This Simple Baby Shaker Card is an answer to those people that find my shaker cards difficult. It just requires some foam tape, no craft foam! If you like the other method or want to see what it is all about, you can still make my cut out shaker cards. I made this baby shaker card for people who aren’t quite ready for those.
The unusual size of this card means it needs a custom envelope. I am starting to include a custom envelope and liner with all the unusual shape cards. I want to be known as the envelope lady too! You can download the file with or without the custom envelope or if you want to make your own custom envelope, you can follow my tutorial here.
You will need:
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- Cardstock for the base and various Cardstock scraps
- Pen
- Foam tape
- Acetate sheet
- Glue
- Shaker bits
- Repositionable tape glue (for the envelope flap)
- Download File
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Paper Selection for the Simple Baby Shaker Card
I made the base card for this shaker card yellow to be gender neutral. It does need to be two sided because of the front overlay doesn’t go from edge to edge. The other pieces do not need to be two sided. If you already know if it is a girl or a boy, you can change the pink or blue pieces to what you need. I would leave the inside cut out frame as is though or change one of the colors to purple.
The grey piece is cut from acetate. I use packaging from a die set that I bought a while ago and carefully cut off. You can also use other sources of acetate. See the tutorial on shakers to see how to get it cheaply. Also you will find information on shaker bits there, I cut some from paper and used seed beads.
Cutting the Simple Baby Shaker Card
Cut the card base and the Cricut will do the writing. I used a purple marker. Did you know that you can use any pen in your Cricut? You can see the trick here. The font I used is a great Access font called Baby Steps (seemed appropriate).
I also used a great technique I found to fill in anything I draw. This idea is brilliant and I wish I could claim the credit. But it belongs to this site and you really need to see this. They go a bit overboard with the offset. You really only need to do it once or twice but almost any font can fill in now!
The grey square is cut from clear acetate. See the note above.
If you are using the SVG files be sure to follow all the instructions in the docx files in the zip file. The card will not cut the proper size or write properly if you don’t. You can download the version with the envelope or without.
Assembling the Simple Baby Shaker Card
This card isn’t hard. First. re-crease the fold on the base card. Then the embellishments should be attached. You can look at the pictures above to see how that is done to the inside of the card.
Assembling the Shaker
To assemble the shaker front of the card, first apply the foam tape to the acetate edges. The cover is designed to hide the thinnest foam tape from the Dollar Store. Thinner tape will work to but check to make sure the cover will hide it by comparing the width to the width of the dark yellow frame. You can use two layers of foam tape if you need extra height but I used paper and seed beads for the shakers and one layer was deep enough.
Put the shaker pieces in the middle of the front of the card and spread them out slightly. DO NOT PLACE THE ACETATE ON THE CARD UNTIL YOU DO THIS!!! A hint for letting the paper shaker parts move better, treat the acetate with a very little cornstarch spread with a paint brush. It removes the static cling and random glue you might have got on it from the mat.
Trick to Sticking the Foam Tape
Next remove the paper from the foam tape. I use a technique I learned a while ago to do this. Just pull off a small piece of the paper then fold it at 90 degrees to the rest of it and place the acetate in the center of the card. Only the portion you exposed stick at first and is much more forgiving for lifting and moving it around.
When you have it placed in the center to your satisfaction, then you can pull off the rest of the paper by tugging on the tabs you folded back without having to move the acetate. Press the tape and acetate down. Shake the card a little to make sure the shakers move.
The last thing is to put the cover on centered to hide the foam tape. And the simple Baby Shaker card is done. If you are using the custom envelope, keep reading.
Assembling the Envelope for the Baby Shaker Card
First re-crease all the folds. Place the liner inside the envelope and line up the fold lines. Make sure to center it and then glue it down.
Next fold in the sides of the card and fold up the bottom but don’t glue them yet. Mark lightly on the sides the outline of where the bottom hits. Pencil or chalk works well and can be removed easily.
Open up the envelope and glue only where the bottom intersects the sides. Don’t use too much glue but be sure to use enough and cover the whole covered side piece to the edges. If you use too much the envelope will stick together and not enough will make the envelope possibly fall apart in the mail.
Finally place the purple embellishments on the envelope, being aware of where the address and stamp goes when mailing. Make sure they are glued well so they don’t fall off. Slide your card in and TADA it is ready to mail. Seal the envelope with repositionable glue to allow them to open it later.
Thanks for linking to our post about filling in fonts with the offset tool in Cricut Design Space! This shaker card is so cute and I love the envelope!
You are welcome! Everyone, be sure to check out their site