Woodland Wonderland

This was a FUN project! As I lay in bed this morning, I kept seeing little fairy woodland type houses in my head!  Well, we all know what that means!  Get out of bed and make a card!  YeeHaw!  I love it when my day start out like this!

I kept the front very simple.  It's a 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" card base.  To this I glued some pattern paper leaving a small border around the edge.  I did a sentiment using an old stamp and the banner die from the Ups Daisy Pop-up set.  I mounted this on a piece of card stock the same color as the base of the card.  I then made this dimensional by mounting it with fun foam.  

 Let's start with these babies!  As you can probably tell, these started out as parts of the castle pop up set.  See the drawbridge?!  First, I die cut the castle piece.  I cut it into 2 sections making use of the two turrets.  

I then ran them thru a wood grained embossing folder.  I distressed them with ink, glued some yellow behind the windows, and attached the doors.  

Then I cut out another castle to use as a backer piece for the houses and glued it to the back of the houses. 

Next, I cut out flowers from the ups daisy set (the smaller one).  I inked the edges, then cut them in half.  I used these pieces for the shingles on the roofs.  I layered them up starting at the bottom of the roof and working upwards.   

I hand cut a chimney for each house, and glued it to the back.  The mushrooms were random pieces of waste from die cuts.  I inked red on the top, brown on the bottoms, added some white dots, and Voila'....Mushrooms!

I added an additional flower to the right side of the blue house, and once again, using the waste from die cuts, I made a center for the flower.  

 I used random papers for the background and lower portion of the card and glued these to the card base.  I then added the floating floor from the house and fence pop up set.  

I added the houses to the various pop-up mechanism and added the stone walkways from the house and fence set.
  
The tree in the background was from the halloween scene die set.  To that I glued leaves made from the leaf die from the flower pot  set.  

The raccoon is from the woodland animals set.  The lantern and the hat on the raccoon are from the camping charms set.  The fence/wall pieces are from the castle pop up set.  The ferns on the wall sections are from a Martha Stewart leaf punch. 

All the papers for the leaves & flowers were made using distress inks, and water.  

The sun flower is from the ups daisy pop up set.

 The flourishes on the floor of the card are from the square spinner pop up set.  I used them to partially frame the area where I will sign the card.  

 So in this card I used mostly Karen Burniston dies.  I used:

1001 Woodland Animals
1049 Camping Charms
1033 Castle Pop-up
1014 Halloween Scene
1015 House and fence Pop-up
1042 Spinner Square Pop-up
1010 Flower Pot Pop-up
1047 Ups Daisy Pop-up

I also used A fern leaf punch from Martha Stewart.  

This card was a BLAST to make!  I needed this boost after finding out I didn't make the cut for the design team member position I was going after.  There is no better way to raise your spirits, than to make a card.  At least not for me! 

Happy crafting!

ttfn: Karen




  

My "On Your Road to Recovery" Card

I had a friend who needed a card for her son who was recovering from an accident.  She wanted specific sayings on the card.  This is what I came up with.  

What's better than a road on a "Road to Recovery" card?!  So that was my jumping off point.  I used the Upsy Daisy Pop-up Die  (Karen Burniston) and the frames that are also part of the set.  I inked in some clouds & Grass, and freehand drew some birds.  The road die was "Lawn Fawn-Road Border."  The sentiment is computer generated.

(On the next two pictures, I've blanked out their faces for their privacy).  

Under the pink square is a picture of her and her son, and the other two squares contain part of the message with some hearts, one, in each of the frames, is popped up with dimensionals.   The sentiments in the frames are computer generated.  The one on the grassy area is from "Stampabilities."

The white area is where she can sign the card.  I felt that the road needed to be on the bottom of the card, so I decided to be different and place the signature place on the top.   I needed a little height above the frames, so I added hearts suspended on wires.  High enough to bring interest, low enough that he'll be able to read what she writes.  

She loved it!  Yay

I hope you enjoyed today's card.  

ttfn: Karen

Happy crafting

Christmas in July

The theme for the card I'm publishing today is "Christmas in July."

I figure it's everywhere right now, so....why not?  Right?! 

I am going do my best to list all the "ingredients" that went into the card, 

but some of my earlier stuff doesn't have paperwork with it anymore!  

My bad!  I did not realize, at the time, that I would need it later!

  Oops!

First off, my photography kinda stinks.  At the moment, I don't have the right lighting, and I should probably use something other than my phone to take pictures with!  Ya think?!   But Hey!  What's a girl without dreams?  Satisfied...spoiled...or just plain lucky?!  Hmmm!  Maybe sometimes things should just stay in your "Dream Pile" for a while.   Yep!  I'll go with THAT one!

So, this is my first card with the "Ups Daisy Popup" Die by Karen Burniston.  The card measures      5 1/2 by 5 1/2.  The die set is pretty straight forward and easy to use.  I can see using this one a LOT!

The section with the 3 frames is suspended, and is not touching the base of the card.  The frames are connected to each other by string.  It all folds flat for easy mailing.

This die set has the main mechanisms, and enough support pieces to make a card.  By support pieces I mean decorative dies. The frames are one example.  There are two mats for the frames (different sizes so you can double mat if you want, otherwise single mats of different sizes.)  There's a small banner die, a stem, a flower,  and a flower center. 

on to the card...

The Reindeer is "Rudy the Reindeer" and is a retired die.  I used regular cardstock, and inked the edges.  

The antlers were made out of cream cardstock that I inked to look like wood.  The bow was from Elizabeth Craft Designs ( #1408 Reindeer), as were the snow flakes.  

The candy cane was from "Jolly the Mouse",  another retired die from Karen Burniston.  The Merry Christmas was from a Sizzix die set.  I'm sorry, but I just can't remember what the name of the set is, but it has lots of Christmas sentiments in it.  

The paper was from my stash, so I cannot tell you where that is from.  The medallion on the front, and the hanging Santa clothes came from this years Mad Plaid Christmas, by Photoplay.  That is a cute collection of Christmas paper.  Worthy of a look see.  I found mine on scrapbook.com.

This was a fun card to make.  Probably the best advice I can give you on this die set is to make a mock up design before making the final card, at least the first time.  I ended up needing to make my card longer to accommodate Rudy's antlers.  I'm glad I found that out before starting!

The other thing is pay attention to the instructions on which pop up goes on which size.  If you read directions, you won't have any problems.  Just wanted to say that the pop ups are NOT interchangeable!

As with any card, It's much better in person.  Sometimes they look "flat & lifeless" in photos.  This one has sparkle that doesn't really show up in the pictures.

First time using this die....Yeah, I've got ideas now, and a better understanding of the set.  Full instructions  AND a video on how to use this die can be found on Karen Burniston's web page @ http://karen burniston.com

Happy Crafting everyone!

ttfn: Karen