Karen Burniston Designer Challenge - September 2026 - Cascade!

 Hello Crafty Friends and welcome. Today is Designer Challenge day and our challenge for September, 2026 is Cascade. The team was challenged to make a card that featured the new Cascade Pop-Up. Since we are starting to get to the end of summer (booo!!!) and the beginning of fall (yay!!!! I love both these seasons!) I thought I would make a fall themed card. 

For this card, I started with a card base that was 5 x 5.5" using a brown cardstock. I then added some fall patterned paper adding an orange cardstock strip down each side to hide the line between the two patterned papers. 

I die cut the Cascade Pop-Up mechanism from the same paper as my card base. I decided instead of using the circles that come with the Cascade Pop-Up, I would use the Square Cascade Add-On. I die cut the largest squares from the brown cardstock, then using the same patterned paper as the background, I added some postage stamp squares. I die cut the next sized square down from smooth white cardstock and then added that to the square.

I used the Woodland Animals die set to add the raccoon and fox to two of my squares. I stamped a sentiment onto a postage shaped rectangle and set it aside to add once I glued my squares in. I glued the mechanism into the card base, adding the centre square as shown in the assembly video, which you can watch by clicking here. Then once everything was glued into the card, I added the top and bottom square. Then I added my sentiment to the centre square. 

I then used the Autumn Elements die set to die cut several leaves, apples, acorns and pumpkins. I cut these from smooth white cardstock and coloured them in with Copic markers. I added them to my card, including some on the pop-up mechanism to hide the arm that is attached to the other side of the card. 

I added a place to sign the card and then added my little squirrel beside my sign box. I didn't want to put too many leaves and decor on the inside and make it too busy. 

For the front of my card, I added some ovals and more patterned paper. Then I stamped a sentiment to the smallest oval using the Fall Phrases clear stamp set. I added more of the Autumn Elements to create a sort of wreath around my sentiment. 

Thank you so much for stopping by today. Be sure to check out the rest of the amazing cards Karen and our team made for this challenge. Below is a list of the supplies I used to make this card. Happy Crafting!

Supplies: For your shopping convenience, all products are linked below. Compensated affiliate links are used where possible with no extra cost to you. This helps me to continue to share all the projects I include on my blog. Please note I only use and share products I love. Thank you Crafty Friends!