Hi, it’s Karen Burniston with the April Pop it Ups Designer Challenge. Each month I challenge my Designer Challenge team to use Pop it Ups dies for a specific theme. This month the theme is Mother’s Day and/or Baby cards. You’ll find eighteen inspiring projects below from the DC team.
A few weeks ago we attended the Collins Rep Group Spring Training event in Boston. We decided to release a new die as part of that show. The House Pivot Card Die (#902) is shipping this week to stores who ordered it at the show. Starting next week the orders will go out to stores who didn’t attend the show but ordered the die.
For my project I decided to use the new House Pivot Card die for a Mother’s Day card. In addition to the House Pivot Card die (which comes with the pivot card die plus 7 accessory dies) I also mixed in decorator pieces from three other Pop it Ups dies; the All Seasons Tree, Fancy Accordion and the grass from the Garden Bench.
Watch this video tutorial to learn how to use this die as I create the following Mother’s Day card. If you watch till the end you’ll also see additional House card samples.
For my card I kept the front pretty simple, with just a couple of clouds, an extra chimney and some grass.
The card’s interior features the All Seasons Tree (the “cloud” dies that come with the tree can be used for clouds or for foliage), the grass from the Garden Bench die, and the Fancy Labels from the Fancy Accordion die. I computer-generated the greeting in the style of the inspiration item (a mug) that I purchased for Mom.
In this next photo you can see a close-up of the details on the house. The brick emboss is created by the House decorator die by rolling it back through a die cutting machine with an embossing sandwich. (Watch the video to see this done) The little window frames have built-in window boxes which will also look like awnings if they are turned to the top. (Wouldn’t this die make a cute little bakery?) The extra fence picket can also be used as a birthday candle.
Some of the footage that ended up on the cutting room floor showed a couple of variations for using the House Pivot Card die, where you can make a double house pivot card or a double fence pivot card. However, I know that Raquel Mason has some examples of this technique coming up soon on this blog, so stay tuned for that!
Supplies:
Elizabeth Craft Designs Products
- 902 House Pivot Card Die set (call your local store to order!)
- 781 All Seasons Tree
- 780 Garden Bench (grass die only)
- 771 Accordion Fancy Label (decorator labels)
- 7018 Glitter Dots – Black/Silver
- Die Snips
- Die File Set
- Detail Fine Pointed Tweezers
- Detail Fine Pointed Scissors
Other Supplies – Bazzill cardstocks, My Mind’s Eye “Lost and Found Market Street” Papers, pop dots, fine line glue, Copic E47 marker (back of white pickets for distressed bleed-thru look), computer-generated greeting
Time to see how the Designer Challenge team interpreted the Mamas & Babies challenge. I will share one photo of each project, but know that the designers have full blog posts on their blogs (linked with their names) for these projects, including supply lists, instructions and additional photos. I encourage lots of clicking to fully experience the beauty.
Let’s start with MAMAS!
Fran Sabad has created the mother of all Mother’s day cards! This three-page Circle Accordion album, with matching Frame Edges, knocks my socks off! Such a pretty and spectacular card. As I would say . . . Frantastic!
Frances Byrne also created a stunning Mother’s Day Accordion album by mixing two Circle Accordion pages with one Fancy Accordion page. She explains how to do it on her blog and the results are amazing. Love the use of the coordinating Frame Edges dies for each page and the beautifully glittered and colored Roses Peel-off Stickers.
Summer Hills-Painter just had her third little boy, so I was expecting to see a Baby card from her, but she went with gorgeous Mother’s Day cards instead. Both of her creations feature bold striking colors that work so well together. First up is her Oval Accordion card featuring the Oval Flourish Frame Edges. The Roses in Oval Peel-off Sticker has been glittered and colored to match the red/white/black color scheme. Love this!
Now let’s look at what Helen Cryer created with the same Oval Accordion die. This is the beauty of die cutting, where YOU choose your colors, textures and theme. This is also a Mother’s Day card, but with more of a homespun country feel. I love Helen’s choices of embellishments for her Mum.
With no prior consultation the designers managed to make cards with all three Accordion Album shapes and all four Pivot Card shapes (my House card is the fourth Pivot Card). Let’s check out the designer creations using the other three Pivot Card shapes, the Katie Label, Butterfly and Heart.
First up, Shelly Hickox with a drop dead gorgeous Mother’s Day card using the Katie Label Pivot Card. She’s added some decorator dies from the Butterfly Accessory die and the Agatha Edges. On the front of her card (click over to see!) she’s done a brilliant whitewash technique with the Damask Embossing Folder. You can also see this card in action on Shelly’s blog courtesy of a short Vine video.
Raquel Mason used the Heart Pivot Card die perfectly for this sweet Mother’s Day card featuring a suspended chain of hearts and the included key die. She has a ton of clever techniques in this card and you’ll definitely want to click over to her blog post to read them all. Fabulous!
Summer Hills-Painter made a second Mother’s Day card, this time with the Butterfly Pivot Card die. She also used the Agatha Edges and the Katie Label decorator dies for her greeting. The colors again are non-traditional, but work so well together. The edging effect is very striking.
Kelly Booth made this sweet Mother’s Day card for her daughter. The Lots of Pops die is perfect for creating layered pop-up scenes like this one, featuring glittered and colored Peel-off stickers. The die set includes the pole and a few banners as well.
Donna Wright went with bright bold colors for this Mother’s Day card, using the Lucy Label pop-up die and Agatha Edges, and embellishing the front of the Lucy Label with the Katie Label decorator dies. (In real life Katie and Lucy are only marginally good at playing nicely together, but in die form they blend spectacularly) I love her use of other ECD dies to create the vase of flowers.
Karen Aicken made this adorable birthday card for the challenge. How does it fit the theme? Her daughter was born on Mother’s Day! Karen has used the Lots of Pops die and the Agatha Edges flourish along with some adorable stamped, glittered and colored bird stamps to celebrate the occasion.
Gretchen Schmidt made a lovely Mother’s Day card using an embossing folder and decorator dies from several Pop it Ups dies, but not for a pop-up card. What a perfect illustration of the possibilities (not just pop-a-bilities) with the Pop it Ups collection. This uses the Butterfly Embossing Folder, Butterfly Pivot Card and Fancy Accordion dies.
Next up: BABIES!
Kelly Booth knows a thing or two about color, that’s for sure! Check out the ombre mottled coloring on the onesie, created with an ink/water splash technique. So perfect! She’s used the Lucy Label Pop it Ups die to create her little scene, but also embellished with decorator dies from the Katie Label Pivot die.
Helen Cryer created an explosion of celebration with her Lots of Pops new baby boy card. The pole and banners come included with the Lots of Pops die and she’s used the clouds from the All Seasons Tree in the background. I particularly like her choice to use big bold letters and have them hang off the edges. What a great celebratory feel!
Once again the designers (with no consultation) represented all three Accordion Album shapes into their baby cards. Karen Aicken has this stunner using the Fancy Accordion Album for a 3-page baby boy card for her new grandson Zachary. What amazing details! The Fancy Frame Edges are also used on this card.
I like to refer to the cards made by Frances Byrne as “downunderful” (because she’s Australian and her cards are wonderful – you dig?) and this Oval Accordion baby card is no exception! She incorporated the Oval Dots Frame Edges on the album and super cute perfectly colored stamped images. Downunderful!
Fran Sabad created this soft and lovely baby card using the Circle Accordion die with the Square w/Circle Frame Edges. All of the Accordion Albums will work with any number of pages. I am super impressed with Fran’s attention to detail on the Frame Edges for the striped page – she made the pattern line up!
Caroline “Caz” Counsell was recently featured in the Daily Mail for her awesome craft shed (crafty palace). You’ll definitely want to click to Caz’s blog to see photos of our resident celebrity! For her DC card she used the Trendy Tiles 1 Embossing folder on the edge of a sparkly Heart Pivot Card celebrating baby. Click to her blog to see the inside.
Donna Wright used the Katie Label Pivot Card for this adorable baby girl card with the Agatha Edges. Check out that cute clothespin holding up the onesie! I really like that Donna illustrates that card size is completely up to the crafter – here she’s used a short long card.
Thank you to the amazing team for posting incredible creations every month. Join us on May 21, 2014, for the next Karen Burniston Pop it Ups Designer Challenge. The theme will be “FLY” and the designers may interpret the theme any way they choose. This will make for some fun cards, I’m sure!
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