Karen Burniston Designer Challenge -- Caffeinate

It's time again for the Karen Burniston Designer Challenge.  This month's theme is "Caffeinate," using something to get you going -- chocolate, coffee, tea, soda.  Even though it's May and quite warm here in Florida, I chose hot chocolate for my card.

Shortly after the Rockin' Rectangle was released, Karen Burniston made a card using that die with a clear acetate front.  I loved the way it looked and have made several cards using that technique.  My card today also uses it.

 

In addition to the Rockin' Rectangle, I also used the mug from the Tea and Coffee Pop-up, the Tea and Coffee Borders, the Coffee Charms, and the icing from the Cupcake Pop-up.  And, now that Karen has released clear stamps, I was able to find appropriate sentiments from both the Quiet Forest Sayings and the Coffee Chat sets.

By the way, if you'd like to try this clear acetate card, here's a link to Karen's tutorial:  Acetate Front Card.  

Set the Stage

It's time again for the Karen Burniston Designer Challenge, and this month's theme is "Set the Stage."  And the perfect way to do that is to use the new Stage Pop-up, definitely my new favorite.  I have made quite a few cards using this die set.

An early favorite of mine when I discovered Karen Burniston dies was the Christmas Tree Pop Stand.  I combined these two die sets for my challenge card.  Many years ago I made a Christmas Tree Pop Stand card in white and gold.  My new card is an updated version of that earlier one.

Here are a couple of close-up photos of my card.  Those cute little trees on the bottom panels were made with one of the dies in the Winter Charms set.

 

You can even decorate the bottom of the stage.  The two holiday sentiments used on the card are from one of Karen's clear stamp sets, Christmas Wishes.  The "push" comes from the Stage Scene stamp set.

Another Christmas-themed card I made using the Stage Pop-up (this time with the Sleigh Pop-up) is this one::

Karen Burniston Designer Challenge -- For the Birds

It's time again for the Karen Burniston Designer Challenge.  This month's theme is "For the Birds."  Even though the new release has a bird -- the Peacock Add-on, I went in a totally different direction and used the birds from an older set, Outdoor Scene.

I did not ignore the new release, however; the base die for my card is the new Stage Pop-up along with the Sea Stage Add-ons.  

Like a parent, I'm sure that, as a DT member, I'm not supposed to have a favorite; but I must admit that the Stage Pop-up is definitely my favorite of this release.  It was the first one I used as soon as we received our dies, and I have made quite a few stage cards since then.  This is my "For the Birds" card:

Karen Burniston has an excellent video on construction of this stage.  Be sure to check it out.  In addition to the two new die sets, I also used the Palm Tree Pop-up and a sentiment from the Cruise Greetings clear stamp set.  My sea gulls are flying high, attached with acetate strips.

This was such a fun release -- make sure you check out the rest of the cards made by the team.  I'm sure you'll find at least one with the new Peacock Add-ons to the Arch Pop-up.

 

Karen Burniston Designer Challenge - Love is in the Air

My card for this month's Karen Burniston Designer Challenge uses one of the brand-new die sets just released, the Love Is in the Air Charms.  With Valentine's Day right around the corner, this is a perfect set to use. 

My card base is one of my favorite sets (and I think the first Karen Burniston die I purchased), the Fancy Label Accordion.

I made full panels for the first and last panel of my accordion, with charms hanging from just the second through the fourth panels.

The second panel charm is a red rose mounted on an oval.  BTW, the rose on the other side is pink.

The third panel contains some cascading hearts.

And the fourth panel is a cute hot air balloon.

Have you checked out the new release blog hop?  There's still time to comment and perhaps win a $25 gift certificate to the Karen Burniston website.  Here's a link to Karen's blog, which is the first one on the hop -- https://karenburniston.com/blog/january-2026-release-blog-hop/

Karen Burniston Designer Challenge -- Bugs

It's Designer Challenge time again, and this month we have some new dies to play with.  The challenge theme is "Bugs, " and three of the new dies are full of bugs.  I actually used all three of them.

The front of my card has dies from Animal Add-ons 6, which has pieces and parts of both a bee and a grasshopper.  I chose the face and wings of the bee and also used one of the bees from the Bug Border set.

The sentiment is from the new clear stamp set Bug Greetings.

The inside of my card uses the Playful Pop-up (which includes dies for making a ladybug, but again I used bees from the Bug Borders set).  I also used dies from the new Greeting Labels and sentiments from the new clear stamp set Quiet Forest Sayings.

Here's a little video showing how the mechanism of the Playful Pop-up works when you open the card.

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you liked my card.

Karen Burniston Designer Challenge -- Song Lyrics

The theme of this month's Karen Burniston Designer Challenge is "song lyrics."   That's pretty wide open.  I decided that a song sung in December more than likely would be Christmas-related.  For this reason, I chose the Bing Crosby classic White Christmas.

I've been following along with Karen and her on-line classes for a while.  October's class was two Halloween cards, but I liked them so much that I decided to use the instructions for one of them to make a Christmas card and use it for this month's Designer Challenge.

The second verse of White Christmas goes like this:

            I'm dreaming of a white Christmas

            With every Christmas card I write.

            May your days be merry and bright,

            And may all your Christmases be white.

The front of my card actually contains part of the lyrics.  All the papers I used are from a 12 x 12 paper pad that I found in Michaels on sale.  They really worked well for this card.

And the inside carries through with the theme.  The main die set used on this card is the Charm Accordion, as well as the Christmas Tree Pop-up.

The original card had two skeletons on the inside.  This one has a penguin and a polar bear, made using the Winter Animals set.   It was really fun transforming Karen's Halloween card into a Christmas one.

After I decided on this card for this month's Designer Challenge, two things happened:  1) The new release with that awesome Pine Cone die set; and 2) A gorgeous 12 x 12 Christmas patterned paper pad I found at Hobby Lobby.  I was compelled to make a second card with the "song lyrics" theme.  You can see pieces from the Pine Cone die set and the Pattern Plate - Holly within the Postage Pop-up on the front.

The inside really shows off that pretty paper.  More of the Pine Cone and Holly die cuts are there as well.

Here's a close-up of the "song lyrics" of the Osmonds' version of It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas.  The first line of the second verse is "Pne cones and holly berries."

Karen Burniston Designer Challenge - Fun Faces

Karen Burniston recently had a "mini-release" of five clear stamps.  One of them was made to enhance the Paper People die set and had faces for lots of her animal dies as well.  This month's Designer Challenge theme was dedicated to that fun stamp set.

When I saw the theme "Fun Faces," an idea immediately popped into my head; and I ran with it.  As Christmas is right around the corner, I made a Christmas choir made up of 14 members, both male and female.  I placed them in the Wide Woven Basket, which is decorated with a Christmas swag from Fireplace Extras 1 and Ovals Crosshatch.  The choir members have various hair styles from Paper People, and several of them have glasses from Tiny Accessories 1.