Karen Burniston Designer Challenge -- Caffeinate

It's time again for the Karen Burniston Designer Challenge.  This month's theme is "Caffeinate," using something to get you going -- chocolate, coffee, tea, soda.  Even though it's May and quite warm here in Florida, I chose hot chocolate for my card.

Shortly after the Rockin' Rectangle was released, Karen Burniston made a card using that die with a clear acetate front.  I loved the way it looked and have made several cards using that technique.  My card today also uses it.

 

In addition to the Rockin' Rectangle, I also used the mug from the Tea and Coffee Pop-up, the Tea and Coffee Borders, the Coffee Charms, and the icing from the Cupcake Pop-up.  And, now that Karen has released clear stamps, I was able to find appropriate sentiments from both the Quiet Forest Sayings and the Coffee Chat sets.

By the way, if you'd like to try this clear acetate card, here's a link to Karen's tutorial:  Acetate Front Card.  

Set the Stage

It's time again for the Karen Burniston Designer Challenge, and this month's theme is "Set the Stage."  And the perfect way to do that is to use the new Stage Pop-up, definitely my new favorite.  I have made quite a few cards using this die set.

An early favorite of mine when I discovered Karen Burniston dies was the Christmas Tree Pop Stand.  I combined these two die sets for my challenge card.  Many years ago I made a Christmas Tree Pop Stand card in white and gold.  My new card is an updated version of that earlier one.

Here are a couple of close-up photos of my card.  Those cute little trees on the bottom panels were made with one of the dies in the Winter Charms set.

 

You can even decorate the bottom of the stage.  The two holiday sentiments used on the card are from one of Karen's clear stamp sets, Christmas Wishes.  The "push" comes from the Stage Scene stamp set.

Another Christmas-themed card I made using the Stage Pop-up (this time with the Sleigh Pop-up) is this one::

Karen Burniston Designer Challenge -- For the Birds

It's time again for the Karen Burniston Designer Challenge.  This month's theme is "For the Birds."  Even though the new release has a bird -- the Peacock Add-on, I went in a totally different direction and used the birds from an older set, Outdoor Scene.

I did not ignore the new release, however; the base die for my card is the new Stage Pop-up along with the Sea Stage Add-ons.  

Like a parent, I'm sure that, as a DT member, I'm not supposed to have a favorite; but I must admit that the Stage Pop-up is definitely my favorite of this release.  It was the first one I used as soon as we received our dies, and I have made quite a few stage cards since then.  This is my "For the Birds" card:

Karen Burniston has an excellent video on construction of this stage.  Be sure to check it out.  In addition to the two new die sets, I also used the Palm Tree Pop-up and a sentiment from the Cruise Greetings clear stamp set.  My sea gulls are flying high, attached with acetate strips.

This was such a fun release -- make sure you check out the rest of the cards made by the team.  I'm sure you'll find at least one with the new Peacock Add-ons to the Arch Pop-up.

 

Karen Burniston Designer Challenge - Love is in the Air

My card for this month's Karen Burniston Designer Challenge uses one of the brand-new die sets just released, the Love Is in the Air Charms.  With Valentine's Day right around the corner, this is a perfect set to use. 

My card base is one of my favorite sets (and I think the first Karen Burniston die I purchased), the Fancy Label Accordion.

I made full panels for the first and last panel of my accordion, with charms hanging from just the second through the fourth panels.

The second panel charm is a red rose mounted on an oval.  BTW, the rose on the other side is pink.

The third panel contains some cascading hearts.

And the fourth panel is a cute hot air balloon.

Have you checked out the new release blog hop?  There's still time to comment and perhaps win a $25 gift certificate to the Karen Burniston website.  Here's a link to Karen's blog, which is the first one on the hop -- https://karenburniston.com/blog/january-2026-release-blog-hop/

Karen Burniston Designer Challenge -- Bugs

It's Designer Challenge time again, and this month we have some new dies to play with.  The challenge theme is "Bugs, " and three of the new dies are full of bugs.  I actually used all three of them.

The front of my card has dies from Animal Add-ons 6, which has pieces and parts of both a bee and a grasshopper.  I chose the face and wings of the bee and also used one of the bees from the Bug Border set.

The sentiment is from the new clear stamp set Bug Greetings.

The inside of my card uses the Playful Pop-up (which includes dies for making a ladybug, but again I used bees from the Bug Borders set).  I also used dies from the new Greeting Labels and sentiments from the new clear stamp set Quiet Forest Sayings.

Here's a little video showing how the mechanism of the Playful Pop-up works when you open the card.

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you liked my card.

Karen Burniston Designer Challenge -- Song Lyrics

The theme of this month's Karen Burniston Designer Challenge is "song lyrics."   That's pretty wide open.  I decided that a song sung in December more than likely would be Christmas-related.  For this reason, I chose the Bing Crosby classic White Christmas.

I've been following along with Karen and her on-line classes for a while.  October's class was two Halloween cards, but I liked them so much that I decided to use the instructions for one of them to make a Christmas card and use it for this month's Designer Challenge.

The second verse of White Christmas goes like this:

            I'm dreaming of a white Christmas

            With every Christmas card I write.

            May your days be merry and bright,

            And may all your Christmases be white.

The front of my card actually contains part of the lyrics.  All the papers I used are from a 12 x 12 paper pad that I found in Michaels on sale.  They really worked well for this card.

And the inside carries through with the theme.  The main die set used on this card is the Charm Accordion, as well as the Christmas Tree Pop-up.

The original card had two skeletons on the inside.  This one has a penguin and a polar bear, made using the Winter Animals set.   It was really fun transforming Karen's Halloween card into a Christmas one.

After I decided on this card for this month's Designer Challenge, two things happened:  1) The new release with that awesome Pine Cone die set; and 2) A gorgeous 12 x 12 Christmas patterned paper pad I found at Hobby Lobby.  I was compelled to make a second card with the "song lyrics" theme.  You can see pieces from the Pine Cone die set and the Pattern Plate - Holly within the Postage Pop-up on the front.

The inside really shows off that pretty paper.  More of the Pine Cone and Holly die cuts are there as well.

Here's a close-up of the "song lyrics" of the Osmonds' version of It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas.  The first line of the second verse is "Pne cones and holly berries."

Karen Burniston Designer Challenge - Fun Faces

Karen Burniston recently had a "mini-release" of five clear stamps.  One of them was made to enhance the Paper People die set and had faces for lots of her animal dies as well.  This month's Designer Challenge theme was dedicated to that fun stamp set.

When I saw the theme "Fun Faces," an idea immediately popped into my head; and I ran with it.  As Christmas is right around the corner, I made a Christmas choir made up of 14 members, both male and female.  I placed them in the Wide Woven Basket, which is decorated with a Christmas swag from Fireplace Extras 1 and Ovals Crosshatch.  The choir members have various hair styles from Paper People, and several of them have glasses from Tiny Accessories 1.

What is so fun about the Fun Faces 1 set is that some of the Paper People images have eyelashes and some of them don't.  So, my female singers have the eyelashes, and the males do not.  You can see the difference in this photo.

This was such a fun project.

October Karen Burniston Designer Challenge

Karen Burniston just had a special new release of five new sentiment stamps -- just in time for the October Designer Challenge, the theme of which is "Peek-a-Boo."  When she released the Arch Pop-up several months ago, she said she thought it would make a cool monster.  So I took her up on her challenge by making a monster and including a couple of the new stamps from the set Halloween Phrases. The front just has the Happy Halloween w/Shadow set and one of the Border Blends.

But the inside has lots of dies -- the Arch Pop-up for the body of the monster, the pennants from the Graduation Elements, the bats from the Halloween Borders, the eyes from the Mini Ball Pop-up, the Boo from the Halloween Elements, and the rectangles from the Rectangles Crosshatch.  

And you can see that I met the challenge theme by having my monster saying "Boo" when you open the card.  

I was glad to accommodate Karen and her wish for an Arch Pop-up monster!

Karen Burniston Designer Challenge - Letter

It's time again for the Karen Burniston Designer Challenge.  This month's theme is "Letter."  We could interpret this any way we wanted -- use a letter in the mail, or maybe just a letter of the alphabet.  I chose the second and made a birthday card/gift for a 3-year old -- some letter blocks.

Using both the Alphabet set and the Mini Alphabet and Numbers set, I made a Slider Box with pop-out blocks, adding a matching birthday card.  Google images provided the small blocks on both the card and the box.

Be sure to check out the "Letter" cards made by the rest of the team, and maybe you'd like to play along with us.  It was fun!

Karen Burniston Designer Challenge -- Rainbow

It's time for the Karen Burniston Designer Challenge for July.  This month our theme is "Rainbow," the perfect reason to pull out the new Arch Pop-up die and Rainbow Add-ons.  

The front of my card is rather simple -- just a happy birthday greeting.  However, keeping with the theme I did use rainbow paper.  I also added some enamel dots in rainbow colors.

For the inside I popped up the Rainbow Arch, adding a pot of gold using the cauldron from the Witch and Cauldron set.  The sentiment is from the new Rainbow greetings stamp set.

Here's a close-up of the pot of gold.  As you can see, I scored across the cauldron and glued the top portion to the rainbow and the bottom portion to the card base.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today.

Karen Burniston Designer Challenge

It's time again for the Karen Burniston Designer Challenge.  This month's theme is "Animals & Characters."  I actually have both animals and characters on my card.

As I was trying to decide how I was going to meet this challenge, all the news stations in Orlando were talking about the opening of Epic Universe at Universal Studios, a new 5-park addition.  Two of the areas are Isle of Berk How to Train Your Dragon and the Wizarding World of Harry Potter Ministry of Magic. And that was all I needed -- an idea immediately popped into my head. In the book Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire there is a scene where Harry is riding on a dragon all over Hogwarts.

The front of my card has a flat version of the Castle Pop-up. The sun and cloud are from the Landscape Scene set.

Inside I mounted Harry on the Dragon flying in the Lorna Label Pop-up.  Harry was constructed using the Paper People and Tiny Accessories 1.  The dragon is from the Knight & Dragon set.  I love the patterned paper I used as a background.  It is from a paper pack by Stamp Anniething.   I have several stamp sets that are Harry Potter-related.  One of them includes a golden snitch, which I stamped, cut out, and glued onto the signature panel.

Thanks for stopping by my blog to see my Designer Challenge card.  I hope you come back soon.  By the way, sneak peeks of the new Karen Burniston release start next Monday, June 9th.

Karen Burniston Designer Challenge - Fluffy

It's time again for the Karen Burniston Designer Challenge.  The theme of this month's challenge is "Make it Fluffy."   As Karen said, "You decide what's fluffy - is it an animal? Clouds? Something in the kitchen? Incorporate something fluffy into your design." I decided on a fluffy angora cat.

My granddaughter's birthday is in April, and she's a big cat lover; so I made this birthday card for her. The front of the card is a relatively simple lead-in to the inside.

When you open the card, there sits the fluffy cat on a fluffy pillow inside a Lorna Label Pop-up which has been cut-out.  What do you know -- another fluffy object!

Needless to say, she loved the card.

Karen Burniston Designer Challenge -- Designer's Choice

This month's Karen Burniston Designer Challenge is anything goes.  The theme is "Designer's Choice," so we can do whatever we'd like.  I decided that, as Easter is just a few weeks away, I would make an Easter card.

I had enjoyed Karen's March Zoom class using the new Popcorn die with the Flower Pot Pop-up, so much so that I converted it to an Easter basket, substituting Easter eggs for all that popcorn.  

The basket on the front has the perennial chocolate bunny and a few eggs, several of which have fallen into the grass.  I added the Easter sentiment on one of the new Bouquet Bits.

The basket on the inside has Easter eggs made from the Easter Borders set, as well as two of the Spring Animals -- the bunny and the chick.  One of the cool things that I liked from the Zoom class was that Karen also used the new Triple Platform Pop-up.  As you can see from the photo, there are a few more larger Easter eggs mounted on that section.

I always enjoy Karen's Zoom and Virtual classes, and it's fun re-making the cards in a totally different theme. 

Karen Burniston Designer Challenge - Ocean or Lake

This month's Karen Burniston Designer Challenge theme was "Lake or Ocean."  I chose "Lake."  My late husband was an avid fisherman, so I dedicated this card to him. It's a little larger than most of the cards I make -- 5" x 8" gatefold.  I had participated in Karen's most recent on-line class and had some "bait and tackle" paper left over.  I used it for the front of the card.

When you open the card, you find a campsite by a lake.  The tie-downs for the Tent Pop-up made the wider card necessary, as you can see from the picture below.

Here's a close-up of the happy fisherman -- happy because he has just caught a fish.

The new Fishing Boat Add-ons to the Boat Pop-up is perfect for that outdoors recipient.

Karen Burniston Designer Challenge "Bouquets"

It's Designer Challenge time again for the Karen Burniston design team.  The theme this month is "Bouquets."  Karen reminded us that "bouquets" don't necessarily have to be flowers.

My card actually has two bouquets.  The one on the front is your standard flower bouquet -- made with pieces from the Flower Pot Pop-up (plus the Add-on set) and the Twist Flower Pop-up.

The bouquet on the inside is a "flower people" bouquet -- made again with the Twist Flower Pop-up, but with the Paper People as well.  The double Photo Fan Pop-up gives you plenty of space for lots of flower people.  I added eyeglasses from Tiny Accessories 1 to several of the people.

This would make a nice card from the gang at the office.

Karen Burniston Designer Challenge - First 100 Dies

Happy New Year and welcome to the first Karen Burniston Designer Challenge.  This month's challenge is "The First 100 Dies."  We were to use any of Karen's dies from #1001 through #1100.  It was fun using some of the dies we may have not used for some time.  This is my card.   The dies used on the front of my card are #1030 Happy Birthday and the balloons from #1069 Explosion Pop-up.  I added some accents to the "Happy Birthday" and the heart balloons using a white gel pen.

The inside of my card uses quite a few of those "oldies but goodies:"#1004 Birthday Charms, #1023 Tag Book Pop-up, #1050 Sweet Treat Charms, #1055 Ovals Crosshatch, and #1090 Border Blends - Argyle.

It was fun pulling out some of the dies I haven't used in a while.  Sometimes you get so busy using the newer dies that you forget about some of the previously released ones.  This challenge gave us that opportunity.  I'm glad you stopped by my blog and hope you will remember some of those older dies you haven't used lately.

December Designer Challenge

It's Designer Challenge Day for the Karen Burniston design team.  The theme this month is "Happy New Year."  It's hard to believe that 2024 is almost over.  For my card I created a little Christmas scene on the front . . . 

. . . and a festive Happy New Year fireworks display on the inside.  I decided to use a die that I hadn't used in a while -- the Spinner Square.  

 I was so happy when I saw that the latest release included these really cool fireworks.  I don't know if you can tell, but I used glitter paper on them -- they really sparkle!

Thanks for stopping by today.

Karen Burniston Designer Challenge - Music, Music, Music

The new release from Karen Burniston has two dies and a stamp set that are music related -- the perfect choice for the August Designer Challenge.  I recently purchased a very pretty, vintage Christmas sheet music paper pack from Amazon that complemented the new stamps and dies.  I made two different cards using the two die sets -- one in red and one in green.

Here is the green one.

And here is the red one.

I'm not really musically inclined, but I've been playing with these dies over the past month and have been having lots of fun.