The Beauty of Fall Colors

I think this new project has made it to my top five favorites of all time!  I grew up in New England where colorful fall foliage is a treat for the eyes this time of year. Combining those wonderful autumn colors with some copper foil and lights just makes me happy.  

This was a bit of a hybrid project as I used svg files from three different sources to create this lovely shadowbox:

1.  Large Square Shadowbox Frame from Bird's SVGs Picture Perfect Collection
2.  Falling Leaves Paper Sculpture from Dreaming Tree's Autumn Calling Bundle
3.  The Beauty of Fall Colors, a free download from Love SVG

I created the white shadowbox frame using the size it was designed to be - 11" square. I did not use the acetate on the front to close up the shadowbox, but you certainly could. I love being able to make my own shadowbox frame whenever I want. It's easy to customize and Bird designed it in a way that's very easy to put together.

I sized the Falling Leaves border to be 8.8" wide so it would fit inside of my frame. The leaves were all sized down at the same time.  Some of these leaves were cut from patterned paper, some were run through my Cuttlebug with an embossing folder and some were just inked using Tim Holtz Distress Inks.  I cut one extra layer of the border to use for lighting - I'll explain below.

The "Beauty" phrase was sized to 4.135" wide and cut from Cricut copper adhesive foil and transferred to the blue background layer. I also used a copper foil patterned cardstock for the front panel of the shadowbox frame, although it's hard to photograph the fantastic shine of it.  Here's a closeup where you can see it better:

Last but not least, I added a 5-foot long string of LED lights (I purchased these on Amazon) and sandwiched them between the layers of the leaf border. Because the lights are on a flexible wire strand, I bent them and taped them down near the tips of all of the leaves.  I added foam dots all over the top of that layer and added the finished leaf layer on top of it.  The sandwich from bottom to top goes like this:

1.  blue bottom layer
2.  double thick red border layer attached to blue layer with foam dots/tape for dimension
3.  light strand taped down to top of layer 2
4.  red border layer with decorative leaves attached over layer 2/lights using foam dots/tape

Prior to the layering, I decided where I wanted to mount the battery pack on the back of the frame and then punched a hole through the frame as well as layers 1 & 2 so I could thread my lights in though the back.  I wish I had taken a few pictures when working on it, but didn't think of it until after everything was already stuck down.  

If I've missed a step or you'd like a more detailed explanation, let me know and I'll try to help. It's really not hard, just a little time consuming. I think the end result is well worth it though!

Thanks for stopping by to check it out!  I'd love to hear what you think.  

Shadowbox Collage

I've had so many ideas in my head for what I could do with the Picture Perfect kit from Bird's SVGs.

The kit includes several different sizes and shapes of shadowbox frames as well as a seashore version which can be lit from behind to make a beautiful home decor piece.  Here are a few photos from the kit - beautiful, right?

What I love about this kit is the versatility.  If you spend anytime on Pinterest or other crafty websites, you're sure to see tons of ideas for amazing shadowbox projects.  Shadowboxes are used to highlight everything from rolled flower projects to mixed media collage art as well as gallery walls and special family memories.

The ability to customize the frame to the size you need and to be able to make it exactly when you need it makes this kit a super star in my book.

Last year I made this milk can project, and mentioned at the time that I might make a photo album to
go inside of it.

 
I never did get around to the photo album, but decided to a do a little collage to highlight one of the photos instead.  Using the Square Shadowbox Flower Frame, I cut out pieces in black and metallic cardstock.

For the frame layer, I distressed the metallic cardstock like I did in the milk can project by sanding and scratching it, and then inking the worn spots with Distress ink in Walnut Stain.  For the inside backing piece, I embossed it with a mesh embossing folder, sanded it down a little bit and added some Walnut Stain on there too.

After that I had some fun picking out embellishments to add to the front of the frame. I'm really a beginner in the world of mixed media and collage art and this part is always a challenge. I'm never sure if I should add more or quit while I'm ahead.  Because of this, I did not add the acetate layer to close up the box. I might just need to add some other items inside that I haven't thought of yet!

The sides didn't really need it, but I had this cool wide tissue tape from Tim Holtz that went with the color scheme and overall feel of the project, so I went around the edges with it. I really love how it came out.

The shadowbox itself is so easy to put together, you could make an entire gallery wall for yourself in an afternoon. I see so many possibilities and uses for these frames in addition to creating them with the flowers and embellishments included in the bundle. I have a feeling I'm going to be cranking these out on my Cricut for years to come!

I'd love to hear what you think in the comments below. Thanks so much for stopping by!

Carrot Shadowbox

I thought glitter card stock was hard to photograph until I tried taking pictures of this shadowbox I just finished - very difficult with glare everywhere!  I think you get the idea though.

This shadowbox is a modified version of the one in the newly released Happy Easter kit from SVGCuts.  Last week I picked up a few shadowbox frames at Michaels when they were 65% off, but I only bought 9x9" square ones.  I certainly wasn't going to be able to fit six carrots in one of those, so I adapted by slightly enlarging the carrots and planning for two instead.

I just happened to have all the supplies on hand and was excited to get to work on this after the workday was done. What's better than a newly released svg kit on a Friday afternoon with a whole weekend of crafting possibilities ahead of you?  Not much!

Here's a picture I took at a bit of an angle - it seems to have helped with the glare for the most part.

I'd love to hear what you think - feel free to leave a comment below. Hope your weekend is great and thanks for stopping by!