Make Your Own Halloween Witch Hat Shaker Out Of Cardstock

Supplies:

Cardstock. I used different colors of glitter cardstock and a patterned cardstock I got from JoAnn Fabrics.

chipboard, foam sheets, or other material to create a little thickness for your glitter and things to move around.

Acetate. I used the Cricut brand. You could also use other clear plastic like materials.

Glue. I started off using Elmer’s glue, but switched to a hot glue gun to speed up the dry time. I do not recommend the hot glue gun though, because it does not dry flat. I also used some double sided tape that worked well.

Tube confetti, sequence and other items you would like to put inside your shaker.

My SVG design. I have two different versions for you to pick from. One with the belt and one without the belt.

Any Cricut machine or other cutting machine to help you cut out the design.

Optional: thin black ribbon

Optional: double-sided tape

In my SVG design, which you can get here, I added text to the bottom of each piece to help you know where each piece goes/is used for. When you open up the file in Cricut Design space, you will need to first ungroup everything, top right side of page. You will then want to size your pieces accordingly. I made mine 4.5 inches high, and 3.8 inches wide, but feel free to size the pieces up or down to your liking. Next, I recommend changing the colors of each piece to match your cardstock and other pieces. This will make it easier for you to remember what each piece needs to be cut out in. It is also important so each different color gets cut out on a different mat, otherwise it will try to cut out the gold buckle on the same cardstock as the black hat. Once you color coordinate everything, then you can select and delete the text or just hit the eye on the right-hand side, to hide the words, so that Design Space does not try to cut these out. I made a YouTube video of me doing these steps as well as assembling the shaker. You can watch it here.

Now for what settings to cut everything out on. First note if you make your back like I did, where I flipped it around so the back had a nice glittery side to it, then glued a patterned paper to the other side, then you will need to mirror this black glitter cardstock. My glitter cardstock was very thick. So, I selected the heavy 100lb cardstock setting, and selected more pressure. For the acetate I selected clear acetate as my setting. I used the foam sheets to add my depth to my shaker. For the foam sheets I selected craft foam as my setting. Your Cricut machine will ask you to move your star wheels all the way to the right side, and to then move them back when you are finished with the cut. The star wheels will leave marks in your foam sheets and will also have trouble going over the thick foam. The star wheels are used to help hold materials down to the mat during cutting. All of these materials I cut with my fine point blade, which is the standard blade. I also used my standard green mat to cut all of these materials. When I cut the patterned cardstock, I switched to the light grip blue mat, and selected light cardstock as my setting.

Now that all of our pieces are cut out, it is time to assemble our shaker. I started with the back most layer and worked my way up. So, I took my black glitter cardstock, which I mirrored, and turned it face down. I then glued the patterned cardstock to the back of this glitter cardstock. This is our base. I also used the glitter cardstock for the base to give the shaker more stability, since my patterned cardstock was very thin.

Next, I built up my thickness. Since I use tube glitter in my shaker, I used three layers of foam to make my shaker extra thick. The tube glitter is quite thick and likes to get stuck on the acetate, so I wanted a thicker shaker to help keep this tube glitter away from the acetate, and not touch it. This meant I cut my kraft board/thick layer three times. This may not be necessary for you depending on what you put inside your shaker. I glued each of my foam layers one on top of the other.

Now it is time to fill your shaker. You can fill it is as full as you would like, but a good amount is about 2/3 or 50% of the way. I think it is nice to add a variety of different types of sequences and things inside your shaker.

Once your shaker is filled, you can add your acetate layer. If you are using a hot glue gun to glue your pieces together then just be careful you do not melt the acetate with the hot glue gun. After that you can add your decretive top layers. I made the outline of the hat, and the belt pieces all in a glitter cardstock. I attached the hat outline first, but you can put these pieces in any order that you like.

Since I used hot glue to speed up my glue time, I had some thicker dried glue spots, which made my edges not very pretty. I also did not like the orange foam showing on the outside edges of my shaker. I liked the orange showing on the inside though. So, I decide to add this thin black ribbon I had around the edges of my shaker. The ribbon was sheer and I did not want the glue to show through it, so I used clear double-sided tape to attach my ribbon around the edges of the shaker. This tape worked very well, and I probably should have used some of it when assembling pieces of my shaker.

I really like the colors I picked for this shaker. The tube glitter can be a little difficult to work with because it likes to stick to everything, but I think it looks nice inside the shaker. This was my first shaker I ever made, and I think for my first attempt, it turned out pretty good. I will have to get a different type of glue for when I made more in the future. I think this one would look great on a Halloween themed tier tray. I plan on making shaker cards and possibly cake toppers in the future. I also plan on making more like this. I will also try making some out of wood as well. So, keep an eye out for future projects if you liked this one. Have you made a shaker before? If so, then please let me know what type of glue you like to use.