Shake, shake, shake... shaker cards!

Hi there :)

Remember when I was commissioned to make the space card for a little boy who was turning 3?  Well his younger siblings were celebrating their first birthday within a couple of days of him and I was asked to make their birthday cards as well.  Since they're twins I made cards that were 'the same but different'... here's the finished cards:

I made the wee boy's card first using MFT's Happy Hippos and Balloon Shaker Window die set.  I started off with a piece of watercolour paper that was die cut using my ever faithful stitched rectangles die... I think this must be my most used die I own!  I then watercoloured some Distress Ink onto the paper using the 'wet on wet' technique with Mowed Lawn, Blueprint Sketch and Fossilized Amber.

While I had the inks already on my craft sheet I used the rest of the ink to colour the die cut balloon frame... love how that turned out!

Next I die cut the opening for the shaker card... make sure you have a pretty good idea of where everything is going on your finished card so that you have room for everything... just saying LOL

Then it's time to start assembling the shaker card... this is the really fun bit!

Along with the Balloon shaker pouch from MFT I used some Ice Cube Jewels and Lagoon sequin mix from Little Things from Lucy's Cards.   I've got a growing collection of pretty things from this company and apart from looking cool in shakers they are also delightful to look at on my shelf... and I do like pretty things :)

I loaded up some of the sequins and the ice cube jewels into the shaker pouch and then ran some glue around the edge before sticking it down onto some glitter cardstock.  Multi Medium Matte is definitely my 'go to' adhesive for this kind of thing because it sets quickly and extremely securely!

The next step was to adhere the shaker pouch to the back of the card front using some more adhesive... that sounds more complicated than it should... take a look at this photo and you'll see what I mean:

Next I added the balloon frame and the 'string'.  At this point I also realised that I hadn't stamped my sentiment on the card front but thankfully the shaker pouch is relatively the same depth as the MISTI magnets so it wasn't even an issue. 

Time to add my pre-coloured images... a cute litte hippo and a wee bird.  I die cut some foam to give them extra dimension and it worked really well.  At this point, I layered the card front onto some dark blue cardstock which really made the colours pop!

I added another hippo to the inside of the card:

And here's the finished card:

And now for 'the same but different'... since I'd already worked out my basic design, the second card came together really easily.  Colour the watercolour card using Distress Inks - Picked Raspberry, Worn Lipstick and Wilted Violet. 

I coloured a balloon frame as well and die cut a window for the shaker pouch:

This time I used some more Ice Cube Jewels along with 'Magic Wand' sequin mix for the shaker pouch:

At this point Michael came into my craft room and I forgot to get a few of the photos I wanted but here's one of the inside of the card:

Here's the finished card featuring MFT's Adorable Elephants... love those little guys!

Here's a photo of all three cards together.  I really did love making these cards and I know they were all really appreciated by the recipients and their family :)

Thanks so much for stopping by today xx