Karen Burniston Designer Challenge -- Naughty or Nice

This month's Karen Burniston Designer Challenge is titled "Naughty or Nice?"  We were to make a Christmas card incorporating a stocking.  I decided to use the Fireplace Pop-Up and Fireplace Extras 1, which includes stockings.

About 10 years ago I saw a card by Grace Nywening which she called a Center Easel Card.  I thought it was such a clever take on the easel card that I printed out her blog post so I would have the instructions.  This month's challenge was perfect for this type of card.  The Fireplace Pop-Up fit perfectly in the easel section . . .

. . . and the "Merry Christmas" was the perfect "bumper" to hold the card open.

I'm so glad I hung onto those instructions.

I have a bonus Designer Challenge card for you, one which uses one of the new dies -- the Raising Platform Pop-Up.  The stocking part of the challenge is on the front of the card -- along with various other Karen Burniston dies.  By the way, do you see that embossing on the front?  That was made with the Pattern Plate - Holly die, run through my Cuttlebug with the rubber embossing mat.  (Yes, I still use my Cuttlebug for embossing.)

The sneak peek part of this card is on the inside.  The Raising Platform pops up to wish you a Merry Christmas.

As I already had the Pattern Plate - Holly die out on my table, I decided to cut some greenery to decorate the inside.  I used one of the Christmas Borders for some more stockings.

I hope you like my cards.

Gingerbread Men in the Kitchen

The theme for this month's Karen Burniston Designer Challenge is "What's Cooking?"  During the next two months a lot of what's cooking will be Christmas cookies.  So I took that opportunity to feature the new Oven Pop-Up set to make my card.

The front of the card is relatively simple -- just a wreath and some gingerbread men.  I cut a dark green circle using a couple of the Circle Crosshatch dies.  I then cut out the Pattern Plate - Holly and snipped it into many pieces, placing them around the circle to create my wreath.  After cutting out a strip of gingerbread men from the Christmas Border set, I placed them around the wreath and attached a bow.

 The inside of my card is where the "cooking" action takes place.

I fell in love with that Oven Pop-Up when I first saw it.  And there is a set of extras so you can go all out!  My card is 6" x 7", so I was able to add a couple extra cabinets by extending the base under the oven and cabinets.  Karen Burniston has a great video describing how to construct the Oven Pop-up - (7) Karen Burniston Dies 1250 Oven Pop-up and 1251 Oven Extras Assembly - YouTube.  On the countertop you can see the mixer and a tray of gingerbread cookies.  

Do you see that little semi-circle and message at the bottom right-hand side of the card?  If you follow the directions to "pull out," you find a surprise.

I included a recipe card with directions for baking some gingerbread cookies.  And when you open the oven door, you can see some more cookies baking.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today.  If you have this die, I hope I've given you some inspiration to use it.

Karen Burniston New Release Sneak Peek - Day 2

Yesterday I used the new Stocking Pop-up for a Halloween card.  Today I'll use it for a Christmas card.  The front of the card uses one of the new Christmas Borders dies -- the candy canes.  The two small gingerbread men are from the Winter Charms set.

There is another of the Christmas borders on the inside of the card as well -- the cute little gingerbread men.  I decided to continue the border on all four sides of the inside by cutting apart the gingerbread men for the up-and-down borders.  The Stocking Pop-Up set includes dies for the packages, bows, and holly.

And, as you can see, there is another new die set on there -- the Small Sentiments Christmas.

I hope you'll stop by tomorrow when I use a completely different new set.