Happy Anniversary Shaker Card

 This card is being sent to my sister and her husband who have an anniversary just a few days after ours.  I wanted to make a Hawaiian-ish card since they live in WA and I wanted to remind my sister of her Hawaii roots.  I was short on time (as usual) so I decided to use a recently purchased Hero Arts Fancy die which makes a card seem complicated.  Actually the delicate cuts take only one pass through a Big Shot machine.  At first I thought that I would make a mostly white card with a light watercolored background but after using Distress Oxide ink pads and sprays the background became very dark. (I love playing with the Tim Holtz inks LOL!)  Since I used watercolor paper for the top and bottom of the shaker, it was easy to use watercolor pencils to add color to the delicate die cut top.  I stamped and embossed the words with silver ink and powder (sorry the silver sparkle doesn't show up well in this photo). The clear sword stamp is flexible so I was able to arrange the words in a curved shape, but I still had to cut off some of the coconut fronds so that all of the words would show.  A die cut acetate oval was glued behind the die cut scene. To create the channel behind the acetate, I cut another oval from a thin foam sheet and then cut out the interior leaving only an eighth inch border of foam which I glued (with 3 in 1 Beacon glue) behind the acetate oval.  In hindsight, I could have probably glued a thin cord behind the acetate to form the channel.  The whole shaker oval was adhered to a white oval card that was formed by cutting two ovals and double-sticking just the left edges.  Oh yes, don't forget to put the sequins in the shaker. I discovered that HM Ben Franklin Crafts has lots of really great sequin packs like the brilliant blue green one that I purchased...sorry my photo didn't capture the cool heart and leaf sequins. Well, that's it for this post...gotta write a message and send this card off to my sister.