DIY shadow box

Hello Crafters,

This is my first GDT with Rainbow Craftykari. I thank Maninder and RC team for giving me this opportunity. It is indeed a great pleasure to be a part of this talented team.

We all know finding gifts for any occasion is a big task, especially if the gifts are for kids and with our own kids around we struggle for their birthday return gifts. Today in this Teaching and Learning program I am going to show some simple ways of making Shadow boxes which make as excellent piece for home décor or for return gifts. These can be modified and decorated in various themes and sizes.

Let’s Begin!!

Take a cardstock of size – 12” x 8”.

(Note – 12”x8” size of cardstock makes a shadow box of size 8”x4”, you can modify the size as per your requirement keeping in mind the 2” scored lines that fold in from all four sides)

On the 12” side of the cardstock score the paper at ½”, 1”, 1 ½” & 2”.

Next score the paper at 10”, 10 ½”, 11”, 11 ½”.

Turn around the paper. Now on the 8” side of the paper score the paper again at ½”, 1”, 1 ½” & 2”. Next score the paper at 6”, 6 ½”, 7” & 7 ½. Your paper will look like this.

Now cut along the lines and cut-off the overlapped portion as shown / marked in the picture below. Cut all the squares except the two unmarked squares.

 Separate the two squares. (Check picture below)

Repeat this step for all the 4 sides. The cardstock will look like this now.

Fold the paper (longer side) on all the score lines as shown.  Fold in and stick the first strip on the base, to form the box wall.  Do it on both the sides.

Fold in and stick the squares over each other as shown in the picture. Trim the smaller sides as shown in the image. The first two score lines are trimmed in line with the wall and the third strip is cut in slant so that when it folds in, it over laps the longer side wall.

Now fold in the scored lines of the smaller sides and stick it on the base to form the smaller wall. While doing so apply little glue on the squares (shown in the picture), this will give it additional support.

Once all the sides are folded in the base of the shadow box is complete.

Now take two pieces of the same cardstock, around 1 ½” x 1 ½”,  punch a hole on them and stick them from the backside of the box.  Apply generous amount of adhesive here as this part is going to bear the entire load of your shadow box. Tie a matching satin ribbon through the holes to use it for hanging.

Now comes the decoration part. Stick a patterned paper on the inside of the box and decorate it as per the theme.

Here I have made a few shadow boxes with different themes.

Shadow box 1

This is in a “Baby girl” theme. It is decorated using some Baby stickers like baby clothes, booties, socks, an elephant. The name of this baby is mounted on white coloured die-cut circles. Washi tapes are on the borders.

 Shadow box 2

The next one is for a home décor. Here I have used flower, leaves and chipboard decorations.

Shadow box 3

It can also be made to display inspirational quotations / sayings. This is a smaller sized shadow box.

Shadow box 4

Here it is made as an intial art with floral arrangement.  This is a little different shadow box it is covered with a plastic sheet.  (When you make a closed box you can even have 3D/ standalone decorations)

Shadow box 5

A Jungle safari Shadow box. For this shadow box I have used a double sided patterned paper with animal print. Embellished it with die-cut flowers, animals and birds stickers, butterflies, some smiley buttons.

Shadow box 6

This is an Aquarium Shadow box. It has been decorated with some fine stones, shells, fish stickers etc. There are endless possibilities.

It was real fun making them all. Did you like them? Which one is your favourite?

I am listing the materials used for them below

Materials used:

Plain cardstock

Satin ribbon

Patterned paper

Washi tapes

Sticker embellishments

Alphabet stickers

Flowers

Chipboards

Doily

MDF alphabet

Acetate

Animal / bird stickers

Fine stones / sand

Shells, stars etc.

Fish stickers

I hope you liked and enjoyed my tutorial and that I have inspired you enough to try it out soon.

Visit http://rainbowcraftykari.blogspot.in/ many exciting tutorials and do participate in the ongoing challenge.

Regards,

Anila Dikay

Entering in the following challenges 
inspirationdestinationchallenge - Anything goes
ttcrd.blogspot.in - Anything goes

LTCCB #8 - March Anything Goes! 

cards galorechallenges  - Anything goes

pennyschallenges.blogspot.in - Anything goes
jwscrapshack.blogspot.in - Anything goes

craftingfrom heart - Anything goes
craftingwithanattitude - Anything goes