Dogwood Shadow Box

Today is my turn to design a project for Susan's Design Team on the Elizabeth Craft Designs Blog.  I created a dogwood flower shadow box with Susan's Garden - Dogwood dies. Dogwood flowers are either white or pink. I love the delicate pink flowers so that is what I have created for this shadow box.

 The finished shadow box is 6"x 6". With the pretty lacy top, the height is 7-1/2". On the side, I created an accordion fold so it will push down flat. The instructions are below.

1. Creating the flowers: Die cut all the petals using white cardstock. Use the Leaf Tool from Susan's Garden All Metal Flower Tool Set to draw vertical lines on each petal, as shown in the picture below. Then use the medium-sized ball stylus to shape each petal on the backside.

2.  To create the color of my flowers, I used the picture above to try and duplicate the delicate pink on the petals.

3.  Above is a picture of the dogwoods I created.

4. To achieve this coloring, use Rouge Pan Pastel (light pink) across most of the petal leaving the top and base of the petal white. Next, rub in Magenta Pan Pastel in the center, blending it well over the light pink Pan Pastel.  As a rule, I generally color my petals before shaping, but for this flower, I found it was easier to get the color in the middle by bending the shaped petal over my finger and applied the Pan Pastel with Fantastix Coloring Tool Brush Point.

5. Next the four shaped petals were glued to the calyx (base) die cut piece. Once the petals have dried on the calyx, you can use the tweezers to add additional shaping.

6. To create the stamen, use the Fine Pointed Scissors to cut between each stamen projection to make them thin.  The stamen was then rolled and glued closed and placed in the center of the flower using the self-closing tweezers in Susan's Tool Set. Once the stamen was firmly attached in the center of the flower, add Viva Light Moss Green Paper Pen to the tips of each stamen. Put a very tiny dot on both the front and back of each projection.

7. I wanted to create a shadow box that would fold down flat. Start with a piece of 18" x 12" cardstock and cut it down to 18" x 6".  To create accordion sides, score it at 4-1/2",  5",  5-1/2", 11-1/2", 12" and 12-1/2".

8. The picture above shows how the accordion sides are folded. To create the accordion folds, with top side up, create a valley fold on the center score line and a mountain fold on the two outside lines. Do the same thing on the other score lines. Crease the folds well with a brayer or Bone Folder tool.

9.  Use Susan's Garden Patch - 1 1/2-inch grid die for the window.

 

 10. The die was taped to the front of the card in between the score lines and die cut. This will fit because the card is 6" tall.

 

11. The grid die cut a perfect opening for the Shadow Box. I did not use the little squares, but did use the die cut frame for the inside of the box.

12.  Before attaching the Shimmer Sheet to the inside of the card, the panels on the back of the shadow box were taped down with transparent Double Sided Tape, to create the box.  To get the back panel folded exactly right, a piece of 6x6 inch card stock was placed in the back scored lines then the back panels were taped down.  When you place the colored 6"x6" card stock in the back, you will get a perfectly square box.

13.  This photo shows how the back pieces overlap.  A 6x6 inch piece of card stock is glued to the back of the card to finish the backside.

14.  For a pretty background for the dogwoods, I used a piece of the ECD Pink Iridescent Shimmer Sheet and embossed it using the ECD Heart Strings Embossing Folder.  The white die cut Grid was glued over the Shimmer Sheet (it is not glued together in this picture).    Next, the shadow box was pressed down in a flat position, and the grid was glued in so it perfectly fit inside the die cut opening.

 

15.  To complete the shadow box, I used Purple/Silver Glitter border stickers on each side of the opening then attached additional dogwoods.  Across the top of the box I added two Paris Edges die cuts.  One was glued to the inside of the front and the other cut shorter and glued to the top side of the frame.  A piece of glitter paper from the edge of the glitter border was used at the top of the opening and along the bottom, I used some of the "scraps" from both the Paris Edge die cut and the from the border sticker sheet.

Shadow Box Cards are very easy to create.  I hope you enjoyed this project.

Products from Elizabeth Craft Designs:
1009 - Susan's Garden Dogwood
808 - Susan's Garden Tool Set
809 - Susan's Mini Molding Pad
802 -Fine point scissors
Susan's Garden Patch - 1 1/2-inch grid & Mini Petals die

E112 -Heart Strings Embossing Folder
SS0104 -Pink Iridescent Shimmer Sheet
506 -Transparent Double Sided Tape
7045 - Purple/Silver Glitter Ribbon Branches border stickers
979 - Paris Edges

Other Products used:
17"x 6" card stock for Shadow Box
Score Board
White Card Stock
340.88 Rouge, Pan Pastel (light pink)
430.5 Magenta Pan Pastel
"Fantastic" Coloring Tool Brush Point
Viva, Light Moss Green, Paper Pen
Glue
Bone Folder Tool