Semi Shadow box card

Good morning friends!

It’s time for a new Crafts-U-Love Design Team post! This month I received the amazingly intricate Organic Tim Holtz background die * and a pack of paper by the Paper Boutique *.

I immediately started pondering a way of showcasing the beautiful die with the papers… and here’s what I came up with – I’m calling this my semi shadow box card! I knew I wanted to raise the die cut background and while I probably could have used a couple of layers of foam tape, I decided to adapt a pop-up shadow box card. There are tons of tutorials online – Jennifer McGuire has a super video here, but I decided to create a quick step-by-step too!

Step 1 – Die cut the background die on watercolour paper

As this die is incredibly intricate, I used a metal shim when I ran this through my cutting machine. . You can see that this background die doesn’t create a frame, so you can easily create a bigger die cut panel if you want one.

Step 2 – Colour the image using distress inks

I chose a few distress inks which I smooshed onto a craft sheet, diluted with water and started to colour. So relaxing!

You can see that I didn’t poke through all the waste pieces at this stage as I prefer to colour with those in situ. At the end of the process, I removed all the spare pieces and coloured any bits that I had missed (there’s always the odd branch here and there!).

Step 3 Create a frame and prepare a card back

I chose a piece of paper from the Paper Boutique pack and cut a frame for the die cut piece from it. I used this frame as a guide to create the back of my card which I cut to the same height. I added 3cms to the width of the frame for the base as the two sides would be folded twice.

I then made four scoring marks on the card base – 1cm and 2cms from the left and right side.

Step 4 Score along card back twice on each side

Although I do have a scoring board somewhere, I find it easier to use my trimmer to score card stock.

Step 5 Fold in the sides of the card

I then folded along the score lines to create a ‘Z’ on each side. I folded inwards at the 2cms score line and then the other way for the 1cm score line.

Step 6 Attach the die cut panel to card back

Before attaching the panel, I added some more paper to the back of my card to provide even more of a contrast for the die cut.

I added some strong adhesive to the sides of the panel – I always reach for Scor-tape which is super strong and has stood the test of time for my cards!

I then added the frame on top of the card and finally adhered the Thank You die cut from Creative Expressions to finish off my card.