Basic Shaped Shaker Tutorial

I hope to do a video version, too, but something came up unexpectedly for my family, so I am going with a quick written tutorial today. I hope this will help.

If you have nesting dies, you can make a shaped shaker, and it's really not hard at all when you know what to do.

You will need a tacky glue. Regular craft glue can only be used when gluing card stock to card stock. Tacky glue is used for everything else, such as gluing fun foam, or card stock to acetate.

For my sample, I made the flower card a second time.

I used two circle dies from My Favorite Things to cut my rings (shaker outline). I had cut the dies apart, so I taped two together of the size that would work for my project. You can see the taped dies, which are the upper right shape in the photo. The rings in the photo were cut with the taped dies. On the left, going from top to bottom is one cut from brown fun foam, one cut from chipboard, and another cut from fun foam. The ring below the taped dies was cut from brown card stock. Set the card stock ring to one side and keep the fun foam and chipboard rings together.

Once I cut my rings, I separated the dies. I used the larger ring to cut a circle shape of yellow card stock.This will be the bottom layer of my shaker.

You also need to use this same die to cut a circle from acetate. It doesn't show in the photo, but imagine it stuck to the tape inside the die. 

When cutting acetate, I run it through the die cut machine at least 3 times, then carefully punch it out. It helps to attach it to the sticky edge of a post a note to your acetate shape so that you can find it again when you need it.

Next, I die cut my flower from yellow. I also used a nesting die for this. Then I took a half sheet of white card stock, folded it in half for my card base, and positioned the flower die so that two of the petals were slightly beyond the folded edge of the card stock. Once I had it positioned and taped into place (I use removable tape), then I ran it through my die cut machine.

In the photo below, you can see the folded card base, which is now flower shaped. Two of the tips are missing where the fold is. That won't show once the card is finished.

I took the yellow flower and used an embossing folder to add a raised design, so it wouldn't look so plain, then I set it aside. (The flower card shown in my previous post was plain, and it bothered me.)

Then I used a tacky glue (I like the one from Queen & Co.) to glue the fun foam and chipboard rings together. 

Glue one fun foam ring to the top of the chipboard ring. Use your fingers inside and outside the rings to get the two rings aligned perfectly. Once you're happy with it, then glue the second fun foam ring to the bottom, so you have a sandwich, with the chipboard n the middle. Again, use your fingers inside and out of the rings, till you have them lined up well with each other. Try to make sure there is no glue residue inside the rings.

Once the rings were aligned, I glued my fun foam/chip board sandwich on top of the yellow circle, with the smooth side of my card stock up (it was a textured card stock). I knew I'd be using micro beads, which might catch on textured card stock instead of rolling freely when shaken.

Next I filled my shaker with micro beads (from Michaels) and prills (from Heartfelt Creations), but you can use sequins, small buttons, table confetti, or whatever will fit and still allow some movement when the card is shaken or rocked (just do that very gently at this point, or you may find a mess all over your table).

Next, I glued the brown card stock ring (putting the glue on the ring only, and sparingly) to the top of the acetate circle, being careful to avoid getting glue on any part of the acetate that will show. This glue does not come off. If you get glue on the part that needs to stay clear, it will look cloudy instead of clear.

I glued the acetate top piece to the shaker. Once the glue had set enough, then I glued the yellow flower with the shaker to the white folded flower base. You can add a sentiment either before or after you do this, just make sure your glue is set.

It only took me about 15 to 20 minutes to make this card, but I knew what dies I would be using, and had them ready. I also had the card stock, fun foam, and acetate close at hand and ready to cut.

I hope that helps, and that you enjoy making a shaker card now that you understand the steps.