Category: Scrap Material

Meaningful Gifts

Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms who are celebrating today with their children, the moms who are missing their children, the moms who have lost their babies far too early, those who shared an all too brief moment with their babies, the mothers who are in the middle of a season of making the dream of motherhood a reality, and those who love on the children from other mothers who lean on you to be the loving assurance in this season of their life. No matter what motherhood looks like to you, Happy Mother’s Day!

Photo by Secret Garden on Pexels.com

Depending on who you talk to, some people feel that holidays are too commercialized. Others find it difficult to find the perfect gift. And others find it difficult to gift a loved one while feeling the financial pressures of this season of world history. No matter where you personally find yourself on this spectrum, I want to help you find inspiration on how you can find a meaningful gift for someone. Whether it’s a belated mother’s day present, a birthday, anniversary, father’s day, grandparents’ day, teacher appreciation, graduation, or any other occasion, know that you can gift in a meaningful way.

I’m going to use the example of the mother’s day gift that I gave one of the mothers in my life. While this may not apply to the person in your life, the same principle can be applied in finding what you can gift that special person in your life.

This mom loves talking about her memories. For many years she’s shared her precious memories of when she operated a daycare. And one of those fond memories is when she grew gardens with the children under her care.

Growing salads in a container box.

One thing about moms, it seems pretty universal that sharing memories usually isn’t about the memory. It’s about reliving a moment in life that brought pleasure to them.

From this understanding, I knew that building a garden for this mom was a gift that would fill her love tank. Not only is it an opportunity for her to relive precious memories in the here and now, it also opened the opportunity to add more memories in association with these older memories. By building a garden and scheduling time to upkeep and tend to the garden, it was also guaranteeing visits and making time for her to spend time together.

Container growing for small spaces.

For this mom, she has two love languages. Her primary love language is gift giving. Her receiving love language is quality time.

Making a deposit of part of this season’s garden was not just a simple arrive, dig holes, put in start, say good bye, and move on with the day.

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For this Mother’s Day gift, it took in the appearance of leaving all the gardening supplies in the car and starting off with a sit down chat and getting caught up with all the news, even if it was only a day since we last saw each other. Then, I was able to go prepare the garden beds for this first plant installment.

Even before I could bring out the plants, this mom was already so filled with love that she wanted to spend some more talking. As much as I wanted to stay task driven (my personality is to knuckle down and get a project done quickly so I can move on to the next task), this day was all about showing love to this mom.

Pallet boxes for narrow spaces and hanging baskets on cyclone fence

So we had another chat session.

When I could find a polite moment to get back to the task of putting the starts back into the ground, I made that move. And with the final post plant watering, I went back and gave this mom one last extension to the gift I was giving her.

Remember, I said that this mom shows love to others by giving to them. So while I was building this garden for this mom, I know that the one thing that would bring her even more pleasure is by telling her upfront that the goal of this garden is primarily to meet her primary produce needs, I’m planting more than she will personally need so that she can give from the garden to others.

I wish I could share with you the look on her face, because she was bursting with love. Knowing that she was having a garden this year was more than enough to help her feel love, she felt seen and more loved because the gift was enabling her to show love to others without need to be reserved or anything else. It was a gift that was freely given so that she could freely give to others.

Growing herbs in repurposed gutters hung on a cyclone fence.

I know that this story may or may not show you specifically what you can give the hard to shop for person, but there is a valuable lesson here.

A good gift is designed to make a person feel loved because it speaks to how they most readily feel loved.

If you don’t know this love language, ask your person how they most feel loved. They will gladly tell you. It could be a tangible object or food that makes them feel loved. Or it can be a non-tangible activity, expression, or display.

A great gift is one that fills their love tank, but also doubles as a tool to enable them to share their love with others.

Container growing garden with DIY budget friendly or recycled components. Chicken wire trellis threaded through upright supports.

Maybe your loved one is not like this mother. Maybe they don’t show love to others by giving them things. Maybe they show love through acts of service. However their schedule is busy. By gifting them your time to do tasks for them or help them create time, this can free up time where they can show love to others by spending time with another person.

My encouragement to you today is to be inspired with a gift idea that doesn’t come from the shelf of a store. Yes, there are many store bought items that are amazing and meaningful. I want to strike the inspirational fire to give a gift out of love and seeing the other person at a core level. And also enable them to pass on love to others.

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Right now we live in an interesting moment in history. It is an uncertain time for many families. But it is also a prime moment to celebrate others by giving to them in a way that shows them that you remember past conversations. Where you have heard and remembered things that could have easily been passed off as trivial information in the moment.

Let’s show our loved ones that we see them. And we celebrate them for who they are.

Again, Happy Mother’s Day!

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This post contains affiliate links to products. We may receive a commissions on products purchased through these links, but at no extra cost to you. This item link is to Amazon but may be purchased at local markets, and found at your local library.

If you are unfamiliar with Love languages, here is the book that started it all.

The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman

Originally this was written for understanding your mate. There are several other editions available to meet other relationship needs such as children, being single, and in relationship of a military service member.

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Getting Buzzy For Spring

There’s one skill that I’ve wanted to learn from a friend of mine, incorporating mason bees into my garden.

Here in North America, mason bees are the indigenous bee. They pollinate 45 times more than honey bees. And if you have young children, you don’t have to worry about there being an altercation and your child (or pet) from being stung. (We’ve been teaching our kiddos about bees because one day I want to have honey bees for honey production. So they already know what’s expected of them when it comes to our pollinating friends.)

I can’t even begin how excited I was when I received an email from a family locally owned hardware store that they were doing a craft for Earth Day, which involved making a home for mason bees.

Today I’m sharing with you the process that my kiddos went through to make a home for mason bees.

We were instructed to bring a soup can or cardboard milk container. The hardware store supplied the craft materials to decorate and make the bee home.

All my milk cartons still had milk in them and I haven’t bout soup in a can for well over a year now. What I did have available was an empty ten pound can. So if you don’t have a small can, know that it’s possible to make a home with a larger can.

Things you will need:

(Feel free to modify with the materials that you have on hand.)

  • Milk carton or soup can
  • Construction paper (printer paper, non-toxic colored paper, recycled paper, whatever you have on hand)
  • Tape
  • Straws
  • Cardboard tubes: toilet paper or paper towel (optional)
  • Corrugated cardboard (optional)
  • Scissors
  • Glue
  • Stickers (optional)
  • Twine
  • Pens, crayons, or other decorating medium (optional)
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If this is a kid’s project you’re setting up for, cut all rolled paper and straws to the length that fits from the back of the soup can to the front.

You can even prep other materials for your bee house. If you have scrap blocks of wood, you can several holes through the block.

I don’t know what you have in surplus in your craft room. But I have many wine corks that have been waiting for just the right project. When I get a free afternoon, I’ll make an adult version with rolled cardboard, drilled scrap wood blocks, and my collection of wine corks that will also be drilled.

Here are some additional bits of information about mason bees, if you are unfamiliar with them.

Here is another resource to get you started on your path for creating a home for mason bees. If you want to buy mason bees to start your bee colony, I found this site which is still selling until May 22, 2023. They have a bee info page that can instruct you in how to care for mason bees to make sure that they remain healthy and happy.

If you’ve watched the movie The Pollinators (2020), then you understand the need to help support our local pollinating community. If you haven’t seen this documentary yet, it’s worth the time to understand what it going on with the bee population in the United States. And if it’s happening here, it’s very likely happening in other places.

Last year (2022) was a bad growing season in the Pacific Northwest (PNW). To this day I still believe with my whole heart that the bees were what made my garden successful, when others in my local community found only hardship. So for my gratitude, I already planned on adding more flowers to my garden as well as being a more hospitable home for my pollinators. With that being said, I will leave you with the pictures of my family. And once the weather clears, I’m going to examine closely where our best place of hanging this mason bee home is going to go.

Happy Earth Day!

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Transforming Memories

If you’re a sentimental person, or living with one, you know what I’m talking about when I say that it’s near impossible to get rid of those things that are just sitting there collecting dust.

Whether it’s a shirt collection, old ratty blankets, or any other fabric textile, I’m going to show you how you can transform it and reuse it in a meaningful way. And the bonus is that your sentimental loved one gets to keep their memories at the same time!

In this instance I’m using the spare jerseys that I had from coaching this past season. My office space is limited and I really couldn’t keep them for some theoretical team use. Besides, my boys have already a small collection of jerseys from different teams they have played on. I need a game plan of what to do with them, in the event that certain men in my family can’t let them go.

Breaking Shirts Down

If you’ve taken a look through Pinterest, you’ve seen how people have made pillow cases out of shirts of loved ones who have passed on. You probably have seen, many years ago, where logos and decals of shirts have been broken down into quilting squares. What do you do if you really don’t want pillow cases (especially out of stained jerseys) and the material doesn’t lend itself to quilting (or you just don’t quilt)?

Cut the shirt down into a thin fabric strip, or yarn if you will.

The beauty of breaking shirts down into a fabric yarn is that you have so many options in front of you on how you want to use the shirts. You can crochet/knit with it, weave, braid and turn it into cordage (which then can be used in other crafting and practical projects like macramé or net making–trellis for garden, make a reusable bag, or anything your imagination takes you).

Whatever terminology you want to use for the strips of fabric, or future use, I’m going to move forward by talking about the material as yarn.

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How to Make Your Shirt Yarn

If you haven’t washed the shirt yet, and want to, make sure it’s washed and dried. If the shirt is stained from mud, grass, or anything else, don’t worry about it. As you will see in a moment, you will not see it when you finally work your yarn. If the shirt was stained by bleach, that’s not a problem either. Depending on the size of the bleach discoloration, it either won’t be noticed or it will add variegation to your yarn similar to the color variegated acrylic skeins of yarn you see in the store.

Lay your shirt out on a flat surface. The first shirt that I cut, I used my lap and the polyester stretched differently as I rotated the shirt as I cut. This made the lines uneven and rough. For the second shirt, I laid it out on my kitchen chair (you don’t have to have a crafting table to do this if you want to make yarn). My cuts were more uniform and with less jagged edges.

Don’t let your lack of cutting precision dissuade you from making yarn. If you find that you have little pennant like flags on your strips, when you crochet the yarn you will find that you have a textured look.

I started by cutting the bottom hem of the shirt. If you cut at a 90° angle, you will find that you have to cut on a slant to cut your next pass around the shirt. However, if you cut at a diagonal/45° angle, you will just circle around the shirt without noticing any change or needing to make adjustments.

The thickness of the hem is a great way of feeling out how thick to cut your shirt into yarn. It’s about 3/4″ to 1″ wide. I wouldn’t go any wider than that, especially if you have thick vinyl lettering on your jersey/shirt.

As you cut along the hemline, look how its width is in proportion to your hand. I looked at how it fit between my first and second knuckles. With this visual cue, I could cut the rest of the shirt and keep the width pretty consistent.

I chose to start cutting my yarn from the bottom of the shirt because it allowed me to find my cutting groove without having to worry about the neck line or the sleeves.

By the time that I got up to the sleeves, I felt out how I wanted to cut the shirt.

One option was to remove the sleeves entirely. I chose to leave my sleeves intact because I wanted to maximize the length of yarn that I got from my jerseys. The beauty of jerseys is that they’re made of polyester and when you cut through the shirt/sleeve seam, the fabric remains intact. (Cotton shirts may fall apart when you cut the seam.) So all I did was focus on keeping my yarn width and keep cutting up into the sleeve and back down into the shirt.

There does come a point where the sleeve separated and opens up and you can’t go directly back into the shirt body. At this point I just turned the fabric so that I turned the rest of the sleeve into yarn before joining back up into the shirt body.

The neckline is also an odd point to cut around. What you want to do us keep thinking and focusing on keeping the width of your yarn. You can cut through the neck hem and there’s not going to be any issues. The jersey’s neckline stays intact on the seam.

Once you get to the end, you will more than likely find a funky end. Just keep your width, cut around corners and finish off the shirt. It will look like a spiral, but it won’t affect your project at all.

With your shirt cut down into one long strand of yarn, you can trim off any large triangular flaps that you see. Or you can wait to do any trimming until after you started working with the yarn.

I chose not to do any trimming until after I crocheted my yarn. Even though I had several flags on both balls of yarn, I only ended up cutting off three triangles. And those ones were about as long as my pinky when the yarn was unworked–just as a point of reference.

For storing your yarn, or prepping to go right into a project, go ahead and roll your yarn into a ball. Each yarn ball was smaller than the whole shirt folded. So even if you’re looking to save space, and not start your project yet, it is well worth prepping your shirts ahead of time into yarn.

Starting the T-Shirt Yarn

You can choose to start the t-shirt yarn the same way as you would with acrylic yarn. If you want to avoid a large knot, you can do this.

Double over the end of the yarn. Over the crease cut down the middle. When you open the yarn back up you will see that you have cut a hole in the yarn. From here you can choose to thread the yarn through the cut hole to make your first loop. Or you can treat this cut hole as your framework to start a circle or square block.

When you are finished with one ball and want to join your next one, you also have a couple options.

One option is that you cut a loop into the end of your next ball of yarn. The tail of the ball that is coming to the end, cut so you have two ends that you can tie into the loop you just cut into the next ball of yarn. (In the case of polyester, your knot is going to be small, so it will disappear as you work through the transition.)

Another option is that you cut a loop into the tail of the ball that is coming to an end. Thread the beginning end of the new ball through this loop. Make sure that you pull enough thread through so that your first couple of crochet/knit stitches are the doubled over yarn. (This minimizes the potential of a visual knot. However these stitches will be thicker than the ones on either end; from the end of the old ball and the addition of the new ball.)

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Potential Projects

As I mentioned earlier, once you have your yarn made there are countless projects you can make. If you can crochet, knit, weave, or make cordage you can use this yarn for all those projects.

I don’t have nearly enough jerseys to make the one I want, a Christmas Tree Skirt. (I will just add to what I’ve started as jerseys become available. My kiddos are pretty fascinated by this and so I have no doubt that I’ll have their old jerseys before much longer.)

Before I leave you to start creating, I wanted to show you how this yarn works. You saw that the front of the jersey had about a third of the front covered by sponsorship decal. The back also was half covered by the jersey number and sponsorship as well.

As you can see here, for as much white vinyl was on the jersey, in the end it’s just speckling. The thicker chunks of white are from the large jersey number from the back. You can even see the tips of the smaller pennant edges sticking out. Those can easily be trimmed back for a smoother appearance. Or they can be left to add texture and whimsy to your project.

Just so you’re not discouraged, the vinyl they use is difficult to work with. It did pucker as I crocheted. (You see how much it sticks out on the edges.) But as you continue to work your yarn it starts to lie more flat and incorporates itself into the piece.

Note: I didn’t use a standard crochet hook for this. I used a weeding hook (for when I cut my own vinyl) that has a handle that about as thick as my finger. Especially working with yarn that has stiff vinyl, it’s easier to manipulate when you use a thicker hook.

Hopefully this 10″ x 10″ square (made from one youth size S and one youth size M jersey) gives you an idea and even inspiration for what you might make with this kind of yarn. You could mix and match jersey colors into your project or make squares to color coordinate your project in a more analytical framework.

Be sure to comment below and post pictures of what you make using this kind of yarn!

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Comfort In a Jar

Hello Fall. Hello Soup Season.

I won’t even say what else comes with this season. Let’s just say that as a mom of three young children, I’m fully aware of what the change of season means. And this past week, that came and knocked the energy out of me. Shoot I didn’t know I had any more energy to be knocked out! I thought my kiddos drained it from me to fuel their never ending supply of energy.

And yet, I was so grateful to have this soup already canned up and ready to go in my pantry. The chicken stock I make, I add antiviral herbs to it. Let me just say that Lemon Balm is my new favorite antiviral herb to cook with! (In a few weeks I’ll share more with you everything I put into my Chicken Stock. You’re going to love it!)

I want to share with you this recipe for Chicken Soup that is perfect for those days where you need healing chicken soup but don’t have the time or energy to make it from scratch. You will absolutely love this because it takes only 5 minutes to warm up–the same amount of time it takes to make condensed soup from the grocery store. BUT it has less ingredients and more immune boosting goodness. And even if your sick days are few and far between, this soup is quicker to heat up than going through a fast food drive through. Plus as the added bonus of being that IT item to use up some leftovers you have sitting in your fridge on the day you crack open this jar of soup.

Yields: 7 Quarts of canned soup

  1. Clean your jars and lids.
  2. Prep your ingredients.
  3. Cold pack your chicken, split evenly between all 7 jars.
  4. For each of your ingredients, split evenly between all 7 jars. Start with the larger cut ingredients and end with the smaller peas and lentils.

(It’s easier to shake the smaller ingredients down into the cracks of larger ingredients than to shove the larger ones in on the smaller.)

  • Fill each of the Quart size jars with about 2 cups of chicken stock.
  • If you have Kosher or Sea Salt, you can season your soup now. Otherwise, do not put in your table salt or iodized salt. You will season your soup when you open you jar before serving.
  • Clean the rims of your jars with vinegar and then place lids and rings, finger tight.
  • Prepare your pressure canner.

Follow your canner’s directions for the correct process of canning with your canner.

For example, I am Sea Level – 1,000 foot elevation so I can the Chicken Soup with 10 lbs of pressure for 90 minutes in my weighted canner.

  • Once time is complete, turn off the heat and let your canner naturally release pressure.
  • When you can remove your lid, let the cans sit for an additional 10 minutes before removing them from the canner.
  • Allow your jars to sit 12-24 hours to seal. Then remove the rings and clean your jars before storing.

With new lids preserving your canned goods for up to 18 months, you have plenty of shelf life for this soup.

There are many options you have for this Chicken Soup.

  • You can season it and eat as is.
  • If you have left over rice or noodles in your fridge you can add those ingredients and still have rice and chicken or chicken noodle soup that is ready to eat with a 5 minute warm up on your stove.
  • With adding a thickening agent (slurry or corn starch) you can turn this into chicken and dumplings or a pot pie filling.
  • Maybe you have other small amounts of leftover meat, like Italian Sausage. You can use this meat to bulk up the soup, add some kale and parmesan and have a Tuscan style soup.
  • Or maybe you’re looking for something Latin in flavor. Grab some tortilla strips, grated jack cheese and add in Latin American seasonings and you can have Tortilla soup.

These ideas are a far cry from being authentic cultural cuisines. However I want to give you a few ideas on how you can turn one of your canned soups into a blank slate for some variety.

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I know a lot of us really do not have time to prep meals for our families. In fact “meal prep” might have a double four letter word effect in your ears. And that’s okay. For roughly the same time it would take me to cook a soup from scratch for my family, I can make 7 meals that I can crack open and serve dinner in less time than it is for me to go through a drive through. And it’s healthier for us.

To heat up this dinner in 5 minutes, this is all I do:

  1. Grab my jar from the pantry.
  2. Grab my soup pot. And turn my burner on high.
  3. Open the jar and pour the soup into the pot.
  4. Fill the jar with Water and pour into the pot.
  5. Put the jar in the dishwasher and set the table.
  6. Taste the soup to make sure it’s seasoned the way I want it. (Add salt, because I usually only have table salt readily available, so it got canned without salt.)
  7. And it’s dinner time.

If you have a college student who’s coming up on Mid Terms or Finals, this is perfect for them! Often times they’re up late and find themselves hungry after the cafeteria is already closed. This is something they can cook from their dorm room with a microwave or hot plate and have the brain food that they need. Or maybe they’ve caught a cold and need a little mama’s love in the form of soup. This is super convenient and perfect for a care package.

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Looking for a gift idea for this Holiday Season?

This is soup is perfect for the new mother getting use to having baby at home, an elderly family member who retired their pots and pans, someone who is an avid camper or loves cooking by camp fire, or anyone else who can benefit from a quick home cooked meal without all the fuss.

Maybe you’re the type of person who loves gifting food to a neighbor, friend, or family when they become ill. Here is a quick way of gifting all that healthy goodness without your schedule batting an eye.

I highly recommend this recipe for everyone!

Do you need another gift idea?

This one is personal and doesn’t require you to have a master’s degree in art to make!

Here are some supplies that you will need:

  • Canvas
  • Paint
  • Paintbrush
  • Clear Acrylic Spray
  • Chalk pen/crayon, Paint pen, Pastel, or like craft item you can write with
  • (Optional) Sponge, Paper towel, Napkin, or Tissue
  • (Optional) Embellishments such as pre-cut vinyl design

Paint a design on your canvas. You can do whatever design you would like. Here are some examples of canvases that I already have on hand. There are the canvases that my boys made 3 years ago.

And these are the ones that I have in the prepped stage for various projects that I have in the works. You can use coordinating colors, monochromatic colors, are shades for an abstract scene.

Let your canvas dry.

Spray your canvas with Clear Acrylic Spray and let dry. This step is important, because accidents happen and sometimes you want to “erase” a mistake. I’m a phonetic speller and sometimes I just get a word wrong. No worries. By having the acrylic spray dried before you start writing with your crafting pen of choice, you have the option of wiping away the mistake with a wet cloth. The only writing medium that gets to be a bit tricky is acrylic pens. That one you may not find having an “erasing” quality. Chalk pens and most pastels will generally work for excessive editing.

With your writing medium of choice write your message, series of quotes, words of encouragement, or whatever you’re inspired to say. When I made these gifts for nieces and nephews, it took about 7 quotes that I pulled from online to fill the 8×10 canvas with medium small print from top to bottom. You can write as large or small as you would like. Just be aware that the writing medium you choose to use will help you decide how small you are able to write. I used a chalk crayon that had a relatively large nib, so I wrote as small as I could and the words were as tall as the width of my pinky.

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Decide if you would like to leave your writing clear and readable or if you would like to smudge the words to make an added texture on top of the painted design that you made. This choice is perfect for the people who believe that their handwriting isn’t pretty. By smudging your writing, you remove the uneven, shaky, or other characteristics of your handwriting that you may be self conscious of. If you choose to smudge, I recommend printing out a copy of your message that you can give with your gift, so the recipient has the opportunity to read the love that you wrote for them. For direction of smudging, that is completely up to your eye. I personally like smudging my work from left to right because I love using horizontal strokes when I paint. I do have some pieces that the strokes are vertical and so my esthetic is to smudge vertical with those, so the “text” doesn’t compete with the flow. But you could choose to smudge diagonally, circular, zigzag… each direction you go will give a different feel to your piece.

Once you are done writing and/or smudging spray your canvas with the Clear Acrylic Spray again. This is going to be a critical step for you. If you chose to smudge your “text”, the spray will prevent further smudging. If you want to add vinyl or HTV on top of your art, this spray is going to anchor your vinyl down. I’ve tried applying vinyl and HTV straight on a painted canvas and both have peeled off, taking paint with it. But every time that I’ve used the Acrylic Spray, vinyl and HTV both stay on the canvas perfectly.

Embellish your gift. Your options are endless at this point. You can choose to make something and personal with just adding your recipient’s name. You can add scrapbooking embellishments with hot glue to add some glam or character. You could pray a frame with a metallic paint and make a modern framed art. Or perhaps you want to do four panels and keep them frameless. And then there’s always the option making a 3D piece using other crafting techniques, such as this.

If you find that you are on a budget this Holiday season, this is a perfect gift option for you. We are in a time in history where people need to hear how much they are loved and valued. So when you can poor into another person and share with them a hope of a future with them, it can hold profound meaning in their life right now. I have never before seen so many people facing suicide and thoughts of hopelessness like I’ve seen in the last few years. Sharing with someone how much they mean to you is something that you will never regret. And you never know that it might be the one thing that offers them hope in a time where it seems like everything is so wrong.

What is inspiring you right now? Do you have ideas sparking in your mind?

Right now I’m inspired with many of the changes that come with fall. This is the season that always has inspired me. In fact, my boys found a whole acorn that I so want to use as a piece of 3D art. I’m hoping I can find some more and have more than a single nut to work with!

Please comment below with what you want to make and even send me some pictures. I would love to see what creativity jumps to life in you!

Files used today

Spring Triple Panel comes with all you see here. Or you can select individual elements.

Jelly Fish element from my Jelly Fish Collection

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Shake That Card

Maybe it’s because of my inner child. Maybe it’s because I have a house full of small children. But the one thing I can say with all certainty is that I absolutely love things that glitter and things that move.

So of course, I’m going to love shaker cards.

Have you seen them before? The few that I’ve seen in the market place have chunky glitter or confetti. Well, I’m going to show you how you can make these for yourself.

But first I want to show you how I make my own confetti. After all, why would I buy confetti when I have some absolutely beautiful scraps that I really can’t bring myself to throw out? There’s textured prints that I love and color schemes too. They make me smile. But there’s the glitter card stock. In the paper world, glitter card stock is my crack. When I have sheets in my craft room, I save it for my favorite people and special projects. So of course I want to use every splinter of that beautiful goodness.

Confetti is super simple! You just your paper scraps and cut them down to this:

Really I do NOT have that much spare time that I buckets and buckets of homemade confetti. If I have a lot of a color or paper, I do recycle those. But there’s something about mixing all your favorite textures and prints and mixing a mosaic in a bag. And this is a confetti blend that you will never find in the store.

For the shaker card I’m going to use my yellow blend. For the shaker gift tag I’m going to use glitter. Feel free to customize any of your shakers with plastic pellets, wax pellets, beads, baking sprinkles, or anything else that your imagination brings to mind.

Assembling Shakers

The possibilities for this style are endless. All you need is to build up a frame, a solid back layer, a transparent front layer, and a decorative face to sandwich in that transparent layer.

For my transparent layer, I usually lean toward laminator sheets. This is what I used for the gift tag. But this time I’m using a plastic packaging for the card. It doesn’t give the crisp window pane effect. However, I know most people don’t have laminator sheets readily on hand, and I don’t want anyone to think that you absolutely have to use that one product. If you’re a green person, this makes one less bit of unrecyclable plastic going in the garbage. So there’s that. Also, another idea is taking the thick plastic “glass” that’s found in a very cheap picture frame. You’ll need to use a blade to cut that down to shape. And you might need to score and take several passes to get a clean line. But definitely use whatever you have on hand!

Cut everything with your cutting machine.

Once everything is cut (and weeded if you’re using vinyl) go ahead and seperate everything out; card, frames, and bees (or other accessories).

The cutting files for this card and gift tag can be found here.

Assemble each group separately and set aside.

This is one time where an organized work station is going to be in your best interest. If you use my Bee Card and Gift Tag, you can understand how things can get a little intimidating. (For projects like this I always include assembly directions. I’ve chosen to work through this project here, because visuals are amazing, especially for people who need to see something instead of being talked through it.) But once you have everything broken down into the three groupings for this project, it has a very easy feel to it.

For the Card, you fold it with the cut out window on the front cover. Apply the honey accent around the window. I used vinyl here, but I probably would have had more fun with card stock. After all I have some fun geometric paper. I stuck with solid colors to keep a cleaner and more streamlined piece.

TIP: If your work surface is white and your cardstock is white, try putting a contrasting color inside the card. I used a mini mat inside the card. This made it so easy to find the white edge of my cardstock and line up the vinyl.

TIP 2: With longer cuts of vinyl, application becomes easier when you use the hinge method and prevent the tails from sticking to other parts of the card. Sometimes it takes a little patience to line up all corner and lines to get a straight application.

The best advice I have for the bees is to leave the black silhouette on its backing and build up the layers one at a time. And if you have a straight tip needle, it is your best friend for when your layers shift on you and you need to adjust them. Just put the needle tip underneath, lift the vinyl and reposition it. If you leave the image of the bees up on your computer screen, it’s a great reference point for making sure everything goes in the right place.

There’s a trick when it comes to building up your frame. The glue that you choose really does matter. Usually I like using a spray adhesive (drawing lines with the straw inside the bottle), but I’ve had more glitter failure with that glue on frames than others. Hot glue gun is great for quick setting. But it tends to be thick and make your overall card weight heavier. So the best glue for this project is wood glue. It give you the light weight benefit while maintaining some flexibility in adjusting your frame so all the layers are square. The disadvantage to this glue is that you have to allow for dry time.

Make sure that when you add your glue, that there is a steady line. If there are any gaps, there will be a way for your confetti or glitter to escape. And when all your layers are in place, adding a weight will make sure that you have the best press and prevent your paper from curling while it dries.

Final Assembly

I waited overnight for the glue to dry (but that’s also because I’m a late night crafter. It’s the one time of day where I can get things done without interruption.)

With the shaker card, I used painter’s tape to hold the frame in place. The back of the card is also the back of the shaker portion. By placing the frame through the cut out of the card, when I open the card to fill the frame with confetti, it will stay in position.

I placed the front decal bumble bees on at this point just because it was convenient. With the shaker gift tag, I wanted to put the bumble bee on the bee outline without having to think of messing up a glue job. As you can see with the first picture, I didn’t quite make it square, so I needed to readjust.

If you find that you need to adjust vinyl decals, the best tool you have is a straight tip weeding tool or a sewing straight pin. The sharp point is convenient for wiggling in under the vinyl and lifting a corner. From there you can lift the vinyl. And if you keep it on the needle tip, you can back you fingers out of the way and have a cleaner sight for lining things up.

Turn your shaker tag upside down and open the card. With the frames open you can place your confetti or glitter with ease.

Shaker Gift Tag: I was originally going to use just fine glitter. But when I saw how much yellow I had going on, I needed to have another color in to break up the monotone. The paper choice I made was my black glitter cardstock. I love the color choice. What I would have done differently is add two more layers of frame in there, for a total of five layers. This cardstock is extremely thick and doesn’t move freely around in the shaker. But over all I was pleased with the fill and would not suggest using more fill than what you see here. I would call this tag filled at 50% capacity.

Shaker Card: As you noticed in my bag of confetti, my yellow was not varied at all. And I also wanted to avoid the monotone in this item also. So I grabbed some of my left over card stock from the honeycomb (not yet cut into confetti), added a pinch of my red, and finished it with some texture of the black and silver glitter card stocks. I would have tossed glitter in this one too, but I wanted to show you what it looks like with just confetti. The fill capacity of the card is about 25%. I could have added more, but again I wanted to have a visual reference for you to see what level of fullness you might prefer.

Watching people’s reaction is the true test of how successful something is made. I showed this card to my sister and after initially looking at all the detail, she instantly started shaking the card and smiled as she heard the confetti rattle around!

Want to dress up the card more?

Please do! You paper, vinyl, and other choices are going to make your card and shaker look completely different. You could use crafting foam sheets for the frame. You can use all paper. In fact, I know ladies who have such an amazing stash of paper, that makes my selection look like a kindergarten class project. But I try to be kind to my husband and not keep insane amount of supplies, like I would truly love to hold.

Now for dressing up on this particular card, I’m a bit limited. I went crazy with the confetti and that’s where the focal point went. Since I don’t want to compete with the confetti, I had to keep the honey accent pretty simple. I chose two different shades of fine glitter and used a glitter Elmer’s glue of a contrasting color (which adds a touch of depth to an otherwise flat glitter). To make fine accent lines, I used a tooth pick dipped in the glue to draw my lines. And as you already know, once you add glitter, your lines instantly grow thicker. So don’t be afraid of having a toothpick thin line. The glitter helps you out.

This particular design would also look amazing adding flowers, grass, or any other embellishment. So please don’t be shy to add what your project needs.

I hope you have as much fun making this card and gift tag as much as I do. Please leave a comment below and email me pictures of how yours turn out!

Here are the files for the Bumble Bee Shaker Card and Tag.

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