Congratulations!

A friend of ours, who has been homeschooled, is graduating this week. So I decided to make her a shaker card. We had gotten her a gift card to Hobby Lobby, and I wanted to incorporate that into the design. Thankfully, I came across this blog post by Renee Robbins during the Pretty Pink Posh blog hop. That gave me just the inspiration (and direction) I needed!

I started by choosing a few patterned papers from Doodlebug Design's "Take Note" 6x6" pad. I used one pattern to make a mini envelope with my We R Memory Keepers Envelope Punch Board, to hold the gift card.

For the front, I cut another patterned paper to 5.5x6", and die cut a window using an old Spellbinders die. I also cut a window with the same die in the card base, and the patterned paper I put on the inside of the card front.

I adhered some plastic from leftover clear packaging to the reverse side of the front patterned paper panel, covering the die cut window. I placed foam adhesive tape around the window in the card base, making sure there were no gaps. On the back side of the base, I adhered another piece of plastic, to make a see-through shaker.

I brushed over the plastic pieces with my EK Success powder tool, to help reduce static cling. (I discovered this is important after the sequins in my first shaker card stuck to the plastic too much.) Then I poured in several sequins from a Tree House Studio value pack onto the window within the foam tape. I removed the liner papers from the foam tape pieces, and adhered my card front over the base, being careful to line up the window cut-outs.

For the inside, I adhered 2 patterned paper pieces to the card base, and glued the mini envelope to the back, behind the shaker window. I cut a banner shape from yellow cardstock, and glued it inside the card, so we'd have a place to sign. I cut another banner shape from the same cardstock, inked the edges with Picked Raspberry Distress ink, printed the greeting onto it, and adhered it below the window on the card front. Overall, I think this shaker card came out much better than my first, mostly because I remembered the order of steps to make it!

I'm entering this card in Sweet 'n Sassy Stamp's Challenge #12: Congrats!