Saturday, November 22, 2025

Karen Burniston New Release -- Day 4 Sneak Peek

Much of this new release focuses on the various pop-up balls, with both Add-ons and utilitarian Ball Access Tabs.  My card today is made with Bitty Ball Pop-up and the Mini Ball Pop-up, along with the new Animal Add-ons 6, to create this cute grasshopper card.

The front of the card is relatively plain, with just a parade of grasshoppers from the new Bug Borders set and a sentiment.


Also included in this release are 5 coordinating stamp sets and a set of dies (Greeting Labels), which are actually additional sizes of label dies in several different previous sets.  The ones I used on this card are the same shape as the Katherine Label.


Also used on this cute grasshopper were the Access Tabs for both the Bitty Ball Pop-up and the Mini Ball Pop-up.  These make it so easy to get access to the inside of the ball for possible repairs.

Friday, November 21, 2025

Karen Burniston New Release Sneak Peeks -- Day 3

When I saw the new dies in the new Karen Burniston release, I fell in love with the Pine Cone set. 


I realize it's not a pop-up, which is Karen's forte; but I think it's my favorite from this release.  I recently was introduced to a new-to-me fun fold card called a Split Easel Card.  I've become obsessed with it and have made many cards using this technique.  I thought it lent itself very well to the Pine Cone set.  The ones I have seen have all been A2-sized cards (4 1/4" x 5 1/2").  This one, however, is a 5" x 7" card.  I also used one of the new stamps from the new Quiet Forest stamp set on the base.


You can see the "easel" in the photo below -- and it folds flat for mailing.

As I said before, I just love this set; so much so that I have made quite a few cards with it.  Here's another one -- this time using the Arch Pop-up.




Be sure to check out the Blog Hop next Monday.  You could win one of many $25 gift certificates to the Karen Burniston website merely by commenting on one or more of the design team members' blogs.

Thursday, November 20, 2025

Karen Burniston New Release Sneak Peeks - Day 2

 Again I'm using several dies from the new Karen Burniston release -- Playful Pop-up and Dog & Cat Playful Add-ons.


I have a friend who is not quite a "crazy cat lady," but she's bordering it.  I used today's dies on this card for her.  


The front of the card is relatively simple using Word Set 4 and the cat from Cat and Dog . . .


. . . but the inside is where the action happens.  As you could see from the video above, his paws, ear, and tongue move when you open and close the card.  My friend's cat is a tri-color, so I tried to blend the black and brown to match her cat.

That big MEOW is also a new die as are the small mouse border and the greeting label.  The label set contains additional sizes of many of the labels in various Karen Burniston die sets. The sentiment is part of one of the new stamp sets.


I hope my friend likes her card.

Be sure to check out the Karen Burniston Blog Hop starting Monday, November 24th.  Comment on any or all of the blogs, and you could win a $25 gift card to the Karen Burniston website.

Wednesday, November 19, 2025

Karen Burniston New Release - Day 1 Sneak Peek

It's finally time for the sneak peeks to begin, and Karen Burniston outdid herself this time.  15 new dies and 5 new stamp sets!  There are three Add-ons for the pop-up balls.  They can all be pre-ordered on the 24th.


One of the new dies makes three cute bugs -- a ladybug, a bee, and a grasshopper.  There is also a border set that coordinates with it.


My card today features the ladybug along with the Bitty Ball.  The front of the card has the border along with a sentiment from one of the new stamp sets.



When you open the card, up pops the cute ladybug.  I held the card closed using the Flap and Closure set with a small magnet on the back.


As shown in this photo, I had mounted the ladybug on a circle so that it can be removed from the card.


One nice thing about this Add-on set is that everything you need (except the ball) is included  -- things like the eyes and the mouth.

Included in this release are three utilitarian die sets which allow you to open the pop-up balls (one set for each ball size) to get to the rubber bands.  I, of course, used the one for the Bitty Ball.  It cuts out two sets of access tabs that you would use to replace the smaller tabs on the ball die cuts.


I'm glad you stopped by today to see my card.  I'll have more sneak peeks as the week progresses.  I hope you stop back.

Tuesday, November 4, 2025

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.

Tuesday, October 21, 2025

Happy Thanksgiving

I recently followed along with Karen Burniston for her October Virtual Class.  We made two Halloween cards using the Charm Accordion die and some really cool Halloween paper from Graphic 45.  This is one of the cards we made.


 

It was such a fun class that I decided to make a second card using the instructions -- only this time I made a Thanksgiving card.   It gave me the opportunity to use some of the fall papers that have been in my stash forever.  On the last page is the cute turkey from the Feathered Animals set.   The acorn in the charm frame is from Autumn Elements.

The back of the card is just as colorful.


There is also a charm on this side which was made with parts from the Baking Borders.   It was easy to make charms out of "non-charm" pieces by using the  dies in the Charm Rings set.  I used the smallest rings.

If you haven't followed along with Karen in one of her on-line classes, you should give it a try sometime.

Tuesday, October 7, 2025

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!