Essentials by Ellen June 2023 Release: Peekaboo Interactive Shaker Card

Hi friends! Today’s a special Friday, because there’s a new Essentials by Ellen release that just went live in the Ellen Hutson shop this morning! This one’s got a snail mail/happy mail theme to it, along with some very cute little pop-up critters that work perfectly with cards, tags, envelopes – anywhere, really!

In addition to those adorable stamp and die combos, you’ll also find an envelope die set in this release, along with a coordinating liner die. Friends, I CANNOT get enough of these and have been making custom envelopes like CRAZY since I got my hands on them! Take a gander in the photos below, then we’ll get onto the project I’m most excited to share, which is a Peekaboo Interactive Shaker Card.

The last Essentials by Ellen release was all about celebrations (and yours truly LOVES a celebration!) so I decided to combine the Cake Day stamp and die combo with the new Peekaboo Party Animals stamp and die set, and make an interactive shaker card.

To get started, I stamped one of the images from the Peekaboo Party Animals on a piece of white cardstock, then colored the critter in with my Copic markers. Underneath, I stamped “better late than never” from the new Snail Mail stamp set – and yes, I did have to cut the stamp to do so, but that’s ok!

Using a ruler, I drew parallel lines down both sides just wide enough to give the sentiment a little breathing space (but not wider than the width of the cake slice) and cut along them, using the coordinating Peekaboo Party Animal die to cut around the fox’s body. Note that these dies leave a bit of the critters’ bodies attached, which means more flexibility and placement options.

Moving on, I created a very quick background panel using one of the dots from the Cake Day stamp set, along with Concord & 9th inks in Honeysuckle, Sea Glass and Ballet Slipper. I used the Sprinkles stencil set and Sea Glass ink to create the front layer of the die cut cake slice, then did some really quick ink blending to create a pink background. After creating the pieces for the cake shaker. With a bunch of cake slice dies stacked on one another and a piece of acetate under the front layer, I filled up each layer with some flat confetti (similar to this), and closed up the back to seal all the bits inside.

Next it was time for the Push Me, Pull You Die, one of my go-to’s for interactive cards. I created the thumb slot in my card base, followed by the pull tab out of Concord & 9th Sea Glass cardstock, and a clear acetate slider that hides behind the cake. I would explain it all here, but you’ll probably find the video that Julie’s got here a lot easier to learn from!

After cutting the appropriate slider slots in the card base and lining the back sides of the cake with foam tape, then testing my slider mechanism many times to get the placement right, I pressed the fox onto the slider belt and the cake down onto the card base, securing everything in place. When the pull tab is tucked in, you can just see the top of the fox’s face and his hat, but when pulled out, the full sentiment is revealed.

This card was a ton of fun to make, and I think you’re all going to enjoy the new release too! If you haven’t yet, pop over and take a look (or shop your heart out) right here. You can also come on over to Instagram where myself and the other Design Team members are part of a hop, full of eye candy and ideas for how to use these new products. Happy shopping and hopping – I’ll just be over here making some more custom envelopes!

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