Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Fishy Shaker Gift Card Holder


This was one of the craziest cards I've ever made.  It all started with a gift card.....more on that later.  My friend and fellow demonstrator, Carmelita, moved away in December :( She returned over the weekend for her daughters birthday party.  My kids were very excited to go!  It was a costume party, Logan went as a soccer player and Megan went as ......wait for it.....Elsa from Frozen.  We need a gift, of course!  We (I) decided to go the easy way and get a gift card.  It's easier for Carmelita to bring home on a plane and the couple times when Logan has received gift cards he's loved them!  So I hope she liked the Target gift card :)  The gift card (you'll see it in a minute) had a fish on it.  So while driving home.  I mentally sketched a card design (I do this a lot, I'm pretty sure that's where all my brain power has gone...to storing all my ideas, sketches and projects).
My vision was to have a shaker card as if the fish was in a fish bowl.  My original fish bowl card didn't work so I went with a square 5x5 card. I made the fish with punches and used vellum and my Bermuda Bay Blendabilites for the 'waves' in the background.  I used the brush tip and just drew waves on Vellum.  The fish is pretty simple, just the small oval and the 1 1/4 inch circle.  That's it! Then I made the shaker card.  I made it really thick!  I used 3 layers of foam to make the shaker part then I put in lots of sequins (from a big hobby store). 
I'm still learning and perfecting my shaker card process.  I always get little bits sticking all the way around the shaker window and I never seem to put enough in so I feel like there's not enough to shake.  It's a learning curve.  As with anything, it takes time and practice really makes perfect.  Someday I'll have a perfect process for my shaker cards.  I printed a greeting for the front and the outside on vellum.  I love these little puns, the front says: "sending you birthday fishes!" Inside I printed: "Hope your day is fin-tastic!"  So cute!!
Part of the vision of this card was to create a place for the gift card.  So I created a little sliding panel behind the card front. This was super easy probably the easiest part of the card.  I'll have more on how I did this in another post.  I think typing it out is far too confusing, some visual aids will help and of course that didn't occur to me while assembling the card :/  I'll try to have it up next week.  But pretty much you pull the little panel and the gift card slided out.  So cute!!!!!  That fishy gift card is pretty cute.
Finally the inside I just attached the vellum with some White Bakers twine and had Logan sign his and Megan's names.  It was a super time consuming card and I wouldn't have done it for just anyone.  These are the cards you want people to hang on to.  I knew Carmelita would appreciate it so it was time well spent!  I will point out though, this card was big 5x5 plus the slide out panel and it was probably 1/2 inch thick with the foam shaker.....Not one that I would mail....maybe in a padded envelope???  So what did I put it in???  I made a special box for it, check back tomorrow to see the box for the shaker card :)
 
Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!!

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