Birthday Card

Here's the card I made for our upcoming card exchange. I thought shaker boxes would be lots of fun until I made 21 of them! I think they turned out cute. I hope no one else joins our exchange because I'm not making anymore of these!

I came home and was so proud of all the new cards I got tonight from the card exchange. My husband thought mine was the ugliest of the bunch (before he knew it was mine) because "no one wants a bulky card." Ah well, he didn't spend hours making shaker boxes so what does he know.

Directions to make the ugliest card on the planet: This is too hard to explain, much easier to just show. However, here is a site to get you started. Shaker Box Tutorial

Modifications: I did not use the mounting tape as I would have had to stack two layers to make the box thick enough to fit the beads in. Plus, it's kind of pricey around $4 a roll, and would have done probably 4 or 5 cards at the stacked rate. It's a good alternative if you are only making a few cards. I used 1/4" foam core board ($1.99 at the HL) and a very sharp x-acto knife (don't use a dull blade or it will cut jagged cuts into your foam.) I cut strips of foam core board about the thickness of the mounting tape pictured in the tutorial above. Then I used my favorite terrifically tacky tape to stick it together. When you finish step 2 of the above tutorial you'll fill in your beads. I only used 1 tspn.- 1 T. worth, it doesn't take much. Then I used my glue runner around the edges and stuck in my stamped image (that was already cut to size.)

Note: Acetate is the same thing as a transparency -- think back to what your teacher used during your elementary school days. If you can't find this at Hobby Lobby in a pack, it's available at office supply stores like Staples and teacher supply stores.