Life is Beautiful, Friendship Card, Shaker Card, Stampin' Up! 2020 Holiday Catalog

When I ran across this card on Pinterest I knew I had to make it.  I didn't realize how much work it really was until I got into it. You can see the original card here. It's a bit different because I didn't know what I was doing.  There's no instructions there to tell how it was made. So here's how I made it.

The base of the card is a fold half-sheet of Whisper White card stock. This card opens on the bottom and the fold is on the top.

The first thing I did was cut a 4-1/4" x 5-1/2" piece of Whisper White card stock and die cut the rectangles. I used the 2-1/2" long rectangle die. That measurement is the measurement of the die, not what it has cut out. To try to make this simpler for me I cut a piece of copier paper and I traced the die on it four times and fussy cut it out. Now a smarter person would have measured the outside of the die and cut four of them on the paper cutter!!!  I set the pieces on top of the Whisper White piece and lined them up. I held them in place with a post it note while I lightly traced around each one. Then I set the die cut over the traced area and taped it down with the post it note and die cut it. I repeated it for the other rectangles.

Then I stamped the trees from the "Life is Beautiful" set using Soft Suede ink.  I set the tree and card stock up in my Stamparatus so I could get everything right. I didn't realize that the tree was longer than my card stock. The original card got the trunk in the image. Not sure how that was done unless it was added after with masking or if the card is longer than a normal card. It bothered me enough to count the stitch marks on the rectangle and it was something like 32. Mine is not as long. So, that card is longer than a regular card. Mine is a regular size card. It's okay the way mine looks. The bottoms of the trees would have looked nicer on it but it's still nice the way it is. I set the tree and the card stock on my Stamparatus and I stamped them on card base. I also traced around the card so I knew where to set the die cut piece.  I then stamped on the die cut piece too.

To stamp the seasons, I used Flirty Flamingo ink and the round dotted image. The Flirty Flamingo was stamped off once. I only stamped it once on the tree. I did have to mask off the right side of the tree so the Flirty Flamingo wouldn't go onto the next tree. Then I masked the fall tree area and the spring tree area do I could stamp the leaves for the summer tree area using Garden Green ink that was stamped off once. Then the green leaves were masked off so I could stamp the fall leaves. I also masked off the winter part too. I stamped the leaves using Cajun Craze ink and the leaves stamp that was inked off once. These leaves were stamped a little lower to give the appearance of falling off the tree. For the winter area I masked off the fall area. I stamped the snowflakes using Balmy Blue ink stamped once with full ink and then stamped again with stamped off ink. I then inked up the snowflake image again, stamped off once and then stamped on the tree again. 

I set up the die cut piece in the Stamparatus and stamped the words from the "Life is Beautiful" set using Soft Suede ink. I had set it up in my Stamparatus because my ink pad is the old cloth one and it needs to be replaced, it's not stamping evenly anymore. And that was it for the stamping, unless you want to stamp something on the inside. I left the inside of mine blank.

I turned the die cut piece over and added a 3" x 5-3/8" piece of Window sheet.  I used the Tombow Multi mono liquid glue. I don't like using that glue because I always get it on my fingers and it's hard to get it off. I like the glue because it sticks SO well and doesn't make your paper warp. I put the glue all around the edges and in between each panel. Then I set the window sheet in place. I wasn't careful and I got some glue on the window sheet. I was awful trying to get it off. There's still some on it that I just couldn't get off. After 15 minutes I had given up.  It just had to be left on there and in hopes that people will see the card and not the glue! You have to really look for it to see it.

Next I got out my foam strips and taped all around the outside of the area and then in between each panel. I didn't have all the sequins that were used in the original card so I just used what I had. I used some "Iridescent Sequins" that were retired for my spring card. I had some green ones for the summer panel and I mixed some copper/orange and brown ones for the fall panel. I did have the "Snowflake Sequins" from the Holiday Catalog for the winter panel. I carefully removed the backing from the foam strips.  But I wasn't careful enough and the piece shook a bit and some winter fell into fall so I had some picking to do. Plus some stuck to the sticky part of the strips.  UGH!!! Just reminding me of why I don't do shaker cards very often. Once I got it done I carefully set the piece in my Stamparatus.  Then I took the card base and set it on top of the die cut piece.  I used my Stamparatus to do this to make it easier to put the pieces together. The die cut piece was put in the corner of the Stamparatus so two sides were pushed against the two walls.  Then the card base was also set against the two walls and lowered in place. It was the easiest assembly of a shaker card I'd ever done. Why didn't I think of doing that sooner? That is the real reason I didn't do shaker cards much, I had trouble lining it up. But now that part is easier. And if I can be more careful about bumping it once the sequins are placed in it, it should go better next time. Next time!!! LOL

Once the bottom was affixed to the top I checked to make sure it was on straight. There was one little part that was showing from the card base so I took it to my paper trimmer and I cut it off. It looks great. I gave the card a shake and it all worked!  Mission accomplished.

It doesn't look exactly like the original card, but close enough. I like how it tuned out.

Thank you SO much for taking the time to stop by today,
Wanda