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Hi, it’s Karen Burniston with the December 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 to interpret the phrase Home for the Holidays. The team will definitely put you in the holiday spirit with their beautiful creations, celebrating the warmth of home and those special memories we create with the people we love.

For my card and video I wanted to celebrate Santa’s arrival by creating a pop-up fireplace with dangling boots. The Props 6 cowboy boot dies work just perfectly (with slight modifications) to make Santa’s boots and also to make stockings for the front of the hearth. The fireplace itself is made using the Lots of Pops die, plus an added hand-scored insert strip to line the fireplace and hold the boots. Learn all the steps to making your own fireplace card by watching this video tutorial:

Because the fireplace is bulky and will want to spring the card open, I chose to create a magnetic fold-over flap at the bottom to keep the card closed. I used the Props 5 Santa hat sticking out of the chimney top for the front of the card plus a strip of “Merry Christmas” washi tape across the flap.

When the card is opened the fireplace pops up and Santa’s boots dangle in the fireplace. Other decorations include a candle made from the lower portion of the Lots of Pops pole plus a flame, greenery and berries from the Els van de Burgt Studio Candle die set. Santa’s boots and the stockings are made by snipping away the toe of the cowboy boot (and the heel for the stockings) and then creating a cuff with one of the banners in the Lots of Pops die. The two stars that come included with the Props 6 set layer nicely in Shimmer Sheetz to create the star garland. Rudy the Reindeer’s wreath is glued to the wall behind the candle with a Shimmer Sheetz mirror inlaid inside the wreath to reflect the candle. No Santa card would be complete with the word “Believe” and the Quietfire calligraphy die was the perfect choice.

Here is a side view of the card showing how the boots are hanging inside the fireplace. It’s a very easy technique and the video shows how to do it. I also created a very simple box platform from cardstock for behind the candle. As I say in the video, the decorations for the fireplace are completely up to you. Dig around in your stash and see what you have. Could you make a plate of cookies? A glass of milk? How about ornaments, greenery and lights atop the mantel? Personalize the card by writing names on the stockings.

The finished card measures 5.5″ wide by just under 5″ tall and can be mailed in an A7 envelope. Extra postage will be required because of its thickness.

Ready to make your own Santa’s arrival card? Here’s what you’ll need:

Elizabeth Craft Designs Supplies

• Lots of Pops (platforms, boot/stocking cuffs, candle)
• Props 6 (cowboy boots, stars)
• Props 5 (Santa hat)
• Rudy the Reindeer (wreath)
• Candle (flame, greenery, berries)
• Believe
• Pewter Silk Microfine Glitter
• Double-Sided Adhesive
• Shimmer Sheetz – Red Metallic, Silver Metallic
• Metal Adaptor Plate (used when cutting Shimmer Sheetz)

Other Supplies

• Gray, white, black, brown, metallic brown, green & 3 similar red cardstock colors
• Basic Grey patterned papers
• Gold thread
• Scoring Board
• Fineline bottle filled with Lineco pH neutral adhesive (or similar fine glue pen/bottle)
• Washi tapes
• Black Soot Distress Ink and Blending Tool
• Strong magnets (Basic Grey or K&J Magnetics)
• Crop-a-dile or 3/16″ hole punch

Let’s see how the talented Designer Challenge Team welcomes us home for the holidays. If you’re new to a Designer Challenge post, each designer’s name is a direct link to their blog post for this challenge. Clicking their names will open a new window, so click as you go to open up the windows and see more information, photos, instructions, supply lists, etc. for all your favorite cards.

Frances Byrne created this cozy holiday home using the Adirondack Chair Pop Up plus a host of other decorator dies from various sets. The Holiday House and Outdoor Edges combine for a festive card front and the Merry & Bright Clear Stamps create the greeting. I love how she made the calendar!

Fran Sabad went to the country for this amazing Home for the Holidays creation. She assembled several Characters for the card front, including Brownie the Cow, Cheepers the Chicken, Jolly the Mouse, Snowball the Sheep and William the Goat. The background is the Outdoor Edges and she also used presents from the Sleigh die and the Props 5 Santa outfit.

Open the card and the garland (made from Rudy the Reindeer’s wreath) carries inside where Cocoa the Horse uses it to decorate the barn. I mean brilliant! Fabulous card!

Caz Counsell interpreted the theme a little differently for her project. She wanted to use Pop it Ups to decorate her own Home for the Holidays. Perfect! It’s a great project, too, with Gift Card Accordion pages (embellished with Flourish Gift Frames) strung together with Rudy the Reindeer, Fancy and Katie Labels. Love it!

Karen Aicken really set a wintry scene with this soft pretty card combining the Christmas Trees Pop Stand die with the Holiday House die. By using a pop stand in the center, Karen was able to animate the house just like the trees. I want to visit this house for sure!

Sandy Diller says “Merry Christmas, Ma’am!” with this mighty fine western holiday landscape. She created a floating floor inside the card to allow for the Holiday House, Christmas Tree and Fence dies to be animated in different locations. I love the siding on the Holiday House with the barn front door. Perfection!

Raquel Mason will make you go Awwww! with this adorable mouse house. She used the Barn Pop Stand, also with a floating floor so she could animate items throughout the card. Jolly the Mouse wears the Santa Props 5 and the Holiday House die’s door and string of lights work perfectly to give Jolly’s home a festive feel!

Summer Hills-Painter made a mansion from the Holiday House on this festive card featuring the Flourish Gift Frame for the front of the card and the Merry Christmas pop up inside. I love the doubled window, traditional colors and crisp, classy feel of this card.

Kelly Booth wanted to welcome friends and family home for the holidays with a festive front door. She created it on the Rectangle Pull Card and cleverly combined decorator Katie labels and ovals for the trim and used the slot die from the upcoming Oval Pull Card for the door handle. The new Pull Card Edges allow for shadowed paper placement and Kelly used Rudy the Reindeer for door decor. I also love how she stacked up several cuts on the Merry Christmas to make a faux-chipboard greeting.

Fran Sabad created a mousey wonderland! Jolly and his neighbor meet to go a’caroling outside their picture perfect brick houses. The structure is the House Pivot Card with the tripling technique and Fran also added many accessory dies to set the scene. Fa la la la fun!

Helen Cryer is the queen of pop-up gingerbread house cards and this card certainly shows why! She used the Holiday House die, expanded into a gingerbread mansion, on pop stand dies to make a standing pop-up scene. Absolutely gorgeous! Helen is taking a break from the team to focus on a very exciting new adventure – she’s a new Fire Fighter! How cool is that?! We will miss her on the team, but hopefully we can convince her to do some guest spots with us in 2016. Congratulations, Helen!

Shelly Hickox made this beautiful woodland inviting scene, complete with Holiday House turned log cabin, shrink plastic Rudy antlers (adorable!) and Evergreen Pivot trees turned into stamps, textured with real foliage! See a video of this card opening and closing on her blog plus read all her tips for making this card.

Caz Counsell created a very fun card front featuring Jolly the Mouse, contentedly sleeping in his cozy nest. Caz joked that perhaps Jolly had indulged a bit at the holiday party, or perhaps he is dreaming of sugarplums. I love how Caz created the frame using the Circle Accordion and then ringed it with the Els van de Burgt Studio Leaves & Berry Branches for the perfect little nest.

Karen Aicken made this wonderful tri-panel card featuring the Evergreen Pivot Card. She added the extra flap to the right side of the card that opens up to reveal the Holiday House, a prancing reindeer from the Merry & Bright Clear Stamps, and a sweet greeting. Such a clever card design and so elegantly pretty.

Frances Byrne made a ton of clever adaptations in this fun gingerbread house standing card. By turning the Rectangle Pull Card sideways it becomes a cool standing card. Frances created a gingerbread man by combining pieces of two Character dies. So many great ideas in this card!

Kelly Booth made this sweet card using the Holiday House to decorate the front of the card and the Christmas Trees Pop Stand die inside. I just love the crisp colors and textured styling to everything. Check out her blog to see a flat card made with the Holiday House die as well.

Sandy Diller made this cute little decor piece using two brand new dies shipping in January. She used a new Character die, Baker the Beaver, and the fun Props 8 set, which included the Chef’s hat, heart, spatula, slice of cake and fork. Awww. Bakers gotta bake!

It’s hard to believe that another wonderful year with Elizabeth Craft Designs is almost over. The company has grown by leaps and bounds this year and in just a few short weeks we’ll be at CHA (January 9-12, 2016) debuting many great new collections that you can preview right now in the Coming Soon section of the website.

Join us for our first Designer Challenge in the New Year on Wednesday, January 20, 2016 where we have a wide open theme called NEW! We’ll be showing you all sorts of great ideas using brand new products released at CHA. Pop it Ups Designer Challenges are moving to my blog in 2016. January will be the standard format, but look for a new style of challenges starting in February.  (More on that later!)

Have a wonderful holiday season and Happy Crafting,