Fall Cards: Shaker Card Edition (Not For the Faint of Heart)

Hello again!

So, shaker cards. Over the last year or so these have become really popular, and I find myself getting caught up in this particular trend. I mean, shaker cards have several elements that I like on my cards: dimension, sparkly bits, and interactive elements (you shake them! the sparkly bits move around! it never looks the same twice!). However, no one told me they are SO HARD TO MAKE. I think I've made a total of 4 shakers in my card-making career (today's card being the most recent), and something ALWAYS goes wrong. First, it was forgetting to put the acetate window in when assembling the card (okay, my bad...clearly that was just user error). Then it was sparkly bits falling out or sticking to the sides (sparkly bits are apparently also fiddly bits). THIS time it was uncooperative adhesive (more about that in a minute). Like the title says, these things are not for the faint of heart. If it weren't for the fact that the end result it so AWESOME (after two...three...seven... assembly attempts) I probably would give up. Obviously, I need to quit my griping and just practice more. =)

So, today's card. I wanted to try out a couple of things here, making a shaker card being the first and most obvious. But I also wanted to try stamping on the acetate, which I have seen done but never tried myself. I specifically purchased some white Staz-On just for this technique and finally opened it up for this card. I actually thought this would be the hardest part of the card to get right. With all my assembly issues, I think it ended up being the easiest. =P I've been trying to use up a lot of my old seasonal product for my cards lately, so a lot of it appears on this card. The patterned paper was from a DCWV stack that is about 5 years old and the sentiment stamp is also a few years old. The sequins are a combination of an old Lawn Fawn set (here is just the leaves...hopefully they restock these) some random sequins from my stash and this awesome confetti from Martha Stewart. Through the miracle of static cling the confetti actually sticks to the acetate window a bit. I actually like this - sometimes shaker cards look a little boring when all the bits fall to the bottom.  This way it looks like the sparkly stuff is still distributed throughout the window, with no extra effort needed on my part! Science rules. 

After cutting my window with one of these Simon Says Stamp stitched circle dies, I began assembling my card. This is where things got tricky. I've seen several other bloggers use craft foam to add dimension to their cards, including shaker cards, so I wanted to use two layers of foam for this card to give the sparkly bits plenty of room to move around. However, it turns out craft foam hates liquid adhesive. No one warned me about this, so now I will warn you: don't use liquid adhesive to adhere large pieces of craft foam. Especially two pieces of foam together. The properties of the foam wouldn't allow it to dry properly, and I had to take the whole gooey mess apart, clean it up and try to stick it down with strong tape all while trying not to ruin the whole card. Was it worth it? Okay....yes. =) I really like the way everything turned out, especially the mix of sequins and confetti and the window stamping. I will probably try this whole technique again, maybe for a Christmas card. Oh, shaker cards, why must we have such a tumultuous relationship??? =P 

Hopefully I haven't discouraged you from making a shaker card with all of my doomsaying. The end result really is worth it. With the right tools, some practice, and the right adhesive knowledge, it should get easier (I hope). =) Happy rest-of-October, and thanks for looking!!

*~M~*