Good Friday morning. A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to teach a class to a group of craft store owners with Mitra Friant, owner of Impression Obsession. Instead of teaching several different card projects for the class we decided it would be fun to create a dimensional scene to fit inside of a shadow box frame. The project was made using the newly released Small Cabin, Hill Landscape Layers, Forest and Cardinals, along with the Small Deer Set, Fir Trees and Small Fir Tree stamp. I’m going to list the same instructions below that I used for the class. I hope you will be inspired to give a shadow box project like this a try.
This is the scene out of the frame.
Project Pieces
Scene Base, Cabin Pieces, Hill Landscape Layers, Forest, Small Deer Set, Cardinals, Fir Trees, Small Fir Tree Stamp
The scene base to fit inside the frame is approximately 7.00” x 5.00”
Tools and Supplies
Distress Inks-Vintage Photo, Peeled Paint, Tumbled Glass, Mini Applicator, Ink Blending Tool, Mounting Tape, Adhesive, Glossy Accents, Scissors, Black Marker, Acrylic Block, Liquid Applique, Heat Gun, Ruler, Tweezers, Pencil
Steps
1. Measure in ¼ inch on all four corners of the scene base with your ruler, mark and lightly draw lines all the way around with your pencil. The ¼ inch lined border marks off how to confine your die cut images to remain within the frame.
2. Gently sponge Tumbled Glass ink in the upper sky area using an ink blending tool. Use a light touch with the sponge so you won’t leave lines.
3. Decide where you want your highest hill section to be placed and lightly mark with your pencil so you will know how high on the base you want to stamp the fir trees. Stamp the fir tree across the upper portion of the scene base with Peeled Paint ink to create the appearance of a forest background. Make sure you stamp the trees low enough so that the trunk of the trees are covered with the hill section.
4. Apply Vintage Photo ink to the bare forest tree, cabin sections and deer using a mini applicator. Use a light touch with the base application of ink on the pieces so you can add darker spots to shade the deer back and antlers, lines of the cabin logs and trunks of the trees.
5. Assemble the cabin pieces. Using glossy accents attach the snow covered roof sections to the cabin and porch and the little snowy top of the chimney. Attach the chimney to the roof with glossy accents. Attach the window to the side of the house and the door to the front of the cabin with glossy accents. Attach the porch right in front of the door and attach with glossy accents.
6. Apply light touches of Liquid Applique to the die cut fir trees, lightly smooth it and spread it out with your finger to help avoid bubbles and then heat. Apply tiny dabs of Liquid Applique to the stamped treetops, lightly smooth with your finger and then heat. Be careful to keep your LA and finger smoothing within the lines of the tree so it doesn’t spread out to your sky area.
7. Use a black marker to apply markings to the beaks and tails on the cardinals.
Important note: You are ready to start adding the die cut pieces to the scene base. It is important to remember to keep all pieces within the lines of the penciled in frame so the scene will fit perfectly inside the frame opening when you are finished.
8. Each of the Hill Landscape sections will be attached to the scene with doubled up pieces of mounting tape to create dimension. Apply a small section of the double layer of tape to each end and lower center of each hill section.
9. Attach the tallest hill section to the scene base. Place it high enough to cover your stamped tree trunks. The bottom edge of your hill can be higher than the bottom edge of the scene because it will be covered with the other hill layers.
10. Continue adding the hill sections with doubled up mounting tape. Note that one of the mid-sized hills matches the cutting lines of the smallest hill section. You will want to make sure these two matching sections are divided by the other mid-sized section so the cut lines are all moving in different directions. Place your hill sections so the hills and valleys overlap some for interest. The second hill section in my example is almost totally hidden because I didn’t place it quite high enough.
11. Cut your forest section to create two trees. I chose to have one wider and one smaller to place on each side of the scene. When cutting the trees apart you may have to snip off a couple of the twiggy connected branches but it won’t be noticed. You will also need to cut quite a bit of the bottom of the trees off to fit in behind the hill layers. I used one of the lower twiggy branch sections to fill in in front of my left tree.
12. Cut thin strips of mounting tape and attach to a few places on the back of the larger trunk and branch sections, tuck them in behind the hills and attach to the base.
Note: Test place the die cut pieces in your scene and move them around until you are happy with the placement before you attach them permanently.
13. Decide where you want to place your cabin, apply mounting tape to the back, tuck in behind a hill and attach to the scene. I used a triple layer of mounting tape to the top part of my cabin and double layer to the lower portion. The amount of tape layers will need to be determined by where you are placing the cabin.
14. Decide where you want to place your die cut trees and deer now that you have placed your cabin. Attach to the scene with thin strips of mounting tape. Once again the layers of mounting tape will need to be determined by where you place them.
15. Apply a small dot of glossy accents to the back of the cardinals and attach them where you desire to complete the scene.
Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you have a wonderful weekend.
Very pretty…must have been great fun creating this with your class attendees.
Oh Wow that is just amazing what a fantastic class that must have been, LOVE IT!
This is so beautiful. I LOVE it 🙂
Such a beautiful scene it is picture perfect. I am so amazed at how you give each layer a certain dimension with the mounting tape to coordinate and add such lovely visual effects. This class had to be so much fun to be a part of.
another amazing card idea, Kittie……You always help me find the dies that I MUST have…. lol. Love this shadow box. Thank you for sharing your wonderful creativity
Hi Kittie – sweet little winter scene, with gentle hills of snow, deer, cardinals and the cozy cabin. Thank you for sharing so much inspiration ♥
This is beautiful Kittie!
This is ABSOLUTELY AWESOME, Kittie!! OMG!! I would LOVE to take a class with you!! This project is AMAZING!!
Hi Kittie, today I am too late with my respons on this wonderful Shadow Box.
But, I want to let you know how I love to watch this FABULOUS Winter Wonderland and how GREAT is your Step by Step!! A really good and clear explanation, Kittie!! Thank You very much!!
Hugs, Eva.