Karen Burniston's November All-White Challange Pop It Ups Christmas Card

 Today I have another card for Karen Burniston's November Designer Challenge - to use only one colour on a card (either red, blue or white). She has so many beautiful dies which can be used for Christmas themed cards, I had to have a go at doing an all-white snow scene Christmas card.

I used the Evergreen Pivot Card die to create the central pop out part of the card, and all of the tree layers. After die cutting the pivot, I ran the card three times through my Big Shot in Karen's new Clouds embossing folder ( - this is a gorgeous new embossing folder, if you haven't seen it yet!)

I then used the pivot die again on some separate card, and snipped out just the central tree part, and stuck it over the embossed trees on my card, because I wanted them flat.

Next I added some layers to the card using the little trees die and wavy die from the Outdoor Edges die set. The lower layers I stuck on with foam pads.

I then stuck on various trees, some of which I embossed with the patterns in the actual tree die cutters, and some with the Lots of Dots embossing folder from Elizabeth Craft Designs.

I made one of the trees into a Christmas tree, with the ornaments die from the Evergreen Pivot Card set, and the string of lights from the Holiday House set.

The little wooden sign I cut out by hand, and wrote the sentiment on.

On the other side of the card I added the Holiday House, along with a hand cut path, and glued on some oval gems to each light. Then I stuck on some layered snowflakes with foam pads, adding adhesive gems. For the tiny sections of the card which I stuck on with foam pads, I just cut the little square foam pads in half.

The clouds embossing folder also worked fine on the card front, so I just added a few snowflakes and some trim. The pearls and diamonds are on a natural coloured fabric, so I covered that with embossed card stock.

Donna Wright (who is also on Karen's Designer Challenge Team) and I were out shopping a couple of weeks ago in a haberdashery department, and we saw this trim. She wasn't very keen on it, but I was determined to use it on a snowy card like this one... it should make Donna laugh to see it!

Some of the products used:


   

Blue Butterfly Pivot Card for Karen Burniston's November Designer Challenge

Our Designer Challenge from Karen Burniston this month is to make cards which only use ONE colour - either Blue, White or Red (plus a little bit of accent if needed.)

I opted for blue, and made this card with the Butterfly Pivot Card die set, and the Butterfly Accessory Dies set, from Elizabeth Craft Designs.

I took some blank card stock, rounded the corners, and stamped it with Versamark ink, and a Damask background stamp from Purple Onion Designs.

I then used the Butterfly Pivot die, filled in the spaces in the middle of the card left by the die cut, then cut out loads of butterflies from blue vellum, glitter card and papers from Graphic 45's Botanical Tea Collections 6x6 and 8x8 pads.

I layered up the butterflies, and stuck most of them on with adhesive foam pads.

I used another Purple Onion Designs stamp for the birthday sentiment, and used Versamark ink again, with silver embossing powder and a heat tool. 

(I tend to do my heat embossing on separate pieces of card stock, because it always seems to warp the card a bit - then I can attach it and get it pulled straight again. If anyone has any tips for not warping card stock when heat embossing, I'd love to hear them!)

You can kind of see here, how I attached extra butterflies to the two big pivoting butterflies, to try and get more of a 3-D drift of butterflies effect.

I then added a few adhesive gems.

The card front. I stuck a butterfly in the top right-hand corner, to cover the back of a butterfly on the inside.

I glued on a metal charm to a ribbon border, with Beacon's 3-in-1 glue.

Some of the products used:


   

Sizzix Happy Birthday Owl Card & Action Wobble Spring Tutorial

 I absolutely loved this Sizzix Thinlits Owl die set when I first saw it, and it sat on my secret Pinterest Wish List for a couple of weeks before I succumbed! I also loved the Little B 'Block Out' die set, which I used for the 'Happy Birthday' on this card. I'd never heard of the Little B company before, but the storage and dies are both great! This set comes with 18 different word dies, which you can position anywhere!

I made this simple card, with papers from We R Memory Keepers Chalkboard 6x6 pad, and the owl is attached with a homemade Action Wobble Spring.

I made some of the owl elements stick out even more with adhesive foam pads.

I've seen on a few cards now, a way of attaching bigger embellishments, or card centre pieces with something called an Action Wobble Spring. It's pretty self explanatory - the whole part attached with one of these bobs around a bit, and looks cute! I had a look on the internet for some, and they are quite pricey (here in the UK at least), so I tried making my own.

Here's the stuff I used...

I used 26 gauge wire (because that's just what I happened to have), and I wrapped it round a Sharpie pen about 3 times, and cut it off with scissors.

 

 I used a circle punch to cut out two quite stiff card stock circles, and sellotaped the bottom half a curl of wire onto one of them.

Then I put the other circle on top of the wire, and put another bit of sellotape over the other end of the wire (again, about half a curl). I kind of slid the sellotape in, whilst keeping the two circles approximately lined up like this.

Here's my finished springy thing! It just needs glueing to your card, plus embellishment.

It works pretty well! My owl jiggles around very nicely when the card is moved slightly, and the wire seems to be holding its shape well. Also, because the wire is so lightwieght, the sellotape seems more than sufficient to keep it in place.

Here's a very similar card, just made with different papers (from American Crafts Dear Lizzy 4th & Frolic 6x6 pad.)

...and look at that cool shadow!!

Some of the products used:


   

New Releases from Stephanie Barnard for The Stamps of Life & Sizzix

There have been some fun new additions to the products at The Stamps of Life recently! I have quite a lot of cards to show you today, using them...

First off, there is a new stamp set, which I love, called 'ribbonbanner2stamp' which comes with dies. The ribbon stamp is separate from the word stamps, so you have lots of options. Here I teamed it with the Circle Flip-its #4 card die.

I did my stamping with Versamark Ink, and used white embossing powder on it and a heat tool.

The same stamp set, this time with Mini Flower Dies from The Stamps of Life, and the Sizzix Elegant Stand-ups card.

Here I used the 'ribbonbanner2stamp' set for the 'Happy Birthday', and Crayon dies from The Stamps of Life, with the Sizzix Elegant Flip-Its card.

Another recent release is a stamp set by Stephanie Barnard, for Sizzix, which is a great assortment of 'Happy Birthday' sentiments, which I used here on the Elegant Flip-its card, along with a cupcake made from the Sizzix Framelits with Stamps - Ice Cream set.

Another fun release of Stephanie's for Sizzix is the Framelits with Stamps - Windows set, which cuts out a great grid/window, plus has loads of smaller stamps and dies. Here I used the cut-outs left from the grid, and made a kind of ombre card, with some of the smaller stamps and dies.

Here's the window die set being used again, this time with the Happy Birthday, which comes with Sizzix's Regal Stand-Ups Card die set.

 Another pic of it, showing some of the dimension.

And finally, another release today at The Stamps of Life is the 'brushstrokes2stamp' set and matching dies. Here are some cards I came up with for it...

I used the Square Flip-its #2, and crayons2stamp set as well, on this one.

Well I hope that gives you some idea of the new products by Stephanie Barnard, plus some inspiration for them!

Some of the products used:

   

Lots of Pops 3rd Birthday Card

I just wanted to share with you this quick card I made for my niece Roberta - 'Bobbie'!

I used the Lots of Pops die to create the pop out platforms, and used some images I cut from a printed birthday card (it came with some wrapping paper I had bought - I liked the images, but wanted them to stand up!)

I used some Cosmo Cricket paper for the background, and used a Stampin' Up border punch for the scalloped edges. You can see the layers better in this picture. I cut a slot in the fox, so he wouldn't stick out so far.

I used a Stampin' Up alphabet die set for the glitter letters, and the old Sizzix 'Fun Serif 'number set  for the '3'.

So, quite simple, but basic cutting and sticking is so therapeutic!

Some of the products used:


   

Purple Onion Designs & Stacey Yacula's 'Henry' Christmas Card

I have a Christmas card today using another stamp from Stacey Yacula's new release 'A Charming Winter' from Purple Onion Designs. I used the 'Henry' character, who's doing a spot of skating. 

Great news is that there is an introductory price for the entire new stamp collection (16 stamps, plus 3 sentiments) of $75. This special price is available until Wednesday 5th November.

I'm afraid I couldn't get a good picture to show how sparkly this card is!

I made the snowflake background by heat embossing some more stamps from Purple Onion Designs, and then picking out details with Stickles glitter glue.

Men's Shirt & Jacket Birthday Card

I saw this card on Pinterest by Lisa Young, and totally borrowed her idea for this card for my Brother-in-law... I love it!

I used a distress tool to scuff up the edges of the jacket a bit, and cut a hem for the T-shirt by hand.

I used Versamark ink, white embossing powder and a heat tool to get the 'Happy Birthday' to show up well on the pocket. I folded some paper to make the handkerchief, and stuck the pocket on with little square adhesive foam pads. 

Some of the products used:


   

Pop it Ups Ring Accordion Christmas Card, with Purple Onion Designs Stamps

I just wanted to share a little card I made a while back, using Karen Burniston's Pop It Ups Ring Accordion die set, with a couple of Purple Onion Design stamps, and a Tim Holtz die.

I stamped the images in brown, and coloured them with Copics, then added some Stickles glitter glue to some areas.

I used Karen's new Ring Frame Edges die set for the red scalloped cardstock edges, and for the gold open scalloped edges, used the die that comes with the Ring Accorion set. They fit perfectly together, to make a nice little border.

I cut the 'joy to the world' from paper-backed satin, using the Tim Holtz 'Stacked Words, Christmas' decorative strip die.

Finally, I added bauble tops cut with another die from the Circle Accordion set, with bows glued to them.

Some of the products I used:


   

New Purple Onion Designs & Stacey Yacula Christmas Stamps Release and Give-away!! (Plus a card!)

Some exciting news! Stacey Yacula has a gorgeous new collection of stamps being released by Purple Onion Designs, on Wednesday 29th October! The collection is called 'A Charming Winter', and includes 16 new stamps.

As you'd expect from Stacey, the designs are beautiful, and I've had the chance to play with some of them... Here's a card I made with a new snowman design called 'Warm Hearted'.

Purple Onion Designs and Stacey are having a give-away, with the chance to win the entire 'A Charming Winter' collection! The give-away is running from today, till Sunday 26th October, and a winner will be announced on Monday 27th October on their blogs.

If you'd like to be in with a chance to win, pop over to both blogs, and follow the instructions there:

Purple Onion Designs

Stacey Yacula

Good luck!

Here are some more details from my card... I used Karen Burniston's Lorna Label die to create the pop-up part, and label, and I used the snowflake die from Karen's All Seasons Tree set.

I coloured the stamped image with Copics, and added some white details with a Signo Uniball White pen.

The card front, using tree dies from Karen Burniston's Evergreen Pivot Card die set.

Some of the products used:


   

Happy 17th Pop It Ups Birthday Card

 My eldest child - my wonderful daughter Lucy, is 17 today!! That is totally crazy! How can seventeen years have gone by so quickly?!!

Anyway, here is a card I made for her last night, using Karen Burniston's new happy Birthday Card die set.

I die cut the light pink card first, then die cut the pink spotty paper and cut out the part I needed to glue over the top.

I used a Tim Holtz On The Edge die for the scalloped edge, and a Stampin' Up alphabet die set, for the pink glittered 'Lucy'. The numbers dies are from a Stampin' Up Bigz alphabet, and the banners are from a Stampin' Up punch.

The papers are all from Basic Grey's 'Fresh Cut' 6x6 Pad. (I love these papers! Such sunny colours, though it's a terrible day for taking photos, and doesn't do them justice.)

 A simple card front.

Some of the materials used:


   

Tanya Whelan Happy Birthday Pop Up Card (Elizabeth Craft Design Pop it Ups)

I love the new Happy Birthday PopUp die by Karen Burniston for Elizabeth Craft Designs - it's so versatile!! Here I made softer feminine card, using papers from First Edition's Tanya Whelan 'Bella Rose' 12x12 pad.

I covered over the star areas of the die cut with flowers, made with a Stampin' Up punch, which I shaped a bit with a ball tool and foam pad. I added a few little hand cut leaves.

At the bottom of the card, I added a few strips of coordinating papers, and a swirly die cut from My Favorite Things.

lastly, for the front of the card, I added some more paper from the same pad, and a wooden frame, with some more of the flowers.

Some of the products used:


   

Karen Burniston's October Designer Challenge Lorna Label Cowboy Birthday Card

Karen Burniston's October's Designer Challenge is to 'Make it Manly!' and focus on cards for the men and boys in our lives.

The timing is pretty great, because I have numerous male relatives' birthdays this month... I decided to work on a card for my Brother-in-law, Dan.

Looking through my papers, this October Afternoon paper caught my eye, and so I came up with a rather cowboy themed card!

I used Karen's Lorna Label die set, to cut the pop-up part with. I love the Lorna Label, because it creates such a large pop-up area to work with - in this case I covered it with some denim patterned paper, and added some large chipboard glitter letters.

 I used a 'happy birthday' rub-on, onto a wooden speech bubble, and a fabric 'brother' tag embellishment.

On the card front, I added a trim made with Karen's Outdoor Edges die set - I thought the little trees were quite in keeping with the theme.

I just added a simple hand cut tag, on foam pads for more message space.

Lastly, I added some patterned paper borders at the bottom of the cad, and another label cut from the Lorna Label set. I rounded off the corners of the card with a Zutter Round-it-all.

Some of the products used: