Shaker / Snowglobe Snowman Tutorial

This is how I made the cards, please feel free to use this technique - post a link back or a comment in the comments section if you make a card this way!


Find a suitable fabric for the background. Iron heavy weight stiffener to the back

Find suitable vinyl/plastic, I used the wrapper from a set of sheets, it needs to be flexible yet thick and stable. Mark a circle using indelible pen, that is a different colour to your background. I used a 3.5 inch circle. Then cut the piece of vinyl down, leaving a good inch around each side.


Find a object to put inside your snow globe, Iron on a fusible (I used bond-a-web) and cut it out.

Then use the cut out circle of vinyl to position the object on the background, remove the vinyl - iron on the object onto the background.


Pin the vinyl to the base, keeping away from the circle.

Using the drawn line as a guide for the edge of your presser foot, use a walking foot or Teflon coated foot and sew a line inside the circle using a long stitch length. Leave a good inch opening at the bottom - Essential!

Use a sharp pair of scissors to trim sewn the vinyl to 1/16th of an inch away from the stitching line. Leave the un-stitched base wider.

Using a wide satin stitch, center your foot on the straight stitching line and zig-zag over the raw vinyl edge, take care to set the stitch length to one that does not perforate the vinyl too much and cause it to fall off, I set my machine just over 1, which is slightly open, but solid enough to create a graphic line. The first line of stitching will keep everything 'in' so this is a decorative stitch. Do not close the bottom opening.

Now the fun bit, fill the pocket with shaky things. I used sequins, beads and some micro-beads. The only suggestion I have is that you add 2 or 3 items that have height. They will ensure that the pocket is not squished too much and all the other items will have space to shake about.

Shake all the contents to the top of the globe - away from the opening and stitch a straight line of stitching across the opening.

Cut out a base, this is 1 1/4inches wide, I just snipped it to fit. Use a glue stick to position it into place, taking care that you cover the opening fully and that you don't move the shaky bits into the base area. Use a satin stitch to sew this into place, again, this should not be a tight satin stitch as you don't want to totally perforate the vinyl.

Trim the final piece and finish as desired!

Finished!