Virginia's View Challenge and My Shaker Card Attempt

I know the rage in card making right now is shaker cards but I want to start off by saying that these are my LEAST favorite cards to make. I browse online and see all these lovely creations, with fabulous frames and sparkly sequins that make me drool. "I can make that!" I think to myself. However, when I actually attempt to create one, I get adhesive on the acetate or my glitter falls out of my card at a slow, but sure, rate from the tiny hole that I missed with the adhesive, even though I cannot find that hole. I cannot tell you how many completed shaker cards I have thrown out that have literally taken HOURS to make, no matter what tried and true technique of someones I try.

I bit the bullet this weekend and tried to make yet another shaker card, just for Virginia's View February challenge. Yes, it is a Valentine, and no, it was NOT an epic fail. I think the reason it wasn't is because I kept it small. No covering an entire front of a card but big enough to be a main element. Here is what I came up with:

I will be honest, I did a lot of things on this card that made me uncomfortable. I used three different patterned papers, as well as used a border die at an angle and a banner that sticks up-no way!! That is not me. You know what? It was kind of fun. To have my shaker not leak was just icing on the cake.

To start with, this card is a bit bigger then an A2 card. I just figured if I was going to go all out, I might as well try a larger canvas too. The first thing I did on the white background is to round the corners. Then I die cut some patterned paper scraps into rectangles and adhered them at an angle.

Next, I adhered a xoxo border from Simon Says Stamp and then adhered the shaker box I created over them. I topped the shaker box with a red glitter die cut note.

I stamped a few pink hearts randomly over the card. I die cut, stamped and embossed the sentiment banner and adhered it under my shaker box. I didn't even make sure it was straight!

The last step was to adhere some die cut gold hearts. Simple and easy and so not my style. However, I had fun. Who could ask for more? Maybe next time I will even attempt to go a little bigger on the shaker!

I am entering this card in Virginia's View Shaker Challenge. Thank you Virginia for actually kicking me in the pants showing me I CAN make a shaker card if I really want to!!

I appreciate you stopping by. Have a fabulous day!!

Supplies:

InLinkz.com

Inspired by this weeks Retro Sketche #122-a Thank You Card

Happy Tuesday! The weather does not know what it wants to do today so it is a good time to hide in my craft room. It is hot and humid out and has sprinkled on and off most of the day. It actually was refreshing to get rained on while I was doing my interval run this morning.

Today I am going to share a card with you that I created using Retro Sketch #122 as my inspiration.

I could not wait to start this challenge because I knew exactly what I wanted to use for the background. I used the MFT's ink splash from their "Abstract Art" stamp set and distress inks to create this fun, faux watercolor patterned paper. This is the card that I created:

I stamped each dot randomly by inking the stamp up, stamping off, spritzing the stamp with water and finally stamping on the watercolor paper. While the stamped image was wet, I re-inked the stamp and then stamped the dot again. Though the process seems intricate, it was really fast and easy to do. This helped to get the watercolor look to the dots. I like that the dots are not all uniform and in some areas are overlapping and in others, there is white space.

After the dots were dry, I used an MFT Blue prints die to die cut the watercolor paper. I wrapped purple jute around the top and adhered it to a dark purple card base.

I then adhered strips of pink, green and dark purple card stock in the  middle of the card front.  Next I adhered a stamped label over it using foam adhesive.

At first I was not going to add anything else but the label looked naked. I decided to die cut and stamp flowers in the same colors as the dots using WPlus9's "Fresh Cut Florals" set. I adhered the flowers using both dot and foam adhesive.

Again, I looked at it and thought it was missing something. Am I the only one like this? I decided the card needed a bit of glitter in the centers so I dug out a couple shades of purple Stickles I owned. My last step was to adhere a few sequins.

I had a lot of fun making this card and will be using this sketch again. Coming up with ideas for the background was my favorite part.

Since I used a ton of die cuts on here, I am going to enter this into Virginia's View Die Cut Challenge #5. If you haven't checked the blog out, run. She is so talented!!

Thank you for looking!! Hope you have a wonderful Tuesday!!

Nora

Supplies:

InLinkz.com