Make a Scrapbook Shaker Box | An Interactive Embellishment

This page shows you how to make an interactive scrapbook embellishment called a shaker box. It's a box that is embedded in your page, but contains small beads or other items that can be shaken.

Not only for scrapbook pages, you can use shaker boxes in hand made cards, altered books or any paper craft project. Hand made embellishments such as these are not only original and special in that they are hand made, they speak volumes about your creativity and imagination. Not only that, they are usually more economical than purchased items.

Unless otherwise stated, all images on this page are my own.

Shaker boxes are embellishments that add interest to a scrapbook layout or other craft project. Usually made from cardstock with a clear acetate "window", the shaker box is a 3D box-like element that contains small objects that roll around and move when the viewer shakes the box or the layout.

Suggested fillers for shaker boxes include small beads such as micro beads, sequins, confetti, washed and possibly colored sand, crumbled bits of potpourri, tiny or broken sea shells, tiny seeds, dried herbs, or anything else small enough to work.

One word of caution; if you are using items such as potpourri, seeds, dried herbs or flowers, these items are not acid free and will eventually rot your card stock. To avoid this happening, use cold laminate (or clear shelf liner) to line the inside of the box.

Do you think embellishments should be hand made, or do you prefer to buy them?

Are hand made items superior to purchased embellishments?

This video shows step by step directions for creating a simple shaker box.

Shaker boxes make interesting embellishments just the way they are. However, you can also decorate them any way you choose, or incorporate them in the layout in a creative way.

In the picture to the right, I have made the pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. Constructed from gold colored paper and containing tiny gold beads, the shaker box has a wire handle and sits underneath a rainbow of colored flowers that I have shaped in Photoshop.

Some suggestions include:

1. Decorate a rectangular shaker box to resemble a suitcase. That's great for a travel or vacation theme.

2. Turn a long, rectangular and upright shaker box into a golf bag. Fill with small white beads to represent golf balls. This works well with a golf layout.

3. Let a shaker box represent a window box. Using punch art or paper piercing, cut flower shapes and insert around the top of the box -- or draw stems and place the cut flowers on the stems.

4. If it's a barbecue or cooking theme, the shaker box could be decorated to resemble a cookbook, a barbecue by adding legs, or if you laminate the inside, you could incorporate herbs or seeds inside the box.

5. Looking to make an unusual greeting card? Make a shaker box containing micro beads or other attractive items. Attach the shaker box to a card front, then cover the shaker box and some of the card with attractive vellum. Cut or tear a hole in the vellum so the shaken items display.

6. Rather than making the acetate window a square or a rectangle, use card stock but cut a shape in the card stock -- a flower, oval, circle, etc. Cover the back of the hole with the acetate, then assemble as a shaker box. The front of your shaker box is now solid, but with a shaped window showing.

7. Making a child's layout? Let a shaker box be the box of a truck or the body of a car , airplane or boat.

8. How about a teddy bear? It would take a little planning, but you could do it using the shaped top described in item number 6. Let an oval shaped top be the bear's body. Add a head, arms and legs with circles and rectangles cut from card stock. A similar approach would make a cool robot shape or even Sponge Bob Square Pants.