Karen Burniston Designer challenge Part 2 - Party Animals

Firstly, Happy Christmas to you all. I hope you have had a lovely time and maybe Santa got you some new crafty goodies?  I have had a lovely couple of days with family, so much so I nearly lost a day! I thought today was Sunday and that I could make this card tomorrow!  eeeekkk!  Good job I realised with enough time to actually make it, and by the skin of my teeth I am indeed posting it on Monday.  PHEW.

Sandy Diller chose this months Challenge Theme and it was - "Party Animals" - use any of the Character dies for a card celebrating the New Year or anything else! 

These Designer Challenges are such fun to do.  Karen chooses the best themes and its been fun to mix up the Challenges with one of my fellow Designers picking a theme for the second part of the month and when thinking about these challenges and these wonderful woman that I have joined for month after month and I cant help but think "It's been AMAZING"  and that is where the inspiration for my card came.  

The fact that there are 10 characters are on the card and there are 10 of us is incidental, and I will let you all choose who is who :) 

So onto my card.  

The card had to be BIG to accommodate all the animals so I used a 12 x 8 card piece of cardstock and folded it in half.

I then used the Lots of Pops die and cut this 3 times into then card to createan array of platforms.  Then onto the fun part of cutting and decorating the characters.  First up we have Whiskers the cat, Honey Bear, Dutch the Fox, Hoppy the frog, Poppy the Owl, Buster the Dog, Snowball the Sheep, Lucky the Rabbit, Baker the Beaver and in top place Jinks the Monkey.

I used the pole and flags from the Lots of Pops set to hang some colourful flags.

You can see from the side how much dimension there is.  But it will still fold flat!

Please check out the links to the top left, where all my fellow Designers will show you their cards.  Tomorrow Karen will be posting her card to her blog so don't forget to hop on over there too.

Caz x

Karen Burniston December Pop it ups Designer Challenge

Hello Karen Burniston Fans and today I am taking part in the first of the December Challenges and this time the challenge is.

"All I want for Christmas" - use your all-time favorite Pop it Ups die (the one you would want for Christmas if you didn't already own it) for a holiday card. 

There are so many dies in the Pop it ups collection, it is hard to find a favourite, but we have had to choose one.My go to favourite is the Katie Pivot die.  One of the earliest from Karens line but one I grab time and time again.  The ease of use for this die is one reason.  But also I just love the design.

I decided to cut this twice into the 5" x 7" card as there was enough room. I had not done it before and it worked really well.

I admit to going a little crazy with the decorator dies and I did use

a stack of different ones.  To decorate the Pivot panels

I used the dies from the Katie Accordion die set for the larger one and the smaller one that has been stamped on is from the Katie Pivot set.

On the front I used the tree three times from the Holiday Charms

set and the Holiday stamps from Karen Burniston too.

On the inside I used Rudy the Reindeer, I will always remember

a trip to Knowle Park in Kent a few years back, we saw the most

beautiful white stag and I made a card with that style of deer before

and I enjoyed how it looked so I decided to do that again.

The heart was from the Heart Pivot set.

The parcels were hand cut but i used the bow from

the Evergreen Pivot die set.

You can find the links to the rest of the team on left on my blog, please do check out what they have made, there are some fabulous cards.  And Karen will post her card on Tuesday.

Crazy 4 Challenges - December 10th - Sketch

Hello
Its the second challenge for December and this week Frances has chosen to revisit the Sketch Challenges of the past.  We could choose which one we wanted.

I went for C4C323 but flipped it a bit to make... and wait for it... my FIRST own Christmas card for this year!! Yep.. only just starting.

I teamed the sketch up with a Newtons Nook stamp. Adorable bear eh?

You can see all the other cards for this challenge on the Crazy 4 Challenges blog. HERE

This is the last challenge for this year to give us all a bit of time to catch up with

all the other stuff this time of year brings!  Oh and for me it will be making more

cards for my Christmas Wishes :)

Until Next time.

Caz x

Elizabeth Craft Designs - Wednesday With Post

I made a gift card holder over on the Elizabeth Craft Designs Blog.  You can read all about it HERE.

There are full instructions for how I made it ;)

Crafts U Love - Tonic Essentials Floral Stamps Post

Please head over to Crafts U Love to check out my post on these Tonic Stamp Sets.  HERE is the post.

Crazy 4 Challenges - C4C365

Hello
I bowed out of last weeks challenge as I ran out of time, but wanted to make sure I didnt miss 2 weeks in a row.

This weeks challenge is STAR.  Frances was the lady to choose it and in her words I will let her explain.

STAR – Stars decorate our Christmas Trees and also helped show where Jesus was laying in his Manger all those many years ago. So for our challenge this week we are using the word ‘STAR’ – incorporate something starting with each of the letters in the word.

Here are a few suggestions to help you, but of course you are not limited to these ... Use your imagination! 

S = Santa; Sleigh; Stockings; Star; Snowman; Snowflakes; Snow; Sage; Saffron; Sapphire; Scarlet; Sepia; Silver; Square

T = Tree; Toy; Train; Tiger; Teddy; Teacher; Turkey; Triangle; Teal; Taupe; Turquoise

A = Arrow; Apple; Animals; Aqua; Apricot; Amber

R = Red; Reindeer; Rabbit; Rainbow; Rain; Rose; Ring; Rug; Round; Rectangle

On my card I have chosen :

S for SIGNS on the paper

T for the TORN paper

A for ANIMAL

R for ROPE/RIBBON

I dug out a very very old STAMPS BY JUDITH bear I brought many years

ago but was very pleasantly surprised that Stamps by Judith are still trading!  

WOW that is fantastic news.  So if you like this Griz Bear you can still purchase him.

The paper was new WRMK papers from Crafts U Love.

Please visit Crazy 4 Challenges blog to see the other designs that

the ladies have made for this challenge.

Karen Burniston Designer Challenge November Part 2 - Charmed

Hi Friends
I am back with the second Designer Challenges for November and this time its Karen A who has chosen the theme and it is :

"Charmed, I'm sure!" - use any of the charm dies for a card of any theme.

I wanted to use the main Hanging Charm Pull Tab card but I wanted to use it more as a mechanism
to make my Jinks the monkey stand up.  And I have used the Coffee Cup that comes with that same Hanging Charm Pull Tab die as a decorator die for Jinks.   Now a cup of coffee is lovely, but Jinks thinks Coffee and cake even better! and I have used the cake from the Props 8 die set and the Strawberry from the Cake Pop it Ups die set too. 

As well as the dies listed above I used the 

Coffee Stencil, Coffee & Tea stamps and the Labels & Circles Die set.

Here you can see I added a extra tab to the pull tab by folding the 

part that came out of the centre of the panel Jinks is standing in front of and stapling

this to the original pull tab.  Adding some decoration with the Coffe Bean Stamp.

I also used the Coffee Stencil pattern with some metallic rub on the sides of the 

Hanging Pull Tab Pop it ups die set.

You can see Karen Burnistons instructional video for the 

Hanging Charm Pull Tab card HERE

The rest of the team will be posting their cards over the day (monday) and Karen Burnistons Post will be Tuesday so be sure to check the links to the left on the blog.

Right... card made, I just need to choose who to send it to :)  Someone who likes cake!

Caz x

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Crazy 4 Challenges - Sketch

Hello its Saturday and that means its Crazy 4 Challenges and this weeks challenge is a sketch.

Here is the Sketch that I was working from.

And here is my card

I used a stamp from Marianne Designs. Had fun with watercolour pencils

to colour the cat in and also decorate the oval background.

You can see the other Crazy 4 Challenges cards on the Blog HERE 

Marianne Pillow Box

Today on the Crafts U Love Blog I have posted a Marianne Pillow Box showcase.

Tonic Studios Dies and Marianne Pillow Box

Penny Black Stamped Design, Marianne Wreath and Marianne Pillow Box.

These are just 2 of the 5 designs I have made.  Check out the post HERE

Merry Kitty

Hello
I am here with a quick post to show the Create and Take that I made for work last Friday.

I don't think I need to tell you how much I love Penny Black so any excuse to make

a card using a Penny Black Cutie is taken.

The image was stamped with Black Versafine and coloured with distress inks.

For this card I used a Penny Black Stamp set called Santa's Helper

The words, border and snowflakes are from a Cut-ies stamp set called 

Little Presents and the shape that I nestled the cat onto is the Karen Burniston

Labels & Circles dies set.  I do love this shape, its big enough to stamp on and has 

just the right amount of shape and decoration to make it interesting.

The mini Envelope was also from CUT-IES 

Crazy 4 Challenges - C4C362

Hello, its Saturday again and this weeks challenge is :

"Stitches and thread add some for of sewing to your card. This could include machine stitching, faux stitching, dies that have stitches, sewing related stamps, dies, papers, buttons, threads, string etc."

I decided as I am rubbish at real sewing I would use some stamps and dies to meet the theme.
I used the Karen Burniston  RECTANGLE PULL CARD Pop it ups die set for the base card.

The stamped image is a Penny Black Stamp

Scissors are Marianne Designs

Spool and Pin are X Cut

The patchwork, I dusted off my zig zag scissors!!

I was pleased how this one turned out :)  

Sorry this is short and sweet but I only just remembered just before bed time that I

did not blog this card yet. 

Visit HERE to see all the other challenge cards 

Caz x

Karen Burniston Designer Challenge NOVEMBER Part 1

Hello Crafters and today I am here with the first November Challenge for the Karen Burniston Designer Challenge Team and today's challenge brought to you by Karen is....

NOV 8TH - "Hat Attack" - there are 8 different hat choices in the Props/Charms/Anita sets - use one (or more) on a card. 

I chosen the Santa Hat from Props 5 to make Jolly the Mouse into "Father Christmouse"  I do believe he is singing  "When Santa got stuck up the chimney".  Not to worry, maybe Bert will come and save him if that happens with his trust Chimney Brushes.  :)

Jolly looks rather fetching in Santa's hat, glasses and Mustache, but he left the beard at

home, said tickled his tummy.

The front is very understated, I do like to keep them simple, you'd really have no clue to the 

card inside and makes it more of a surprise.

And here is the centre of the card, I have used the 

Through the Lens Paper

stack "Stone" from Elizabeth Craft Designs

Flower Pot Pop it Ups for the Chimney

Jolly the Mouse

Props 5

Upper Case Alphabet

Merry Christmas Pop it Ups

Agatha Edges

Parcels from Evergreen

Where possible I have linked Crafts U Love in the UK

otherwise I have linked directly to Elizabeth Craft Designs

Remember you can see all the other cards (and there are some amazing makes)

from the other ladies on Karens team on the link to the left of my blog.

Thanks for stopping by

Caz x