Celebrate Your Birthday Pop Up Card

I am continuing on my quest to design with all the new dies, stencils and stamps on my craft room bed before putting them away. The front of this card was created with two part stencils from Die Cuts & More. I sponged Victorian Velvet Distress Ink through one layer and Fired Brick through the second giving the illusion of depth and squares. I rounded the edges and attached to two layers of red Core'dinations Shattered Kraft-Core cardstock. I attached a beautiful "Celebrate" die cut from Tonic Studios to complete the front.

Once again, the best part of the card is the inside where Happy Birthday pops up. It was so easy to make this fun pop up using Karen Burniston's Happy Birthday Pop Up Die. I love how the Happy Birthday has a perfect shadow behind it. I added a few stars and a white layer to write my Happy Birthday message on. Here is a close-up of the HB pop up:

I am entering this card in the "Favorite Tool" challenge at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge. I use my Tonic Studios Tangerine die cutting machine everyday and my plates are perfectly flat and cut beautifully.

Kitty Window Joy Fold Card

Animal Magic is the theme of my favorite challenge to enter at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge and I found another animal card I designed for a magazine article but have never blogged to share with you today. This kitty looking out a window is one of my favorite stamps from Repeat Impressions and I stamped him on a pretty blue dp pieced that is folded in half and attached to the inside kraft side of another folded two sided piece of cardstock. The card base was created with Tim Holtz's Kraft-core cardstock from Core'dinations. The two folds together are known as a "joy fold" card. CAS but the pretty stamp makes this card perfect for any cat lover.

Tonic Party Time Pick of the Week at Create and Craft!

The Pick of the Week at Create and Craft (on line and on your TV) is the entire Tonic Rococo Music Die Collection shown here:

Here is a link to the special deal at Create and Craft.  You can order the dies individually too, but hurry because they are selling out. The best deal is the whole set for 22% off and FREE shipping and handling this week only as part of the birthday specials at Create and Craft. There are also deals on Tonic's fabulous self-leveling Crystal Drops and Glitter Drops- again free shipping and if you want it all- and you know you do!- you can also choose Flex Pay to spread out the payments. (If you want any of the individual dies that are sold out, you can order them directly from Tonic Gold U.S. here.)

OK- back to our regularly scheduled card post:) I created some cards with these fabulous dies for the Tonic Gold U.S. booth at CHA. My first card above is an easel card with a background of antique musical sheet paper. I distressed the edges of the musical paper with my Tonic Tim Holtz distresser and some brown distress ink and layered it onto a red cardstock square. I die cut Dance Tribute (1179E) out of black and white cardstock, and attached them together on the musical background. I cut out some Musical Notes (1180E) and attached them too. Here is a close-up of the top of this card:

This card is an easel card and the top part stands up using the popped up piece featuring Tonic's Perfect Harmony (1176E) cut out of red cardstock. Here is another card I made with this fantastic die collection:

I love this Jukebox Jive die (1177E) and I made a shaker card featuring it. I die cut the jukebox out of dark brown Kraft-core Shattered cardstock (by Tim Holtz for Core-dinations) and also from the center of the card front. I attached a piece of acetate on the back and two layers of mounting tape all around the edge of the jukebox opening. I dumped in a bunch of beads and sequins that shake, rattle and roll when the card is shaken. I added Tonic's Treble Clef (1182E) to complete the card. Here is another picture showing the shaker elements on the move:

I watched the Tonic Party Time Pick of the Week show several times today and the samples shown and the ones made during the show were fantastic! I definitely recommend watching the shows here- even if just for the great ideas! But don't forget- free shipping and great savings too!

I am entering these cards in the Anything Goes challenges at 613 Avenue Create and Craft Your Passion. 

Dancing the Disco Side-step with Die-Versions Dies

Happy Die-Versions Tuesday! It's my turn to post a card on Die-Version's blog and mine. Today I am sharing a side step card I created featuring the Retro Disco dies from the October release available here on the website.  I haven’t made a side step card in a while, but it seemed to be the perfect platform for my disco dancers so I found a tutorial here and made one with Tim Holtz’s Kraft-Core Shattered Cardstock from Core’dination. I die cut the Retro Dancers twice with pink and black cardstock and layered them together. They are side-stepping on the stairs of the card. I cut “Disco” and the Retro Disco Ball out of gold cardstock and attached. Makes you want to boogie the night away, right? Here is another view of the card from the front.

**Remember you can get a 15% discount on any of Die-Versions great dies by simply using my discount code karen15 when you check out at the Die-Versions website.**

I am entering this card in the Anything Goes challenges at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge  and at 613 Avenue Create.

Living Life - and Stamping - Without an Eraser

I wanted to make a card with an awesome new zentangled leaf stamp from Stampendous and they include a free stencil in the stamp set so I used my red and orange distress ink to color the leaf shape using the stencil. Then I pulled out my MISTI to line up the stamp perfectly with the colored stencil shape, and this was the result:(  Then I remembered this awesome new stamp from Impression Obsession and decided to use it on the card and save the piece. I layered the leaf piece on black and then on red crackled cardstock from Core'dination and ended up loving how the card turned out.

I am entering this card in the Anything Goes challenges at Amuse Studio and Lil Patch of Crafty Friends.

Positive and Negative Friend Card for Classes

I love using positive and negative images of punches and paper on my cards and I designed this card for a friend and to share in the classes I teach in my home. I started with a favorite paper of mine - Tim Holtz Kraft-Core Shattered by Core'dination. The front is the cracked purple and the back is kraft. This card is joy-fold card and you can see how it starts to open in this picture:

The base card is 5 1/4" x 7 3/4" scored at 5 1/4" (so the card is square.) The center piece is 7' x 3 1/2" scored at 3 1/2". I punched a border of flowers (Martha Stewart punch) in purple for the kraft side and in kraft for the purple side. On the left side of the front square piece, I attached a kraft piece to half. I punched 4 one inch squares, cut two in half and attached them in the pattern shown- purple over kraft and kraft over purple. I sponged a kraft flower and attached in the middle with a purple gem. Then I stamped the friends and blossom sentiment (from Amuse) in purple ink. Here is a look at the inside:

I am entering this card in "The Color Purple" challenge at Allsorts and the Anything Goes challenge at 613 Avenue Create.

Danish Hearts Double Easel Card

I have been wanting to try a Triple Easel Heart card and I watched this good tutorial on how to make them. But I was also so inspired by the Danish hearts on this card that I had to go to Simon Says Stamp and buy them immediately. I made the three heart sizes in the Danish Heart die set (by Simon Says Stamp) with Tim Holtz's Kraft-Core Shattered red and kraft paper by Core'dinations and added the white stitches like in my inspiration card.

The video describes sizes from the Stampin' up set of heart dies, but I have the Nestabilities set from Spellbinders. So I created the base with the largest scalloped heart die in white. The Danish heart dies are smaller than the SU hearts, but they did match up well with the medium sizes of the nesties set. The Danish hearts are attached to mini heart shaped cards with the top bottom half folded down for the easel. Because the dies I own are so much smaller than the ones described in the video, I decided to make a double easel card instead of a triple easel card.  I used the third smallest Danish heart (on pop dots) to hold up the other two hearts. I attached the Love and You die cuts to finish the card.

Here are a couple more pictures of the card- one from the top and one with the card closed:

If you watch the video you will understand the basics of a triple (or double as in my card) heart easel card, I am going to teach this card in my monthly classes starting again in March. If you are local, there is still room for you and/or friends, so contact me if interested.

I am entering this card in the Stitching (Real or Faux) challenge at Crafty Catz and the Hearts challenge at Wags 'n Whiskers.

Happy Birthday Friend Screen Divider Card

I love fun folds and making a screen divider card allows the designer to have fun on all four flaps of this card. I started with a 12 x 8 piece of embossed cardstock from Coor'dinations and scored at 3. 6 and 9 inches. I punched the top with a large present border punch from Martha Stewart and punched the bottom with a Stampin' up label punch. The front is a blue foil cardstock that was embossed with an embossing folder from Embossalicious and then sanded. I added a "friend" diecut  from Paper Smooches. I die cut Classy Girl and her shopping bag accessories from Creative Time, then created a shopping bag money holder to match. The circular word dies are from IO Dies. I punched happy birthday with another Martha Stewart punch and left the floral piece blank for a personal greeting and signature. I did a little sponging and added a couple gems to complete the card. The folded card fits into a business sized envelope.

This is what the card looks like closed and from the top:

I am entering this card in the Anything Goes challenge at 613 Avenue Create and Scribble and Scrap.

Cool Beans Coffee Gift Card Holder from Crackerbox Palace

**For a chance to win one of two great prizes, leave a comment on my July 8th blogpost here before Sunday at noon.**

It's Crackerbox Palace Friday and I am sharing a gift card holder for the coffee lover we all know. I did not know how to score and fold a gift card holder, so I searched Pinterest and found this blog post with the sizes and instructions. I scored and folded two sided Kraft Core Shattered cardstock from Core’dinations and punched the borders with a pretty floral border punch from Martha Stewart. I stamped and paper pieced CBP’s table and coffee cup and also stamped the sentiment and Cool Beans (which crack me up.) The gift card holder stays closed with velcro pieces. I am going to swing by my favorite coffee shop for a real gift card before giving this to a friend.

Here are some more views of the coffee gift card holder: 

 

Thanks for stopping by my blog. The stamps I have used today and many other awesome stamps are available on our website here. 

Don’t forget you can save 15% off your order at Crackerbox Palace.com with my name (Karen) in the coupon code box. All I ask is that you sign up as a follower here and then go shop for all these great stamps and more. You know you want toJ 

I am entering this card in the Anything Goes challenge at Through the Craft Room Door and the “Add a Sentiment" at Deep Ocean. 

Embossed Acetate and Clear Views Card

I have been playing with some new Clear Views Transparency pictures from The Mark-it Place and this one just makes me smile. Weeeeeee- enjoy the ride! I cut the transparency picture and the white under it with a Spellbinders die. The card base is a Core'dinations two sided paper and I stamped and cut the "enjoy" star from the other side of the paper. The star die is a Spellbinders and "enjoy" is a Heidi Swapp stamp.  I dotted the "j" with a star gem I colored black with a Sharpie.

I cut one inch from the bottom of the front and attached a thick piece of acetate that was embossed with a Cuttlebug embossing folder. I added some green Stickles to the intersections of the embossing. It looks better in real life- just hard to photograph the clear acetate.

On the inside of the card, I sponged green stars with a stencil by Heidi Swapp, and stamped the perfect sentiment from Simon Says Stamp. I messed up my first attempt and the rest of the card was complete- don't you just hate that? So I stamped it again on the same green, cut it out and attached it to the center of the card.

I am entering this card in the Anything Goes challenges at Through the Craft Room Door and Sweet Stamps
and the travel challenge at Simon Says Stamp.

Enjoy This Day Butterfly Card

Today I am sharing a butterfly card I am teaching in May's monthly classes. We will be playing with Susan Louise's beautiful images on  Ranger specialty paper and a fun fold called Reverse Gate Fold. To create this fold, I started with a 9 1/2 x 4 1/4 piece of rust Core'dinations paper. From each side, I scored at 2 3/4" and 3 3/4" and folded to look like this:

I embossed the side panels with a Craft Concepts embossing folder and sanded the embossed butterflies. Susan Louise has a whole series of beautiful images on Ranger specialty paper that reacts with water after sponging with distress inks. I sponged Peacock Feathers Distress Ink on and then spattered water on it for the fun speckled look. After dry, I stamped the Paper Smooches sentiment on with black archival ink. I layered the butterfly piece on a black piece of cardstock punched with an ek success border punch.

 This is what the back looks like- a side embossed with Embossalicious Happy Birthday and one side left blank so I can write a note to the birthday celebrant.

I am entering this card in the Fancy Folds challenge at Love's Rubberstamps and the Anything Goes challenge at Fantastic Tuesday.

L.O.L. Stencil Card for Classes

I love using humor in my cards and am now having fun using plastic stencils for backgrounds, so have combined those two to make this card and two others that will be shared in a class I am calling L.O.L. Stencil Cards. I have designed the cards for six classes so far and you can take a peek at all the cards here on my Flickr sets boards. If you are local and want to take any of the classes, just let me know- I will be setting up classes after we get back from our cruise and some big home improvement jobs are done.

I made this file folder card with my Envelope Punch Board from WeR Memory Keepers. The rose and the sentiments are all from a Repeat Impression's hilarious swing set. I used Tim Holtz's Kraft-Core Shattered cardstock from Core'dinations which is kraft on one side and red crackled on the other side. I sponged red distress ink on the front with a stencil by Stencil Girl. The L.O.L. part happens when you pull out the inside of the file card:

Ha Ha! This stamp set just cracks me up! I stamped the punch line in black, and again on a red piece. Both the rose and the "Official Seal" were paper pieced. For the right guy, this card could be perfect:)

I am entering this card in the Anything Goes challenges at Love's Rubberstamps and Papertake Weekly, and the stencil challenge at Virginia's View Challenge.

Couture Creations Design Team Application Round 2

I am thrilled to share I have made it through to the second and final round of the Couture Creations Design Team Call! For this round we are to design and blog a new project featuring a Couture Creations embossing folder, our choice of dies and Core'dinations Cardstock if we have it.

I have a whole collection of Core'dinations cardstock since it is my favorite, and have chosen two kinds of Core'dinations Cardstock to create my card with. The card base is made with Core'dinations Vintage Collection, and the heart was cut from Core'dinations Gemstones Cardstock. I experimented with several different shades of blue Core'dinations Cardstock for the heart, and tried sanding them to highlight the embossing. Core'dination's core cardstock is perfect for that technique, but I decided I liked the Gemstone cardstock without the sanding the best for my embossed heart.

I embossed a 5 1/4 inch white cardstock square with Couture Creation's Butterfly Hugs embossing folder. I also embossed the heart (cut out with a Spellbinders Nestabilities die) in the Butterfly Hugs folder, as shown in the picture below:

I attached the heart to the white embossed cardstock with pop dots to raise it, and then attached the completed piece to the front of the card. The real magic of the card happens when you open it. Take a look:

The butterflies pop up and appear to be floating when the card is opened! The technique is called Floating Image and this is how you create this fun effect:

Cut two pieces of matching cardstock 5 1/2" by 6", and score each at 5 1/2" on the 6" side. Apply strong two sided adhesive tape to the two 1/2 inch tabs and line them up together. (I chose to make my card a 5 1/2" square card. If you wanted to create an A2 size card, cut two pieces of cardstock 4 3/4" by 5 1/2" and score at 4 1/4" on the 4 3/4" side. You want an half inch tab in the center of the two pieces.)

Next you will want to decide what you want to pop up when the card is opened. I chose to die cut a polka dotted butterfly with a beautiful large butterfly die from Cherry Lynn Designs, and two smaller butterflies cut out of white cardstock with a die by Memory Box. They are attached to pieces of acetate cut 1/2 inch wide and to the height you want your floating images to be. I chose to place the larger butterfly on a piece 2 1/4 inches high and the two smaller ones on a 3 inch acetate piece. Lay your pop up elements inside the card so they do not extend beyond the sides of the card as shown here:

When you are happy with the placement, remove the outer protective cover of the two sided adhesive on one of the 1/2 inch folds and attach the acetate strips and die cuts pieces. They will pop up and appear to be floating in the air. (As is the designer's prerogative, I changed my mind and placed the two smaller butterflies on one acetate strip in the finished card.) Remove the other adhesive cover and attach the front of the card to the back in the center as shown here:

For the inside of the card, I die cut Memory Box's Grand Happy Birthday on the top of a 5 inch square piece of white cardstock. I also cut out the negative of the Kaleidoscope Butterfly by Memory Box and attached the positive of the same butterfly in the opening.

I think the surprise of the pop up floating butterflies in this card would delight anyone celebrating their birthday. I enjoyed sharing this technique and my card with you, and thank Couture Creations for the opportunity to participate in Round Two of their Design Team Application process.

Tri-Shutter Naughty Christmas Card from Crackerbox Palace

Karen H. here today and I am sharing one last Christmas card using Crackerbox Palace stamps and a fun fold called Tri-Shutter. I always thought this looked so hard to do, but it is very simple as I learned from the tutorial here. I started with my favorite paper by Core’dinations and Tim Holtz called Kraft-Core Shattered cut 12 x 5 ½”, then followed the directions on the tutorial for cutting and scoring. Then I just added some fun stamped images from Crackerbox Palace that make me smile, and did a little punching and paper piecing. Here is a picture of the card mostly closed so you can see that it folds to fit into an A2 envelope, and one showing it open so you can see all the folds.

I am entering this card in the Anything Goes challenges at Crafty Creations and Stamp n Doodle.

Thanks for stopping by my blog. The CBP website is being upgraded currently, but you can always email or call them if you want any of the stamps I share. Happy New Year everyone!

Crackerbox Palace smiles, Karen

What If? Wed. Sketch Challenge at Repeat Impressions

It's time for another fun sketch challenge at The House that Stamps Built and we are challenging you to make a card using the sketch below and link it up for a chance at some great Repeat Impressions rubber! For all the details on what you can win and to see the other Rock Stars cards using this sketch, please visit our blog.

I love how this card turned out. I started with my favorite paper for the card base: Tim Holtz Kraft-Core Shattered cardstock by Core’dinations. On the front white panel, I stamped Repeat Impression’s Deer Family, embossed with Tim’s tree embossing folder and added some snowflakes cut out with a Memory Box die. I stamped the holiday sentiment on the back side of the Kraft-Core paper, cut out and embossed with a Spellbinders circle die. Then I added some gems to complete the card.

Here is the sketch for you to follow when you create a card for our challenge. You do not need to use Repeat Impressions stamps to enter our challenges, but you get an extra chance to win if you do!

I am entering this card in the Anything Goes challenge at Crafting for the Heart and the Christmas challenge at Raisin Boat.

Stamping smiles, Karen

Christmas Joy with Crackerbox Palace and the Bokeh Effect

It's Crackerbox Palace Friday and today I am sharing a Christmas card using beautiful Crackerbox Palace stamps and a fun new technique called Bokeh Stamping. Perhaps you have seen photographs such as this one that shows the Bokeh Effect in photography:

I found some cards on Pinterest that show how to use that technique in stamping. I started with the beautiful holly and Joy to the World stamps from CBP. Then I added red ink using a finger dauber darker in the middle and then lighter with each generation of ink. I also added gold ink in smaller circles using a pencil eraser and again several generations of ink from dark in the center to lighter going out. The technique was easy and fun and makes a lovely background on your cards. I added some red sticker berries and layered the front piece onto my favorite paper: Kraft-Core Shattered by Tim Holtz for Core'dinations. 

I am entering this card in the Traditional Christmas Colors challenges at  Fab 'n' Funky and Holly Jolly Christmas.

Thanks for stopping by my blog. Please visit the website to see these and many other awesome Crackerbox Palace stamps.

Crackerbox Palace smiles, Karen

So Much Fun with Tim Holtz and the New Envelope Punch Board

The challenge this week at my buddy Hilde's challenge blog, Crafting with Dragonflies, is to make and link a card box and at least 3 cards. I have been having so much fun this week designing cards and this box using the Envelope Punch Board by WeRMemory Keepers and the fabulous paper by Tim Holtz called Kraft Core Shattered by Core'dinations. I love love love this paper and this fabulous tool and will be using both when I am one of the instructors at a Round Robin of card making November 1st at Dale's Weston Lanes. (Contact me or The Stamp Shoppe in Weston for more details if you are local.) I wanted to show at my table more cards and projects you can make with both the paper and the Envelope Punch Board. I learned how to make the easy card box here in this video.  I added a belly band of the kraft side of the paper to hold the box closed and decorated it with a Spellbinders fancy circle die and a lovely stamp from Heartfelt Creations.

Pictured above is one of the cards I designed with a matching envelope- both created with the Envelope Punch Board. File tab cards and matching envelopes are easy to make with this tool, and this is just part of what you will learn in my class that night. I embossed this card with a Marianne's Designs embossing and cutting folder, then added a poinsettia also made with Marianne's Designs dies and a Martha Stewart punch. All the sentiments on these cards are from a set by Penny Black I will also be using in the class.

My second card is a money holder and envelope created again with Tim Holtz's awesome paper and the Envelope Punch Board. The snowflake punches are by Martha Stewart. I attached some baker's twine under pop dot raising the snowflake, then went around the card and then around the snowflake brad to hold the money holder shut.

My last card is another file folder card with a fun lined envelope- again so easy to make. I embossed the card with a holly embossing folder (by Tim Holtz for Sizzix.) I made the candles with the goo border by Martha Stewart and her twig punch. The holly leaves and flames were parts of cutting files by Silhouette America.

Did I mention that I love Tim Holtz? I am so excited that a bunch of friends and I are going to see him in Madison the end of November at a stamp show we are going to:) I have always wanted to at least see him in person, much less maybe even meet him! Can't wait!

I am also entering these cards in the Anything Goes challenge at The Crafting Cafe'.

Stamping smiles, Karen