Pop it Ups

Karen Burniston Pop it Ups Designer Challenge – Make it Manly

October 15, 2014

Hi, it’s Karen Burniston with the October 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 make cards suitable for the men and boys in our lives.

Normally you would also see a new card and video from me, but then this happened…

Thankfully it all worked out and we arrived home in the early hours of this morning. Gonzalo was only a tropical storm when he passed over the island, but later strengthened into a hurricane. There were straggling black clouds hurrying to catch up the next morning, but otherwise the skies turned bright and sunny and the airport reopened.

St Kitts Sunrise

My card and video is delayed, but luckily my amazing team of ten designers, plus a guest designer, are providing fabulous inspiration this month for your masculine cards. For each card you can click on the designer’s name to visit her blog post, where you will find additional photos, supply lists and (in some cases) instructions for the cards.

SPIRAL CIRCLE PULL CARDS:

Many of the designers this month chose to use the Spiral Circle Pull Card die for their masculine cards.

Summer Hills-Painter made this hilarious “Shake your Booty!” card that is wonderfully interactive. I love that you can see his disco hand in both positions. Plus, his booty really shakes!

Summer_SCPC1

Summer_SCPC2

I’m happy to welcome back Sandy Diller as a guest designer for the challenge this month. Sandy combined the Spiral Circle Pull Card with the Clock & Gears die set. Notice her clever use of all the knock-out numbers peppered all over the card and the flying gears effect created by using the spiral. What a perfect sentiment to use for this card!

Sandy_Vintage Card1 Sandy_vintage card 3

Frances Byrne also used the same two dies – Spiral Circle Pull Card and Clock & Gears, but the results look completely different. Frances also found the perfect patterned paper to go with her “Make Every Moment Count” card. Notice the word “Time” is visible in the closed position. Clever!

Frances_Clock_Spiral1

Frances_clock_spiral2

This next card is extremely clever and fun. Donna Wright reproduced a Westminster clock for her masculine card. She shaped the outer portions of the clock with the Outdoor Edges and embellished with the Agatha Edges. Her signature tiny clothespins are used as clock weights.

Donna_Clock1 Donna_Clock2

GENERAL POP-UP CARDS:

The brand-new Happy Birthday Pop-up die is now available and the designers have provided some wonderful ideas for it.

Shelly Hickox is the queen of faux finishes and this card is no exception. She creates leather and metal and rivets and faux eyelets and she explains it all! Definitely check out her blog post to see more of this Shellypiece.

shelly hickox pop it ups aviation birthday card

The first time I met Raquel Mason it was at a store in Florida where I was teaching classes. She brought some of her cards to show me and I was blown away. Check out this clever creation using Shimmer Sheetz as a mirror to reflect the Happy Birthday in the mirror. Raquel also lengthened the poles from the Lots of Pops die by stopping the cutting pad short of the end of the die and cutting the bottoms with scissors. Fabulous!

Raquel_mirror

Karen Aicken also used the Happy Birthday pop-up die, but added pen outlining around the words for definition. What a great tip! You’ll want to click over to Karen’s blog post to see the front of this card, which is also very masculine!

KarenA_HB

Karen Aicken made another card for the challenge and chose to do a card for a younger boy. This one is a Lorna Label pop-up card using the doubling technique. She used some of the brand new Puppies Peel-off Stickers and added the birthday hat from the Props 2 die set. What a great idea! She also used the script word dies from the Happy Birthday set to create the greeting.

KarenA_Lorna_Puppy

What could be more masculine than cowboys? Helen Cryer made this great Lorna Label pop-up card with the perfect combination of papers. Love the denim on the pop-up!

Helen_Lorna

Kelly Booth also chose to make a little boy’s card and used both of the brand new Character dies – Honey the Bear and Dutch the Fox. She also used the new birthday-themed Props2. The front of her card features the Outdoor Edges combined to make a great dirt and grass ground. Honey the Bear holds the present from the Evergreen Pivot Card.

Kelly_Honey

The inside of Kelly’s card is just as bright and fun as the outside. Dutch is sitting on the Lorna Label Pop-up die and Kelly used the decorator dies from the new Happy Birthday pop-up to create the greeting.

Kelly_lorna_Dutch

Another great card for a man or boy is this sensational Dr. Who-inspired card by Raquel Mason. She was very clever using pieces of the Holiday House to create the Tardis. She also used the gears from the Clock & Gears die set.

Raquel_Doctor Who Tardis

The interior of Raquel’s card uses the Lots of Pops to animate a Dalek, created from the new Tags & More die set plus more gears and the speech bubble from the Lorna Label set. Such a fabulous creation!

Raquel_Doctor Who Dalek

PIVOT AND ACCORDION CARDS:

Kelly Booth made a fun Katie Label Pivot Card for her husband as an anniversary card. I love how Kelly combined the decorator hearts from several Pop it Ups dies on this card. Pivot Cards are the quickest of the interactive card dies and since the same decoration pivots from the front of the card to the interior of the card, crafters often choose Pivot Card dies when they want double-duty decoration.

Kelly_KatiePivot

Fran Sabad used the same Katie Label Pivot Card die as Kelly, but she used a folding technique to double the height of the label so she would have more real estate for decorating. She added circle decorations in a nautical theme – very masculine!

Fran_The-Open-Sea-06-open

Speaking of Katie Labels – did you know that the same shape (the Katie Label) is offered as a Pivot Card die (see the two examples above) but also as an Accordion Die (see the three samples below)? The die sets have different mechanisms (pivot cards are not the same as accordions) but because the shapes are the same, the decorator dies from both sets can be mixed together. They do not duplicate.

Frances Byrne made this brilliant 3-page Katie Label Accordion as a Father’s Day card. What a perfect stamp for page 2! She also used the Katie Stars Frame Edges on the second page. Love this!

Frances1_KatieAcc

I never met a pun that I didn’t like, so this next card by Fran Sabad is right up my alley. She made a 2-page Katie Label Accordion using the Katie Holly Frame Edges, a giant ‘stache’d Nutcracker, and a greeting to fit. Notice the fun detailing on the Nutcracker’s hat!

Fran_Katie

Caz Counsell also used the Katie Label Accordion for this hilarious birthday card featuring the Katie Stars Frame Edges as well. Caz chose the perfect masculine colors for this card.

Caz_mens card insde

I know that I’m inspired by all these great ideas, how about you? Now I know what you’re thinking – men and boys are not always appreciative of handmade cards. Ah, but interactive cards appeal to their mechanical sides and they will be quite impressed with your crafty abilities when you present a Pop it Ups card!

My final teaching trip of the year is coming up next week. I’ll be heading to North and South Carolina and here is a video preview of the cards I’ll be teaching. Head over to my blog post for links to the stores.

I’ll be back next month on November 12th with the RED, WHITE OR BLUE challenge. No, we’re not making patriotic cards – we’re making single-color cards! This is the all-white, all-red or all-blue challenge and the designers may choose which color to use. It should be a really fun challenge.

Happy Crafting!

KB Blog Sig

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  • Mary Prasad October 22, 2014 at 1:19 pm

    Love all the cards! Great job!!

  • Rita Edwards October 16, 2014 at 9:21 am

    Ladies, absolutely wonderful projects from each and every one of you! And welcome home, Karen!

  • Melanie Kuzik October 15, 2014 at 10:55 pm

    Beautiful amazing cards

  • Frances Byrne October 15, 2014 at 3:52 pm

    Amazing creations by the Design Team and glad you are back safe Karen.

  • Raquel Mason October 15, 2014 at 1:29 pm

    Great job everyone & glad Karen made it back to the USA safely.

  • Judi Kauffman October 15, 2014 at 12:00 pm

    It’s such a treat to see so many wonderful projects all on one day – The design team’s talents are endless and amazing.

  • clickityklak October 15, 2014 at 11:58 am

    Fantastic inspirations and so well needed for our men people. Thanks so much Team & Karen ! ! !

  • Nancy Walker October 15, 2014 at 11:13 am

    Great work from your design team, Karen! Thank you, team, for the inspiration!

  • Marlene L October 15, 2014 at 11:05 am

    Every month I am blown away by the creative genius of your team. Thanks to all for the inspiration and steady stream of eye candy.

  • Jeannie Huff October 15, 2014 at 10:01 am

    I LOVE Sandy Diller’s card. I have been playing with something like that. Perfect! I want to use it for a retirement.

  • barb macaskill October 15, 2014 at 9:49 am

    WOW! These are all pretty amazing but Frances’ card is OUT OF THIS WORLD AMAZING!! I really NEED the Spiral Circle Pull card die!! It is a matter of life and death! REALLY! My life won’t be complete if I die without this die! LOL TFS!

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