Birthday Candle Shaker Box Card

I always get a chuckle out of my mother-in-law and her birthday candle bag. Since my husband was a child they used the candles that were numbers on the cake and after three seconds of being lit they were still perfectly good so my mother-in-law saved them in a paper lunch sack in a drawer to be used for each subsequent child and numeral combination. After three kids, grand parents, and her husband some of them were in tough shape. At the most recent birthday of one of the grand children a new era was begun. As the adult children fought over who should be named in the will as the candle bag recipient my mother-in-law pulled out a new number one to replace the one that had become an unrecognizable nub. I was about to throw out the packaging when I realized I could reuse it as a shaker box on a birthday card for my niece who was turning one in a month.

Step one: I used piece of white cardstock twice as big as the molded plastic from the candle package and folded it in half. I inked the flat part of the plastic where it had been glued to its original card and used it to make an impression centered on one half of the cardstock. Using the inside of the ink area as my guide I cut a window that would allow the bubble to come through. Because the card is still flat, and you can see through the window area for placement, now is the time to add to the background of the shaker box area. I used a piece of lavender paper and some glitter embossing powder to add a butterfly.

Step two: Glue the plastic into the window. Instead of gluing on the back side the way it was when the candle was enclosed you want to put the glue on the front side of the plastic lip around the capsule be careful not to put on too much so it won't run out and stick to places you aren't ready for it to stick to.

Step three: Fill the capsule area about half full with beads and trinkets. To check your movement close the card and hold the edges tight and shake gently. I used glass seed beads and some translucent plastic pieces from another project I'd done with the kids. It took a few tries before I got the movement I wanted and that was at half full. It might be different with different sized material so you will have to do some experimenting.

Step four: The gluing stage. Here is where it can get tricky. You don't want to have a lot of glue oozing over the sides of the window into the capsule area but you want to be sure (especially if you are giving it to a small child and there are small pieces enclosed) that you get a complete seal all the way around. To avoid blobs and globs and gaps I used a bamboo skewer to smooth and spread super tacky glue evenly over the back of the window side. I gently closed the back flap over and smoothed it down as firmly as possible without crushing the capsule. I set it aside to dry for a while then I trimmed around the edges being sure to leave a boarder slightly wider than the plastic lip had been. This will help ensure it's full seal all the way around.

Once it was trimmed I cut another piece of cardstock to an appropriate size for the finished card. I glued the shaker box into place and added stamped embellishments. The bee and ladybug are stamped on a stray Avery brand label I had left over from another project. This makes instant stickers and avoids you gumming up your fingers trying to do it with a glue stick. I stamped the Happy Birthday Message and cut it into strips adding my nieces name on a strip of its own. After I glued them down I thought it looked a little flat on that side of the card so I went looking for some baubles I could add. I happened to have a $1 necklace kit that had butterflies in it that matched the colors and theme so I used them as anchors at the ends of the message strips.

Now I look at every blister pack that comes along and wonder what I might be able to do with it. A new kind of recycling courtesy of crafting.