Christmas in July

Who doesn't like Christmas in July?  And for that reason, I have a Christmas card made with the new Karen Burniston Arch Pop-up die along with several others.

The front of my 5" x 7" card features the Postage Pop-up, released earlier in the year, along with the Poinsettia die.  I thought the Echo Park I Love Christmas patterned paper was the perfect background.

When you open the card, the new Arch Pop-up takes center stage.

Decorating the arch is the smaller poinsettia, along with holly leaves from the Pattern Plate - Holly and pine sprigs from the Poinsettia set.  At each end of the arch is a Christmas tree made with the Christmas Tree Pop Stand set from a few years ago.  To make the tree skirts, I cut out circles from the Circles - Crosshatch set, cut them in half and notched out just a little bit at the center.  I then glued them back in place at the front and back of the upright pieces which hold the trees.  The garlands across the top of the Echo Park paper at the bottom are from Fireplace Extras 1.  The sentiments on the front and inside are from Karen's Season of Cheer clear stamp set, cut out with two different dies from Rectangles and Labels - Crosshatch set.

I had originally cut the arch from white cardstock but decided that some green behind all the foliage would look better, so I cut pieces from some patterned paper and glued it over the white arch.  I didn't realize until I was finished that a little strip of white is showing beneath the green.  I was going to try to trim it off but decided against it.  Here is a close-up of the arch.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today.  

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

This month's challenge to the Karen Burniston Design Team was a little different.  Karen generously provided each team member with two 12 x 12 pads of patterned paper at the same time that the newly released dies were sent to us.  Our challenge for July was to use paper from one of the pads along with one of the new dies to create a card.

One of the pads I received was this Echo Park summer-themed paper, which contains 12 double-sided sheets of colorful summer designs and a sheet of coordinating stickers.

I used several pieces of the paper as well as some of the stickers along with my favorite die set from June's release -- the House of Cards -- to create my card.

For the front of my card, I used the Rectangles and Labels Crosshatch to create my frame for the sentiment, which was created using several different Word Sets and a sticker from the paper pad.  The sun at the bottom is actually one of the dies from the new Small Scenes Bam Box.  The background paper is one of the bold papers from the paper pad.

On the inside is that cool house of cards.  I used 110# cardstock to create the solid-color cards and back-to-back patterned paper for the other ones.  I placed stickers from the paper pad on the solid-color cards and on the card base itself.

I think my daughter will claim this card.  She grabs up almost every beach-related card I create!

Karen Burniston New Release Day 4 - House of Cards

I've got another House of Cards creation for you today, but this time I used something other than playing cards.  A few weeks ago, USA Network had a Wizarding World Weekend; and, as an avid Harry Potter fan, I used the opportunity to watch the movies again.  I also decided that a Harry Potter House of Cards would be fun to create.  I had to do a bit of "word surgery" on this in order to get the correct sentiment.  FYI - the "wishing" was made by adding the "ing" from Thanksgiving" (Word Set 7 - Autumn) to the word "wish" from Word Set 2 - Birthday.  "You" and "a" are also from Word Set 2.  "Magical" is a stamp from one of the Kindred Stamps Hogwarts-related stamp sets.

Some time ago I purchased some digital patterned paper from Etsy.  I used that paper as the backs of my cards.  Kindred Stamps has several Hogwarts-related stamp sets that I used for the faces of the cards.  

I must say that this card is one of the most fun cards I've ever made.

The new release blog hop is a bit different from previous hops.  It will be tomorrow, rather than on a Monday.  Be sure to hop along with the Design Team for a chance to win a $25 gift certificate to the Karen Burniston store.

Karen Burniston New Release Day 1 - House of Cards

I am so excited about this new release from Karen Burniston.  There are 9 new dies in this release, and they are all spectacular.  

It was a little hard to pick which new die to show you first, so I decided to start with my favorite -- the House of Cards -- and a card I made for my grandson Robby's birthday.

The card game our family plays 90% of the time is a fun, sort-of progressive rummy game called Garbage. When I first envisioned this card, I had planned to use cards from the new Game Charms (which I'll show on another card) on the front. However, as I thought it through and decided to personalize it a bit for my grandson by including a score sheet with his name on it, I decided to use a set of cards I purchased from Amazon, which are actual cards -- but much smaller. The score sheet is inside in the upper left-hand corner, with Robby's name on it and the first hand (two sets of three) checked off. Also on the inside is a sentiment created from the new Word Set 17 - Congratulations.

I just love this set and have already made four cards with it. I'll have another one later this week to show you.

I hope you come back again this week because I've got a new sneak peek every day, and we wind up the week with our new-release Blog Hop on Friday -- with many chances for you to win a $25 gift certificate to Karen Burniston's website.

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 New Release Sneak Peek Day 1

Karen Burniston has a small release of six new dies, and I will be showing some sneak peeks of cards made using them all this week.

As tomorrow is Valentine's Day, I've got a Valentine card for you today, one you could give to your best friend.  One of the new die sets is called Rectangle and Labels Crosshatch.  It has a variety of frames you can use with various other sets.  One of them frames the Label Charm Pop-Up on the front.  It gives a finished look to the cut-out.

There is also a frame for the third panel in the accordion.  There are actually four dies you can use with the Label Charm Pop-Up.

 In addition to Label Charm frames, there are six rectangular frames in the set -- from a 5" x 7" down to a 3/4' x 2 1/4".

I'll have another Valentine card for you tomorrow using a different new die set.