Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Karen Burniston April Challenge - Accordions With Friends!

Hello! I am so honored to be a part of the Karen Burniston challenge this month. Shelly Hickox is a member of her design team and for April, each member got to choose a blogger friend to join in as well. Thanks Shelly for picking me! You can see her completely awesome card on her blog here.

Last year Shelly made the most amazing tunnel cards using Karen's accordion dies. When I saw them on her blog I just knew I wanted to make one too! Check out the wonderful tutorial on her blog so you can see how it really is easy to do using Karen's accordion dies. I went with an ocean theme for mine, using the Accordion Rectangle die:

Lisa Hoel – the Karen Burniston April challenge – Accordions with Friends!

They look complicated but trust me, they really aren't! I don't know how to do nifty videos like Shelly to show how dimensional this really is but I did take lots of photos. ;-)


I pulled out every sea-themed stamp I own when I was choosing what to use. Some are from deep within my stash and have been around for years. Ones that you can still get are down in my supplies list at the bottom of the post.


I love all the layering you can do in these cards. To make my fish "swim" I cut tabs of thin clear plastic and glued the fish to them. They float quite nicely I think!


The great thing about these tunnel cards is that they fold flat so you can actually put them in an envelope and mail them off:


If you're trying to wrap your head around how this goes together, Shelly's tutorial really does a good job of explaining everything. I will give you a peek at my two sections before I put them together. You do need to do all your stamping, coloring etc. before you put them together. I found it helpful to make a mockup out of scrap cardstock and pencil in where the main features on the edges would be. Then I took the mockup back apart and was able to ink, stamp and stencil in the proper spots.


The very back of the card is a panel of clear packaging plastic that I glued a white coffee filter to. When the glue was dry I used Distress Stain to color it and then stamped on it. I like how it's semi-opaque and the light streams in like it would underwater.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope I've inspired you to go get creative. Many of the supplies I used for this card can be found at Inspiration Emporium. Follow the links below and use my code JUICE there to save 10% if you go shopping. I will also point out that US shipping is always $5 and international shipping is just $10. ;-)

9 comments:

  1. Brilliant accordion card, Karen, love it!

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  2. Lisa!!! This is totally amazing! When you said you were doing a sea theme, I almost did a tunnel card with that theme so we'd coordinate. I'm SO glad I didn't because it wouldn't have been half as cool as yours. I'm so happy you could join in! :)

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    1. Thanks for asking me Shelly! I love your card. The G45 papers coordinate perfectly with the new KB barn dies. I love it!

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  3. Totally beautiful card Lisa - These cards are so much fun and your is a step beyond. Love it.

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  4. I´ve to come over to see more of this Card....
    what a great Interpretation of the theme !!!
    And how clever ist it to use as tunnel Card (never seen it befor)
    TFS CU hellerlittle

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