Happy Birthday Circle Shaker

Today I have a quick shaker card to share. The words 'quick' and shaker card’ don’t usually appear in the same sentence, but the fabulous shaker pouches from MFT make it possible!

I began by die cutting the MFT Happy Birthday Circle Frame die from purple glitter card. The circle shaker pouches fit this die perfectly.

On my card base, I adhered a wide strip of patterned paper. I then placed some sequins, from the Hero Arts Ombré Purple sequins mix, in a little pile on my card. This is a really lovely sequin mix and you get loads of sequins for a great price. I covered the sequins with the circle shaker pouch and sealed it down with some double sided tape.

I added the Happy Birthday Circle Frame die around the shaker pouch, using some liquid glue. To finish, I adhered a few sequins around the card.

Thanks for joining me today,
Gemma

A Whole Lotta Shaking Going On.....

I really liked the new designs of shaker pouches MFT brought out this month and decided to have a play with them this week before we went away so I've got a longish post with lots of photos to share today.  First off I used the new gift shaker pouches to create a gift shaker card (although I do think these would make fab windows too!)

I went with a simple green and blue colour scheme on a craft card so it would be a great card for boys or girls.  I used some green paper from Reverse Confetti's Fun Times pad (the blue is from my scraps drawer) and die cut the present using the co-ordinating die.   You can leave the bits behind the pouch clear or do what I did and piece the die cut squares back in so the gift looks more complete.  I just placed the top layer over the base card, drew around the holes with pencil and glued the squares in place. Because each "window" is separate, you can include different shaker elements in each if you want. I went with two different ones across the diagonals - stars and circles from the Nuvo Golden Years Confetti pack.  I piled a little on top of each square and then used Lawn Fawn's glue to draw around the paper and the edge of the card so I could glue my top layer (with the window pouch already glued in place behind) on top and hold the shaker bits in securely.  This is pretty much my glue of choice for everything now - so easy to apply accurately and SUPER-strong when dry!

You can see here in this close up how none of the different shaker bits mix together.  The die set gives you the ribbons and bows to finish of the parcel in style too.

For the sentiment I used the Birthday Candles stamp from MFT as I really love the fun placement of Birthday and it works without the candles!   However stamping it with the same colours didn't work as the "happy" didn't show up well - it got lost on the kraft.   As it had 3D elements I couldn't stamp it in a platform, so couldn't over stamp it with another colour without risking messing it up, but all was not lost....

I used a green glitter gel pen and carefully drew over the happy by hand to make it stand out more!  We all make mistakes in crafting - the key is finding tricks to keep the trash can empty!


 I really enjoyed putting this together and am going to make a few in different colours to keep in my stash as they are the perfect "one size fits all" birthday card to suit all tastes.

I decided to use the other pouches in this release to do another equally "works for anyone" birthday card, this time with an added rainbow cos everyone loves rainbow colours right?


I basically did the same process as before, but this time used the Mini Balloon Shaker pouches and the co-ordinating die set.  This is basically a scaled down version of the original sized balloon but the smaller size means you can get a lot more of them on a single card.   This rainbow of balloons floating up the card full of shaker fun really makes me smile!

I used a DL card and played around with the pouches to get a layout which fit them all on.  Then it was a case of die cutting the die from scraps of rainbow coloured card using the balloon frame die, using the "frameless" die to cut the holes in the front panel and sticking it all together as before (tracing the holes in the front onto the back to get the coloured bits from the frames in the right place)  I used a sentiment from Newton's Nook Birthday Essentials because it fit the space perfectly.  I hand drew a black dotted border to add a little detail to finish.

NEWS FROM THE STORE

We're actually on a break so up to date eta's aren't possible, however, what I do know will be in store later in the week is as follows:

• Lil' Inker's new release will be in store by Wednedsay
• Mama Elephant restocks will be live by Friday
• Lawn Fawn restocks (including the reveal wheel sentiments they missed out of our last delivery) will ship this week so there is a slim chance they will be here by Friday too.

See you later!

Tara

Hey Gullfriend!

You've got me again today - sorry!

I made a really quick but really fun and cute card with the ADORABLE new seaside gulls from MFT which I just love (not so much the real things when they try to nick your dinner on Scarborough seafront but in stamp form I can appreciate them in safety!)

I wanted to feature the dude proudly posing on his post so went for a simple shaker using the new rectangle shaker pouches framed with their co-ordinating Peek A Boo die.  I added a scrap of pearly blue card behind the window and stuck my fussy cut gull to it with foam tape to get him to stand out inside the shaker.  I used a hand full of ombre sequins from Hero Arts to make my shaker element which represents the sea.  I like these mini shakers as they are much less fussy to make than the ones that require lots of foam tape - with the shaker pouches you just need normal tape and you're good to go!

Right - lots more stock to process and orders to get out of the door so best get back to it - see you Sunday!

Tara

A non card welcome

I have something a little different to share today - a way to welcome a new baby without a card.  New parents get so many cards that I thought this was an interesting way to welcome the baby that will stand out from the crowd of cards.

I made a very simple 3D rattle using the new die from MFT along with a couple of shaker pouches which the die has been designed to fit.  

It's very easy to create - I simply die cut the rattle die 4 times - twice from 300gsm card for stability and twice from pretty paper for decoration.  Take 2 pouches, fill one with sequins - I used the new ombre blue ones from Hero Arts - these are much bigger packs of sequins than the Neat and Tangled ones so you could fill a lot of rattles with one pack!  I used a little strong wet glue on the rim of the other pouch then stuck them together.  I glued and sandwiched the 4 layers of rattles together around the pouches and then set them aside to dry - you need to leave them a good while as the wet glue in the plastic needs drying time so I went with the bulldog clip approach to drying for a good fix.

Once dry I added the welcome word using the Lil' Inker Designs die (die cut from white and coloured on both sides with copics to get the shade I wanted) and tied on a mini tag (MFT pierced tag die) with a little blue ribbon.   You could use a stamp to add the name but I went with freehand calligraphy.

NEWS FROM THE STORE

• We are expecting to get the Concord and 9th release this week - it was delayed as some of the products were delayed in manufacture but our order is now complete and in transit.
• We have lots of other orders placed but no firm shipment dates yet fixed so we will update as they arrive - as always your best place for up to the minute news is our Facebook page