Tracy's Creative Adventures

It's time for a new challenge with us on the

Penny's Paper-Crafty Challenge Blog

Penny's Challenge 476

As always, the challenge is Anything Goes.

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Today I have used the SwallowTail Butterfly digital stamp by Fred She Said Digital Designs to make a pair of shaker cards.  This digital stamp set comes with a combination of black & white and pre-coloured images.  I have used the pre-coloured SwallowTail Butterfly digital stamp to try a new-to-me shaker card technique.

My cards started on my Silhouette Studio design mat.  I opened the pre-coloured SwallowTail Butterfly digital stamp and a pretty blue digital watercolour paper.  I confess, I printed a bundle of these butterflies, fussy cut each one, carefully inked the outer edges then decided on a different card design, so my kaleidoscope of butterflies (yes, I looked it up) have been set aside for another day.  I added an offset to the butterfly, printed a sheet of them then cut with my Cameo.  I trimmed the digital paper to 4 3/4" x 6 1/2", added a 3 1/2" round window and sized the butterfly to fit neatly inside, printed then cut with my Cameo.  I added an 1/16" offset to make a matting layer for the window panel and cut it with my Cameo.  I matted a card base 5 1/8" x 6 7/8" to allow for a 1/8" border around the matted shaker panel.  I die cut sets of black and white alphas to make layered "HAPPY" and sets of a layered "Birthday" for both cards, adhering the layers together before adhering to the card fronts.
I used double-sided tape to adhere acetate to the shaker window then added foam around the back of the matted card front, carefully sealing around the edges of the window.  I went around the outer and inner edges of the foam with a black marker to match the matting layer.  The butterflies were adhered together with some clear jewellery bead thread between the layers along the middle body line.  The layered butterfly was secured in place with double-sided tape, with the length at the top allowing the butterfly to float down in the window but not to the bottom and the length at the bottom allowing the butterfly to float up to the top of the window ... sure hope this makes sense ... the idea is to allow the butterfly to flutter around the window without going upside down.  You can read all about it HEREin this fabulous tutorial by Jennifer McGuire.  I put some double-sided tape on top of the thread, cutting slightly longer, folding back and putting more tape on top, to ensure the thread doesn't work loose.  I had so much fun making a special shaker mix, combining cupped and flat sequins, seed beads and bugle beads in a range of blues, black and sparkling clear.  The photo below was my second attempt at making the card.  The first time I sealed it closed it was way too full, so I quickly peeled off the backing layer before the liquid adhesive had dried, luckily my "Quick Dry" wasn't too quick!  I tipped the shaker mix out, made a huge mess, eventually dividing all the different elements in half and sharing them between the two cards.  This time I sealed the card again and it was much better.

Before I sealed the second card, I decided to carefully pick out the beads and add more sparkling clear flat sequins to give the butterfly more room to float around the window.  If you look closely in the shaker windows above and below, you will be able to see the clear thread limiting the movement of the butterflies.

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NOW it's YOUR turn!
I hope that I have inspired you to get creative

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Prize ~ 3 Digital Images