Accordion Circle

Karen Burniston Pop it Ups Designer Challenge – Photo Accordion Cards

June 18, 2014

Hi, it’s Karen Burniston with the June 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 challenge was to create an Accordion Album showcasing a photo or photos.

For my video I wanted to show how to make Accordions with clear inner pages. I am using the new Katie Label Accordion die in the video. This die will be available in stores next month, so be sure to ask your favorite retailer to order it. You can use the techniques in the video with any of the Accordion dies, so don’t feel limited to just the Katie.

Topics covered in the video:

Showing off the Designer Challenge Team’s collaborative 11-page Oval Accordion album
Snipping tips for the accordion dies that come with stitching dies (Oval Accordion, Katie Label Accordion and Ring Accordion)
How to achieve a raised embossed stitch using an embossing sandwich
How to make clear inner pages for Accordion albums
Using brads to connect clear tabs
Assembling accordions in a layered sandwich style that hides the long tabs and the clear frames
How to repair an accidental break
Envelope sizes to mail Accordion Albums

Here are some photos and additional details about the project made in the video:

I made sure to add a solid white decorator label to the back of Page 2 so that when the album is closed the clear title will be easy to read against the white. I added the same colorful brads to the left side of the page to balance the ones on the right.

Counting_by_5s_open

My twins, Karl and Emma, are 15 years old and have certainly come a long way since being born seven weeks early (Emma was 4 lb. 9 oz. Karl was 2 lb. 9 oz.) to their current size (Karl is taller than me, Emma is getting close!) I thought it would be fun to show photos from their birthdays at ages 5, 10 and 15. Notice that Karl was still shorter than Emma on their 10th birthday. Clearly that changed in 5 years!

Because I didn’t have a vertical shot of them at Age 5 I had to crop a horizontal one. I covered the seam with Glitter Borders. For the age numbers, I printed them on transparency and then outlined them with a silver paint pen on the back of the transparency before cutting them out. The brightly colored mini-brads are both functional and decorative. Some of them go through the small tabs to join pages together. I thought the visible brad prongs from behind the album added a festive touch to the album, almost like a colored staple, so I didn’t trim them. Instead, I just made sure I chose brads that had painted prongs.

Elizabeth Craft Designs Supplies:

#903 Katie Label Accordion Die (available 7.15.14)
Black Glitter Borders
Die Snips
Die File Set

Other Supplies: office transparencies, Carta Bella Patterned Paper “Homemade with Love” Collection, colored mini-brads, white gel pen

Time to see what the incredibly talented Designer Challenge Team, plus three Guest Designers, created for the challenge.

This compilation photo accordion album is featured in the video. I asked each member of the team to create one Oval Accordion page. They were instructed to include a photo of themselves and their blog address on the page, but otherwise could design it with any colors, any theme, any embellishments. The results are fantastic! If you’re in any of my classes for the rest of the year you’ll be able to see it close up, as it will travel with me.

First let’s look at the albums the team had to choose from. Three styles are available now: Circle Accordion, Oval Accordion and Fancy Accordion. For each style there are optional companion frame edge dies that coordinate: Square w/Circle Frame Edges, Oval Dots Frame Edges, Oval Flourish Frame Edges and Fancy Frame Edges.

Last week I posted a Sneak Peek Part 1 showing the first 10 of 16 new dies that will be available in stores July 15, 2014 as part of the Pop it Ups Summer Release. Included in that Sneak Peek were two new Accordion Albums and four new Frame Edge dies. The Designer Challenge Team received advance copies of the new dies and were allowed to use them for the Challenge if they liked.

All of the Accordion Album dies work the same and you can learn how to assemble them in this video. The beauty is that YOU decide how many pages to add to the album. They can be as short or as long as you like. For the projects below, I’ve sorted them by number of pages to illustrate the different looks. Click on each designer’s name to go to their blog posts to see more photos, instructions, supply lists, etc.

TWO-PAGE ACCORDIONS:

Helen Cryer made this two-page Circle Accordion project to give to her husband for his desk at work. She included recent pictures of the family on vacation. I think this is brilliant idea and will be making something similar for my husband’s desk!

Karen Aicken‘s little grandson Ethan will be turning 2 soon so she made this very cute card using the Katie Label Accordion. She also mixed in the ECD balloon die. Notice the balloon string wrapped around the 2 – so cute!

THREE-PAGE ACCORDIONS:

Caz Counsell used the new Katie Label Accordion for a beautiful 3-page album featuring her niece’s wedding photos. She used the Butterfly Embossing Folder and Butterfly Accessory dies to create an elegant first page for the album.

Frances Byrne chose the new Ring Accordion for a Christmas album using photos of her granddaughter. The Ring Album comes with two sizes of ornament top die as well. Frances did some clever combining of letter pieces to create the date.

Jenn Dove is back this month as a Guest Designer and used the Circle Accordion for a three-page album featuring a brilliant cardinal and a great photo of the two of us in Yosemite last month. I love the color combo and the sweet sentiment.

Jenn Mock is also back as a Guest Designer for this challenge and borrowed my Katie Label Accordion die to make this fabulous 3-page beach card with photos of her grandsons. The coral on page one is a section of the All Seasons Tree die – how clever!

Kelly Booth also chose to use the new Katie Label Accordion for a 3-page SUPER card featuring her grandson dressed up as a superhero. She used the Katie Stars Frame Edges and mixed in decorator dies from the Katie Label Pivot Card. (Note: the decorator dies between the two Katie Label dies fit either die but do not duplicate, so they can be mixed for a ton of possibilities.)

Shelly Hickox made a beautiful and elegant Ring Album and turned it into a pocket watch with a clever addition of a printed winder and loop at the top of the first page. She used photos from her daughter’s wedding, turning them black and white for a timeless feel. You can see a Vine video of this card in action if you click over to her blog.

Summer Hills-Painter shows how wonderfully Pop it Ups dies interchange with each other. Here she used the Katie Label Accordion but mixed in decorator dies from the Katie Label Pivot Card and Fancy Accordion. She also used the ECD Pumpkin die. Her two older boys look like they found the perfect pumpkins!

FOUR-PAGE ACCORDIONS:

Raquel Mason created this wonderful mixed album using the Oval Accordion and the Katie Label Accordion. She also used the new Oval Clouds Frame Edges and a fun technique that Karen Aicken showed us for filling in the first page as a solid front to the album. Love these sweet beach photos of Raquel and her son.

Frances Byrne made a second project to focus on her grandson. What a fabulous mixed album! She mixed the Katie Label Accordion with the Oval Accordion, using perfect boy colors and elements to document William’s cubby construction.

Helen Cryer made this fun 4-page Katie Label Accordion for her Dad. Starring in the photos are his parents, his bride, his kids and his grandkids – who wouldn’t love a gift like this?!

Kelly Booth is the queen of color! This 4-page Fancy Accordion using the new Seasons Fancy Frame Edges is the perfect showcase for everyday photos of her grandkids.

Raquel Mason made a very unique 4-page Fancy Accordion by stacking two 2-pagers on top of each other! She used the new Poppy the Owl and Props 1 dies to highlight the silly photos she took with her son. What a great project!

Summer Hills-Painter recently had her third son and showcased her cute boys in this 4-page Fancy Accordion using the new Fancy Seasons Frame Edges. Awesome boy colors!

Gretchen Schmidt also used the Fancy Accordion Album for a four-page album celebrating a four-legged friend. The crisp colors of this album are very striking. The scalloped frame from the Fancy Frame Edges die is a great choice.

SIX-PAGE ACCORDIONS:

Karen Aicken knocked my socks off with this fabulous blooming cactus Fancy Accordion project. She created a solid cover to the album. Click over to her blog to see it in the closed position. Great photos, great techniques!

Fran Sabad created a 6-page Oval Accordion using fun photos from a trip to Universal Studios. Notice the clever star garlands strung between the pages. She also embossed every page with the Trendy Tiles 1 Embossing Folder.

Donna Wright created a gorgeous 6-page Circle Accordion generations album, using the All Seasons Tree to set the scene. Such a lovely project and so powerful to see the women of Donna’s family going back several generations.

TWENTY-PAGE ACCORDION:

Sandy Diller drops the mic with this absolutely stunning, fantastic, awesome, amazing, impressive 20-page Fancy Accordion album celebrating her 50 years of marriage. You just really need to click over to her blog to read more about it and see the photo of it stretched out. ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS! Thank you, Sandy for Guest Designing with us again.

So there you have it. Amazing inspiration for using the Pop it Ups Accordion Album dies with photos to make amazing cards, gifts and memory albums. Which Accordion die is your favorite?

The Designer Challenge Team will be back the week of July 14th with Christmas (or other winter Holidays) in July projects. My compilation post and video will be posted July 16th. This is a great chance to let the team inspire you to get an early jump on your holiday cards. The new dies will be available in stores at that time.

Happy crafting!

143 Comments

Pop it Ups

A Glittery Circle Accordion Card with Pretty Flowers

May 20, 2014

Hi it’s Kelly Booth back with a glittery birthday Accordion Card using the Flower Circle Frames Peel-Offs in gold. I was so inspired when I saw some cards Els made using the gold Peel-Off Stickers, they are so striking! Elizabeth Craft Designs has so many gorgeous Flower Peel-Off Stickers to choose from.

1. Cut a piece of white card stock that fit 3 Flower Circle Peel-Offs and put double-sided adhesive on top.

2. Take of release sheet and place Peel-Offs on double-sided adhesive using the transfer technique Els is showing HERE.

3. Cover adhesive with Cool Diamond Silk Microfine Gitter and polish. Use a brush to brush of the excess glitter.

4. Color flower circles with Copic or other alcohol markers.

5. Cut out circles and set aside.

6. Cut six panels in white using the Accordion Circle Card die. On three of these cut out the middle section and trim the long side tabs, leaving just a white frame.

7. Cut three more accordion panels, one pink, one green, and one yellow and cut out the large circles in the center. You can use scraps as you only need the circles.

8. Cut 16 decorative frame edges in blue. The easiest way to do this is to put your card stock on ECD double-sided adhesive before cutting. Before you stick them down stick it to your clothes to reduce the tackiness a bit to allow for repositioning. (A little tip learned from Karen Burniston)

9. Cut 4 white circles from the middle sized circle in the Accordion Card die set and stamp three of them with a gold sentiment.

Now it is time to assemble your creation:

10. To assemble your card, take the three whole white panels and point the tabs to the right. Place a strip of double-sided adhesive on each tab and begin attaching the three white panels to form the Accordion card.

11. Take the three large colored circles and adhere one in each circle on the panels.

12. Begin removing the adhesive from the backs of the frame edges and place them on each panel. They are designed to leave a little space on both edges. Keeping that in mind will make it easier to get them even.

13. Now adhere your colored and glittered peel-off circles on the card, one in each panel.

14. Snip the tabs from the last panel as you will not need them.

15. Place a tiny piece of adhesive on the small tabs of the first two panels. I like to get the panels folds going at this point, first a valley fold then a mountain.

16. Adhere small tabs. (They will fold in the opposite from each other. First mountain, then valley.)

17. Adhere the 3 white frames cut earlier to the back of the card. This will create some stiffness and will look neater as it will cover the tabs.

18. Adhere circles with sentiment. Adhere “just for you” at the front of the card, right bottom corner and adhere “Happy Birthday” (so on the inside of the first panel) to the back. Adhere the last sentiment on the right bottom corner of the third panel and a blank circle on the back.

19. I also like to cut colored circles to cover the back and add a little white die cut for a sentiment there but this is not necessary. 🙂

I hope you enjoyed this card and if you have any questions leave me a comment here and I will answer!

SUPPLIES:

Elizabeth Craft Designs

2530 Flower Circle Frames

641 Cool Diamond Silk Microfine Glitter

501 5″ x 12″ – 5 Pack Double Sided Adhesive

769 Accordion Circle Card

770 Square W/ Circle Frame Edges

Other Supplies

Die Cutting Machine

Copic Markers

Card stock light Blue, White, Pink, Green and Yellow.

Gold Pigment Ink

Sentiment stamps by Simon Says Stamp

46 Comments

Pop it Ups

Jackie’s dolls accordion card

May 4, 2014

Hello everyone! It’s Joset here and today I would like to show you a card I created using one of our new Peel-offs, Jackie’s Dolls in Circle. You might have seen the Jackie’s Dolls in Oval Peel-offs that match perfect with the Accordion Oval Card. The Jackie’s Dolls in Circle match perfectly with the Accordion Circle Card and that’s why I chose to use this die to create my accordion card. Since I didn’t know which sticker on the sheet I liked the best, I decided to use them all and create a 4 panel accordion card. I hope you enjoy this tutorial and pictures!

To create the card:

1. Put double-sided adhesive sheet onto white cardstock.

2. Remove the release sheet and place it upside down on your workspace (shiny side up).
Leave the cardstock with the exposed adhesive on the table.

3. Take your Peel-off Sticker and place it upside down on the release sheet (sticky side up).
On the picture below you can see the white cardstock with double-sided adhesive on the top and the release sheet with my Peel-Off Stickers below.

4. Take your white cardstock and place it with the adhesive side facing down onto the release sheet with the Peel-off on it. The Peel-off will lift from the release sheet and stick to the adhesive on the cardstock.

5. Turn the cardstock so that the release sheet is now on top. Take off the release sheet and make sure not to touch the adhesive.

6. Cover the adhesive with Silk Microfine Glitter in Cool Diamond. Polish with your finger and use a brush to brush of the excess glitter. TIP: Pour your glitter into a coffee filter and then use your finger to cover the adhesive. Once ready you can easily pour your glitter back into the jar using your non-static coffee filter.

7. Color your glittered peel-offs with Copic Markers or any alcohol-based pens. Use a Copic Blender pen for shading or use solid colors if you prefer. If you are using a blender pen, add a little bit a ink on the edge of the Peel-Off Sticker. Use your blender pen to color in the rest of area you are coloring (see picture below). Make sure to clean your tip of your blender pen before starting another color.

8. Carefully cut around each circle.

9. For your accordion card, die cut 2 accordion pages out of light purple cardstock and 2 pages out of turquoise cardstock (you can cut off the long side tab of the last page and the smaller tab on the inside). Die cut 4 accordion frames out of patterned paper. To create a frame, die cut a page and cut out the circle on the inside. Trim each side of the frame a few inches.

10. Adhere the 4 pages together using strong adhesive on the long side tabs. Adhere the frames. Use the circles to decorate the back of the card.

11. Using 2 of the decorator dies from the Accordion Circle Card set, die cut a smaller circle out of light purple cardstock and a scalloped circle out of white cardstock.

12. Die cut Happy Birthday out of white cardstock with double-sided adhesive and glitter with Amethyst Silk Microfine Glitter.

13. Adhere light purple circle, scalloped circle and Happy Birthday to page 3. Adhere colored
peel-offs to pages 1, 2 and 4.

14. After you’re done decorating, fold pages accordion style. Attach the 4 circles on the inside of each page together using strong adhesive on the small side tabs.

I hope you feel inspired to make this card yourself!

Supplies

Elizabeth Craft Designs Products
769 Accordion Circle Card
738 Happy Birthday Large
2571 Jackie’s Dolls in Circle Peel-Off Stickers black
502 Double Sided Adhesive
641 Cool Diamond Silk Microfine Glitter
621 Amethyst Silk Microfine Glitter
802 Fine pointed scissors

Other Products
Light purple cardstock
Turquoise cardstock
White cardstock
Patterned paper: BoBunny Enchanted Garden Collection
Copic Markers: YG25, BG13, V09, BV11, RV19, RV04
Colorless Blender 0
Adhesive

14 Comments

Pop it Ups

Spring Hats Accordion Circle Album Birthday Card

April 16, 2014

Hello! Helen here again, this time with an Accordion Circle Album card, featuring the Hat Peel-Off stickers.

Instructions

1. Place the Hat Peel-offs on watercolor paper.
2. Color with Tombow Dual Brush pens. Use a water brush for blending. (TIP: Scribble some of the ink onto a shiny surface, and use the water brush to pick up the ink to paint with.)
3. Once dry, fussy cut around the hats.

4. Die cut a colour-coordinatingcolour circle of Shimmer Sheetz for each of the hats, using the Accordion Circle Card die.
5. Emboss each circle using the Lots of Dots embossing folder. With a file, lightly sand the raised dots to reveal the white and silver core of the Shimmer Sheetz.

6. Die cut 4 accordion pages from white cardstock , and 4 accordion frames from patterned paper.
7. Using one of the decorator dies from the Accordion Circle Card set, die cut 4 scalloped circles from white cardstock.

SONY DSC

8. Adhere all the card elements together, fixing the separate pages together last. Use foam pads to adhere the hats for extra dimension.
9. Die cut bow from Pink Velvet Adhesive Sheets and adhere onto white cardstock. Adhere some velcro to the back of the bow and another little piece at the top of the centre fold of the album.
This way the bow can be removed in order to fold the card.
10. Punch four holes in the corners of each page, and strung through twine. Cover holes with gold brads. Hand cut some bunting flags, stamp ‘happy birthday’ onto them, and adhere to twine.

Here’s a close-up of the first two pages.

And a close-up of the second two pages.

There are so many fun techniques to be had with Elizabeth Craft Design’s products! I hope you feel inspired to try some of them!

Supplies:

Elizabeth Craft Design Products

769 Accordion Circle Card die set

798 Four Bows die

2529 Hats Peel-Off stickers

WP903 Watercolor Paper

E114 Lots of Dots Embossing Folder

Shimmer Sheetz (Colors used; Ruby Gemstone and Yellow, Blue and Purple Iridescent)

409 Pink Velvet Sheet

Others – White cardstock, Pattern paper, Tombow Dual Brush Pens, watercolor brush, file,
foam pads, velcro, twine, scissors

13 Comments

Pop it Ups

Thank You with Lovely Hydrangea

April 8, 2014

Good morning, friends!

This is Rita here today to say Thank You with Lovely Hydrangea! Yes, You! Thank you for being here reading my notes and always responding with kind and sweet comments!

Shall we get started with our new card? I have lots of photos to share today and the supply list is at the end with all the links you’ll need.

1. We’re starting out with the Hydrangea Peel-off stickers, double sided adhesive, Amethyst Gemstone and Green Metallic Shimmer Sheetz.

2. Let’s first peel the release sheet of our double sided adhesive, keep this for our next step and attache the adhesive side to our Amethyst Gemstone Shimmer Sheetz.

3. Now we can use the release sheet we just saved and take our Peel-off stickers and place them upside down on the release sheet (sticky side up) — this helps us position each of the Peel-off sticker apart from each other yet not worrying about the shapes.

4. Once we have all our Peel-offs sticky side up, we can take our piece of Shimmer Sheetz and place it with the adhesive side facing down onto the release sheet, just like this image shows.

5. Oh, did I mention we’re going to use glitter? Of course we are! That’s one of my favorite part!
So let’s bring out our Warm Diamond Silk Microfine Glitter and add to the adhesive side of our combined layers. After we added the glitter, we can shake off the extra and simply use our fingers to polish the surface, which allows the glitter to stick and remain looking so gorgeous, just like this image shows:

6. And yes, it’s time to pull out our crafting scissors and cut around each glittered flower piece.

7. You might be wondering why we started out with 2 shimmer sheetz and yes, you’re correct, we’ll be using the Green Metallic Shimmer Sheetz for our leaves. I’d like to share a trick — thanks to my lovely design team friends I now know that, for die cutting Shimmer Sheetz, you need to use the metal adaptor plate so every die cut comes out perfectly!

8. Using our Accordion Circle Card die set, it’s time to create our card base. Die cut 2 pages out of premium card stock and another 2 pages out of Imperial Garnet Gemstone Shimmer Sheetz.
Using a regular blade we can simply cut out the inner circle from my Shimmer Sheetz pages and use a smaller circle to make yet another die cut. Since we have so many gorgeous leaves already, I think it’s best to use the Curvy Leaves Embossing Folder and what can I say? I think I sat over this card base admiring it for minutes! Just gorgeous really!

9. I use Tombow Multi Liquid Glue for everything I need to glue and it works very nicely here adding the Shimmer Sheetz leaves to the Shimmer Sheetz circles and card base.

10. Once the leaves are on, we can add two scalloped circle card stock die cuts to the middle of each circle and add more leaves on top — I like the layered and dimensional look. Now we can add our lovely little flowers too, some glued directly on top of the leaves, some added with tiny foam squares to further achieve our dimensional look.

11. Using the left over piece from our earlier glittered Shimmer Sheetz, we can die cut the
“Thank You”, add to our card and now we are done! How gorgeous is this card! I hope you enjoy making it as much as I did.

Would you like to know two little fun facts about this card? Fact #1: I created 22 little flowers without even knowing and 22 is my lucky number! Fact #2: this is probably my very first card I didn’t use any of my Copic markers creating it, no coloring whatsoever and I love this card so much!

As always, please leave your comments and/or questions in your comments. I’ll respond to each note. Hugs, Rita

Supplies used today:
Hydrangea Peel-0ff Sticker
Double-sided Adhesive Sheets
Amethyst Gemstone Shimmer Sheetz
Purple Iridescent Shimmer Sheetz
Green Metallic Shimmer Sheetz
Warm Diamond Silk Microfine Glitter
Accordion Circle Card Die Set
Thank You Die Set
Curvy Leaves Embossing Folder
Metal Adaptor Plate

13 Comments

Pop it Ups

Accordion Circle Ladybugs Card

March 18, 2014

Hello everyone! This is Helen Cryer here, sharing with you my first ever card post as a member of the Elizabeth Craft Designs Design Team!

As soon as I saw the Lady Bug die set, I thought how well those little ladybirds (as I call them – I’m from the UK!) would go with the spotty border from the Square w/Circle Frame Edges die set, on the Accordion Circle Card. Here is the card I came up with:

I wanted to show you the different die cut elements to my card. You can see that I used the Frame Edges die set to cut solid black borders, as well as red spotty borders, which I glued over the top of the black borders. I cut the red borders from paper-backed satin, which is why they have a sheen. The other circle pieces are cut with the Accordion Circle Card die set. I cut six ladybirds, but only ended up using five of them.

For the leaves, I cut one layer from Green Velvet Adhesive Sheet (which is absolutely gorgeous, luxurious stuff!), and another leaf layer from Light Green Velvet. The Big Triple Leaf die puts an embossed line down the leaves, which I used as guideline to cut along. I stuck half of each Light Green leaf onto the darker green layer, so I could create two-toned leaves.

I adhered all the card elements, joining the two card halves together last. I felt like the card looked a bit plain though, and decided to add some flowers and leaves to the outer frames of the card. I cut another Green Velvet leaf, another Light Green Velvet leaf, and the flower layers shown below. I made two smaller flowers (each with two layers), and one larger flower (with three layers). I shaped the top layer of each flower by using a ball tool to mould it, pressing into a foam pad. I created flower centres with Transparent Silver Glitter Dot stickers. I used an assortment of plain red card stock, and Red Velvet Sheet for the flowers.

On the first page of the card, you can see the Light Green Velvet I used for one of the circle layers, and the ‘Hello’ which I die cut from Green Velvet: