In My World: Close To My Heart ~ A New Approach to Shaker Cards, Step-by-Step

A New Approach to Shaker Cards, Step-by-Step

We are so excited to share this shaker birthday card with you! Not only does it use the new Round Balloon Thin Cuts, but, if you look closely, you can see that we shook things up with how we created the window!

Unlike the shaker cards we’ve shown you on this blog, so far, all of the shaker cards pictured in our new Core Products Catalog have the window mechanism built from behind a large framing project piece, rather than on top of it!

Let us show you what we mean!

If you recall, in May we shared how to recreate the shaker window on the Tutti Frutti: Here’s the Scoop scrapbook page. On that page, and up until then, we built a shaker window on top of a base and then attached it to the project.

On this birthday card, we are still building the shaker element separately and then attaching it to the art. However, the top “frame” that attaches to the acetate window is a larger piece of the final project, which helps to seamlessly integrate the shaker element into the artwork.

Another thing that we did differently with this card was to create the window’s shape using a die that is not specifically designed as a “shaker window” Thin Cuts. The round balloon, as you can see in this very same card, is part of a standalone Thin Cuts set that can be used to create paper balloon shaped accents and does not have to be used for creating windows. (How fun that it can be, though!!)

Let’s take a closer look at this card and assemble the front shaker part of it, together!

Here’s what you’ll need:

Round Balloon Thin Cuts
Small Circle Shaker Window Thin Cuts (optional)
Small Circle Shaker Window Foam + Acetate
Clear Loose Gems
Pink Mini Hearts
2½” x 2½” Light Ballerina Cardstock (optional)
3″ x 4″ Light Seabrook Cardstock
Adhesive Runner

Assembling a shaker window from behind:

1. From the Seabrook cardstock, die cut the balloon and keep the resulting negative space portion to use on your card. (Keep the balloon, too, for another project!)

Tip: When you are cutting the balloon, remember which side of the cardstock you want facing up, toward the front. One side of the cardstock is the true Seabrook color, and the other side is a lighter tone of the color. On our card, we wanted to use the lighter side as the front and kept that in mind as we positioned our die.

2. From the Ballerina cardstock, die cut a 2″ circle. (The circle in our Small Circle Shaker Window Thin Cuts is 2″.)

Tip: We also wanted to use the lighter side of the Ballerina cardstock. Because a circle is a symmetrical shape no matter how you turn it, it didn’t really matter which way we cut it.

3. Flip the prepared Seabrook cardstock over and attach the circle acetate. Only use adhesive along the edges of the cut-out balloon shape on the cardstock.

4. Carefully pull the circle foam tape off the backing sheet it comes on and attach it to the perimeter of the acetate.

5. Add gems and hearts, or your choice of filling, to the center of the frame. Do not add too much, so there is enough room for movement once the shaker is complete.

6. Expose the adhesive on the top of the circle foam tape and attach the cardstock circle.

7. Attach the shaker window to your project!

As you can see on this project, the back of our window is light Ballerina and the cardstock that it was attached to is light Flamingo. We did this intentionally to make the window more visually interesting, especially since a few of the mini heart colors are on the darker side. With the lighter center, you can see all the pieces and nothing gets lost in the background.

If you do want your shaker window’s background to match the piece you are attaching it to on your project, you can simply skip the step of cutting out the backing circle and attach another part of your project to the shaker instead. This may be a little bit trickier, depending on what your project is. If it gets too complicated, just cut out a circle in the same patterned paper or cardstock color as the piece your shaker will be attached to on your project and use that to back your window before attaching it. No one will know!

This cute card is just one of the many shaker window cards pictured in our Core Products Catalog using this new approach for the window! We’ve collected them all for you below, along with their recipes, so you can continue to get inspired and shake things up!