Karen Burniston May Designer Challenge Day 1

Hi everyone,

It's time for our May Karen Burniston Designer Challenge. This time around the theme for our challenge is BARNS, BARNS, BARNS - Time to show off the new Collins dies with a designer challenge in their honor. The only requirement is that you use the new Barn Pop Stand die. You do not have to use it with the enclosed Pop Stand (if, for instance, you prefer using the barn on a card front or on one of the other PIU dies) and you do not have to style it as a barn.

I love when you can use a die for more things than what it was intended, and that is what I wanted to do for this challenge. So I decided to turn the Barn into a Circus Tent to make a Circus themed Pop Stand Card. 

For my card I have used the Barn Pop Stand Card die set to create the circus tent and the base of my card. The little lion which you can see peeking out from inside of the tent is on another pop stand from the Hay There Pop Stand Card set. The lion was a little tall, so I cut around his head and then glued it back onto his body so you could see his face peeking out.

I pulled out my Taylored Expressions Life is a Circus stamp set to decorate my card. The elephant is attached to my card using the Spiral from the Rectangle Pull Card set. 

I used the Katie Label Pivot Card set to layer my sentiments which were both computer generated. 

The flag on the top of the tent was created using the banner from the Lots of Pops Pop Up Card set.

Here is how I turned the barn into a circus tent: 

• Die cut  the barn from cardstock and then drew a line at the point where the roof starts to form a triangle (of sorts). This will be your pattern.
• Measure in from the left side 1/4 inch and make a mark, then at every 1/2 inch until you are left with 1/4 inch on the right hand side of the barn. Do the same at the bottom of the barn and join up these marks as per my photo above. 
• Next take a ruler and line up each mark with the centre point of the top of the roof and draw a line.
• Die cut 3 barns - one in white; 1 in red and another in red which has Transparent Double Sided Adhesive added to the top of it.
• Use the pattern above to cut the red and white barns and adhere them to the barn with the adhesive.
• Die cut the scallop edge from the Paris Edges set and trim off the border so it is approx 1/4 inches in width and adhere across the room line. 
• Cut a strip of white card approx 1/8 inch wide and adhere there to the top of the scallop border we attached in the above step.
• Cut up the middle of the 'tent' to approx 1/4 inch from the roof line and fold back the card to create the tent flap. 
• Use left over white pieces to add white to the inside of the tent flaps.
• If you are created a Pop Stand Card you will need to repeat these steps to create a second tent, but for this one you don't need to create a tent flap.

Here you can see the back of my Circus tent. I have again added the Seal by attaching it to the spiral from the Rectangle Pull Card .

Here is an overhead view of my card, so you can see the whole of the Pop Stand Card.

And finally the front of my card. The oval is from the Oval Accordion Card set and the rectangle layer is from the Rectangle Pull Card. The sentiment banner is hand cut.

If you are looking to purchase Karen's Pop It Ups dies in Australia you can find them at Craft Giraffe (formerly Photo Continental).

Don't forget to check out the Elizabeth Craft Designs blog on Wednesday when you will be able to see what all the designers created for the challenge this month, plus an amazing card/video tutorial from Karen Burniston.

Stamps: Life is a Circus - Taylored Expressions

Paper: White; Red; Teal; Boy Birthday Dots DP; Boy Stripes DP- Echo Park

Dies: Barn Pop Stand Card; Paris Edges; Katie Pivot Card; Rectangle Pull Card; Lots of Pops Pop Up Card; Oval Accordion Card - designed by Karen Burniston for Elizabeth Craft Designs

Other ECD Products: Transparent Double Sided Adhesive Sheet;

Other: Black Ink; Foam Tape; Copics