hello it's Karen Burniston here with my
monthly designer challenge video this
month we have a theme of castle and I
decided to make a birthday card using
the castle pop-up as a sand castle and I
will be incorporating a few other dies
for my collection and you can check out
all of my designs at KarenBurniston.com
the first thing I'll work on is the
sand castle itself so I'll basically use
kraft cardstock for everything a little
bit darker Kraft cardstock for the
castle itself and the two foot towers
and then for all the decorator pieces
I'm using a lighter kraft card stock
that has double-sided adhesive on the
back of it that way when I die cut those
all of those little emboss features will
be a little bit raised and then I'm also
going to highlight them with a ink so I
am using Crumb Cake by Stampin Up'
because it just seemed like a good sand
type of color
and then since all of those pieces are
stickers I will just add them to the
castle the middle three panels get
decorated on the front of the castle and
then the other three panels get
decorated on the back of the castle
at the very end of this video you'll
find links to a couple other videos and
one of those videos is the Castle
assembly video so if you would like to
see all this decorating done at a little
bit slower pace where I explain each
piece and where it goes you can watch
that video I'm gonna speed through it
here on this video because I have a lot
more card to teach but the idea is just
to use all the decorator pieces on the
castle now I can connect the tab for the
castle but I do like to just first work
those long folds because I've added the
decorator pieces and I want to make sure
the folds go through those as well and
then to connect the castle there is a
little tab and I just need a strong
adhesive on that tab I'm using my fine
tip bottle filled with lineco neutral
pH adhesive and we do sell both of those
items on our website I love using glue
for my pop-ups it's very permanent and it
doesn't seem to come unstuck you know
in the humidity that we have here in
South Texas but you are always welcome
to use a strong tape if you prefer
okay now let's work on the card
I'm starting with a piece of kraft
cardstock that is 4 and 1/2 inches by 7
and 1/8 inch if you start your scoring
from the right side you'll have an inch
and a quarter panel then you want a four
and a half inch panel then
three-quarters of an inch panel and that
will leave you your 5/8 inch panel on
the end all of those folds will be
Valley folds so the little 5/8 inch flap
folds in and then folds over again and
then you have the flap on the other side
ok then I also need a backing card so
that's going to be a piece of the same
kraft cardstock four and a half inches
by 5 and 3/4 and then I'll score it
again at an inch and a quarter from the
right hand side so later on that will
become the backing card that goes behind
the main pop-up card
the pop-up die in the castle set has
alignment nubs that you line up right
over the fold of the card and it also
has a triangle shaped cutout in the
middle of the die that should point
towards the front of the card so I will
use my temporary removable tape to hold
that die right centered over that fold
on my pop-up card you can use any
die-cutting machine that can accommodate
a wafer thin die I am using a Sizzix Big
Shot today
so here's what that die does it cuts the
little drawbridge you can see that comes
through the little opening and then it
cuts the two tabs that are needed to
hold the castle on to the card normally
I would place the decorator piece just
on one side of the drawbridge but since
I am going to see the other side of the
drawbridge through their transparency
when the card is closed I'll decorate
both sides with the decorator piece
I have an old Stampin Up! stamp with a
bunch of random dots that I'll use with
some brown ink to make sand texture all
over my card but you could also use just
a coarse sponge with that ink or a
brillo pad or a piece of velcro just
anything they'll create those small
flecks
my card is going to have a magnet
closure so I need some strong tape in
the outer flap on the inside of the card
and then I could peel that up and stick
a very strong magnet into that tape just
centered and actually my magnets are so
small that I think I'm going to stack
two of them up and I buy those from K&J
magnetics and I will just put the link
in the About section below this video or
on the blog post so I fold that flap
over and that traps the magnet in and
I'm gonna put my other magnet just
temporarily I'm just going to let it sit
on those magnets so that I don't lose it
now I can attach my sandcastle inside
the card by adding my strong glue all
over the tab around the little
drawbridge opening that will correspond
perfectly to the front of the castle so
it's just a matter of getting that
castle on to that tab and then pinching
it into place and it's pretty easy
because you've also got the holes that
will line up with the holes in the
castle so just basically get it there
behind the castle and that will attach
it and then we just need to attach the
back tab so again glue on the top of the
tab just like that and then just reach
in there and just attach it inside the
castle on the back edge and that back
panel is the only one that I didn't
already decorate I kept the decorator
piece off of the castle until I attached
it inside the card and that way I can
put my decorator piece inside the castle
at the end covering up that tab so now
it's sandwiched between those two layers
you don't see it and the castle
decoration looks complete when I close
down the card the castle will collapse
into the flat position and then when I
open it it will pop up my concept for
this card is that in the closed position
you can see that sand castle but it's
partially obscured because the window
itself has real sand in it if you prefer
to just make a clear window you just
need a single piece of transparency four
and a half inches wide four and a
quarter tall but if you want to be
adventurous try a double pane window so
that you can add sand or beads or
sequins or something in between those
panes you would need four and a half
inches by eight and a half inches on
your transparency scored and folded at
four and a quarter
so right along the edge on one half of
the transparency I need my quarter inch
tacky tape to go around that perimeter
since I'm using sand I decided to add
some spray adhesive on the side that has
the tape just so it will kind of hold
the sand suspended around the window and
it won't just all slide down to the
bottom so I'm just spooning a little
sand onto that spray adhesive and then
I'll just dump off the excess and now
the goal is to get the liner off the
tape and not get sand down into my tacky
tape so I've got to work carefully with
this just making sure I go slowly get
those liners off and then immediately
close the card and seal it
I'll stick with my strong tape to add
the transparency window to the card just
adding some strips of tape along the
bottom and then just putting that window
on that tape so that the fold end is up
and you can see that the tape end is at
the bottom and then just pressing it
into that adhesive
so now that the front is on my card I'm
able to transfer the magnet into the
right position by just adding some
strong glue dots to the magnet that's
just sitting there on the other magnets
and then closing the flap and that will
transfer that magnet now to the
transparency in the right spot for the
closure to work
so if I don't want to see that magnet in
the finished card it's not a big deal
because I can just cover it using some
washi tape and I'll wrap that around the
transparency then to cover both sides
plus that's just gonna add a little bit
of much-needed color to this card okay
it's time to put the backing card on now
generally when you're trying to do a
card that opens up fully flat I don't
like to put a full fold in a full fold
but I'm gonna try it on this card and
see if I can get this thing opening up
flat if not it probably would be safer
just to cut this into two pieces but
I'll use my tape runner around the
perimeter and then I can do everywhere
on the inch and a quarter flap but not
everywhere on the big one I need to keep
that area at the bottom open where
you've got an open hole everything else
is covered see that's covered now with
the transparency
okay so then I'm just gonna line up the
fold and get that backing card on so I
was able to get this card to open up
fully flat even though it does have a
fold in a fold but another option would
have been just to go ahead and cut it on
the fold totally optional but I thought
this card would look cute with some
rounded corners so I'm using a 1/2 inch
Corner Chomper so through the sandy
window you can spy that sand castle in
there and then of course when the card
opens it pops up
and finally we just need some
decorations the extra tower that comes
with the castle set is optional but it
does look great inside the castle you
just need a strong adhesive on the two
feet and those just straddle the fold so
you can put that anywhere along the fold
inside the castle I'm going to go all
the way to the right with the castle
open and then I'll just press on that
while I close the card for decorating
I'll turn to some accessory dies and
I'll start with the Tropical Scene which
has this great scalloped edge die and
the stitches are on both sides of the
cut so one side looks like waves and one
side looks like scallops and I can use
both of those sides
I'm also going to add some twine to the
drawbridge so for that I like glue on
the ends of the twine it makes them
easier to put through the holes of the
drawbridge and I'll string it now down
through the drawbridge and up the other
side and then I'll get that twine
through the holes on the front of the
castle
I'll add some mini glue dots just to the
card underneath the drawbridge just on
the cardstock and then I can press that
drawbridge down and that will help me
know exactly how tight to make my twine
inside the castle and for securing the
other ends of the twine inside the
castle I'm just using regular tape
I've cut and assembled all of the Sea
Animals to play in my sandcastle the
crab is glued to the front of the castle
you can see that through the sandy
window and then I'll add the shark onto
the extra Tower and you can kind of see
the sparkle to the animals I used a wink
of Stella pen on all of them after
assembling
I assembled two of the sea turtles
because it's the perfect choice for
extending out over the sandy window
because that turtle is mirror image
you're able to use it on the front of
the transparency and the back of the
transparency and it will line up
perfectly another thing you can do with
the scalloped edge die from the Tropical
Scene is to make a cool rickrack out of
it so after cutting one side of the
rickrack
you flip the die around and then you
just make sure that all the little
points are inside the scallops when you
line it up so you're basically
offsetting a half a scallop then you
roll it through your machine again and
now you have that perfect rickrack and I
decided the flap of my card needed some
more color so I'm adding some red washi
tape to it and then I'll add that
rickrack over the top sort of half on
half off and then that will kind of
correspond with the piece on the inside
as well as make an interesting flap
detail I added the word celebrate from
Word Set 2 to the front of the card
and then inside the card I used the
Birthday Charms to add a hat in the
crabs hand a cupcake on the front of the
castle and the shark biting a present
and then behind the castle the Happy
Birthday word cut twice and offset
and then for a last little bit of bling
a few rhinestones on the front of the
transparency and wherever I put them on
the front of the transparency I'll just
open the card and add them in the same
locations inside and then maybe a few in
the sand around happy birthday as well
I love how this card turned out that
hint when the card is closed of the
magic inside and then you open it and
you've got this great sand castle with
this party going on the card measures
four and a half inches square when it's
closed so it will mail easily in an A7
envelope and shouldn't cost any
additional postage
with these monthly designer challenge
videos I really invite you just to look
at the techniques involved and adapt
these cards to other themes you can see
that this would be a great castle card
using more traditional castle colors
maybe with the knight and the dragon and
the princess you don't have to put sand
in your window you could use confetti
you could use sequins beads or just make
it a plain clear window so really have
fun with it I definitely invite you to
come up with alternatives
if you click on the website link you'll
go to KarenBurniston.com where you can
find out information about purchasing
these dies as well as links to all my
other social media accounts you can
subscribe to this YouTube channel and
check out some of my other videos thanks
so much for watching and I'll see you
next time
