Hello my crafty peeps!  Scrappy here with another project for the Altenew AECP program!!  This one was crazy fun.  I created my first shaker card!  See, projects like this one are just more proof that you're never too old to learn something new.  This was a fun project :)  If you've never made a shaker card or have never even seen one, then you are gonna love this project and of course I made it as pink and glittery as I could lol.  Spring is FINALLY coming here to Michigan and the flowering trees are just starting to blossom.  A very fond memory I have from growing up was the apple blossom tree by the side of our house.  Every spring it was filled with millions of soft, bubble gum pink flowers and when the spring rains would start, the petals would rain down like confetti.  Those blossoms were the perfect shade of pink and I loved standing underneath the tree with the petals falling all around me.  And that memory was my inspiration for this project.

Now, I won't lie to you; shaker cards are a bit technical and there are some important components you need: thick double sided foam tape, acetate or clean, thick, see through plastic and most importantly, all kinds of stuff to "shake" inside the card. This card project has an A2 size card base (4 1/4" x 5 1/2") cut from Altenew Classic Crest Solar White 80lb cardstock.  The window fram is made from a square of the same cardstock and is cut to a 4"x4" square so there is a little bit of framing around it from the card base. On this square I measured in 1/2" on each side to get the "window" area framed out and cut it out with my craft knife.  You could use your paper trimmer if you are super careful to not cut into the frame edges.  Next I cut a piece of acetate slightly larger than the window opening and set these two elements aside. 

For the scene in this card I used another piece of the cardstock that was roughly 4" x 5 " and set the window frame on it and traced very faint pencil marks on the inside of the frame onto the cardstock so I knew what area I would have to work with for the background scene. As I created the background scene, I went over the line just a bit so the scene would have the illusion of extending past the window frame. Using blending brushes I created a soft background using Altenew Crisp Dye Ink in Cotton Candy, Baby Pink, Peach Perfect and Fuschia. Using the branch stamp in the Vintage Flower stamp set from Altenew I stamped a branch in  Dark Chocolate Altenew Crisp Dye Ink on the right side of cardstock so it was coming into the window view. My goal for this background scene was to give the illusion of looking out a window through the branches of a pink tree, so stamping the branch where I did creates that perspective to draw you into the scene. From the same stamp set I used the smallest blossom stamps and stamped them around the branches using Altenew Crisp Dye Ink in Pastel Sunrise and Baby Pink. Now, the trick to the shaker card is to rub your background area down with anti static powder that you would use for embossing, so I figured, since I would be doing that anyways, I went ahead and chose leaf stamps from the same stamp set and embossing them with Altenew embossing powder in Golden Peach. 

For an ethereal effect I watered down white craft paint and, using a small tip paint brush, I splattered tiny white speckles all over the background. Oh, but I wasn't done yet, you guys know me and how I love to be extra lol.  I took another scrap of the cardstock and used foam daubers to blend together Altenew Crisp Dye ink in Mahogany Bark, Lagoon and Magenta.  From this I used the Altenew Branches and Berries die set to cut out more branches to create another layer of the scene.  I know those colors I used don't sound like they should go together, but when the branches were cut out, they had just the right sof, mottled hues, reminiscent of Impressionism painting.  I positioned these to come into the window area as well, adding to the perspective and adhered them down with double sided sticky foam dots. Since all the scene artwork was on the left, top and right side of the background piece, I had enough yummy color extra to trim off and use for the sentiment banner. I trimmed it to 4" long and 1/2" wide so it was the same width as the frame and stamped a sentiment from Engagement Wishes stamp set from Altenew in the Lagoon ink. Then I sat this aside. I trimmed down the background scene to be about 1/8" smaller than the frame on each side and used Tombow liquid glue to center it towards the top of the card base front and adhered it down. Ok, now for the construction.  I used a couple small pieces of tape to attach the acetate "glass" to the backside of the frame.  Then, setting the window right side up on my Stamping platform, I stamped another sentiment from the Engagement Wishes stamp set using Staz-On black ink. I sat the window piece aside and got my wide, double sided adhesive foam, and cut strips to fit within the width of the window frame.  I adhered these to the backside of the frame. I gave the background another once over with the anti static powder and chose crystal flakes, crystal cut clear glitter and pink and red tiny cut gemstone pieces and I piled them into the middle of the scene.  Centering it at the top of the card base, I adhered the window piece over the background scene. I attached the sentiment strip and added sequins that tied in the background colors and finally I ran a strip of Altenew thin gold washi tape across the bottom edge of the frame.  

There are no doubt many different ways to construct a shaker card and it all depends on how many layers you want to add into your scene, so keep that in mind.  Over all, this was a bit more technical of a project but it was a project that I seriously recommend try.  I hope you enjoyed this project and I will be back soon with another project card!