Steampunk Shaker Card Tutorial

A steampunk shaker card – something a bit different from the usual shaker cards.

I was very keen to use my new Presscut stacking rectangle dies and have seen a lot of shaker cards being made lately, so decided this was just the project to test out the dies… and add a bit of a twist to the format at the same time.

I choose the two largest rectangle dies to make a frame for the card. I wanted to cut three pieces out with these dies, and it was essential that they were all identical. I don’t have a magnetic platform for my Big Shot, but made my own using a thin magnetic shim and a couple of pieces of cardboard to make it thick enough.

I cut out a piece of blue card for the front of the frame, and two pieces of grey funky foam as spacers. I chose to use funky foam rather than the usual foam tape as it would not need to be coloured (I did not want white), and would also give a sturdy base for such a large frame. I glued the two frames together with tacky glue, being careful to ensure they were properly aligned before leaving them to dry. I also tried to make sure the glue was spread right up to the inside edge of the frames so that the seal between them was very good. This was to try to stop any of the shaker card filler things getting stuck in there. Then I glued a piece of acetate on to the top of the frame. Again I tried to make sure the glue seal was particularly thorough. My acetate is slightly yellowed (I am recycling an old overhead projector sheet), I rather like the way this adds to the vintage feel.

Then I added a little Old Paper Distress Ink around the edge of the blue frame before sticking it to the top of the acetate to make the main part of my shaker. I gave the inside of the acetate a quick dust with a tumble-dryer sheet to remove any static before moving on.

Next I cut out a pile of cogs from bronze, gun metal and shiny silver papers. I used the Xcut Chronology Cogs Dies for this. When cutting the first lot I made a big mistake. I laid out the dies on the piece of paper and didn’t bother to stick them down with washi tape (or use my new magnetic shim!). I thought they would be fine.. but when I finished the cut I found that one die had jumped on top of another and had gotten bent! Luckily it straightened out when I used it again, and is just fine now, but it reminded me that I should be a bit more careful when cutting multiple dies!

I placed all the cogs into the frame and added some black, silver and clear sequins for a bit more bling. I am never quite sure how much to put in a shaker card, hehe.

I used the biggest frame die to cut a piece of patterned paper for the background. This paper, and the blue frame paper, are from the Madam Payraud paper pack by Docrafts. I added a bit of Distress Ink to the corners and then glued this behind the frame to encase the contents.

I printed out one of the Tin Teddy Steampunk Ladies and Toppers onto photographic paper, cut her out and added her to the front of the window. Nearly finished.

I stamped the words “Best Wishes” with Tuxedo Black Memento ink on to a scrap of white card and then “dirtied it” with Distress Ink. I then added a simple banner with the same blue paper as the frame surround, again adding a little Distress Ink around the edges. I affixed my banner to the bottom of the frame with a couple of sticky foam pads.

Then I used more of the die cut cogs to decorate the top two corners of the frame.

Finally I glued the whole frame to an A5 sized card blank made of sturdy 300gsm Centura Pearl card. I used my tape roller for this and put plenty of tape over the back of the shaker as I wanted to be sure it laid very flat on the card base, so that the cogs and sequins could move freely inside the steampunk shaker card.