Karen Burniston New Release Sneak Peek - Day 2

Yesterday I used the new Stocking Pop-up for a Halloween card.  Today I'll use it for a Christmas card.  The front of the card uses one of the new Christmas Borders dies -- the candy canes.  The two small gingerbread men are from the Winter Charms set.

There is another of the Christmas borders on the inside of the card as well -- the cute little gingerbread men.  I decided to continue the border on all four sides of the inside by cutting apart the gingerbread men for the up-and-down borders.  The Stocking Pop-Up set includes dies for the packages, bows, and holly.

And, as you can see, there is another new die set on there -- the Small Sentiments Christmas.

I hope you'll stop by tomorrow when I use a completely different new set.

Karen Burniston Sneak Peeks -- Day 1

It's time to get the excitement going -- new release time from Karen Burniston.  My first sneak peek uses a Christmas die set -- Stocking Pop-up -- but for Halloween.  It just shows that Karen's dies are very versatile.

Actually, this card was made with several new dies besides the Stocking Pop-Up.  The sentiment on the front is from a new set called Small Sentiments - Halloween.

On the inside are a couple of new sets -- Halloween Borders (those spiders across the top and bottom) and Witch and Cauldron.

This short video shows how the mechanism for the Stocking Pop-Up works.  As you open the card, the contents of the cauldron pop up.

I appreciate your stopping by my blog today.  Be sure to come back tomorrow for another sneak peek.

Karen Burniston Designer Challenge -- Holiday House

For this month's Designer Challenge, Karen asked each of us to use the Holiday House set.  As Halloween is right around the corner, I chose to make a Halloween slimline card using this die.  Karen has several Halloween-themed dies, so I had a lot of dies from which to choose to make my spooky scene.

For my scene, I started with gray cardstock and sponged some Hickory Smoke ink around the sides and top to give the sky a bit of depth.

Inside the card I decorated the Little Twist Panel twice with some spooky images from the various Halloween sets.

I know the rest of the team has some great Holiday House cards as well.  Be sure to check them out.

Butterfly Landscape Accordion

I was looking through some scraps and found three already cut-out Landscape Accordion panels.  The colors, yellow and black, immediately brought to mind a bee card.  This is the result.

The bee charm in the Flutter Charms was just a little bit big for the cut-out circle in the center panel, so I improvised a little bit.  I cut two of the butterflies included in the Flower Pot Pop-up and a charm holder from one of the charm dies to make my "right-size" butterfly charm.  I was going to have to glue two butterflies together anyway so that it could be seen from either side, so I just slipped that little "charm hole" between the two.

Here are some close-ups of the individual panels.

Those cute little bees on the final panel are from a stamp/die set from Honey Bee Stamps called Busy Bees.  The honey pot is a rather old Stampin' Up image.

This card just proves that you should never throw away usable scraps.  All the stamped and/or die-cut parts of this card came from my scrap folders.

Christmas Train

Earlier this week as part of the Karen Burniston Designer Challenge, one of the other designers Sue Small-Kreider made an accordion card which I just loved.  She took the Fancy Label Accordion and cut it in a similar manner as what you do to the Landscape Rectangle Accordion when you use one of the new Add-on dies (Fence and/or Cupcake Add-ons).  Her card had Santa's Sleigh and Reindeer going through the accordion.  See her card here.

I thought that was such a cool idea that I decided to try a similar technique, using the Landscape Rectangle Accordion and the Train Pivot Panels.

When you alter the panels to accommodate the Add-ons, you normally leave just a "post" down the center, as seen in this photo.

But, as you can see in the photo below, I left part of the panel to support the train tracks.

I want to congratulate Sue for her creativity and thank her for the wonderful idea.

Karen Burniston Designer Challenge -- Accordions

I had a hard time choosing which accordion die to use for the August Designer Challenge, finally deciding on the Landscape Accordion.  After making about three other cards (using various accordion dies), this was my final choice.

The new Fence Add-on gives a whole new look to this fun accordion die.  I pulled out the Backyard Charms and cut four of the fairies from glitter paper and found a sentiment in an old stamp set to tie the entire project together.  This just proves that you should NEVER get rid of an old stamp set just because you haven't used it in a while.

The flowers in my little fairy garden are part of the Fence Add-on set. This was a fun challenge.

Christmas Accordion

I think one of the first Karen Burniston dies I ever bought was the Fancy Label Accordion, and it has remained one of my favorites.  It has been so hot this summer that I thought a nice chilly Christmas card would be a change of pace.  Of course, I make Christmas cards all year round.

I added the snowflakes frame from the Fancy Winter Frames and used the individual houses from the House Pivot Panel to create my little winter village, adding the Merry Christmas sentiment to the second and third panels.  What I like about the Fancy Label Accordion (in fact, ALL of Karen's accordion sets) is that you can make your card as long as you want.

Thanks for stopping by today, and I hope you'll come back again.