Hi, it’s Karen Burniston with the July 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 “Homegrown Holidays”and the challenge is to create holiday cards with a country/farm feel. The team received brand new dies to use just in time for the challenge – the *NEW* Farm 2 collection and the *NEW* Merry & Bright collection. Each collection features 6 new dies and a coordinating 4″ x 6” Clear Stamp set. Both collections are shipping in two weeks (first week of August, 2015) to independent craft stores worldwide. A full collection preview can be found on my blog here: Sneak Peek 2015 Summer Pop it Ups Release.
This month I did things a little differently. Rather than make a card start to finish, I wanted quicker “how to assemble” videos for the new dies. Over the next week or so you’ll see new how-to videos showing up on my YouTube channel so that by the time the new dies ship the first week of August, 2015, there will be assembly videos for all the new pop-up dies. Today I’m focusing on the Farm Collection. Here are two new videos – one for assembly of all six Farm Characters and another for assembly of the Fence Pop Stand.
Since many of you probably watch my videos here on the ECD blog or on my blog or Facebook, you may not know that my YouTube channel has a Playlist for assembly videos. I only add a video to this playlist if, within the video, it explains all the assembly steps for a die. You can find that playlist here: Pop it Ups How to Assemble
Now that you know how easy it is to assemble the Characters and the Fence, take a look at seventeen amazing Homegrown Holidays/Country Christmas cards by the Designer Challenge Team. For each card you can click on the designer’s name to head over to their blog post for more photos, supply lists and basic instructions.
Frances Byrne adapted the video tutorial for the floating floor barn card to use with the Christmas Trees Pop Stand instead. She added the Fence, Snowball the Sheep, Props 5 and the Merry & Bright Clear Stamps. Her blog shows additional photos and details. Amazing!
Karen Aicken made this sweet card using the Pop Stand die from the Hay There set to animate a Character, in this case Jolly the Mouse wearing the Props 5 Santa hat. She also used Jolly’s candy cane and the Outdoor Edges. Adorable!
Kelly Booth made a super fun country Christmas card using lots of dies combined into a fun scene. She used the Fence Pop Stand, Evergreen Tree, Cheepers the Chicken, Props 5, Outdoor Edges, Merry Christmas, Western Edges, Jolly’s candy cane, the star from the Christmas Trees and the lights from the Holiday House. This is a great card to illustrate how well die sets from the Pop it Ups collection can be mixed and matched into amazing combinations.
Caz Counsell shows in this next card how nicely the Characters work to decorate card fronts. No need to reserve them just for pop-ups and interactive cards. Here she has Cheepers the Chicken, Snowball the Sheep, Virgil the Pig and Brownie the Cow, along with Props 5. What a bunch of Characters!
Fran Sabad has been making the cutest little mice cards using Jolly the Mouse. This adorable card uses the Christmas Trees Pop Stand and the flourish from Merry Christmas, along with two Jolly mice. Eeek! This is so cute!
Raquel Mason does a fabulous job of telling a story with her cards and this one is no exception. William the Goat stands in a glorious country western landscape on the card’s front, featuring the Western Edges, Christmas Trees and Fence. Then, when the card is open you discover William eating a present from under the tree! So funny.
Helen Cryer created this fabulous tri-panel double-fold Pop Stand card mixing dies from Farm 1, Farm 2 and Merry & Bright. Notice the lights on the barn and the sign on the fence – amazing details as always!
Sandy Diller is our monthly DC guest, but this month she had a Designer Challenge Challenge by not having the new dies yet, so she got creative and chose a beach scene for her Christmas card instead of a country scene. The lights (from the Holiday House) in the Palm Tree are terrific!
Summer Hills-Painter can craft a scene to perfection! She made two amazing scenes in one amazing card. The front features the Barn, Fence and Cocoa the Horse (plus the wreath from the Holiday House) and the inside features the Sleigh, Snowball the Sheep, Cheepers the Chicken and Brownie the Cow. Sensational!
Karen Aicken is clever, clever, clever! She started with a fun country snowman paper and then fashioned her own matching snowman by altering Chilly the Penguin, Props 1 and a Cheepers the Chicken beak! Brilliant! She also used the Merry & Bright Clear stamps and the Tags Pivot Card. The pen detailing on the sleigh is marvelous.
Frances Byrne dressed up Brownie the Cow in both the Christmas costumes included in Props 5. She used the Merry Christmas die inside and added the barbed wire from the Western Edges top and bottom for a more country feel. And of course the clever “to moo”. I love the gingham paper as a backdrop – sets the scene marvelously.
Raquel Mason has a fabulous technique for the front of her second challenge card. She first used an embossing sandwich to press the Chicken Wire die into the cardstock. This brought out all the perfectly-spaced hexagons as an embossed pattern. Then she sunk a die-cut chicken wire piece down into the groove. Love that! Cheepers the Chicken is asking if you are a naughty or a nice egg, and then inside the card is the Merry Christmas pop-up (notice the egg!) with another piece of chicken wire. Perfect interpretation of the theme!
Donna Wright cut several pop stands into a 12″ wide card to be able to make this fabulous Holiday House and Christmas Trees scene. She also used the Tags Pivot Card for the tags plus the stamps and the Merry Christmas die. Such a great illustration of how the Pop Stands can be used anywhere (and multiple times) in a card.
Fran Sabad made this adorable card with three stacked Jolly the Mouse Characters working together to trim the tree. She used the Christmas Trees Pop Stand die for the tree, embossing and stacking it to make it tall. So adorable!
Caz Counsell made a fun Christmas on the Farm card by focusing on the different holiday spirits of the animals. William and Rudy are quite festive, whereas Snowball is . . . not! Ha ha. Great card.
Shelly Hickox‘s latest “Shellypiece” is this amazing country Christmas scene. Her fence technique is fabulous, spanning the card so it pops up as well. She also used the Barn, Evergreen Pivot Card and Western Edges. A video on her blog shows the card opening and closing. So pretty!
Karen Aicken made this lovely country kraft & red card featuring the new Merry Christmas pop-up die. Her signature “high trees” backdrop looks fabulous behind the pop-up and she embellished with the Merry & Bright Clear Stamps and snowflakes from the Sleigh die.
While it is true that I am completely biased, I would argue that the Designer Challenge team is one of the most talented group of bloggers, teachers, crafters in the industry. I feel very blessed to have these eleven designers creating with my products. They certainly take the dies in directions that I never even imagined during the design process. Plus they’re just really nice awesome supportive people. I am so lucky to call these ladies my friends.
Join us next month on August 12, 2015 for the next Designer Challenge, called Inspired Creations. Everyone is looking forward to this challenge, where we each get to pick a challenge card by a fellow teammate from any Designer Challenge and use it as inspiration for a new project. The inspiration can be a technique, a combination of dies, a color scheme – anything! Not only will this be a fun challenge, but a great chance for the team to show how to take inspiration and translate it into something new.
Happy Crafting!
