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.

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 New Release - Day 5

Karen's pup-up balls are so fun, and we've got a new one in the new release -- Animal Add-ons 5 -- which make a bunny and a chick.

For my card today I made a chick, just popped out of her shell -- or, in this case, just popped out of her box!  Last year Karen gave directions for making boxes from which popped the Surprise Cube Pop-Ups.  I thought it might work for pop-up animals as well.

The baby chick so just too cute.

Be sure to check out our Blog Hop on Monday and comment on as many blogs as you can to be eligible for a $25 gift certificate on each blog.

CCEE2232 - Pluto Demoted Day

Frances told the CCEE Stampers that, according to the Days of the Year web site, yesterday (August 24th) was Pluto Demoted Day.  This day marks the occasion in 2006 when Pluto was demoted from being a planet to a dwarf planet.  For our challenge today, we were to create a card that has a space theme.

I pulled out some dies from Karen Burniston to make my pop-up card.  On the front are several dies from the Space Charms set, and the friendly alien on the inside was made with her Mini Ball Pop-Up die.  The sentiment is from Honey Bee Stamps.

 Check out the CCEE Stampers blog for more alien fun.

CCEE2227 - National Tape Measure Day

Here's a holiday I never heard of before -- National Tape Measure Day.  My challenge to the CCEE Stampers this week was to make a card incorporating a tape measure or something else used in sewing our their cards -- either some kind of a sewing-related image or perhaps stitching. 

Did you ever buy a pack of patterned paper for ONE particular design?  This happened to me about six or seven years ago when I saw a card made with tape measures on it.  I had just a few strips left, so I used them on this card.  The "Hi" was made with Karen Burniston's new Mini Alphabet & Letters die set.

On the inside I used the new Karen Burniston Mini Ball Pop-Up, decorated with some cute sewing-related buttons I found at Hobby Lobby.  The other pair of scissors are from KB Office Charms.  I'm hoping sewing charms are on her "wish list."  The stamps are from a very old MFP Stamp Shop set.

Check out the CCEE Stampers blog for some more sewing inspiration.

New Release Blog Hop - Come to the Circus

 Hi Crafty Friends,

Welcome to our Karen Burniston Products - KB Riley LLC May Release Blog Hop. The Design Team members have come together with Karen today for a fun blog hop to celebrate the release of 8 new dies. Sneak peeks of the new release started last week, and the dies are available to order NOW!

This release includes:

• 1 new "Ball" Die Set - Mini Ball Pop-up
• 2 new Add-Ons Die Sets - Mini Ball Add-ons 1 Gnomes; Mini Ball Add-ons 2 - Monkey and Lion
• 1 new Accordion Die Set - Landscape Rectangle Accordion
• 1 new Crosshatch Die Set - Short Rectangles - Crosshatch
• 1 new Charms die Set - Flutter Charms
• 1 new Slimline Sized Die Set - Long Flap and Closure
• 1 new Alphabet Set - Mini Alphabet and Numbers

Dies are available to order now on the website.

When Karen showed the design team members the new dies, she made a sample to demonstrate the difference in size of the new Mini Ball Pop-Up in comparison to the previously released other two ball pop-ups.  That gave me an idea for a fun card, so I ran with it.  This card is the result of that inspiration.  I had gotten this cute circus paper pad as a free gift for purchasing something at a booth at a recent stamp show.  I added a bit more darker green at the bottom (using the KB Nature's Edges die to coordinate with the hills on the paper) so that I could add the sentiment, using the brand new Mini Alphabet and Numbers set for the lettering.  I love that the letters have shadows that you can use (or not!) when creating.

When you open the card, up pops this cute elephant, made with all three ball pop-up sets.  The new Mini Ball Pop-Up made the perfect addition to this cute elephant, the parts of which are from Animal Add-ons 2.

My daughter has already grabbed this card to give to her friend's one-year-old son for his birthday!

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, 23rd May 2022. Lots of chances to win some goodies, so just leave a comment on this post or any other blog hop posts to enter! Don't forget to leave your e-mail address for us to contact you, in case you are a lucky winner!

Karen Burniston

Lois Bak (that's me)

Karen Aiken

Frances Byrne

Kelly Booth

Fran Sabad

Sandy Diller

Day 3 Karen Burniston Sneak Peeks - Mini Ball Pop-Up

Many of us love Karen Burniston's pop-up balls, and I'm thinking the new Mini Ball Pop-Up will be quite popular as well.  My card for today uses this one, which is 20% smaller than the Bitty Ball.  Another new die is the Long Flap Closure, which is perfect for a slimline card -- and has notches for cutting it down to the mini-slimline size.

And here is my first robin of spring!

There are dies in this set to make this cute bird, including (as you can see on the next photo) his wings and tail.

I look forward to using this Mini Ball Pop-Up in conjunction with the other two pop-up ball die sets as well.

Karen Burniston Designer Challenge -- Ball and Small

This month's Karen Burniston Designer Challenge has such a fun theme -- Ball and Small.  We were to create a ball animal and pair it with the same critter from our animal sets.  However, I had a bit of a detour for my card.  The first time I read our list of challenges, I didn't pay close enough attention to the list and made an Easter card with a little Easter scene (Easter bunny with basket) on the front and a pop-up bunny on the inside.  Then I realized this challenge was for May, not April -- much too late for an Easter card.  So then I made second card with a couple of honey bees inside and out.  But Karen Aiken had already made (and showed it to the team) a card with bees.  Not wanting similar cards from two members of the team for this challenge, I made a third one.  Karen Burniston had suggested an astronaut, paired with the Space Charms (even though these are not technically "critters").

So the third time was the charm.  Here is my designer challenge card for Ball and Small.  On the front is that little astronaut from Space Charms and the rocket ship from the Rocket Pop-Up set.

The inside was a bit more challenging.  His head is made with the new Mini Ball Pop-Up and the helmet is made with the Bitty Ball (obviously with no rubber bands).  I used parts of the Character Add-ons 2 (Santa & Mrs. Claus) to decorate him.  The sentiment was created using the new Mini Alphabet and Numbers set.

Here is a close-up of the astronaut so you can see a bit better how it was constructed.

I cut the helmet from white cardstock and cut off three of the panels from each section, leaving just a small strip on each.  Then I cut the panel again from a piece of acetate and separated each panel.  After snipping the connecting sections in half (to make them narrower so as not to get caught up with the head), I connected the white sections of the helmet together.  Then I wrapped the helmet around the head and glued on the bottom panel to the head.  I stacked four adhesive foam squares together, coloring the sides with a dark brown Copic marker, and placed it on the top of his head under the helmet.  This way when the card is opened, the helmet will sit slightly above his head, thereby pulling in the sections a little bit.  There are still gaps in the "viser" section of the helmet, but not as much as would have been there without the elevating foam squares.   I then adhered the acetate sections to the small strips left on the helmet sections and put them together using 1/8" Scor-Tape.   

This was a triple challenge for me, but I think it was eventually worth the trouble.  Thanks for stopping by.