Valentine's Day Shaker Card that Works for Men and Women
It’s February and that can only mean one thing; International Day of Love (or Valentine’s Day) is right around the corner! The 14th of February means different things to different couples. For some people, it’s just not their thing and that’s totally fine! I personally don’t like making a huge deal out the day. I’m certainly not going to spend a load of money on extravagant gifts. But I do like to make sure I’ve got a card to give my boyfriend as small token for the day.
Now, the last couple of card tutorials I’ve done (a Christmas card and a Thank You card) have been simple, quick-makes but not this time. Valentine’s Day is the day you want to profess your ardent affection! You don’t want to do that in something that only took 15 minutes to make. You want to put effort in! Or, at the very least, you want to look like you’ve put effort in, right? That’s the great thing about shaker cards – they aren’t that complicated to make but they do look impressive. Plus, they give you an opportunity to share a cutesy photo of you and your other half.
Making cards for a man is hard at the best of times. There’s just something about hand-made cards that seems inherently feminine. It’s even harder when it comes to making a Valentine’s card for a man. So, for this design I tried to appeal to natural materials as much as possible. That’s why the ‘ribbon’ is made out of plain twine and I’ve used a paper that gives a wood effect for both the tag and the shaker frame. I’ve also chosen to use reasonably plain paper for the card I’m giving to my boyfriend (the card in the title picture) but you can make it more girly if you like by using more floral papers (see the picture below).
So! Here are all the tools and materials you’ll need to make this card…
A plain card base
A small photo of you and your partner
Acetate
Sequins
White cardstock
Thick cardboard
Cream paper
Rose paper
1m of twine
Three heart stamps, one big and two small
Black ink
Acrylic block stamp holder
Glue
Scissors
A craft knife
A ruler
A pencil
Step One – Assemble all the items you’ll need for your shaker. Print off your chosen photo and measure its dimensions. You’ll then need to cut out squares which are 2cm taller and 2cm wider than your photo in the following materials; your cardstock, your thick cardboard, your acetate and a piece of wood effect, textured paper from the Love Story paper pad. Using your craft knife, cut out an inner square from the thick card and the wood-effect paper to fit the photo’s original dimensions.
Step Two: Make your shaker base. Glue your thick cardboard frame onto your piece of white cardstock. Then glue your photo into the gap.
Step Three: Finish off your shaker. Pour some sequins into the gap, fill as desired. Then glue around your cardboard frame and press the acetate carefully over it. Finally, glue on your wood-effect paper frame.
Step Four: Make your card background. Choose two designs from the Love Story paper pad that you like. Cut one piece to be 10cm x 11cm and the other to be 10cm x 6cm. Then glue them together so that they are overlapping by 2.5cm with the smaller piece being on top.
Step Five: Glue your shaker onto your card background.
Step Six: Cut out your tag. There’s a really great paper within the Love Story pad which is set aside purely for tags. Choose one which you would like to use for your card and cut it out. I wanted to carry on with the natural materials theme so chose the wooden style tag from the top left corner. Set the tag aside for later.
Step Seven: Wrap your twine. Place your twine behind your card background so that there’s roughly an equal amount of twine on either side of the card background. Position the twine so that it is at the same level on your card background as the change in papers. Take each end of the twine over to the other side of the card, and then back around the other side so that each end returns to their original side. Make sure to leave a small gap in between the two lines you've created over the front of the card background.
Step Eight: Tie a bow and attach your tag. Bring the two loose ends of the twine together, in front of the card, and tie a simple knot. Position the knot where you want your bow to be. At this point, thread a loose end of the twine through the hole in your tag. Secure the twine and your tag by tying a bow in your desired position. Trim the ends of the twine.
Step Nine: Make your hearts. Stamp your big heart onto your rose paper. Carefully cut out the design and glue it onto your cream paper, leaving some space around it. Again, carefully cut out the design leaving a small border of cream paper. Repeat this process with your small hearts only stamp them onto the cream paper and give them a rose paper border.
Step Ten: Finish your card. Glue your hearts onto the top-right corner of your shaker. Glue the whole thing onto your plain card front and you’ve successfully made you shaker Valentine’s day card!
As always, tweet me photos or share them with me on Instagram. My username on both Twitter and Instagram is @mindofabadger. I hope whoever receives your card enjoys it and I hope you have a very lovely Valentine’s day whatever you get up to!