Stage Pop-up with Piano Keys

An idea popped into my head this morning, but I wasn't quite sure how to run with it.  My new favorite Karen Burniston set is the Stage Pop-up, and I was trying to think of another set that might work with it.  I thought maybe the Piano Keys Pop-up might work, so I gave it a try.

I was making this up as I went along, but I'm not totally unhappy with the way it turned out.  Fortunately, I had just purchased some musical patterned paper from Creek Bank Creations, and it worked perfectly with my idea.  I had to cut down the piano keys to fit the size of the Stage.  As I was constructing my card, I forgot that the keys would actually be higher and the stage; but it doesn't look too bad.  The center panel was cut using the Ovals Crosshatch dies.

I used a few dies from the Music Charms on the back of the card.  I had a friend who unfortunately died several years ago, but her favorite color combination was red/black/white.  I have come to like that combination myself.

All in all, I'd say this card didn't disappoint me.  It's always fun to stretch your imagination.

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.

Karen Burniston New Release Blog Hop

 Hi Crafty Friends,

Welcome to our Karen Burniston Products - KB Riley LLC June 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 and 5 new stamp sets. Sneak peeks of the new release started last week, and the dies are available to order NOW!

This release includes:

1 new Pop-up Die Set
1 new Interactive Die Set
1 new Pop-up Add-ons Die Set
2 new Charm Die Sets
4 new Stand Alone Die Sets
5 new Clear Sentiment Stamp Sets

Dies are available to order now on the website.

I chose the Graduation Elements to feature.  They are made to fit the previously released Paper People.  For my first card I combined these two sets with the Label Charm Pop-up.  My high school colors were red and blue -- thus the color scheme on this card.  I also used one of the new stamp sets -- Grad Greetings.

As you can see on the inside, there are two sizes of graduation caps.   The banner mounted across the top includes the word "congrats," but it is sized to fit the Mini Alphabet and Numbers set as well.

I did make a second card for the Hop.  I must give full credit to another design team member, Sandy Diller, for the inspiration for this card.  My 62-year-old son recently received his degree in information technology.  I am very proud of him and made this card to celebrate his achievement.  In addition to the new Graduation Elements, I also used the new Whirly Wheel.

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 June 2025. 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 some way for us to contact you, in case you are a lucky winner!

Karen Burniston

Lois Bak  (that's me)

Sue Small-Kreider

Frances Byrne

Jennifer Webster

Suzanne Smit

Nicky Foden

Sandy Diller

Karen Burniston Designer Challenge - Fluffy

It's time again for the Karen Burniston Designer Challenge.  The theme of this month's challenge is "Make it Fluffy."   As Karen said, "You decide what's fluffy - is it an animal? Clouds? Something in the kitchen? Incorporate something fluffy into your design." I decided on a fluffy angora cat.

My granddaughter's birthday is in April, and she's a big cat lover; so I made this birthday card for her. The front of the card is a relatively simple lead-in to the inside.

When you open the card, there sits the fluffy cat on a fluffy pillow inside a Lorna Label Pop-up which has been cut-out.  What do you know -- another fluffy object!

Needless to say, she loved the card.

Karen Burniston New Release - Day 6

All week I've been showing some sneak peeks at the new Karen Burniston dies.  Today I've got a card made with the Fishing Boat Add-ons to the previously released Boat Pop-up.  My late husband was an avid fisherman, and I'd like to think that he would love this Father's Day card.

The front of the card features the Postage die from the last release with bits and pieces from this release -- the sentiment comes from the new Fishing stamp set, the bucket and fish are part of the Fishing Boat Add-ons, and the fisherman was made with the Paper People set along with the hat from the Fishing Boat Add-ons.  Those waves behind the Postage collage were made with one of the new Ocean Edges dies.

I just love the fishing rod die from the Fishing Boat Add-ons set.  The fishing line is nice and thin.  This set also includes the motor and seat for the boat.  I included another one of the sentiments from the Fishing stamp set as well.

Don't forget about the Blog Hop starting on Monday.  Comment often to give yourself more chances to win a $25 credit in your account on the Karen Burniston website.

Karen Burniston January Release Sneak Peek - Day 4

Another one of Karen Burniston's new dies is an add-on -- this time to the Flower Pot Pop-up. 

This die provides an easier way to attach the Flower Pot Pop-up to the card.  Included in this set is a base piece for the flower pot.  This then gets glued inside the card.  Also included are some more flowers and a small butterfly.  I made a Valentine card with it.  And I must say, it definitely makes adding the flower pot to the card much easier.  

Don't forget about our blog hop next week.   Karen Burniston and each member of the design team are giving away a $25 gift certificate to Karen's website.

Karen Burniston January New Release - Day 3

Today's sneak peek card made with a Karen Burniston new die is made with three new sets: an add-on set to the Boat Pop-up -- the Cruise Ship Add-on, a border set called Ocean Edges, and a cute set called Paper People.

My son and daughter-in-law love to take cruises.  I can see me using this set quite a bit.  The front of my card shows the captain of the cruise ship, made using the Paper People set.  This set contains a die for the "paper person" plus an assortment of clothing and hair styles.  In addition, you could also use any of the dies from the various Tiny Accessories sets.

And inside the card you'll find the cruise ship.  As I said, my son and daughter-in-law are frequent cruisers.  Their cruise line of choice is Royal Caribbean.  I decided to personalize this card; so, if you look closely, you will see the Royal Caribbean logo on the top of my ship.  Also, looking closely, you can see the Ocean Edges waves.  On both the front and inside of this card are sentiments from another of the new sentiment stamp sets.

Although I didn't need it for this card due to the weight of the layers of cardstock, included in this set is a tiny die which cuts two slots along the edge of the card.  You can see them at the top my card in the middle.  I made a little instruction sheet in case you do need to hold the card flat when open.

I'll have another sneak peek for you tomorrow.  I hope you'll come back.  And don't forget about the blog hop next week.  

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.

Karen Burniston - KB Riley LLC October 2024 Release Blog Hop

 Hi Crafty Friends,

Welcome to our Karen Burniston Products - KB Riley LLC October Release Blog Hop. The Design Team members have come together with Karen today for a fun blog hop to celebrate the release of 10 new dies and 5 new stamp sets. Sneak peeks of the new release started last week, and the dies are available to order NOW!

 

This release includes:

2 new Pop-up Die Sets
3 new Pop-up Add-ons Die Sets
2 new Stand Alone Die Sets
1 new Sentiment Die Set
2 new Charm Set Die Set
5 new Clear Sentiment Stamp Sets

Dies are available to order now on the website.

For my card, I chose the new Poinsettia die and the Merry Christmas Lorna Add-ons. 

The Poinsettia set has two sizes of flowers.  I used both on the front of my card, mounting them onto the largest of the Ovals - Crosshatch.  I glued small pearls onto the center circle piece.  I love that the set includes the little pine sprig and the berries.  They add to the texture of the card.

I added another smaller poinsettia on the inside, above the Merry Christmas Lorna Add-ons.  Included in this release are five new coordinating stamp sets.  The "and" and the "HAPPY NEW YEAR" are part of one set, which is called Season of Cheer.

GIVEAWAY:

To celebrate the release Karen Burniston and each of the 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 4, 2024. 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 some way for us to contact you (e-mail address, etc.), in case you are a lucky winner!

Karen Burniston

Lois Bak (that's me)

Sue Small-Kreider (next)

Frances Byrne

Jennifer Webster

Suzanne Smit

Nicky Foden

Sandy Diller

Ken Chien

Karen Burniston Designer Challenge - Music, Music, Music

The new release from Karen Burniston has two dies and a stamp set that are music related -- the perfect choice for the August Designer Challenge.  I recently purchased a very pretty, vintage Christmas sheet music paper pack from Amazon that complemented the new stamps and dies.  I made two different cards using the two die sets -- one in red and one in green.

Here is the green one.

And here is the red one.

I'm not really musically inclined, but I've been playing with these dies over the past month and have been having lots of fun.

Karen Burniston New Release Sneak Peek - Day 7

As promised, my final sneak peek from the new Karen Burniston release is a standard slimline card, using the new Piano Keys Pop-up.  The 4th of July is at the end of the week, so I thought this would be appropriate.  I placed the notes from the Music Charms so that they play the Star-Spangled Banner -- starting on the front and proceeding to the inside of the card.  The two sentiments on the front are stickers.

As you can see, there are two sets of piano keys on the inside of this card.  And you will notice a few half-notes on the musical scale.  This was accomplished by using a white gel pen to transform the quarter-notes into half-notes.

Tomorrow is Release Day and our blog hop.  Each one of the design team members is giving away a $25 gift certificate to the Karen Burniston website.  So the more you coment, the more chances you have to win.  Hope to see you tomorrow.

Buzzing By

I recently watched a video of a card that Karen Burniston made using the Lorna Label, on which she cut a frame into the label.  I thought it was so clever that I wanted to try it.  

My card measures 4 1/4" x 4 1/4".  As there is no word die for the "buzzing by," I used the KB Mini Alphabet & Numbers set for that part of my sentiment.  The bee on the front of the card is from the Flower Pot Pop-Up set.  He is placed at the center of three dies from the Circles - Crosshatch set.

I didn't think the honeycomb would be easily seen if it were placed directly on the floral background, so I cut a white label and placed it behind the frame.

Here is a close-up of the frame.  This bee and the honeycomb are part of the Flutter Charms set.

I'm very happy with the result of my experiment.

Karen Burniston Sneak Peek Week - Day 4

I've got another sneak peek for you today using the Lorna Label Pop-up, only this time it's a Double Lorna Label Pop-up.  The front uses the new Happy Easter w/Shadow and some previously released Easter-related dies.

. . . and the inside has the double Lorna Label and the new Easter Borders.  The double pop-up makes a "floating floor" on which I placed the bunnies from the Easter Borders.

 All of the new dies will be available for purchase on Monday, February 19th -- although they have been shipped to stores already.  

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.