Karen Burniston New Release - Day 1 Sneak Peek

It's finally time for the sneak peeks to begin, and Karen Burniston outdid herself this time.  15 new dies and 5 new stamp sets!  There are three Add-ons for the pop-up balls.  They can all be pre-ordered on the 24th.

One of the new dies makes three cute bugs -- a ladybug, a bee, and a grasshopper.  There is also a border set that coordinates with it.

My card today features the ladybug along with the Bitty Ball.  The front of the card has the border along with a sentiment from one of the new stamp sets.

When you open the card, up pops the cute ladybug.  I held the card closed using the Flap and Closure set with a small magnet on the back.

As shown in this photo, I had mounted the ladybug on a circle so that it can be removed from the card.

One nice thing about this Add-on set is that everything you need (except the ball) is included  -- things like the eyes and the mouth.

Included in this release are three utilitarian die sets which allow you to open the pop-up balls (one set for each ball size) to get to the rubber bands.  I, of course, used the one for the Bitty Ball.  It cuts out two sets of access tabs that you would use to replace the smaller tabs on the ball die cuts.

I'm glad you stopped by today to see my card.  I'll have more sneak peeks as the week progresses.  I hope you stop back.

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 New Release Blog Hop

Hi Crafty Friends,

Welcome to our Karen Burniston Products - KB Riley LLC January Release Blog Hop. The Design Team have come together with Karen today for a fun blog hop to celebrate the release of 8 new dies and 4 new stamp sets. Sneak peeks of the new release started last week, and the dies are available to order NOW!

This release includes:

• 1 new Pop-up Die Set

• 3 new Pop-up Add-ons Die Sets

• 4 new Stand Alone Die Sets

• 4 new Clear Sentiment Stamp Sets

Dies are available to order now on the website.

One of the new sets is a variation on a previously released set. The Triple Platform Pop-up has become a favorite for me. I have made several cards with it, including this one I made for Valentine's Day.

I carried the heart theme from the patterned paper onto the three pop-up platforms, adding some hearts from the Love Charms. Another one of the new dies in this release is the Paper People set. I included a couple of young lovers up in the left-hand corner. That set includes a "paper person" die and lots of choices of clothing and hair styles for you to dress them up. All of the Tiny Accessories sets will coordinate with these as well.

These are the two new sets I used on my card.

GIVEAWAY:

To celebrate the release Karen Burniston and each of the Karen Burniston - KB Riley LLC Design Team members will be giving away a $25 Gift Certificate to some lucky person who comments on our blog posts, so make sure you join the hop and comment on everyone's blog post. Winners will be randomly chosen from ALL of the blog hop comments received on our blog posts by Monday, 3rd February 2025. Lots of chances to win some goodies, so just leave a comment on this post or any other blog hop posts to enter! Don't forget to leave some way for us to contact you, in case you are a lucky winner!

Karen Burniston

Lois Bak (that's me)

Sue Small-Kreider

Frances Byrne

Jennifer Webster

Suzanne Smit

Nicky Foden

Sandy Diller

Ken Chien

Karen Burniston New Release - Day 4

Two of the dies in this new Karen Burniston Release are Snow Charms and Charm Rings.  These two sets are highlighed on today's card.

I made a card which was a total experiment using these two sets.  I say "experiment" because I was sort of playing it by ear as I was making the card.  You'll note the sentiment on the front.  It comes from one of the new stamp sets that are also part of this release.

I thought the mittens and the ice skates were just a bit small to hang by themselves, so I mounted them on circles before attaching them to the frames.  The steering bar (if that's what it's called) seemed too thin to try to feed the twine through it, so I knotted the twine at both ends and attached it to the bar with glue dots.  The charms are attached to the frames with the paper rings from the Charm Rings set.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today, and remember to check out the New Release Blog Hop on Monday for a chance to win a $25 gift certificate to Karen's website.

Karen Burniston Designer Challenge - Set Sail

Several of the new dies from Karen Burniston are appropriate for this month's Designer Challenge, "Set Sail." The set I've had the most fun with is the Pirate Ship Add-ons.  Of course, you have to use the Boat Pop-up set as well.  The front of my card is a piece of patterned paper from a paper pad from Echo Park.  On it I stamped one of the sentiments from the new Pirate Sentiments stamp set in Versamark and embossed with white embossing powder.

Like many others, I often play Solitaire on my computer.  I play the free version -- the one that has ads.  One of the ads I see often has a really cute little pirate ship, with blue striped sails and yellow cannon portals.  I did my best to recreate it on the inside of my card.  I also used one of the borders from the new Pirate Borders on each end.

The waves on the inside were created by blending four different Distress inks (Salvaged Patina, Salty Ocean, Blueprint Sketch, and Villainous Purple) over a Honey Bee Stamps stencil. 

Thanks for stopping by my blog today.  

Karen Burniston New Release Sneak Peek - Day 6

Another new set which coordinates with an existing set is the Fancy Solid Frame, which is an add-on to the Fancy Label Accordion.  I think that particular die is the first Karen Burniston die I ever bought, when Karen was designing for Elizabeth Craft Designs.  There are several other frames for that die set as well.  As you can see from the photo, there is no design on these pieces.

I cut out the last three panels on this accordion and added the Music Charms.

On this second card on which I used the Fancy Solid Frame die, I used one of the dies from the Sailboat Add-ons (the life preserver) and then made my own larger life preserver using the Circles - Crosshatch dies for the center panel.  On the first panel of this card is the new Shadow die for the previously released Thank You die.

Only two more days until Release Day.  Be sure to check out the blog hop for some chances to win a $25 gift certificate to the Karen Burniston website.

Talk Like Yoda Day It Is

Are you a Star Wars fan?  I am, but I was unaware of this interesting holiday -- Talk Like Yoda Day.  When I saw, I was immediately inspired to make a card in celebration.  After deliberating exactly how I was going to accomplish this, I thought I would make a pop-up ball, using Karen Burniston's Bitty Ball Pop-Up.

I decided that I would place Yoda inside a gatefold card with a belly band holding it closed.  This particular Yoda is a Kindred Stamps set I've had for a long time -- Galactic Adventures.  I've got him mounted in Karen's Circles - Crosshatch.  I made the sentiment using my label maker.

I wasn't 100% happy with my first attempt at Yoda.  His face just didn't look enough like Yode to satisfy me.  So I went a different route and printed out an image of his face and attached it to the head of my figure.

It's not the best thing I've ever created, but . . . fun doing it I had.

Buzzing By

I recently watched a video of a card that Karen Burniston made using the Lorna Label, on which she cut a frame into the label.  I thought it was so clever that I wanted to try it.  

My card measures 4 1/4" x 4 1/4".  As there is no word die for the "buzzing by," I used the KB Mini Alphabet & Numbers set for that part of my sentiment.  The bee on the front of the card is from the Flower Pot Pop-Up set.  He is placed at the center of three dies from the Circles - Crosshatch set.

I didn't think the honeycomb would be easily seen if it were placed directly on the floral background, so I cut a white label and placed it behind the frame.

Here is a close-up of the frame.  This bee and the honeycomb are part of the Flutter Charms set.

I'm very happy with the result of my experiment.

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.

Gingerbread Men in the Kitchen

The theme for this month's Karen Burniston Designer Challenge is "What's Cooking?"  During the next two months a lot of what's cooking will be Christmas cookies.  So I took that opportunity to feature the new Oven Pop-Up set to make my card.

The front of the card is relatively simple -- just a wreath and some gingerbread men.  I cut a dark green circle using a couple of the Circle Crosshatch dies.  I then cut out the Pattern Plate - Holly and snipped it into many pieces, placing them around the circle to create my wreath.  After cutting out a strip of gingerbread men from the Christmas Border set, I placed them around the wreath and attached a bow.

 The inside of my card is where the "cooking" action takes place.

I fell in love with that Oven Pop-Up when I first saw it.  And there is a set of extras so you can go all out!  My card is 6" x 7", so I was able to add a couple extra cabinets by extending the base under the oven and cabinets.  Karen Burniston has a great video describing how to construct the Oven Pop-up - (7) Karen Burniston Dies 1250 Oven Pop-up and 1251 Oven Extras Assembly - YouTube.  On the countertop you can see the mixer and a tray of gingerbread cookies.  

Do you see that little semi-circle and message at the bottom right-hand side of the card?  If you follow the directions to "pull out," you find a surprise.

I included a recipe card with directions for baking some gingerbread cookies.  And when you open the oven door, you can see some more cookies baking.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today.  If you have this die, I hope I've given you some inspiration to use it.

Karen Burniston New Release Sneak Peek - Day 5

For today's sneak peek, I returned to the Stocking Pop-Up.  This time, however, I did not make either a Halloween or a Christmas card.  I wanted to show the versatility of this particular die set, so I made a castle-related birthday card.  On the front I did a bit of mixing and matching of word sets and added a computer-generated phrase at the end.

Attached to the pop-up mechanism on the inside is the Dragon from the Knight and Dragon set.  He pops up and blows his fiery breath at you.

Only a few more days until the Blog Hop on Monday, where you could win one of many $25 gift certificates to the Karen Burnison website.  

Karen Burniston New Release Sneak Peek - Day 3

My card today uses the new Oven Pop-Up and Oven Extras sets.  These sets are so cool with all their little bits and pieces.  We're all cooking and baking in the fall -- especially when Thanksgiving rolls around.

The front of my card shows off a previously released set called Autumn Elements.

But when you open the card, there is a fully stocked kitchen with upper and lower cabinets, drawers and even a brick backsplash.  I brought some more of those Autumn Elements in from the front of the card on the "Happy Thanksgiving" sentiment oval.

By the way, the oven door opens to reveal a turkey roasting inside.  My Thanksgiving oven doesn't look like that however because my son deep-fries our turkey!

I've seen several creative kitchens made by the rest of the design team.  I hope you check them out.  And be sure to check in on our Blog Hop next Monday.  There are many chances for you to win a $25 gift certificate to the Karen Burniston website.

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.