*Element
ELEMENT: Easter Egg Shaker Box
By Jeri Ingalls 2005
Apr 16, 2005, 06:06

Shaker boxes have become quite popular in paper scrapping, and just because you’re scrapping on the computer doesn’t mean you can’t give your digital pages that same whimsical touch.  And with Easter just around the corner, an egg shaker box full of jellybeans may give your Easter pages that extra something you’ve been looking for.

I’m going to be using the egg shape that I demonstrated how to make in my PhotoImpact tip in this issue, I have it set as a custom shape now and it’s easy to access with my shape too.  First though, I need to draw out the box.

With the shape tool selected and set on the square option, draw out a black square that is the size you want your shaker box to be.  Then select your egg shape and draw the egg out in white right next to it.  Make sure the egg is small enough to fit in the box and has sufficient room around it.

Next, move the egg over the box and choose Object/Merge All

Next select the magic wand tool and with the similarity at 100, click on the black part of your graphic as shown below.

Next choose Edit/Copy then open up the layout you want to place the shaker box on (or click on it if it’s already open, and choose Edit/Paste/Under Pointer to place it on the page.  You should have the egg frame now on your scrapbook page.  Next, choose Edit/Fill and fill the frame with the color of your choice.

To give the frame some texture, go to Effect/Material Effect/Texture Filter and choose a texture.  In the example below, I’m using an embossed effect and when you click on the arrow beside the texture image box, you get several textures to choose from.  I’m going to choose the vertical lines for this project.  If you also notice, there are sliders to control your scaling, level, transparency and variation, experiment with these until you find the look you want your frame to have.  You will get a preview of each effect, as soon as you get what you want, hit OK.

Then to give the box dimension go to Web/Button Designer/Any Shape.

Here you can choose your Bevel size, smoothness and type.  I used the settings above for my egg box, but there are lots of variations.  When you find what you want, select OK.

Now to fill the frame choose the Stamp Tool on your sidebar.  Your Brush Panel will open up and you’ll have a variety of objects to choose from, plus a slider bar to resize.  Stamp the objects into your egg, being careful not to let any extend beyond the inside of the frame.  You can move them around individually if needed by using the pick tool and first clicking outside the image, then on the object you want to move.  Keep doing this until you get the pattern you want.

Once again, draw out a white egg shape with your custom shapes, this time make the egg just a little bit larger than the egg shaped hole in the frame as shown below.

Change the Egg Shape to 3D Round as shown in the sample below, open the Easy Palette in the right hand sidebar, and find the glass category in the Material Attributes.  Double click on the glass of your choice.  You can make adjustments to the bevel by clicking the Material Folder at the top.  Just play around with the settings until you get what you want.  Below is the setting I’ve used in my sample.

Now grab the glass cover and move it over the hole in the egg frame.  Zoom in and make size adjustments if necessary using the Transform Tool in the left sidebar.  Make the glass fit right inside the frame to give it a realistic look.

When you’ve gotten everything the way you want it, choose the Pick Tool in the right hand toolbar and draw around the whole shaker box to choose the frame and everything within it.  Then as shown below, go to Object/Merge as a Single Object to “paste” all the pieces together.  Now you can move this around to place it right where you want it on your page, or resize if you need to.

And here is the final result.