C4C559 - Non-orange Pumpkins

Rebecca Ednie finishes up her month as hostess for the Crazy4Challenges blog by telling us that she loves decorating her home in the fall with pumpkins of unusual colors.  Hers are purple, ivory, and gold.  For this week, she asked us to make a card or other project using pumpkins or gourds in any colors EXCEPT yellow or orange.

This was a fun challenge.  My pumpkins or purple, cream, and teal.  The front of the card is heavyweight acetate, allowing the pumpkins take center stage.

I used the Karen Burniston Rockin' Rectangle to make my card.  So, when you open the card, the colorful pumpkins pop out at you.

See what colors the rest of the team chose for their pumpkins by visiting the Crazy4Challenges blog.

CCEE2044 Black Cat Awareness Month

Frances ends October's CCEE Stampers challenges by telling us that October is Black Cat Awareness Month.  I guess with Halloween at the end of the month, it was almost mandatory!  I have a friend who is a lover of cats.  I made this card for her and have already mailed it to her.  

Check out the CCEE Stampers blog for some more cat cards.

Karen Burniston Blog Hop - Winter Release

Welcome to our Karen Burniston Products - KB Riley LLC October 2020 Release Blog Hop. The Design Team have come together with Karen today for a fun blog hop to celebrate the release of 10 new dies. Sneak peeks of the new release started last week, and orders will start shipping the first week in November.

This release includes:

• A new interactive die set - Mini Pops Pop-ups
• Add-on die set for the Surprise Ball Pop-up and Bitty Ball Pop-up die sets - Animal Add-on 3 (creates a Penguin; Deer and Moose)
• 3 Slimline Sized Die Sets - Crosshatch Long Rectangles; Long Nature Edges and Slim Frames
• 2 New Pattern Plate - Snowflakes; Holly
• A new charm sets - Holiday Charms
• New frames to work with Fancy Frames Accordion - Fancy Winter Frames
• Stand Alone Die Set - Holiday House

Pre-orders are available now on the website. Shipping of pre-orders starts the first week of November in the order received.

GIVEAWAY:

To celebrate the release Karen Burniston and each of the Karen Burniston - KB Riley LLC Design Team members will be giving away a $25 Gift Certificate to some lucky person who comments on our blog posts, so make sure you join the hop and comment on everyone's blog post. Winners will be randomly chosen from ALL of the blog hop comments received on our blog posts by Monday, November 2nd 2020. Lots of chances to win some goodies, so just leave a comment on this post or any other blog hop posts to enter!

I actually have two cards for your today.  In case you weren't aware, I am obsessed with Slimline cards.  And I was so happy when I saw that included in this release were several Slimline dies.  I created this Sympathy card using the Crosshatch Long Rectangles, along with a word phrase from an earlier release.

The flowers and leaves are from the Flower Pot Pop-Up and/or the Flowers and Bees set.  It looks like my card has many layers, but in reality there are only two.  I created that inner section by cutting a "frame" by using the second set of slimline layers to cut just the frame and then colored it with a Copic marker to match the color I added to the outside of the card base.

My second card is a fun one!  This release includes another Animal Add-On set -- this one makes a penguin, a reindeer, and a moose.  My favorite moose is Riley, so he's on the front.   Also on the front is the new Pattern Plate - Holly (cut in half and mounted to each side of the gatefold).

And the fun happens when you take off that belly band see what pops up.

The ornaments on the sides of the base and the candy cane he's holding come from the new Holiday Charms, and the "Merry Chrismoose" was created using my label maker.

Remember to comment on each of the stops along our Blog Hop for a chance to win a $25 Gift Certificate.  Here is the list:

Karen Burniston Frances Byrne Lois Bak (that's me) Karen Aicken (next stop) Fran Sabad Sandy Diller Kelly Booth

Karen Burniston Sneak Peek - Day 6

 Today's sneak peek at the Winter Release of Karen Burniston's dies also uses the Pop 'n Swap.  The front of my card has a simple layout using the new Holiday Charms, one of the Border Blends, Word Set 3 - Holiday, and some pretty designer paper.  

 I really liked the hack Karen did to make the Pop 'n Swap into a Pop 'n Pop, which is what I did for the inside of my card.  One of the fun dies included in the Holiday Charms is some coal -- so Naughty or Nice was a no-brainer.  Naughty little children receive coal in their stocking, whereas nice little children get toys and candy.  Using some brick designer paper, I made a "fireplace mantle" on which to hang my stockings.  The words were made with a label maker.

The final die in the Holiday Charms set is a snowflake, which fits nicely inside the Christmas ball.

C4C558 - Copper

Rebecca Ednie, hostess for the October Crazy4Challenges blog, said that one of her favorite colors to use in the fall is copper.  She asked us to create a card using copper accents; maybe some copper embossing, mirror cardstock, metal embellishments like paperclips, brads, sequins, eyelets or gems.

My card includes copper-colored cardstock and sequins.   I have a neighbor who loves cards made with fall leaves.  She will probably wind up being the recipient of this card.

See how the rest of the team handled this challenge by visiting the Crazy4Challenges blog.

Karen Burniston Sneak Peeks - Day 5

 Sneak Peek Week is always fun!  Karen Burniston's dies are so well designed that it's pretty easy to create something.  Today I combined one of her new Winter Release dies (the Long Rectangles - Crosshatch) with an old die (the Christmas Tree Pop Stand.  Also on the front of my card are the Long Nature's Edges and a couple of trees from the Winter Charms.  My sentiment was created with a label maker.

The slimline size allows multiple pop-up trees on the inside.  I added some blue and gold pearls for the decorations on my trees and added a gold star to the top of the center one.  I did have to place it a bit lower than normal because of 4" measurement on the depth of the card.

I placed the Crosshatch Oval in the corner for a signature.

CCEE2043 More Than One Fold

Frances asked the CCEE Stampers to make a card this week with more than one fold.  It could be a Gatefold card, a Z-Fold card, Easel card, etc.

I recently saw a Creek Bank Creations YouTube video in which Julie Creek made a very clever tri-fold slimline card.  This is my version of her card.  The background on the second layer is called Bokeh Background, one of my favorite inking techniques.  And that large Stampin' Up butterfly lends itself very well to a slimline card.

Check out the CCEE Stampers blog for some more cards with more than one fold.

I decided to add another card onto this post.  Karen Burniston is releasing a new batch of winter dies, which are available for pre-order now and will be shipping the first week of November.  I have a sneak peek card using dies from this release which fits in today's "More Than One Fold" challenge.  It's a fun pop-up, enclosed in a gate-fold card.

Inside the gate-fold card is this cute penguin floating along on an iceberg.  He is made with the Karen Burniston Surprise Ball Pop-Up, the Bitty Ball Pop-Up, and the new Animal Add-Ons 3 set.

I hope you like my "bonus" card.

Karen Burniston New Release - Day 3

 It's Day 3 of the sneak peeks of the new Karen Burniston dies, which are available right now for pre-order on her website.  Shipping will begin the first week of November.

The card I have to show you today uses the new Holiday House -- as a gingerbread house.  Using several different shades of brown, I constructed my house.  After adding the snow roofline, I added the multi-colored Christmas lights.  

The gingerbread "people" are from Winter Charms, and the sentiment "Greetings" is from Word Set 3 - Holiday.  The snowdrifts and trees are from another new set -- Long Nature's Edges.  I can see lots of use of these new dies for Christmas cards this year!

Karen Burniston Sneak Peek - Day 2

In this new Karen Burniston release are two more cover plates -- one with Holly and the other with Snowflakes.  Today I'm using the Holly one for a relatively simple card.

I liked the white border around the sample card on the packaging, so I emulated it with a 5" x 6 1/2" card.  I also used one of the smaller Long Rectangles - Crosshatch dies for the sentiment panel.

As you can see, there is a separate die for the red holly berries.  The sentiment is from Word Set 3- Holiday, and the little bows are from the Easter Charms.

Don't forget, this new release is available for pre-order now on the Karen Burniston website and will be shipping the first week of November.

Karen Burniston Sneak Peek - Day 1

 It's always fun to be able to share new things with you.  Karen Burniston has a new release of dies, which are available for pre-order right now and will begin shipping the first week of November.  One of the new die sets is a slimline die (Long Rectangles - Crosshatch).

I used this die on the first card I have to show you this week.  In addition to the new slimline die, I also used dies from Autumn Elements.  To create the orange-blend color in the center of the panel I taped off the edges with some Purple Tape and brushed on the three shades of orange.  This gave some dimension to the card without adding an additional layer.   I then "built" the little cluster of elements in the corner.

One of the dies in this set is the long banner on which I stamped the Lawn Fawn Scripty sentiment.  Then I added the little crystal owl.

I hope you like my first sneak peek.  Be sure to come back tomorrow for another one.

C4C557 Sketch Challenge - Circle Card

This week's Crazy4Challenges challenge is a sketch challenge/a circle card.

A good technique for this sketch is a Circle Easel Card.  My card was made using several Karen Burniston dies (Crosshatch Circles and Triple Flip).

Check out the Crazy4Challenges blog to see how the rest of the team handled this sketch.

CCEE2042 Dictionary Day

For our CCEE Stampers challenge this week, Frances asked us to create a card that includes words  -- maybe a scripty word background either stamped or using patterned papers, large focal sentiment, speech bubbles with words inside, etc.

I created my background using Word and repeating the sentiment to cover the entire card.  I then added a large word die-cut and cupcake from Karen Burniston to complete it.

Check out the CCEE Stampers blog to see how the rest of the team handled this interesting challenge.

C4C556 - Bridge Cards

This week the Crazy4Challenges team members are crating bridge cards.  There are several tutorials on-line for creating this type of card.  Bridge Cards and More Bridge Cards.

After watching Jennifer McGuire's latest tutorial, I made my first slimline bridge card and loved it.  So I made another slimline version of the bridge card today, using some Mama Elephant stamps and dies.  A little hint -- heavy-weight acetate works better than medium-weight acetate for this long card.  (I learned that from experience!)

Check out the Crazy4Challenges blog for some more examples of this fun technique.

CCEE2041 World Octopus Day

Frances continues as hostess for the CCEE Stampers and tells us that today is World Octopus Day, asking that we include an octopus or other sea animal on your cards.

I made a slimline card using one of the Hello Bluebird dies I recently bought along with images from the very first Stampin' Up set I bought many years ago -- Fishy Friends.

Check out the CCEE Stampers Blog to see some more cards with some sea creatures, octopus or otherwise.

Karen Burniston Designer Challenge - "Inspired by . . . "

It's time again for the Karen Burniston Designer Challenge.  This month's theme is a very cool one -- "Inspired by . . . . "  Karen put our names in a hat and drew them out in random order to determine who is each person's muse. We were to choose any project, color combo, technique, etc. by our muse as inspiration and then link to that person's project in your blog post with our inspired creation. The person chosen as my muse is Sandy Diller. I was a bit intimidated when I found that out because Sandy is so very creative, but I dove right in. As I was checking out all of Sandy's projects on her blog, I found a cute Halloween project that I liked. If you click on the picture of her card, it will take you to her blog post.

The Woven Basket is one of my favorites, but I love making it into a double-wide basket. Karen Burniston made a video explaining how to do that. You can find that video here. In addition to the Woven Basket die, I used both Halloween-related die sets -- Halloween Elements and Halloween Charms for my little graveyard.

In the very back is the graveyard scene from Halloween Elements. As Sandy did, I attached that little spider to the tree, which is a separate die. I used both ghosts, one from the Elements set and two from the Charms set. There's a raven sitting on one of the gravestones -- and lots and lots of jack-o-lanterns.

The two gray bats are mounted on a piece of acetate so they appear to be flying overhead.

I hope Sandy likes my attempt to channel her creativity.

C4C555 - Baby Cards

Rebecca Ednie is the hostess for the Crazy4Challenges blog in October.  Her first theme of the month is to make a baby card.  She said, "Apparently we are expecting a baby explosion after the quarantine months, so we are likely to need them!  As a fall bonus, use fall colors or woodland creatures on your card."  No bonus for me -- I used traditional BLUE for my baby boy card.  I added a couple of embellishments from a little set of stickers.

Check out the Crazy4Challenges blog for more baby cuteness.

CCEE2040 Mad Hatter Day

Frances starts off the month of October by telling the CCEE Stampers that October 6th is Mad Hatter Day.  She asked us to create cards inspired by the theme -- Hats, Alice in Wonderland, Mad Hatter, etc.

Before we get onto this week's challenges we would like to introduce you to our two new Design Team members who are joining our team this week. Please make welcome Hazel Estibeiro, her blog is Handcrafted Expressions and Manal Habib, her blog is Miniscraft. 

I had fun with this challenge, making a waterfall card using the Karen Burniston Frame Pull Pop-Up die and some fun stamps from Kindred Stamps.

We have Alice . . .

and the Mad Hatter . . .

and the Cheshire Cat . . . 

and finally the White Rabbit.

Such a fun challenge.  Check out the CCEE Stampers blog to see how the rest of the team handled it.

Scor-Pal "More Than One Score"

This month's Scor-Pal "More Than One Score" challenge is Halloween/Harvest.  Like lots of other card makers, I've become obsessed with slimline cards.  I was curious as to how a slimline easel card would look and thought I would give it a try for the challenge, as there are two scores required.  I recently purchased some slimline stencils from STAMPlorations -- one of which would lend itself to a Halloween card.

The card closed is 4" x 9". I cut two panels -- one is 4" x 9" (scored at 4 1/2") and the other is 4" x 9 1/4", scored at 9" and gluing them together (overlapping the 1/4") making a panel 4" x 18". This makes the easel part. Then I glued another 4" x 9" panel to the "front" of the easel.

Before sponging on the inks, I punched a circle into a piece of scrap paper and placed it on my gray cardstock.  Then I laid the stencil over the cardstock and inked up the circle area with Versamark.  After removing the stencil and scrap paper, I sprinkled on some detail white embossing powder and embossed the "moon."  Then I laid the stencil back onto the cardstock and sponged on Ranger Distress Wilted Violet ink, applying Black Soot over it to tone down the purple color.  I then added the ghosts (trimming them to make it appear that they are coming out from behind the trees) and the bats.  The witch silhouette and sentiment on the bottom panel come from an old Inkadinkadoo Halloween set.  I applied the bottom panel to the card with foam tape, so that the upper panel would rest against it and stand up.

I was very happy with my end result.