St. Patrick's Day Shaker Card This cheery greeting card has a window on the front with a "pane" made from an inkjet transparency and a frame cut from green foil board. The inside of the "window" is filled with shamrock confetti! The interior of the card has the same shamrock design toned down so that the text is clearly readable. Kids get a special kick out of getting these cards, and an even bigger kick out of making them! And it can be modified for a birthday or other special occasion depending on the clipart and confetti you use! But make sure there is adult help since there is a lot of cutting involved in constructing this card. MATERIALS: Card stock Green foil board (available at craft supply stores) Shamrock confetti (also available at craft stores) One inkjet transparency Backer board or other heavy cardboard (Note: If you have purchased any of our Fun Papers, the backer board that is used in the packaging is perfect for this project!) Scissors Craft knife Cutting mat or heavy cardboard Glue or glue stick INSTRUCTIONS: 1) Open a blank half-fold card in your graphics program. Select a piece of shamrock clipart and duplicate it so that it forms a tiled cover on the front of the card. Resize and duplicate again if you want the design smaller. (We duplicated a tiled cover, shrunk it to one quarter it's size and then copied and pasted three more times so that the shamrocks would be smaller.) 2) Draw a rectangle measuring 6 1/4 " wide by 3 3/4" high and center it on your card front. Format the rectangle so that the fill color is white . 3) Draw a second rectangle 5 1/4" wide and 2 3/4" high and center this one as well. Format it with a white fill as well. This will serve as the frame for the shaker window. Group those two rectangles and save the file. 4) Copy the cover design and paste it to the inside of your card. Format it with a light gray color so that the design is faded slightly. 5) Place a text box with your desired text on the inside of the card. Color the text a dark green. Save the file again. 6) Now go back to the front of the card and copy the grouped rectangles. Pay close attention to the measurements so that when you paste it onto a blank page the dimensions are the same. 7) Paste the grouped rectangles to a blank page in portrait orientation. Print a test page out on plain paper. 8) If the frame looks okay against the front of your card, you can now print the frame on the back of the foil board. Cut the frame out using a scissors and/or craft knife. 9) Now trace the frame on the heavy cardboard or backer board and cut this out with your craft knife. Take your time with this step, as the backer board is quite heavy and will probably take a few passes with the knife to cut all the way through. 10) Go back to the blank page with the grouped rectangles and place your cover text in the middle of it and center it in the rectangles. 11) Now remove the outline on the smaller rectangle and print this box with the text in the middle on an inkjet transparency. Allow this to dry for about ten minutes before cutting out the rectangle. 12) Once you have cut out the rectangle on the inkjet transparency, center it on the frame you cut out of the backer board and glue it in place. 13) Apply glue to the back of the frame cut from the green foil board and apply to the top of the transparency. Presses firmly around all edges to make certain the pieces are adhered well. 14) Print your card out on the card stock. Allow to dry for a few minutes. 15) Sprinkle the shamrock confetti in the center of the white rectangle on the front of your card (less is better than more in these cards or the text on your window "pane" becomes lost in the flurry of confetti. We used about 30 - 35 pieces.) 16) Apply glue to the back of your window frame and place it on the center of the card front over the confetti. Press in place to adhere. 17) Now pick the card up and SHAKE! Watch the confetti move around inside your shaker window frame! A totally professional looking card that will be admired by all who see it!