Karen Burniston Designer Challenge -- Caffeinate

It's time again for the Karen Burniston Designer Challenge.  This month's theme is "Caffeinate," using something to get you going -- chocolate, coffee, tea, soda.  Even though it's May and quite warm here in Florida, I chose hot chocolate for my card.

Shortly after the Rockin' Rectangle was released, Karen Burniston made a card using that die with a clear acetate front.  I loved the way it looked and have made several cards using that technique.  My card today also uses it.

 

In addition to the Rockin' Rectangle, I also used the mug from the Tea and Coffee Pop-up, the Tea and Coffee Borders, the Coffee Charms, and the icing from the Cupcake Pop-up.  And, now that Karen has released clear stamps, I was able to find appropriate sentiments from both the Quiet Forest Sayings and the Coffee Chat sets.

By the way, if you'd like to try this clear acetate card, here's a link to Karen's tutorial:  Acetate Front Card.  

Hug in a Mug

It's been a while since I've made a clear-front card using the Karen Burniston Rockin' Rectangle die, so I thought I would give it a go.  Have you seen Karen's new sentiment stamps?  One of them is devoted to coffee drinkers.  I'm not a coffee drinker, but lots of people I know couldn't function without that first cup or two in the morning,  The Tea & Coffee Pop-up mug was mounted onto the Rockin' Rectangle, so that it pops out of the card when you open it.

I added the Tea & Coffee Borders on the inside to frame the coffee cup.  And I just love that brown and red plaid paper from Creek Bank Creations.

I've been having lots of fun with the new sentiment stamps.  There are five sets in this new release.

Karen Burniston Designer Challenge -- "Thirst Quencher"

The theme of this month's Karen Burniston Designer Challenge is "Thirst Quencher."  The new Tea & Coffee Pop-Up was the perfect choice.  I was really happy when I saw a tea cup in the new release.  It seems that the world drinks coffee, but I'm a tea drinker.

I made a birthday card for my challenge card.  The front is pretty straight-forward with a congratulations wish for the recipient.  I did add a small teacup up in the corner from the Tea & Coffee Borders set.  The mat layers are shiny gold.  The "IT'S YOUR BIRTHDAY" sentiment was computer-generated.

But the inside has a little play-on-words for the sentiment, using the Mini Alphabet set.  I decided to "fancy-up" the teacup with some gilding.  I sponged on some gold ink for the design and drew in the gold lines with a pen.  The cup handle and the spoon are gold cardstock.  

I had tried to use vellum for the steam behind the cup, but it didn't show up well, so I used a white cardstock of a different shade than the cup for some contrast.

A Very Merry Un-Birthday

Did I say that I love the new Karen Burniston Tea & Coffee Pop-Up?  Well, I do.  And after seeing fellow DT member Jennifer Webster's Mad Tea Party card, I was inspired to make one of my own.  I've had a set of Alice in Wonderland-inspired stamps from Kindred Stamps, and it was perfect for my card.  I stacked three of the teacups from the Tea & Coffee Borders set on the table.

I used the same gingham patterned paper from the table on the front for the inside, adding my teacup and two panels from the Fancy Label Accordion for my sentiment.  

I loved reading Alice in Wonderland as a kid.  There's also a second book by Lewis Carroll -- Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There.  I have a very old copy of this book, which was my mother's when she was a child.  The cover page is missing, so I have no idea how old it is -- but she was born in 1919 and the pages are quite brown around the edges.

Karen Burniston New Release Sneak Peek - Day 2

One of the new pop-up dies from Karen Burniston this month is the Tea and Coffee Pop-Up.  As a tea drinker, I was so happy to see this one.   I remember as a kid if I was not feeling well, my mom would give me a cup of hot tea and a couple of pieces of toast to settle my stomach.  So I thought a get-well card would be appropriate use of this die.

As you open up the card, there is a mechanism that moves the tea bag.  And take notice of the border across the top of the inside of the card.  That's from the new Tea & Coffee Borders set.

As you can see, there's even a die for some steam coming off the top of that hot tea!

Thanks for visiting my blog during this sneak peek week.  I hope you'll come back tomorrow.