Shaker Cards – You have all seen them. Design Space even has some in their projects. But they are awkward and kits are expensive. I can show you how to make shaker cards cheaply and easily.
What to Make Them From
First, lets talk materials. Cricut makes them from layering cardstock. This works but is tedious and glue gets everywhere which sticks to the shaker parts. The kits use thick foam which the cricut won’t cut. Some people have huge shaker areas that are square and use foam tape. This works very well but limits the creativity. Everything has to be square for the tape to work.
And then there is what to put into them for the shaker parts. Some people use paper confetti. Some use glitter or sequins. And the kits use beads (at least that’s what Queen & Co uses).
I have tried it all and have my recommendations for making shaker cards cheaply.
The Shaker Parts
I tried paper confetti first. This works well if the paper is two sided. Solid colors work best. And since I used cut outs from other projects it was free essentially. You can see that if you look closely at the bird shaker above. The paper will stick to the glue however if you use liquid glue to attach the parts.
Queen & Co sells beads just for shaker cards but it is expensive. However seed beads are much cheaper and you don’t really see the holes in them unless you look close because they are so small.
The butterfly above has seed beads in it. The cake has sequins in it. These work very well and are inexpensive. They also come in infinite colors. The heart and the flower have flat jewels in them. Those work great but are a little more expensive. I have also tried buttons and as long as they are small enough they work very well, as long as you don’t mind the holes.
The Spacer
As I said earlier cricut has shaker cards in their projects in Design Space. They use four layers of cardstock glued together for their spacer. This works. You can add more for a thicker shaker, but gluing and lining up all this paper together gets tedious. And if you use liquid glue, it gets messy.
Foam works best and that is what the kits use. The cricut will not cut the 4 mm foam that the kits use though. You can, however get 2 mm foam fairly cheap at Walmart or craft stores. You just need to cut it twice. I recommend the foam setting plus on your Air to cut it (You may need to cut twice). The maker uses this setting just fine too. And if you buy the adhesive foam it works great.
If you have a Xyron machine the foam will go through it nicely and It puts adhesive on neatly.
If you don’t have a Xyron Sticker make you can get one here. Just click the picture.
They are wonderfully useful for making anything a sticker by putting glue on the bottom of whatever you feed into it.
Acetate or the Clear Layer
Acetate sheets aren’t that expensive but there are much cheaper alternatives.
I know I am dating myself but the overheads teachers once used are acetate sheets. If you have some laying around they work great. I found some at Goodwill for 50 cents. Also everything you buy today has the thin clear wrapper on it. Recycle it and you have free acetate. This is what I used on the four shaker cards I first made. It can be a bit thin though.
Report covers come three in a pack for under a dollar and that gives you 6 sheets. I used that on the stars in my card. Or page protectors are 88 cents for 20 (gives you 40 sheets) at Walmart. They have an anti-glare coating that makes them a little opaque but I used them on the cake above and they worked great. Cut them as window clings on your cricut.
And that’s how to make shaker cards cheaply but still have nice looking shakers.
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