Under the Sea- February Release Blog Hop

Hi Crafty Friends, it’s BLOG HOP DAY

Welcome to our Karen Burniston Products – KB Riley LLC February Release Blog Hop. The Design Team have come together with Karen today for a fun blog hop to celebrate the release of 6 new dies. Sneak peeks of the new release started last week, and the dies are available to order NOW!

This release includes:

• 1 new Charm die sets

• 1 new Word set

• 1 new Tiny House Add-Ons sets

• 1 new Pop-up die sets

• 1 new Crosshatch die sets

• 1 new Border die set

Dies are available to order now on the website.

GIVEAWAY:

To celebrate the release Karen Burniston and each of the Karen Burniston – KB Riley LLC Design Team members will be giving away a $25 Gift Certificate to some lucky person who comments on our blog posts, so make sure you join the hop and comment on everyone’s blog post. Winners will be randomly chosen from ALL of the blog hop comments received on our blog posts by Monday, 27th February 2023. Lots of chances to win some goodies, so just leave a comment on this post or any other blog hop posts to enter! Don’t forget to leave some way for us to contact you, in case you are a lucky winner!

I am soooo excited to share this card, it has been brewing in my brain for a really long time. I had visions of an under water castle with mermaids and sea creatures but never took the time to actually make it and then….. Karen came out with this release and I knew that it was time. The jellyfish and sea horse from the Sea charms are so adorable and the crabs, well there is a whole family of them now. I also used the new Beach Borders, a few pieces from the Beach Bar Tiny House Add on and the Rectangles and Labels Crosshatch. This is what I came up with

Front of castle

Back of castle

All the fun is in the reveal, and this card has so much detail, it’s hard to get it in a photo, to see this card in action please check out my FACEBOOK page, feel free to join if you would like to share your own crafty creations. You can also see a video of this card on my INSTAGRAM page.

I really enjoy making these oversized castles, for those who have been following me you may remember my Hogwarts Wedding card or my Super Blingy Princess Party, I have directions on both of these cards as well. But keep in mind I slightly altered this castle to fit in a 5” x 7” card base.

1- I started with cutting out the castle pieces. I like when the castle is decorated on all sides that is why there are so many decorator pieces. These piece make the large ring, the small ring and the inner wall and tower. I cut the frame of the castle from cardstock and most of the layers from sandpaper. It is a really thick card.

2- I started building my characters and creatures. Most of them are pretty straight forward (I will post links to their tutorials at the bottom) The king is a Tiny Gnome head (I used the beard and moustache for his hair as well), attached to a shark body, and I used crab legs to make the arms.

3- to make the outer ring you need 2 castles. Castle A shows where the score lines in the die are. DO NOT FOLD ON THESE LINES. Castle B show where the 3 score lines need to be.

4- I wanted to make sure this castle would fit in a 5” x 7” card so I trimmed a little off the side that does not have the tapered tab.

5- the A pieces are the 2 pieces needed to make the large ring. The B piece is going to make the smaller ring. It is assembled pretty much the same as it is originally intended excepted I folded in reverse so the front tower will be the opposite of the tower in the outer ring.

6- adhere the 2 outer ring pieces end to end.

7- I scored some of the sandpaper pieces on the backside, only the ones that need to be adhered over a score line on the castle.

8- I had cut some wall pieces from matching cardstock, I trimmed to fit, I placed them behind the wall sandpaper pieces where ever the walls crossed in front of a tower.

9- because I trimmed a little off the ends of the castle, I needed to trim the sandpaper pieces to fit as well.

10- The large ring has 2 doors I decide to close off the door that is on the back side. I used the same technique as step 8

11- this is what the front of the outer ring looks like with the sandpaper.

12- I cut some plastic packaging pieces. I didn’t want these pieces to be flimsy that’s why I chose plastic over acetate.

13- I added the plastic strips on the inside of the ring piece behind the towers as shown. You can see I used liquid glue, some of them I had to restick with glue dots. I would use glue dots instead of liquid adhesive in the future.

14- I added the sand paper to the back side of the ring piece as shown. The pieces that currently do not have sandpaper is because these are the sections where either the ends of the sections will attach to each other to form a ring, or it is where the pieces will be attached to the card base. The sandpaper will be added over these connection points.

15- decorate the front of what will be the inner smaller ring.

16- add plastic strips to the towers the same as the outer ring.

17- on the back side of the inner ring add the sandpaper as shown, leaving the places where the castle will either connect to itself or to the card base.

18- to make the very inner wall and tower I trimmed and assembled these pieces as shown. I wanted the shorter tower to be a little taller so I attached the whole piece to the wall including the tabs so I had to make new tabs to attach the wall to the inside of the card. I also added some plastic strips and added the sandpaper pieces to both sides.

This is the progress so far.

Now to start on the card base.

19- correction, I have the dimensions below as 10” X 7”, it is actually 10 1/8”, I knew the card would be thick so I have a 1/8” of a gusset in the middle of the card.

20- using the largest die from the new Rectangles and Labels Crosshatch I cut 4 rectangles in a colour a shade lighter than the cardbase. I cut the center out of 2 of them, they will be on the inside and covered with a different colour so I am trying to take away some of the extra bulk.

21- what the inside and out side currently look like.

22- using another die from the Rectangles and Labels crosshatch I cut cardstock the same colour as the castle.

23- I cut a small rectangle (size in pic ⬇️) i measured the half way mark and then 1/16” on either side so there will be 1/8” to line up over the 1/8” gusset of the card base.

24- using the piece from the Castle dieset to cut into the card, line it up on this small piece of cardstock and diecut as shown.

25- mark the middle of the card, then equal on both sides the width of the small castle piece. THIS HAS TO BE CENTER

26- adhere to the card as shown.

27- using the same die, cut out two of the little rectangles and fill in the spaces on the mechanism that is attached to the card.

28- add the castle to the card base as shown.

29- now that the small castle is installed, cover the rest of the inside pieces with the sandpaper.

30- fold the tabs on the inner wall so they will line up with the 1/8” gusset in the card base. Add adhesive to the edges and adhere it to the middle of the card.

31- using the Pattern Plate Swirls I diecut the sandpaper. I trimmed it into smaller pieces and used the swirls to reinforce the tabs of the center wall, and to cover some of where the castle is connected to the card.

32- I cut 2 rectangles using the Triple Flip rectangles. But honestly I had to trim them so much you could probably start with a smaller one.

33- fold the rectangular and line it up with the castle section that has the door, trace where it needs to be trimmed, then trim. Adhere it in the card as shown, then cover it with a sand paper piece.

34- do the same with the other side of the castle.

35- trim the other end of the rectangle so it fits in side the card, I ended up having to trim it more than what I have shown. I kept placing it in and trimming until it fit in nicely next to the inner castle ring.

36- I had to peel up a bit of the sandpaper swirl that I had already glued down.

37- I know it’s hard to see because it is all the same colour, but this is where I glued in the the tabs for the large ring. Make sure everything is even, especially that the 2 side peaks line up perfectly with the fold in the card base.

38- glue down the sandpaper swirls that were peel back and add more to cover and reinforce the tabs. I also used some of the larger swirls that are meant to be the negative space of the swirls.

39- using the labels from the Rectangles and Label Crosshatch set I layered 2 labels for a place to sign and added them to the lower right corner.

40- I continued to add sandpaper swirls to cover the rest of the ocean floor scene.

Close the card and trim off what clear plastic strips that come outside of the card. When adding characters keep them below to end of the strips. Depending on where they are in the castle some strips will be longer than others.

When adding my characters I found the easiest way was to cut them twice, once in reverse. To cut in reverse have the card colour facing up, put the die underneath facing up and cut. I would then add what ever character I wanted facing the direction I want and adhered it to the plastic stick, then add the reverse piece sandwiching the clear stick between the 2 die cuts.

41- I started adding my characters, I thought it would be cute if the octopus tentacles were coming through the doors.

42- to make the suspended sharks first I sandwiched a piece of the plastic strip between 2 rows sharks (I left a few off until I adhere the shark strip to the card) , make sure to line them up perfectly then I used glue dots to adhere the shark strip to one of the strips that are attached to the castle. Then I added the last couple of sharks the the plastic to cover where it is attached. The glue dots are slightly visible but since there is so much going on this card it isn’t really noticeable.

43- to add the Merman I popped off the hair that I had added to the back of his head, I added a glue dot to his head, stuck him to a strip then added his hair. The strip is sandwiched between his main body and his hair.

44- I added the mermaids the same way. I glued them to a plastic strip then added a small circle the same colour as their hair to cover the glue dot.

45- I added the jelly fish by sandwiching a plastic strip between them, then I added 2 more and sandwiched the edge of the first one between, then 2 more and sandwiched the side of the second one between them. So it looks like there are 3 but I used 6. I only used 3 tentacles and 6 of the head pieces, do jellyfish have heads?

46- I cut 2 of the sandbar from the Tiki bar Little House add on, one from cardstock one from sandpaper. I added a crab family, all four sizes , glue dots stick better to sandpaper than glue does.

47- I diecut “Wishing you a Mermazing” from the Mini Alphabet and Numbers set, and the “Birthday”from the “Happy Birthday” die, I also die cut a wave from the Tropical Scene onto a 6 1/2” strip of paper. The die isn’t long enough to do the whole piece but I plan on adding an island there anyway.

48- I want a belly band with a magnet closure, so I cut 2 pieces of cardstock, one strip is 11” and I scored it so the piece that is is long in the middle is 7 1/8 “ that will go around the back I have a short flap on one end and a longer flap on the other. I cut another strip that is long enough to add to the long side so it will run most of the length of the front of the card.

49- sandwhich magnets on both ends of the strip that will be the band. Then wrap the band around the card, short side on the left.

50- I cut another strip of waves in a lighter colour to 6 1/2” and added it to the long section in the front of the band.

51- I cut out 2 mermaid bodies, one in reverse

52- add them together, back to back at the end of the strip.

I die cut the palm tree from the Tiki House set. I diecut some little circles then glued some Flower Soft to them to make them look a little more like coconuts.

52- I added “wishing you a mermazing” on to the card-front, and “Birthday” to the band make sure to only add adhesive to the section that touches the band. I also added the sandbars and palm tree to make the island.

53- I added the number 2 to the front tower.

54- the sun is from the Tropical scene set and the clouds are from the Castle die set.

All of the diesets are from Karen Burniston, and they are listed here. Each link below is to the product page for each die and each page has assembly videos.

Castle Pop Up

Pattern Plate Swirlshttps

Rectangles and Labels Crosshatch

Beach Bar Tiny House Add on – sand bar, Palm trees

Beach Borders small sharks, itty bitt crabs

Sea Charms jelly fish, seahorse, small crab, sea shell, clam shell

Ocean Animals Octopus and Largest Crab

Sea Animals Shark, Turtle, Medium Crab

Princess and Mermaid 3 mermaids

Tiny Gnomes top half of Merman

Tropical Scene waves, sun, star fish on front

Tiny Accessories 1 Merman’s crown

Mini Alphabet and Numbers

Happy Birthday “Birthday”

Happy Birthday Shadow “Birthday” shadow

Numbers 2

Tools

Fine Tip bottle

Lineco Neutral PH Adhesive 

Quick Stick Tool

Check out the rest of the talented design teams pos

Karen Burniston

Lois Bak

Sue Small-Kreider

Karen Aicken

Jennifer Webster

Frances Byrne

Suzanne Smit

Sandy Diller

Fran Sabad