Karen Burniston Designer Challenge 33 - Treasure

Welcome to our May 2020 Designer Challenge.

Our theme for this month is Treasure. I challenged the team to use our new Treasure Chest and/or Treasure Charms in their projects. Although I say this every month, it's extra true with their cards this month - the team is amazing! You'll find links to their cards at the end of this post.

For my card and video I wanted to show another way to animate the Treasure Chest - this time using our Upsy Daisy Pop-up for the mechanism. By using two platforms in a clear-front side-fold card, the Upsy Daisy will lift the lid off of the Treasure Chest and slide it to the left, revealing the treasure. 

With it being graduation season I thought a congrats-themed money card was perfect for the theme. However, you can definitely make this card for other "treasured" themes - birthday, anniversary, friendship, thinking of you, thank you, mother's day, father's day, etc. Watch the video to learn how to make it:

In the closed position the card measures 5.5" x 4.25" and will fit in a standard A2 envelope for mailing. The front is a sheet of clear plastic, allowing the chest to be visible in the closed position.

Open the card and both parts of the treasure chest lift up and separate, revealing the treasure inside the card. I decorated with a combination of the included pieces from the Treasure Chest and then mixed in the Cruise Charms and Treasure Charms. The "congrats" is from Word Set 8 - Congrats.

I attached the money inside the chest using a belly band attached to the back. The money will slide out without damaging the card. For the coin from the Treasure Charms I first cut and embossed it from silver cardstock and then brushed Staz-on ink over the top and quickly wiped it away. This created the aged look you see here.

Ready to give this technique a try? Here are the supplies I used in the video. The woodgrain papers are old ones from my stash.

 

---

Now let's take a look at the amazing Treasure cards by our talented design team. For each card simply click the designer's name to open their blog post in a new window. You'll find more photos, supply lists, tips, tricks and videos by visiting their blog posts.

Sandy Diller really knocked it out of the park this month with an amazing underwater floating seascape created by cutting a Pivot Panels die set out of acetate as the structure of the scene. She has a full video tutorial for this card, too. Awesome!

Frances Byrne used the Treasure Chest and Treasure Charms on the Parcel Pop-up to create this fabulous tropical card. She mixed in stamps from MFT for a perfect mix of dies and stamps. Love that striped background and the message in a bottle washing ashore.

Fran Sabad made this mermazing card by combining the Treasure Chest, Parcel Pop-up and some sweet rainbow-finned mermaids. I love how the crab steals the key from the mermaid to open the chest inside. Out of this world!

Kelly Booth turns up the awww factor with this summer-themed hello card featuring a dog pirate and our Swirls Pattern Plate. I love the soft pastel clouds as a backdrop to the Treasure Chest, animated with the Parcel Pop-up. Adorable!

Karen Aicken shows how wonderfully the Treasure and Cruise Charms fit on the Photo Collage Pop-up for this nautical masterclass. The color scheme is perfection and I love all the little vignettes on this card. Ahoy!

Lois Bak shows how the Treasure Chest can be used on the front of a card as a hinged reveal. She combined it with the Circle Tag Book and Treasure Charms and mixed in a cute stamp from Stampendous. What a great double reveal card!

One thing I treasure is our enormously talented design team. Join us next month on Wednesday, June 3, 2020 for a Designer Challenge with the theme of Pattern Plates. 

Happy Crafting!

Karen Burniston Designer Challenge 12 - Charmed!

Happy August! 

For this month's Designer Challenge the theme is "Charmed" and the team was challenged to use any of our Charm dies for a card of any theme. 

Last month I posted an Upsy Daisy window card called My Knight Pop-up Card and got several requests for a full video tutorial on the technique. I decided to make a coffee-themed version for this month's challenge. Here is the full video tutorial:

When closed, this card measures 4.25" x 4.25" (10.8 cm x 10.8 cm) and will fit nicely in an A2 envelope and mail for a single stamp. The technique for getting the stamped or line drawn look is to cut and assemble the coffee charm out of all white cardstock and use the stencil features of the dies plus tracing around the edges to achieve the look. 

As the card opens the colorful coffee cup starts to lift up, attached to a platform from the Upsy Daisy Pop-up die set.

Once open, the colorful coffee cup stands on the table in front of the card along with a banner saying hello. The greeting is a Funny Bones (Riley and Co.) stamp. 

Karen Burniston (KB Riley) die sets are available at many independent craft stores throughout the world. If your local craft store doesn't carry our line, please ask them to contact us. We're always looking for more retailer partners and it would be great to be in your area. If you are sadly without any local stores, you can always shop online. Here are links to the products used in the video.

These six Charmed cards are sure to knock your socks off! Click on each designer's name to check out their blog post, where you will find more photos, supply lists, tips, etc.

Summer Hils-Painter created this mocha-rrific Tag Book Pop-up featuring the Coffee Charms. I just love the color scheme on this card and the mix of stamps and dies. Perfection!

Fran Sabad created this wonderful tropical Circle Charm card as a congratulatory card. I love the way she created the palm tree element using the Beach Charms.

Frances Byrne created this fabulous coffee-themed Upsy Daisy card. Such a great mix of charms, larger dies and the Alphabet set. The pink/brown color scheme is so chic!

 

Karen Aicken created this masterpiece of a charm star book using the Charm Accordion. WOW! This is just tremendous! I love all the charms dangling in the openings and the clever scalloped edging to the pages.

Helen Cryer always has such a way with color and pattern. This Charm Accordion is no exception and I love her signature technique of cutting a circle through the back of the card as another place to dangle a charm. Helen mixed the Beach and Sweet Treats charms.

Kelly Booth created this seascape staggered Charm Accordion and it's wonderful from all angles! I love the styling on the flip-flops from the Beach Charms and the cute coloring of the crab from the Sea Animals.

So? How about it? Do you feel CHARMED?! I know I do! Join us next month on Wednesday, September 5th for our next Designer Challenge with a theme of "House".

Happy Crafting!

Karen Burniston + Darkroom Door Blog Hop

Welcome to our fun collaborative blog hop with the designers from Darkroom Door! You've landed on the stop for the projects by Karen Burniston (that's me!) and Tanya Kostynuk, my business partner and the other half of KB Riley LLC. If you hop through all the stops you'll be inspired by TWENTY designers!

But wait, there's more! Both Darkroom Door and Karen Burniston (KB Riley) will be giving away prize packs, with winners randomly chosen from ALL of the blog hop comments received by Sunday, July 29th, 2018. Lots of chances to win some goodies, so just leave a comment on this post or any other blog hop post to enter!

For my project I wanted to show yet another take on a Staggered Charm Accordion. This time I made a 3-page card with rectangles to replace the pivoting squares and charm frames. This gives a larger surface area to fill with stamped images, like the gorgeous Collage Seaside Squares rubber stamp. I also used the Brushed Sentiments stamp set for the greeting. Learn how I made this project by watching this 8 minute assembly video.

When closed, the card measures 3.25" x 4.25" and mails easily in an A2 envelope. The patterned papers on my project are Kaisercraft from my stash.

I used colored pencils to color the six seaside squares and then cut them out and added them to rectangles that were edged using the Crosshatch Rectangles die set. Then I used the hinge die included in the Charm Accordion to hinge the rectangles together. The sentiment is from the Brushed Sentiments stamp set. (All supply links are at the very bottom of this blog post)

With this side view you can see the other hinge connecting the second and third rectangles. I added brads to the hinges.

Tanya decided to use the Upsy Daisy Pop-up die set two ways. For her first card, she used just one of the platforms in a side-fold card and added a stamped and colored flamingo from the Tropical Birds stamp set. She also mixed in the grass edge from the Nature Edges, Happy Birthday, Flowers and Bee and our Crosshatch Rectangles.

Here's a closer look at the fabulous flamingos!

Tanya also wanted to use the Upsy Daisy in a top-fold card to show off the Under the Sea stamp set and make it look like an aquarium. She used the two platforms as usual, but without the suspended center square. There are so many possibilities with the Upsy Daisy die set!

For the card's front, Tanya used the Tropical Scene set to create a tropical lead-in for the beautiful aquarium inside.

Here's a closer look at Tanya's beautiful coloring on the fish.

Ready for more inspiration?! Keep on hopping and make sure you leave a comment on at least one blog to enter the giveaway for prizes. Supply links for Karen and Tanya's projects are at the very bottom of this post. Happy hopping and a huge thank you to Rachel, the designers at Darkroom Door, our design team and special guests for this fun collaboration!

Darkroom Door / Rachel Greig: 
https://www.darkroomdoor.com/Blog/dd-kb-blog-hop

KB Riley LLC / Karen Burniston & Tanya Kostynuk <----- YOU ARE HERE

Belinda Spencer: 
https://happyscrapspace.blogspot.com/2018/07/darkroom-door-karen-burniston-blog-hop.html 

Summer Hills-Painter
https://1craftypainter.blogspot.com/2018/07/its-hop.html 

Teresa Abajo: 
https://thetamarisk.blogspot.com/2018/07/darkroom-door-karen-burniston-blog-hop.html 

Karen Aicken

https://paintedmountaincards.blogspot.com/2018/07/karen-burniston-rileydarkroom-door-blog.html

Anneke De Clerck: 
https://somefiddlingonthekitchentable.blogspot.com/2018/07/darkroom-door-karen-burniston-bloghop.html

Frances Byrne

https://stampowl.blogspot.com/2018/07/karen-burniston-darkroom-door-blog-hop.html

Godelieve Tijskens: 
https://stampingmathilda.blogspot.com/2018/07/darkroom-door-karen-burniston-bloghop.html

Shelly Hickox

https://shellyhickox.blogspot.com/2018/07/karen-burniston-darkroom-door-blog-hop.html

Anna-Karin Evaldsson:
httphttps://layersofink.blogspot.com/2018/07/darkroom-door-and-karen-burniston-blog.html

Mary Prasad

https://www.awashwithcolor.com/2018/07/guest-designer-karen-burniston-and.html

Robyn Wood: 
http://purplesalt.net/2018/07/24/darkroom-door-karen-burniston-blog-hop/

Fran Sabad

http://fransabad.com/?p=4805

Connie Mercer: 
https://www.craftygoodies.com/2018/07/darkroom-door-karen-burniston-blog-hop.html 

Kelly Booth

https://cruzinkellster.blogspot.com/2018/07/blog-hop-with-karen-burniston-products.html

Autumn Clark: 
https://sewpaperpaint.blogspot.com/2018/07/darkroom-door-stamps-karen-burniston-die-cuts.html 

Helen Cryer

https://diningroomdrawers.blogspot.com/2018/07/karen-burniston-darkroom-door-blog-hop.html

Kymona Tracey: 
https://wp.me/p3TRKZ-2Sa 

 

SUPPLY LINKS FOR KAREN'S CARD:

SUPPLY LINKS FOR TANYA'S CARDS:

 

 

My Knight Pop-up Card - Paper Pros Challenge

Once a month we have a for fun challenge with a friends group called the Paper Pros. Raquel Mason set the theme for this month as "What's in a Name?" and challenged us to use a die set that started with the same letter as our first name.  I decided to use the Knight and Dragon die set and actually get a jump (gasp!) on my Anniversary Card for (gasp!) OCTOBER!

The card is a very simple design. It measures 4.25" x 4.25" square when closed. I used the Knight die to cut a window into the front of the card and then assembled a bunch of knights from all white cardstock. I glued the knights into a collaged mosaic on the front of the card, cutting off partial knights where they extended off the edge. I then traced around all the pieces with a fine black pen.

Through the window you can see a silver knight, lined up perfectly with the opening. As the card opens that knight starts to move, attached to a platform from the Upsy Daisy Pop-up die set. 

Once the card is open the silver knight stands on the ground in front of the card. I used my leftover knights to decorate the background plus added a greeting using Word Set 5 - Royalty. 

It was fun to make my knights-a-plenty card. Plus it's nice to have an anniversary card all ready for my real-life knight come October.

Here are the other Paper Pros participating this month and links to their "What's in a Name?" cards:

Karen Aicken

Frances Byrne

Fran Sabad

Raquel Mason

Sandy Diller

Here are links to the products used in my card. I also used silver ink, white and red cardstock. 

USA Staggered Charm Accordion

Well it's a pretty soggy 4th of July here in the Houston area. It's been steadily pouring rain for hours and we're under flash flood advisory.

Since we can't do our cookout, I decided on a craft-in!

This morning I posted our July Designer Challenge with a theme of Sweet Summer and posted a new video teaching a technique for assembling the Charm Accordion die set with staggered squares. In honor of Independence Day I made a patriotic version.

On the front of the card I die cut stars from white glitter paper. The large star came from the Circle Charm die set and the smaller one comes included with the Charm Accordion set. The red striped paper was from my stash. The scalloped frame from the Upsy Daisy Pop-up fits the squares of the Charm Accordion perfectly.

When opened, the card resembles a flag. Glittered star charms dangle in the small frames. Our chunky Alphabet die was used for the USA letters.

To create the inlaid letters, I cut them from the pages themselves and then also from two layers of black cardstock. I used the negative cut-outs behind the letter-shaped openings on each page. Then I sunk the original letters back into the opening, creating the reverse eclipse effect. You can learn this technique in last month's Designer Challenge Video.

Learn how to create a staggered Charm Accordion by watching today's video:

 Here are the items used on my patriotic version:

Happy Independence Day!

Class Projects - Croppin' Bug June 2018

Happy Sunday! 

Next Saturday, June 16, 2018, I'll be at Croppin' Bug in La Marque, Texas (just south of Houston) teaching a pop-up card class from 9am to noon featuring brand new dies from our Spring collection. Here are the projects and "what to bring" list for students.

NOTE: Normally you are instructed to bring your die cutting machine to cut some pieces using the die set included in your kit. However, because of the number of pieces in each card, I have elected to pre-cut all the pieces for the kits to make class go faster. You do not need to bring your die cutting machine to class. You will still receive the Circle Charm Pop-up die set in your kit, but you will not be required to use it during class.

We will start with the Circle Charm Pop-up card, featuring the new Sweet Treats Charms and Word Set 6 - Summer. We also make use of the new crosshatch shape dies.

Next up, a Tent Pop-up Card. If you need a last-minute Father's Day card this will work wonderfully, but the greeting is generic so you'll be able to use it for any occasion and the colors are gender-neutral. This card also uses the Camping Charms and the nested crosshatch shape dies.

Our final card is the Upsy Daisy Pop-up card, assembled in a slide style. There are so many ways to use this die set! Once again it is embellished with the nested crosshatch shape dies. Also used are Word Set 6 and the vine from the Flowers and Bee die set. 

What to watch:

If you'd like a preview of these die mechanisms and how they work, feel free to watch the assembly videos before class.

Please bring to class:

• Print-outs of the three class cards OR have them loaded onto your tablet or phone OR plan to take a photo of the originals when you arrive
• Scissors
• All your favorite adhesives - tape runner, strong double-sided tape (6mm or 0.25" is the best size), mini glue dots, fine-tip glue pen or bottle.
• Paper Piercer
• Black pen - for coloring the beak and legs of the flamingo. (Note - an alcohol or fine-tip permanent marker works best on the coated pink cardstock)
• White gel pen - for the lines on the tree stump.
• Optional - alcohol marker in a pink tone (I used a Copic RV25) to tint the brads on the summer card
• Optional - you are always welcome to bring inks for brushing edges.
• Optional - tweezers for placing small pieces.
• Optional - Wink of Stella clear glitter pen - for making things sparkly!

It's going to be a fun class! Hope you can join us!

Class Projects - Scrapp'n Savvy May 2018

I'll be at Scrapp'n Savvy this Wednesday teaching a pop-up card class featuring brand new dies from our Spring collection. Here are the projects and "what to bring" list for students.

NOTE: Normally you are instructed to bring your die cutting machine to cut some pieces using the Circle Charm Pop-up die set included in your kit. Unfortunately, although the new release dies are en route to our home office in Kansas, they will not arrive by Wednesday. Your class kit dies will be delivered to Scrapp'n Savvy a few days after class. My apologies. Because of this, all pieces have been pre-cut for you and you will not need to bring a die cutting machine to class.

On the Tent card, the "Dad" greeting is optional. I will bring the stamp with me to class and students who plan to use the card for Father's Day can stamp their square. 

Please bring to class:

• Print-outs of the three class cards OR have them loaded onto your tablet or phone OR plan to take a photo of the originals when you arrive
• Scissors
• All your favorite adhesives - tape runner, double-sided tape, mini glue dots, fine-tip glue pen or bottle.
• Paper Piercer
• Black pen - for coloring the beak and legs of the flamingo
• White gel pen - for the lines on the tree stump and the dots on the heart
• Optional - alcohol marker in a pink tone (I used a Copic RV25) to tint the brads on the summer card
• Optional - you are always welcome to bring inks for brushing edges. For example, the edges of the rocks would look great with some dark gray or black ink.
• Optional - tweezers for placing small pieces.
• Optional - Wink of Stella clear glitter pen - for making things sparkly!

 

KB + Brutus Monroe Collaboration - Upsy Daisy Floral Frenzy

It's a busy busy week for the Design Team as we both show off our brand new Spring Release dies (available first week of June) and collaborate with the Brutus Monroe Design Team to show off products using both brands.

Each day this week there will be card(s) posted by members of the Design Team on their own blogs and on our social media channels. On Thursday of this week we will all participate in a blog hop where you can comment on each blog for the potential to win a die set. I will also have a new video tutorial for the hop.

Today I'm sharing a fun combination with our newest dies combined with the Floral Frenzy Background stamp from Brutus Monroe. 

I cut a 4.5" x 9" strip of green cardstock and scored it in the middle to create a 4.5" square top-fold card. I stamped the Floral Frenzy stamp three times with black ink onto white cardstock, colored the flowers with Prismacolor pencils, and then used the largest of the Squares- Crosshatch shape dies to cut them out. Each square was then matted with a 4.25" square of black cardstock.

Something I like to do to tie in the look of a black-outlined stamped image with die cut embellishments is to add black line detailing to the die cuts. For the scalloped square that comes included with the Upsy Daisy Pop-up, it's easy to just use the die as a stencil to add the black line square and then dot each of the press dots with the same black pen. I also added pen detailing to the bee's wings from the Flowers and Bee die set.

For the Upsy Daisy, I did something different with the squares. I turned them to a diamond orientation and then attached the outer two to the platforms as usual. (Video tutorial coming soon on the Upsy Daisy!) Then, instead of suspending a third square with twine, I attached my middle square to the right one using a pop-dot. When closed, the center square ends up over the top of the left square, but as the card opens, everything slides into position.

 

I used my leftover colored stamped background to cut decorator squares for the outer two panels and used the flower die that comes included in the Upsy Daisy for the center panel. Once again I added pen detailing to make the die cut flower tie in to the stamped flowers. The banner behind the greeting is included in the Upsy Daisy. The "hello" is from Word Set 6 - Summer. 

Preview the Spring 2018 Die Release in this video:

The Spring 2018 Release will be available in stores and on our website shipping the first week of June. You can pre-order from our website OR (and this is my favorite) - call your local store and ask them to pre-order the dies for you. We are shipping store orders first, so this would be the fastest way for you to get these new dies, but also, we just really need to support our local stores whenever possible. If you are sadly without a local store, here are some links to the dies used on today's card, plus the gorgeous background stamp on the Brutus Monroe website.

See you back here on Thursday for our fun Blog Hop!

Sneak Peek Karen Burniston Spring 2018 Die Collection

Happy Mid-May!

Starting today the Design Team is free to share projects made using our Spring 2018 collection. These 12 new dies will start shipping to stores the last week in May with website order being shipped in the orders received starting the first week of June. If you're interested in purchasing any of these dies, please consider giving your local store a chance for your business. The store orders will go out first and you'll save shipping charges by shopping locally. 

I like to think of the dozen new dies as falling into four categories: Pop it! Say it! Charm it! and Shape it! Watch the preview video here:

We also have a downloadable/printable catalog supplement for this collection - view it here: Spring 2018 Catalog

Pop it!

There are three new pop-up dies that offer a little something for everyone.

The Circle Charm Pop-up is absolutely generic, plus easy and quick to assemble. The pivoting action of the front circle provides double-duty decoration because it will pivot to the inside as the card is opened.

I like to think of the Circle Charm Pop-up die as a hybrid between a Pivot Card and the Charm Accordion. Watch for the assembly video in the coming week to show how it can be changed up and amped up. The set includes 11 individual dies, giving you lots of circle and ring combinations for your pop-up. For this card I easily converted the solid circles to rings and then chained them through the pop-up so that the large lanterns (Camping Charms) all hide behind each other when the card is closed but then reveal as the card opens. 

The Tent Pop-up is the most specific of the new pop-ups, but is packed with value for creating a complete scene. You get everything - the tent, rivets, extra platform, stump, pop-up fire pit and rocks. Add in the Camping Charms for even more accessories and Word Set 6 for some great greetings.

Obviously you can use this tent for camping and outdoor cards, but also think of it more generically. It's a great guy card, for Father's Day or any day. You can make it a beach tent. It works great as a play tent for kid cards and invitations. How about a card for a teacher to say "enjoy summer vacation"? Could it be styled like an A-frame log cabin? A gnome house? This is why I love die cutting - you can so easily change things up!

The Upsy Daisy Pop-up is full of possibilities with adaptable platforms that will raise items high in the card and shift them over the outside edges of the card. With the pieces included, you can easily string together three decorative squares and as the card opens, the outer two will lift, separate and pull the middle one up. It's the type of card you'll want to open/close/open/close.

When you open the Upsy Daisy all the way until it's almost flat, you'll get the greatest lift and separation on the squares. Take the slack out of your twine, however, and you can stop the card open at 90 degrees (traditional pop-up display) and the squares will sit close together as shown in the card below. Watch for an assembly video later this week to show even more possibilities with the Upsy Daisy.

Say it!

There are two new dies to help you caption your cards perfectly. The Alphabet is uppercase and sized to coordinate perfectly with the previously-released Numbers set. 

Then we have Word Set 6 - Summer, which can be mixed and matched within the set to make some great combinations, as well as mixed with previous word sets for even more possibilities. 

Charm it!

Charm dies have become the perfect little accessory dies for our brand. By leaving them as charms, they can be suspended on all the generic pop-ups, including the Charm Accordion to add detail. Our customers report that they love the option to decorate a card using image dies without necessarily always needing to stamp and color images. Obviously the pop-up dies work well to showcase stamped images, too, but it's nice to have the option to decorate with dies.

The Camping Charms is the largest of the new sets. We wanted a mix of sizes in this set with some being smaller and sized to match the scale of the Tent Pop-up but then also a couple of larger charms to work well on the fronts of cards and on the other pop-ups. All of these charms work wonderfully with our animal die sets to accessorize. Simply cut off the hang holes and they become props.

The Sweet Treats Charms are small, adorable and might make you hungry. Again, they can look so cute being held by the Animal dies, or used on any of the pop-ups for a summery (or should I say "yummery"?) theme. 

The Beach Charms will coordinate perfectly with the previously-released beach-themed dies, but can also be used independently. I particularly like the idea of using the flamingo with the House and Fence die set to fill the yard! 

Shape it!

And finally, we have added some much-needed generic nested shape dies to our brand. Each set includes 7 dies, four of which have a fun crosshatch pattern on the edges and three that are solid shapes with a decorative score line for a classy polished look. The largest shapes are sized to fit a standard A2 card leaving a thin border, but they also work well on larger cards. The crosshatch pattern is generic but visually interesting and drawing it brought me right back to my engineering days!

Throughout this week you'll see ideas from the Design Team using the new release, as well as the products showing up on the website for pre-order, and videos being uploaded onto the product pages. Also join us on Thursday for a blog hop featuring a mix of Karen Burniston branded dies with Brutus Monroe products. You can hop through our team's blogs to get inspiration for mixing the two lines together and be in on prize opportunities, too.

It's a great week for inspiration!

Happy Crafting!