Posted by Hero Arts
on September 04, 2026
Hi friends! I’m Mindy Eggen, and I’m excited to be back on the Hero Arts blog and YouTube channel creating with the September My Monthly Super Hero Kit! Even though this kit is currently sold out, I'm sharing a technique that can be used with many other products in your stash.
Today we’re brewing up a little Halloween fun with a shaker card—but with a twist. Instead of building a deep shaker with lots of dimension, I’m keeping the bulk to a minimum. You still get that fun shaker-card look and an eye-catching focal point, but with a slimmer profile that’s a little easier to mail.
I absolutely love creating Halloween cards, and while I tend to lean toward the spooky side with my color choices, this design could easily be turned into something much more cute and playful. Try swapping out the darker colors for a pink and orange combination. Sometimes simply changing the color palette can completely change the personality of a card!
Watch the video and learn how to create this card using the September My Monthly Hero kit!
Creating the Cauldron Shaker
I started by die cutting the base of the cauldron from Mulberry cardstock. For the front outline of the shaker, I used Raven cardstock.
All of those fun bubbles bubbling out of the cauldron were die cut from Orchid cardstock. To give them a little more depth, I used a blending brush to add Orchid ink around the edges. This is a simple detail, but that little bit of shading helps separate the bubbles from one another once everything is assembled.
Most shaker cards can get fairly bulky because we need enough depth for the shaker elements to move freely. For this card, I wanted to experiment with keeping that dimension to a minimum.
Instead of creating a deep shaker well with foam tape, I die cut the cauldron window three to four times from Raven cardstock and adhered the layers together with liquid glue. Stacking die cuts like this creates just enough of a well for our shaker elements while keeping the overall card relatively flat.
You can customize this depending on how much movement you want. The more layers you stack, the deeper the shaker well will be—but that will also add more bulk to your finished card.
For the top layer of the cauldron, I added acetate behind the Raven cardstock window. This creates our clear shaker front while still allowing that Black outline to give the cauldron a nice, finished edge.
Filling the Shaker
For my shaker elements, I die cut the spiders and bones included in the die set. On the Mulberry cauldron base, I also added a few iridescent stars from my collection.
Since this is a shallow shaker, I knew there wouldn’t be a ton of movement inside. Rather than simply dropping everything in, I was a little more intentional with the placement of the spiders and bones. This way, even when the card is sitting still, all of those fun little details are visible through the acetate.
I adhered the stacked cauldron window over the top with liquid glue to seal everything inside.
The Orchid bubbles were then added around the top of the cauldron with thin foam squares. Using thin foam squares gives me a little dimension without adding too much height to the finished card. If you want to keep your card even flatter for mailing, you could skip the foam squares altogether and adhere the bubbles directly to the cauldron.
Creating a Spooky Background
For the background, I started with Fog cardstock and stamped the Spiderweb Background onto it using Granite ink. I love tone-on-tone stamping for backgrounds because it adds detail without competing with the main focal point.
To darken the edges and create a moodier Halloween feel, I blended Granite and Charcoal inks around the outside of the panel. Keeping the center a little lighter naturally draws the eye toward the cauldron.
Of course, I couldn’t stop there!
For even more texture and interest, I added splatter using Black Acrylic Speckle, White Acrylic Speckle and Sparkle Splatter Effects. The combination of dark, light and sparkly splatter adds another layer of detail while still allowing the stamped spiderweb background to show through.
Finishing the Card
For the sentiment, I used the Spooky Brew Stamp Set from the My Monthly Super Hero Kit. I stamped the sentiment twice onto Fog cardstock using VersaFine ink and then heat embossed it with clear embossing powder. The clear embossing gives the sentiment a subtle shine and helps it stand out against the background.
After cutting it out with the coordinating die, I also die cut the sentiment shape from Raven cardstock. I layered the two pieces together, slightly offsetting the Black layer to create a small shadow.
The finished cauldron was adhered to the card front with liquid glue, and I popped up the sentiment with thin foam squares.
I had a few extra Orchid bubbles left, so I tucked those around the sentiment and treated them almost like embellishments. This is a fun way to carry the colors and shapes from your focal point into another area of the card and help the whole design feel connected.
As a final touch, I added small highlights to the bubbles with a white gel pen. And that finishes the card!
There may not be a ton of movement inside this particular shaker, but I love the look it creates. The spiders, bones and iridescent stars become part of the cauldron scene, while the acetate and layered window still give us that fun shaker-card effect without all of the extra bulk.
Thanks so much for joining me today. I hope this inspires you to give a low-bulk shaker card a try—or maybe even experiment with a completely different color palette for your next Halloween project.
Happy crafting!
