Brilliant ideas here! Be sure to click over to watch a video of this card in action.

Karen Hasheck is our guest designer for this month. Karen posts regularly with our dies on her blog and YouTube channel, showing some great cards with fabulous techniques. She is a member of the Send a Smile 4 Kids design team, a charitable organization. When I asked Karen to be our guest for this month's challenge I mistakenly told her the theme was SNOW. Karen ended up making a brilliant Snowman card that fit the actual theme perfectly! Karen combined the Mini and Bitty balls for her 2-layer snowman. She also cleverly used several of our snowflake dies to make a stencil. Be sure to click over to her blog to see the front of this card, more about the techniques and a video of this card in action. Thank you to Karen for sharing her talents with us this month.

Well I hope you are inspired to create some Snowman cards of your own. Join us next month on Wednesday, December 7th, for our next Designer Challenge with a theme of FIREPLACE DIE THROUGH THE YEAR - we will be showing a card using the Fireplace Pop-up for every month of the year. 

Happy Crafting!

VIDEO: Tips and Tricks for best assembly for Surprise Ball and Bitty Ball Pop-ups

Hi all,

I've been wanting to record a new video with best practices assembly tips for our pop-up ball dies. I've started adding trapezoids inside the balls to strengthen the rubber band sides so they can be made with two rubber bands instead of one.

I recorded the video live, meaning talking to the camera, so it's definitely longer than my typical assembly videos. If you're just interested in the tips and tricks for assembly you'll get through that in the first 25 minutes. The final 20 minutes is me finishing out the bear styling and the card.

The card I made measures 6x6 when closed. I added a flap from our Flap and Closure die set and then used a decorative brad from my stash along with a large loop of elastic to keep the card closed. The elements on the front of the card are from Winter Animals, Picnic Elements, Border Blends Party and Word Set 4 - Just a Note.

Unhook the elastic loop from the brad to open the card. The big bear pops up, holding a picnic basket and a pie. I also used the Hello die set for a greeting. The head of the bear is made using the Bitty Ball Pop-up and the body using the Surprise Ball Pop-up. For cardstock I used our Exact Pack 4, featuring 100 lb. cardstock from The Paper Cut.

I chose to make this a Hello card, but it could have easily been another occasion. It would also be fun to make it a Christmas bear.

Ready to give this card a try? Here are links to the supplies used in the video.

 

Karen Burniston Designer Challenge 37 - In the Wild! Pumpkin Costume Card

Welcome to our September 2020 Designer Challenge.

Our theme this month is "In the Wild!" and I challenged the team to create animals by combining our Surprise Ball Pop-up with the new Bitty Ball Pop-up. 

For my card and video I wanted to show how the pieces in Animal Add-ons 1 can be repurposed to make a raccoon. I also thought it would be fun to show how any of the stacked animals can wear a pumpkin costume for Halloween.

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

This card measures 6x6 when closed, so it will require additional postage, both because it's a square but also because the bead closure on the front adds thickness to the card. I recommend a bubble mailer. The silver elastic cording is attached to the back of the card and stretches across to hook onto the bead/brad, keeping the card closed.

Lift the cord off of the bead/brad and the gatefold card will spring open, revealing a raccoon all ready for trick-or-treating in a pumpkin costume. The Happy Halloween greeting is from Halloween Charms and the backing oval is from our Ovals - Crosshatch set.

The pumpkin costume will fit any animal.

You also have the option to make animals (with or without pumpkin costumes) by stacking two of the same size ball dies. A note, though. The Bitty Ball die set includes animal accessories (arms, smile, pointy nose) that you will need to make the animals in Animal Add-ons 1. If you only want to invest in one ball die and animals are what you primarily want to make, then I would recommend the Bitty Ball. If you are looking for an Add-on set to use with your Surprise Ball only (no Bitty Ball) then I would recommend Animal Add-ons 2 because it includes arms. Hopefully that makes sense.

Want to give this card a try? Again, you can make the head, arms, legs and tail into any animal, so get creative with who will be wearing your pumpkin costume. Here are links to the supplies used. The plaid paper is from Echo Park in their Celebrate Autumn line from a couple of years ago. The paper on the pumpkin is a very old sheet of Basic Grey from my stash. The silver elastic cording is from Michaels, where you can also find plastic beads.

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Are you ready for more animal inspiration? Check out these amazing cards by our incredibly talented design team!

Fran Sabad made this masterpiece of a card to celebrate her daughter's first wedding anniversary. I actually attended that wedding, which I was surprised to learn was just one year ago, when it feels like a decade! There are so many amazing details to this card, but especially that the hippos rotate and kiss!

Karen Aicken did something very clever with her batty bitty ball - she put the Surprise Ball on top for a bigger head than body! Brilliant! Karen hand cut the wings and has a YouTube video explaining the details and tips/tricks for her card. Definitely check it out!

Kelly Booth has a favorite color and it's on full display with this wonderful teal elephant. I adore the way Kelly has added the flowers from the Flip Frame die set to make a flower tiara for the elephant. The matching small elephant from the Safari Animals on the front of the card is perfection.

 

Sandy Diller made a sweet birthday card using a Bitty/Surprise stacked elephant in bright fun colors. I particularly like the way she snipped out some of the individual fronds from the Fronds Pattern Plate to decorate her interior greeting strip. And whiskers as elephant hair is brilliant!

Frances Byrne made this absolutely stunning lion card. I adore the scene she created on the front circle using the new Landscape Scene. Her use of the crosshatch circle die to create a mane is a stroke of genius. Love it!

Lois Bak fashioned her favorite mouse for this magical birthday card. This is a great example of combining pieces from other die sets to expand your menagerie (circle dies for ears) as well as clever panel decoration to make clothes. Awesome!

Please join us next month on Wednesday, October 7th (my 25th anniversary!) for our next Designer Challenge with a theme of "Inspired by -" we will be taking inspiration from each other for this fun challenge.

Happy Crafting!

Karen Burniston July 2020 Die Release - Pre-order today!

We have sixteen new die sets available for pre-order starting today. Shipping will start the week of August 3, 2020 in the order received. Do please consider making your pre-orders at your local store if you're lucky enough to have one in your area. They need our help during these challenging times more than ever. If not, you will be able to pre-order from our website.

Watch this short preview video to see these new dies in action. We will be featuring them in a blog hop with our Design Team on Monday, July 20, 2020. 

A lot of customer and design team requests made their way into this release. For Cindy, her long-asked-for hippo, in honor of Fiona. A couple oft-requested word sets for Anniversary and Sympathy, and by overwhelming request, a smaller version of the Surprise Ball Pop-up and two Animal Add-ons sets to create animals with stacked ball pop-ups. If you need inspiration for turning the Surprise Ball (and the upcoming Bitty Ball) into animals, make sure you join our Facebook Group, Karen Burniston Pop-up Peeps. 

Karen Burniston Designer Challenge 30 - Double!

Happy February!

Our Designer Challenge for this month has a theme of "Double!". I challenged the team to double up their pop-ups for a card of any theme. They could either use two of the same pop-up in a card, or combine two different pop-ups in an interesting way.

The team has been posting some very fun animals created by stacking our Surprise Ball Pop-up. You'll see several double-ball animals for this month's challenge. I wanted to try my hand at a double-ball animal and came up with a lizard. The offset stacking of the Surprise Balls makes for a different look at allows the animal to pop out further than the limits of the card - always a fun effect!

Learn how I made it by watching the full video tutorial:

My card measures 6.5" square when closed. It is held closed by using the flap from the Flap and Closure die set on the right edge of the card and then a magnet/ribbon closure. The papers are older ones from my stash. I used a few dies to decorate the front of the card, including the Circles - Crosshatch, a balloon from the Explosion Pop-up, Border Blends - Party and Word Set 2 - Birthday. 

Lift the ribbon to release the card. A cute lizard pops up on the right side of the card. Spin the lizard to see all sides. I used the Crosshatch Circles set for the greeting circles, the eyes and the mouth. The other circles come included in the Surprise Ball set. The tail and legs are hand cut.

To make nostrils, I used the inner parts of the lamb ears from the Chicken, Pig and Lamb set. 

Want to make your own lizard? What other animals can you style using this technique of an offset stacked Surprise Ball set? Here are the supplies used on my card:

Get ready for DOUBLE the inspiration with these fabulous Design Team projects. For each project you may click the designer's name to open a new tab with their blog post. On their blog posts you'll find supply lists, more photos, tips, videos, etc. Click away!

Frances Byrne created this fabulous stacked Surprise Ball penguin. The sleeve-style card keeps the animal flat for mailing and then offers such a fun surprise as it slides out and pops up. Such a clever and fun design.

Fran Sabad's double stacked Surprise Ball is decorated as a birthday piggy. Squee! I am so impressed with how the team manages to find “pieces and parts” for the animals from other die sets.

Frances Byrne also made this amazing double Surprise Ball panda. Incredible! Click over to her blog post to read how she made bamboo for her panda. So creative!

Lois Bak made a large card to hold two side-by-side Surprise Ball billboards. Such a special card for the happy couple. 

Lois also made a stacked Surprise Ball minion card with a banana-pull tab. What perfect styling to recreate these popular little cuties.

Sandy Diller created a full YouTube video to teach this stunning combination of the Fancy Label Accordion and Heart Pivot Panels. I love this clever combination for an over-the-top way to say I Love You!

Kelly Booth combined the Woven Basket Box card with the Coffee Cup Pop-up for a sweet Valentine's bouquet. I love the mix of woodgrain with the pinks and reds. So sweet!

Kelly Booth made a second version of her Woven Basket/Coffee Cup mash-up, this time with a bouquet of Love Charms delivered by the Feathered Animals. Absolutely adorable!

Karen Aicken always has great ideas for how to repurpose and stretch die sets. Her challenge card is the perfect example - turning the Cupcake Pop-up sideways and doubling it, then embellishing with the Gift Card Label. I love these soft pretty colors and the generic repurposing of the cupcake set.

Well that's a wrap on another challenge full of great inspiration by the team. Join us next month on Wednesday, March 4, 2020 for our next challenge with a theme of Treasure!

Happy Crafting!

 

Karen Burniston Designer Challenge 29 - Hearts!

Welcome to our first Designer Challenge of 2020. This month our theme is "Hearts" and you'll find some lovely heartfilled cards by our Design Team to inspire you.

For my card and video I am showing how to use the Surprise Ball Pop-up to animate a circle billboard, suitable for any theme. In keeping with the challenge I decorated mine for Valentine's Day.

Learn the technique by watching the full YouTube video here:

This card measures 5.5" square when closed. The front is decorated with patterned paper (Crate Paper Main Squeeze, from my stash) and two love note charms from the Love Charms. The scalloped edge pieces were made using the Tropical Scene die set.

Because of the bulky bead closure, it would need a bubble mailer, but I plan to give it in person. You can always swap out the closure for something more mail-friendly, like a tie closure, belly band or magnets.

Once the closure is released, the billboard will pop-up, attached to the Surprise Ball. The billboard is created on a base of the largest Crosshatch Circle and decorated with Love Charms and our Happy Valentine's Day word die. The inside patterned paper (PhotoPlay Candy Hearts) is also from my stash. 

Here are the supplies used in the video. This technique would work wonderfully for any theme by swapping out the papers and embellishments.

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

Frances Byrne created this fabulous Circle Tag Book featuring the Heart Pivot Panels. Love the touches of cream and gold to highlight the red/pink color scheme. 

Karen Aicken combined red and kraft for this fabulous Surprise Ball Valentine. I especially love the paper yoyo on the top of the ball. Check out Karen's blog for a video of this card in action.

Fran Sabad made two cards for the challenge showing the Heart Pivot Panels two ways - in a standard card and then combined with the Twist Panel Pop-up. The foil elements and patterned hearts are gorgeous.

Sandy Diller cleverly combined the Tag Book Pop-up with the Heart Pivot Panels to create this unique card with elements of both pop-ups. She has a full video tutorial for how she made it on her blog post, so be sure to click over and watch it. Love the combination of pink and teal on this.

Lois Bak created this magnificent light-up Surprise Ball Valentine. She has more information and a video of the card in action on her blog post. This is such a cool effect and the EZ-Lights from Pear Blossom Press work so wonderfully with our pop-up dies that we are now carrying them on our website.

Kelly Booth created two amazing cards for the challenge. First up, she combined the Circle Tag Book and Heart Pivot Panels for a fun vibrant Valentine. I like how she added the Love Charms to the pop-up.

Kelly's second card is absolutely adorable, combining our Surprise Ball Pop-up with cute googly-eyed stamped frogs. One of the frogs is on an action wobbler for even more interactive fun.

Hopefully you feel inspired by a hearty helping of heart-filled cards. Join us next month on Wednesday, February 5, 2020 for our next Designer Challenge. 

Happy Crafting!

 

Video Tutorial: Gnome Surprise Ball Pop-up Card

Happy New Year!

In honor of it being 2020, I think "vision" is going to be my word for this year. 

On Christmas Eve I posted a Christmas gnome card made with our Surprise Ball Pop-up die set, and others. You can check out the photos and supplies for that card on this blog post: Gnome Surprise Ball Christmas Card.

When I posted the card on Facebook and Instagram I received a lot of requests for a video tutorial. Since Christmas is over and spring approaches, I thought I'd create a version of this card decorated as a garden gnome instead, and decorate it with a "Happy Birthday from the garden" theme.

Watch the full YouTube video to see how I made this card:

When closed, this card measures 7" x 7". It's a big card and because of the bulk will probably need a bubble mailer or hand delivery. The closure is made using some twill, decorative flower brads (stash item) and magnets. The red dimensional flower is something I found in my stash. The pot, leaves and tulips are made with the Garden Charms die set. The Ovals - Crosshatch set is also used.

Lift the right side of the twill to release the garden gnome. He springs up inside the card, holding gardening tools in his hands. The patterned papers I used on the card are older ones from my stash. The green polka dot paper is Cosmo Cricket (from 2011 - I told you - OLD!), and the floral paper is from Pebbles Front Porch collection. (newer, but still old) These patterns would be easy to substitute with newer papers.

Since the gnome spins on a brad, I thought it would be fun to hide the second half of the greeting on his back, revealed when he turns around.

The garden gnome features yarn hair, ribbon sleeves and die cut hands, nose and hat. I added little thumbs so he could hold the Garden Charms.

Want to give this card a try? Here are all the dies I used in the video. 

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!

Disco Surprise Ball (and one more Parcel Pop-up Magic Card)

Happy Thanksgiving Week!

Over the weekend I hosted "craft weekend" where my cousin Jessica came for the weekend and we were joined by Rebecca, Becky and Karrie for card making merriment.

On our Facebook Group, the Karen Burniston Pop-up Peeps, Julie Pea said she wanted to see the Surprise Ball Pop-up die turned into a disco ball. I recently ordered the "Staying Alive Riley" stamp knowing it would be perfect for a disco ball card.

The first thing I did was assemble the Surprise Ball from a shiny silver cardstock and then added glitter cardstock to each panel. I glued my stamped, colored and fussy-cut image to the ball and then flattened it to figure out what size card I needed. I used Copic markers for the coloring.

Once I discovered that a 5x7 card would work, I got to work on creating a black card that included four flaps from the Flap and Closure die set. I used our Border Blends - Argyle for the front borders, using the same colors as the dance floor inside the card. I added our large Happy Birthday greeting to the front of the card.

The closure is made with two shiny buttons that are sewn to the flaps using thin black elastic. For the bottom button I left a large loop of elastic on the front of the card and strung a bead onto the loop to act as an easy handle for lifting the elastic off the upper button to release the flaps.

Once released, the ball will spring up inside the card, revealing a bright dance floor made with our Squares- Crosshatch die set. I thought I'd add "just a few" rhinestones to the disco ball. (Spoiler alert - "just a few" turned into covering the entire top half of the ball in rhinestones!) The stars come included in the Surprise Ball die set. I also used our large Celebrate die and the Ovals- Crosshatch as a place to sign the card.

Learn how the Surprise Ball and Flap and Closure dies work by watching this assembly video:

The other card I made during Craft Weekend was yet another Parcel Pop-up Magic Card, also using a Riley stamp.

The video tutorial for the magic card technique is posted on the product page for the Parcel Pop-up die set. This card also uses the Flap and Closure die set, Tropical Scene for the stitched scalloped edge, Postage Stamp Riley from Riley and Company, and a retired "happy holidays" stamp from me.

Below you'll find the links for the dies and supplies used on the Disco Surprise Ball card. The black grid patterned paper was an old one from my stash. The rest of the papers are solid cardstocks and glitter papers.