Thinking of you. You matter. I see you. While making this card, I thought of so many people to send it to, I needed to make many! People in need, old friends, past co-workers and the list goes on. I love the clean design of this card and the understated elegance. Sending happy thoughts to you all!

Inspiration

The inspiration for this card was two-fold. I was intrigued with a popular item called Rub-ons. My preference is Copic coloring or water color so I hadn’t thought much about using a ready-made product or how effective or enjoyable it would be. I do like to try something new however, so I purchased an inexpensive pack. Beautiful images but immediately noticed they were shiny, Ick! So I used one, threw it in a drawer and promptly forgot about it. Then during a recent live episode with Heidi at Simon Says Stamps and Tim Holtz, Tim did a tiny self-contained shaker element. (How-to under Creation below)

Shaker cards. You either love them or hate them. Can’t they be fussy? I do them sometimes and usually have to recover a few weeks before trying another 🙂 While trying this new genius way Tim showed, of course, I had a SHINY acetate window….Eureka! Perfect place for a shiny rub-on! And the creation was born.

Creation

This is an A7 Card. Let’s make the main element!

1. Apply the rub-on to a piece of Acetate. I did several different ones on one sheet, spaced out, so I had options.
2. Cut out 2 Rectangles from cream cardstock. I cut an arch frame out of this for the window and stamped the sentiment. I used a soft gray for the sentiment ink.
3. Mount the “rub-on” acetate to the back of the stamped frame and glue the other panel behind that for dimension.
4. Now here’s where the magic starts and things get different from the conventional shaker. We are going to encase this to make it an element vs a “shaker card”. Add thin foam strips to the back of the frame. You can use foam with glue or pre-made foam strips. I just made sure there were no gaps (to prevent shakers from escaping) and you couldn’t see it from the front.
5. Add your shakers. I used a combination of very light and sparkly bits to make it ethereal.
6. The twist: Don’t add your background image at this point. Cut a piece of acetate the size of your little panel and glue to the back of the shaker. You can glue this with glossy accents, not glue. It’s a strong hold, sticks quick and is completely invisible. Now you have a fully encased shaker where you can add a background glued behind it all and according to the card you’re making! Easy!
7. For this card I embossed a background with a 1 Corinthians 13 embossing folder and distressed with Old Photo distressed ink. I mounted to the back of the shaker and carefully trimmed around it.
8. Using an A7 card panel cut down by 1/4”, I embossed using nesting frames. (Use your embossing mat vs your cutting plate) I do this a lot with my dies. It really extends their usability.
9. Finishing touches/assembly. I wrapped ribbon around the panel and secured with tape on the back. Using double sided adhesive strips, I mounted that to a card base. Mount the shaker with strong adhesive. Finished off with a tied bow and 3 dots of stickles. What do you think?

Hugs for Crafty Companies

Shout out to Heidi and Tim Holtz for great ideas!

Hugs all around…..Kathy