This has been a fun week. Karen Burniston's dies are so cleverly designed that designs come easily. Today's sneak peek is a slimline card using the Movie Night Charms and the Graduation Elements. The Movie Night Charms are on the front . . .
. . . and the Graduation Elements on the inside.
Only a couple more days before you can purchase the dies. I hope you have been making your list.
I wanted to see if I could make a slimline card with the new Karen Burniston Whirly Wheel. Turns out I can. I used two other new sets, the Curved Edges and the Rainbow Add-ons, on the front.
When you turn the Whirly Wheel, up pops the unicorn from the Leaping Animals set. The sentiment is from the new clear stamp set, Rainbow Greetings.
I hope you are enjoying this Sneak Peek Week. The design team has been having lots of fun showing off all the new dies.
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.
It's time again for the Karen Burniston Designer Challenge, and this month's theme is JACK-O-LANTERN. How appropriate -- with Halloween right around the corner. I pulled out several Karen Burniston Halloween sets to decorate my card, a slimline card featuring the Little Labels Pop-Up set.
The front of my card is relatively simple, with a Jack-o-lantern made with the pumpkin from the Autumn Elements set with the face cut with one of the dies in Halloween Elements.
But the inside is a bit less simple. I love that skeleton from the Skeleton & Bat set, dressed up with a top hat and bow tie. I used two of the brand-new Halloween Borders set to span the card.
I had a request from one of my friends to make a 50th birthday card for her daughter. There was a little twist to this request. She wanted me to incorporate sharks and mermaids into the card. After much thought, I put this card together, using the Karen Burniston Little Labels Pop-Up on the inside.
As it was a 50th birthday, I thought I should use some gold in the design, so I made the frame (Pinkfresh Studios) and the "50th" (Karen Burniston) from gold cardstock. I had found that cool wave paper at Hobby Lobby several months ago and figured the shark would look cute behind one of the waves.
On the inside the Little Label Pop-Up holds both a shark and a couple of mermaids -- thus fulfilling the request. I added a couple of Border Blend strips to the top and bottom of the card, as well as the larger label for a place to sign the card. Those larger labels were created using dies from the Paper Frames set, which has labels of the same shape as those in the Little Labels Pop-Up.
I hope my friend likes this.
Maryann asked the CCEE Stampers to create a card with more than a center fold -- think of an easel, pop-up, center step or shutter card. I love learning new fun folds. Karen Aiken posted a card a month or so ago that she called a Diamond Z-fold Slimline card, which was quite pretty. I have made several of them since I first saw her card. Today's card is one of them.
I tried a little experiment for my post today. I made two slimline Halloween cards -- one regular size and the other a mini. As you can see, they are the same card -- just two different sizes. On the front is the Slim Pattern Plate - Spiders. The smaller card has a strip of black on each end, using one of the Border Blends - Trims. The larger one uses the same pattern plate, but with an additional couple of rows of spiders added.
Lynn starts her month-long turn as the hostess for the CCEE Stampers with a very interesting challenge. She let us know that June is Country Cooking Month. She asked us to create cards which feature fabulous bounty from the garden in the form of fruits or vegetables that we love to prepare and serve our family during the hot months of summer. I had used the word "interesting" because I don't cook, so you can imagine my dilemma. I pretty much stopped cooking after my husband died 19 years ago.
I was, however, able to come up with a card for this challenge -- using my ABC's! A is for Apple; B is for Beets; C is for Corn. And the new Mini Alphabet and Numbers from Karen Burniston were the perfect size!
I'm sure you'll find lots more fruits and/or vegetables on the CCEE Stampers blog! Be sure to check it out.
Frances continues as hostess for the CCEE Stampers. Her challenge this week: create a card that is created using dies only, no stamps. If you must, you can use a stamp for the sentiment; but bonus points if you use dies.
St. Patrick's Day is next week; and my Irish ancestors were so happy to see these dies from Karen Burniston that I used on my card today -- all dies, no stamps.
Karen Burniston recently did a video showing how you could add the Twist Panel Pop-Up die in a slimline card. As I watched the video, I decided I wanted to give it a try. Here's my result.
It's time again for the Karen Burniston Designer Challenge. This month's theme is "MOD Valentine." We were to make a Valentine card in colors other than red or pink. As purple is one of my most favorite colors, that's the color I chose.
Using several new dies from the January release, I created this slimline Valentine card. The front has two cute little monkeys swinging on the branches across the top, sending you some love.
On the inside I used the new Heart Collage pop-up. As you can see, there are several different sizes of hearts in this cute set. The previously released Photo Collage is one of my favorites; and, when Karen designed this smaller version, I was so happy. Now I can combine it with a slimline card. Also new is that large heart from the Crosshatch - Heart die. It's the perfect place to add a little message of love.
Another one of Karen Burniston's new dies being released next week is the Heart Collage Pop-Up. This is very similar to her previously-released Photo Collage Pop-Up (which I love), but it is smaller and will fit in a slimline card. There are two add-ons that can be used with the Heart Collage -- the Butterfly Add-on and the Balloon Add-on. My card is using the Butterfly Add-on, as well as the Happy Birthday and Shadow.
For the CCEE Stampers' final challenge of 2021, Lynn would like for our stampers to select a country or culture other than their own and feature a unique element in that country or culture's Christmas celebrations to feature on their card.
My ancestors came mainly from Ireland and England, so I looked in another direction and chose Germany for my card. I found this on the website for House Beautiful -- "Decorative nutcracker figurines, commonly made to resemble a toy soldier, is a common German Christmas tradition. According to German folklore, nutcrackers were given as good luck keepsakes to the family to protect their home. It's thought they would watch over the family, keeping evil spirits and danger at bay." Nutcrackers have found their way into many American homes as well, but apparently they started in Germany. Fortunately, I had an old stamp set with several nutcrackers the right size and came up with this card.
Lynn continues as CCEE Stampers hostess this week. She said, "If your family is like mine, there are certain family traditions that show up at each of your Christmas celebrations together. I would love for the CCEE Stampers' cards to represent a favorite or an unusual Christmas tradition shared by the members of your family each year."
Like many crafters, I have gone through the gamut of various different crafts. One of my hobbies for a long time was ceramics. I think every ceramic hobbyist I know made a Nativity set, and I am no exception. This set took me several Christmases to complete, and it is a part of my Christmas every year.
I'm anxious to see Lynn's card today because of something she said about her family tradition in her challenge to us: "I am betting that mine might just be the wackiest!!" Check out the CCEE Stampers blog to see what it is.
It's time again for the Karen Burniston Designer Challenge. This month we were to make a Christmas card using a non-traditional color.
As one of my favorite colors is purple, that's the direction in which I went. The front of the card is relatively simple, with just a snowy hill (using the Long Nature's Edges 2) and snowflakes (also Long Nature's Edges 2).
The inside has a bit more to say.
I used the new Little Labels Pop-Up and added a few holiday charms to the labels. Please note that another Karen Burniston die set, the Paper Frames, has dies in the same shape as the labels. I actually used some of them on the layering. One of the dies in the new Border Blends - Trims set looks so nice with two pieces woven together, as you can see along the base of the pop-up. Another new die is the Labels - Crosshatch, which I used as a place to sign the card, dressing it up a little with some more snowflakes.
Thanks for stopping by and looking at my Designer Challenge card for December.
Lynn McAuley is the CCEE Stampers hostess for December. For today's challenge, she chose "celebrate with song" as her theme. She asked that the CCEE Stampers use song lyrics from a holiday song (either secular or religious) as the sentiment on the front of their Christmas design.
I recently purchased a couple of Hero Arts stamp and die sets that seemed to coordinate with each other. One set is just dies (Tri-fold Edge Village Fancy Die) and the other set is both stamps & dies (Cozy Village). Many of the houses on the Cozy Village stamps were the same as those on the Tri-fold Edge Village die, so I tried an experiment. I think it worked!
My card for the Scor-Pal "More Than One Score" challenge this month is a slimline bridge card. I recently purchased a Hero Arts die set called Tri-Fold Village Fancy Die Set, which I thought was so pretty. Since then, I found a "sort-of" matching stamp and die set called Cozy Town. Many of the buildings in this stamp set match the shape of the buildings in the Tri-Fold set.
As you can see, the dies span the center opening of this card, forming a "bridge," as dpes the sentiment, which is the Karen Burniston "Merry Christmas" greeting and shadow.
The card folds flat for mailing and fits in a business-size envelope.
This week's Crazy4Challenges challenge is one after my own heart -- create a card that is created using dies only, no stamps. If you must, you can use a stamp for the sentiment; but bonus points if you use dies. Bonus points for me!
My card for this challenge is a Christmas slimline, using various dies from Pink & Main, Honey Bee Stamps, and CottageCutz.
Check out the Crazy4Challenges blog for lots of die-cut fun!
Who doesn't love balloons? Not Frances Byrne, who is this month's hostess for the CCEE Stampers. For her first challenge this month she asked the team to include a balloon or balloons on our cards to celebrate Balloons Around the World Day, which was October 5th.
I recently purchased a grab bag from Taylored Expressions. I had no idea what would be contained in the bag and was pleasantly surprised with this cute set, which contained a hot air balloon. Riding in a hot air balloon was one of the items I have checked off my bucket list.
Check out the CCEE Stampers blog to see how the rest of the team celebrated this fun special day.
This week's Crazy4Challenges sketch is a slimline card.
I recently bought some scenic slimline background papers from Whimsey Stamps. I used one of them (from the set called Frozen) on today's card. Even though it's 90 degrees outside, it's always a good time to make a Christmas card. These cute images are from Paper Nest Dolls.
Stop over at the Crazy4Challenges blog to see what the rest of the team did with this fun layout.
Today is my sister's birthday. So in her honor, I asked the CCEE Stampers to use something that begins with each letter of her name on their cards. Her name is DOTSY.
This is my card in Dotsy's honor. (BTW, Dotsy is also a stamper.)
D - Diamond-shaped die-cuts / Daisies
O - Orange (one of my very favorite colors)
T - Thinking about you sentiment
S - Slimline card
Y - Yellow
I carried the yellow daisies onto the inside of the card.
Check out the CCEE Stampers blog to see how the rest of the team handled my sister's name.