Shadow Boxes : Hot Air Balloon

Today's project is DIY shadow box making!

Ideally when you put together your own shadow box display, no matter what season or occasion, you are going to want to consider 3 different basic elements.

     *your flat background (can be solid or patterned or include a photo)
     *text (your message or quote or caption)
     *3 dimensional objects (the things that will fill the space inside)

If you stay true to this recipe, you can't go wrong!
Shadow boxes are great to showcase all kinds of things. Think of it as new level scrapbooking. 
The most popular occasions would be:

     *to display a family member's photo with tiny treasures
     *show a summer or beach scene
     *Engagement photos with mementos
     *Graduation pictures
     * "Baby's Firsts"
     *Christmas scene
     *Birthday Box
     *Vacation trips
     *your favorite quote
     and the list keeps going!

For the shadow box I made today, 
the supplies you will need to recreate it are:

shadow box with an unfinished wood frame
assorted solid and patterned cardstock paper
matte or gloss Deco Page glue/sealer
Exacto blade
acrylic paint
brush or foam-on-a-stick
foam Pop-Up-Dots
double sided tape
baker's twine
ball point pen or pencil
scissors
assorted sizes of white pom-poms
hot glue gun & glue sticks

First,

Paint your frame using your acrylic paint. I used a dark maroon. Dry time should be between 30 mins to an hour. 

Then using your Deco Page and brush/foam-on-a-stick, glue a piece of your cardstock to the backing of your frame! After 5 minutes, cut off the edges with an Exacto blade.

(The cardstock I chose had the phrase, "Oh! What a beautiful day!" on it and had pictures of clouds smiling so I was inspired to make something that was sky related. Thus the hot air balloon idea was born!)

Then hot glue 3 white pom-poms to the baker's twine. Length should be the as wide as your shadow box. Glue ends in place inside the frame, about halfway in between the front and back so that your string looks like it's floating.

Next to draw the hot air balloon, sketch out a circle. Then extend circle down to make a light bulb shape. Don't worry about all the sketch lines, the secret is to turn it around to the other side once we have the perfect shape. 

Once we have our balloon shape, trace it on to another piece of cardstock paper. Taking the lighter color, draw stripes up and down, then cut along the lines. You will only be keeping every other stripe.

Stack your stripes on top of your first balloon using your pop up dots. These will make the stripes stick out!
Then putting a strip of double sided tape to the back of the balloon, stick the 3 strings of baker's twine, and then either glue or tape to the back of the "basket" of your balloon.

Then simply attach balloon via pop-up dots to the backing of your shadow box frame and ta da!
So cute.

I used a Decocolor white acrylic marker to draw arrows on the top to add some more detail. Drawing on the outside adds something different than what you'd expect from a typical frame.

And there it is! 
Adorbs.

Have fun making your own shadow boxes! Explore new themes and ideas!
Have a great week :)

Bethany @ Enchanted Lake