Karen Burniston Designer Challenge -- Bottom Fold

It's time for the Karen Burniston Designer Challenge for August, the theme of which is "bottom fold."  I'm not sure I've ever done a bottom fold card, but I dove right in.  My sister was visiting recently from Illinois, and her birthday was shortly after she got home.  Try as I might, I wasn't going to be able to get her birthday card into the mail in time for it to arrive on or before her birthday.  Fortunately, one of Karen Burniston's stamp sets has a "belated" sentiment in it.  I used it on the inside of her card.

I also used the new Display Helpers die on this card.  They help to hold the card open when you display it.

I wasn't really sure how I was going to handle this challenge and was experimenting with ideas.  This card was actually the second one I made for it.  The first one was a little simpler.  It's called a Matchbook Card, as you can see by the way it opens.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today to look at my two bottom-fold cards.

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.

Final Karen Burniston Sneak Peek

Tomorrow is the day the new Karen Burniston dies are available for purchase.  For my post today I've got two relatively simple cards for you -- no pop-ups -- just two cards made using the new Rectangles and Labels Crosshatch set.   These dies actually make larger cards than the standard A2 size (4 1/4" x 5 1/2").

My first card is a 5 x 7.  I made a layered frame by using the two largest dies in the set, cutting them together.  It is popped up, using foam strips.

Also used on this card are the Santa and Gnomes, Happy Birthday, and Birthday Charms.  The gnomes and gifts are popped up on foam tape.

My second card is a 4 x 6, using the next two layered rectangles, decorated with the flowers and leaves from the Flower Pot Pop-Up set.

In this photo you can see the difference in the sizes.

Tomorrow is the day!  All of the new dies will be available for purchase on the Karen Burniston website then.  Don't forget about our Blog Hop tomorrow.  You will have many chances to win a $25 gift certificate to Karen's website just by commenting on each of the blogs in the hop.

Karen Burniston Designer Challenge - Labels

The theme for this month's Karen Burniston Designer Challenge is "LABELS."  We were to create a card that incorporates a pop-up label.  A relatively new die in Karen's arsenal is the Little Labels Pop-Up, which is a generic die that can be used in both a regular-type card or a slimline card, even a mini slimline.  My choice for this month's challenge was a slimline card.

What I like about this particular die set, is that you have so many options.  There are six different-sized label dies in the set, BUT the Paper Frames Pop-Up has six different dies that are the same shape but different sizes.  Plus the Labels Crosshatch set has several more.  So you have a wide variety of sizes from which to mix and match.

Be sure to check out the cards made by the rest of the DT.  

CCEE2147 - Thankful Leaves

Kelli finishes up her month as hostess for the CCEE Stampers with a great challenge.  She said that, because it's Thanksgiving, we should create a card with a thankful theme -- bonus points for using a leaf/leaves somewhere on our cards.  I guess I get lots of bonus points!!!

I made this birthday card for a dear friend whose birthday was last month.  She loves cards with leaves on them.

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

CCEE2140 - Balloons Around the World Day

Who doesn't love balloons?  Not Frances Byrne, who is this month's hostess for the CCEE Stampers.  For her first challenge this month she asked the team to include a balloon or balloons on our cards to celebrate Balloons Around the World Day, which was October 5th.

I recently purchased a grab bag from Taylored Expressions.  I had no idea what would be contained in the bag and was pleasantly surprised with this cute set, which contained a hot air balloon.   Riding in a hot air balloon was one of the items I have checked off my bucket list.

For the inside I used a couple of new dies from Karen Burniston, the Iron Fence Pop-Up and pieces from the Long Nature's Edges 2 set.  I pulled out a hot air balloon from a design by Karen Burniston when she was designing for Elizabeth Craft Designs and added it to the Katherine Label Pop-Up mechanism.

Check out the CCEE Stampers blog to see how the rest of the team celebrated this fun special day.

Simon Says Stamp and Riley & Co. Collaboration for STAMPtember

 STAMPtember is a fun month of collaborations between Simon Says Stamp and various other stamp companies.  Today that company is Riley & Company, and they produced a cute stamp set called I Like You.

I've made two cards using this fun set.  The first one is a slimline birthday card.  I combined this stamp set with a few Karen Burniston dies -- Long Nature's Edges/Long Nature's Edges 2 and Happy Birthday sentiment die.  That sentiment on the front really speaks to me!

The inside is a simple "Happy Birthday."

My second card uses another one of those humorous sentiments, along with the Karen Burniston House & Fence die set.  The background paper is from Divinity Designs.

I want to thank Simon Says Stamp for giving me the opportunity to play with this cute new set.

Double Gatefold Slimline Card

 I've been seeing some interesting slimline cards on the internet lately, and one really caught my eye -- a double gatefold slimline card.  Several that I've seen also include one of Karen Burniston's Pivot Panel dies.  I decided to try my hand at making one of them.

I used some of "that paper" from Hobby Lobby along with the Gift Pivot Panel dies to make a birthday card.  The card base is the last of my Stampin' Up Not Quite Navy cardstock.  I made a shadow for my birthday sentiment and scattered some sequins around the two front panels.

When you open the card, you get two pivot panels on the inside, which I decorated with some scraps of patterned paper I had in my stash.

Here are a couple of close-ups of the inside.  As you can see, I also added some Border Blends to the tops and bottoms of the panels.

This was a fun project -- and I'm thinking just the first of more.

STAMPtember -- Simon Says Stamp meets Riley & Company

STAMPtember is a fun month of collaborations between Simon Says Stamp and various other stamp companies.  Today that company is Riley & Company, and they produced a cute stamp set called True Friends.

The Karen Burniston (KB Riley, LLC) Design Team got to play with this cute set to show it off.  As I have become addicted to slimline cards, that is what I made -- using the Karen Burniston Katherine Label Pop-Up die and a few dies from a couple other sets.    I created a background with one of my favorite techniques -- Bokeh Background -- using several Ranger Distress inks and some sponge daubers.  I "attached" the little sign with a push pin from the Karen Burniston Office Charms.  Be aware that there is a coordinating die set to go along with the stamp set, but I fussy cut Riley and his friends before popping them up on foam pop dots.

I carried the Bokeh Background to the inside along with the Happy Birthday phrase die and the Katherine Label, one of my go-to Karen Burniston dies.  I added three copper sequins to coordinate with the copper-colored trim cardstock.

That stamp set was such fun I decided to make a second card, this time using the Karen Burniston Frame Pull Pop-Up die set.

When you pull that little arrow/tab, up pops the frame.  Those scissors are from Karen Burniston's Office Charms set.

I want to thank Simon Says Stamp for giving me the opportunity to play with the cute new set.

Scor-Pal "More Than One Score" Challenge - Birthday

It's time again for the Scor-Pal "More Than One Score" challenge, and this month's theme was pretty easy -- Birthday.  I've become enamored with slimline cards lately, and that's what I've done for the challenge.

It's hard to see, but I made diagonal score lines on the background, placing small brads at the intersecting lines.  Then I added the flowers, which have larger brads in the center, and the layered Karen Burniston birthday sentiment.

Stop over at the Scor-Pal blog to see some more creations from our talented team.