DYI Shadow Boxes

I love making 3D images and placing them in shadow boxes.  But I find the cost of shadow boxes prohibitive.  A search of Pinterest showed various DIY shadow box projects and I thought I would try one that did not involve wood or a saw.  I'm afraid I'm not very good with those traditional tools.  Instead I opted to use foam board, and amazingly it works very  well.  I'll try a do a tutorial later - photo or video I'm not sure which.

This shadow box I made from a Dollar store frame, using 1 1/2" foam frame I made and inserted inside.

You can see the foam insert in the side view here.

The DSP background is a retired Valentine DSP upon which I place a large Glimmer glitter heart.  A 3D heart cut out of old book pages and stapled together was attached to the center of this heart.

Before closing the shadow box I added pink, red glitter and white roses and glitter strawberries which would lie freely in the box.

For the second Shadow box I made a 2" insert because the object I wanted to place in it was fairly large.  Again, the frame is a dollar store find.

I made this paper Dahlia from a die a friend gave me.  This one 's for you Gail.

Clematis made with Roots of Nature framelits

My garden is part of a Garden Tour tomorrow, and I have been carefully nurturing the flowers as they bloom.  One of the flowers blooming now is my pink Clematis - a flowering vine.  It is putting on a beautiful show.

I'm also getting ready for a Catalogue launch Open House the weekend after, , and for that event I have been focusing on the Roots of Nature stamp set and coordinating framelits.

Ever have an ah hah experience??

Suddenly, while working in the garden I had an epiphany!.  Why not use the leaf framelit from the Nature Roots framelits to make a paper flower?  Looking up, the first think I saw was the pink Clematis and the rest is history.

Below is the paper flower I made.   Next to it is the real flower.

I die cut 6 petals from Petal Pink card stock and sponged the edges with Highland Heather ink.  After spritzing them to blend the colors, and drying them with the heat tool, each petal was shaped using a stylus and the tips nipped between my fingers.  An extra 2 petals were die cut using Mossy Meadow card stock with the edges of these sponged with Mossy Meadow ink. These became the leaves.

A 1" circle was punched from Mossy Meadow card stock, and the flower petals were hot glued to this circle base.  The leaves were hot glued at the back so that they showed between the petals.

For the center, I cut a strip of Whisper White card stock with some paper snips at varying lengths and rolled it with some tweezers gluing the ends together.  The tips were lightly sponged with Highland Heather ink and spread out, and added to the flower center using hot glue.

Below are a couple of more pictures of this colourful vine.

It's Almost Spring!!! Stampin Royalty #364

Yes, and the colour challenge with the Canadian Die Exchange Group certainly reflected that. I am also submitting this creation to the challenge with Stampin' Royalty, where the challenge is "your favorite technique".  And anyone who knows me knows that I like making flowers = paper flowers.

I've been in a flower making mood for some time now, so surprise, surprise, I made a flower for this challenge. My beloved clematis vine was moved during construction last summer and was replanted.  I do not know if it survived.

Because one of the clematis vines had a purple flower (I had another with pale mauve flowers) when I saw the colour scheme my mind immediately went these vines

I started by using the new sponge brayers to apply Soft Sky, Pool Party and Mint Macaron to a piece of "Inside the Lines" DSP and matted it with Mint Macaron, Garden Green and finally adhered it to a Perfect Plum card base.

The petals of the flower were die cut in Wisteria Wonder and sponged with Elegant Eggplant.  A marker of that colour was also used to apply a darker colour in the center and edge.  In addition, bleach was used to lighten the edges. Spritzing lightly with water allowed the colours to blend.

After the petals were dry, they were shaped and adhered to a green base with a hot glue gun.  The die cut stamens were snipped some more to make them really frilly and then they were coloured and spritzed as well.  After rolling them they were adhered to the flower center, fluffing them out when the glue was firmly set.

The edges of the leaves were sponged with Old Olive and then a stylus was used to make the veins of each leaf.  After shaping, each leaf was attached to the back of the flower or along the stem.

The bud was made by curling 3 petals very tightly and then wrapping a leaf around them. An extra petal  can be seen at the bottom of the card.  I love my vine flowers, but they sure make a mess when the flowers start to fall apart.

Before attaching the flower to the card base, I added a 1" strip of Perfect Plum with a Soft Sky satin ribbon wrapped around it. 

Some jewel embellishments completed the card.

Supplies Used:

Stamp: Good Greetings

Inks: Elegant Eggplant, Old Olive, Markers - Elegant Eggplant, Soft Sky, Pool Party, Mint Macaron

Papers: Wisteria Wonder, Perfect Plum, Pear Pizzaz, Old Olive, Garden Green, Mint Macaron, Inside the Lines DSP

Accessories Sponge brayer, Sizzix clematis dies, hot glue gun, stylus and other flower forming tools, Dazzling details, jewel embellishments, linen thread, 1/2" satin Soft Sky ribbon.