Birthday Card...and First Time Using the Fuse Tool

Hello everyone!

I have a quick card to share today that I made for a special little boy for his birthday. I bought the Fuse tool as a Christmas present to myself and the first thing I wanted to do was make a card completely encased in a shaker. Ever since I saw this tool I thought this would be a fun idea. Here's a picture of the card so you can see what I mean:

I cut some white cardstock with the Simon Says Stamp Stitched Squares dies then stamped some balloons and stars from their Birthday Balloons stamp set. The sentiment was cut from some DCWV glitter cardstock using the Simon Happy Birthday die. 

After writing my message on the back of the cardstock, it was time to start fusing. I bought a package of relatively inexpensive page protectors from Office Depot. They were a medium weight protector that seemed to have the right feel for a shaker card without being too flimsy. After fusing three sides of the plastic I put some Martha Stewart confetti stars as well as some coordinating sequins inside the pocket. Then I closed up the top and trimmed off the excess plastic. 

Since this was my first time using the Fuse tool there was definitely a learning curve for me as I was making this card. The biggest thing I noticed was that it really makes a difference what sort of surface you are using the tool on. Obviously you can't have anything that might melt under your project, but when I tried fusing straight onto my craft mat it didn't work very well. The surface has no give to it and the Fuse wheel didn't turn very well on such a smooth surface. The thing that worked the best was placing a few sheets of paper underneath. This seemed to have just the right amount of give as well as friction for the wheel to turn properly. The other thing I learned was that it's actually pretty tough to make a straight line with this! I think the most helpful thing would be to get some kind of grid-lined paper to use under a project (maybe this one), so that you could see a straight line under the Fuse ruler, as well as have some measurement guidelines. We R Memory Keepers just released a special mat to go with the Fuse tool. I assume this surface works well, but I wish it had even smaller grid lines printed on it. I need to hunt down some videos and reviews for this to see how other people like it. =) 

I think that's all for today. I'm looking forward to making more fun shakers and I hope you will try one too! I have it on good authority that 2 year old boys really enjoy shaking them. =D 

Thanks for looking!

*~M~*