How to make a Shaker Ornament

LEARN HOW TO MAKE SHAKER ORNAMENTS FOR YOUR TREE OR AS GIFT TAGS.

I have admired shaker cards for while now and thought it would be fun to make shaker ornaments this holiday. They are really quite simple actually, and are a great way to add some sparkle and pizazz to the holiday season, especially this year. At the bottom of the post, you’ll also find some other great ornament files from my other blogging friends. I hope you check them all out. You could deck your whole tree with handmade ornaments this year. How cool would that be! Let’s talk about supplies for a minute.

Are you ready to make your own? Let’s get started! This post contains some affiliate links for your convenience (which means if you make a purchase after clicking a link I will earn a small commission but it won’t cost you a penny more)! Read my full disclosure policy.

What paper do I need to make a shaker ornament?

You will want to use cardstock over paper to create your shaker ornament. You can use any weight of cardstock, but keep in mind the heavier it is, the more sturdy it will be. I would suggest a weight around 80lbs.

Where can I buy acetate?

I couldn’t find Acetate at Joanns, so then I went on a hunt. You can find it on Amazon, but I needed it sooner than I could receive it in the mail. I found out I could purchase it from my local Office Depot. I went to the printing section and they sell projector sheet and clear notebook covers. The projector sheets are much thinner than the clear notebook covers and easier to cut through, so that would be my suggestion. The clear notebook covers took quite a few cuts to finally get through. I probably should have used the deep cut blade instead of the fine point blade.

What can I put in a shaker ornament?

Choosing the items to go in your shaker ornament is the fun part. You can pretty much use whatever you like. Sequins, large glitter, fine glitter, styrofoam balls, confetti, and homemade confetti.

Quick links to information in this post

1. Materials needed to make a Shaker Ornament
2. Cutting Instructions
3. Shaker Ornament Assembly
4. Shaker Ornament Pattern (SVG, DXF, PDF, PNG)

Material needed to make a Shaker Ornament

Two colors of card stock
Acetate
Foam (I’m using craft foam) optional
Spray Adhesive or liquid glue
Sequins
Glitter
Cutting Machine (Optional)

Cutting Instructions

Prepare and cut your file

Download the file from my resource library and download it onto your device. You need to unzip it and then load into Cricut Design Space. The file also comes in DXF, PDF, or PNG if you’d like to use another cutting machine or cut it out by hand. These are designed to be about 4″ wide by 5.5″ tall, but you can resize them to your liking. These would be great as ornaments on the tree, or as gift tags with a little sentiment on the back.

There are four layers to the shaker globe, two layers for the base of the snow globe, and two layers for the hanger. The four layers of the bauble (from the bottom up) are cardstock, foam (to create depth), acetate, cardstock. You could go without the foam as a spacer, but I liked the extra space it gave for the sequins and glitter to move around. You can see those four layers here.

The acetate layer in the cut file is the light blue color and is slightly smaller that the other pieces so it will sandwich nicely between the pieces without poking out.

Assemble Shaker Ornament

Step 1. Front a back of globe

We are going to create a front and back piece of the globe. Start with glueing the acetate to the back of the front cardstock piece. In my example, I’m glueing the acetate to the back of the deer head piece. Next, I glued the foam onto the front of the back piece which is the full circle. To glue my pieces together, i used spray adhesive. I used it on the back of my deer head, and on the back of the foam piece. You could also use a liquid glue.

Step 2. Add sequins and glitter

Now you can add your sequins and glitter in the back piece that has the foam. The foam also keeps all the little pieces inside and easier to contain while constructing.

Then, using liquid glue, I glued the front and back pieces together. Rookie mistake: don’t squeeze the air out of your bottle over the sequins or the sequins and balls will fly out.

I try not to pick this up at all while I’m glueing it together. I don’t want any of my sequins or glitter to get stuck in the drying glue. Let this sit until it’s all dry.

Step 3. Add stand and hanger

Now you need to glue the two pieces for the stand together, and the two pieces for the hanger together. These are two layers each to give it more stability.