Santa Tree Shadow Box

I’m so excited that November is finally here! Now I can unabashedly work on Christmas projects! Yay!

This 5 x 7 shadow box card is a cut file from Lori Whitlock. It has 5 layers from front to back and the end result is very dimensional. I imported the file into Silhouette Studio. I didn’t need to resize it but I did change it from being all white as shown in her store. I just had to break out the red, white and green cardstock from CutCardStock. There is a 20 pack of Holiday Discount Cardstock ready for you to pick up at a great price in each color. For this card, I used the Holiday Discount in Bonsai Green and red in Habenaro Red. Wedding Cake White is also available as part of the Holiday Discount Cardstock in the store.

Directions and photos for this card follows. If you’d like to see a video tutorial for this card, click on the video thumbnail below.

For this project, I used Bonsai Red and Green but used one of my favorite white cardstocks, Curious Metallic Cryogen White. The cardstock cuts very well in the Silhouette or Cricut and it has the prettiest sheen. It’s very suttle but adds something special to anything made with it. Below are all the pieces I cut in preparation for the project. I cut the santa in red and white so that I could retain the red frome but put the white santa on top of the red one so he would show up better against the red and white snow backbround.

In addition to the cut file, I cut a rectangle from red with a stitched die. This is the back of the card so I stamped this with Season’s Greetings and added holly images at the bottom.

Below, I have cut the white santa and glued it on the red frame & you’ll see the stamping for the back of the card. I also added 1/4″ Score Tape to all the edges that will be adhered.

The next step is to glue the top and bottom of the box frame together on the left edge, matching the tab on the front to the back of the box edge. Then I glued the red background in place so that it covered up the glued edge. Because the red piece has holes cut into it, the white peeks through making it look like it’s snowing.

Next, I glued in the frames, layer by layer, lining up each tab to the prior one. They will be approximately 1/4″ apart. This closeup also nicely shows off the texture of the Holiday Discount Cardstock. This is not your ordinary cheap big box cardstock!

You’ll notice some pencil marks on the frames. They remind me what side is up and in what order they go in. The marks won’t be visible when it’s done and it saves me from making mistakes. I even wrote, “Cut this santa off” with an arrow pointing at Santa on the white santa frame. It helps me a lot to avoid mistakes! Once the frames were all secured on one side, I could fold over and remove the lining off of the Scor-Tape and fold the other box side over it. This positions the edges perfectly. All that is needed then is to secure the last box tab to the inside front of the box. Make sure you test each fold as the layers go to make sure it lays flat for mailing when it’s done.

Above, each layer has exposed adhesive and I just folded the B (Back) section over the top. Very easy!

Once done, I decorated a bit more. I added a paper pointsettia flower, a banner at the top, an ornament at the bottom and I layered the three extra white snowflakes in the cut file over the top of the snowflakes in the layers. I’d recommend doing that before you put the box together but it worked ok at the end too. Finally I added a small bow on the ornament, silver glittered/jewel snowflakes and several red and green gems.

The finished card is festive and very interesting due to it’s many layers and shadow box style. It will definitely get a “Wow!” from any recipient. It’s just so unexpected that a flat card would become an inch thick when it’s opened up.

Are you thinking about making holiday cards this year? Maybe you do every year or maybe this is the first time you’re thinking about it. Either way, CutCardStock has the perfect red, green and white cardstocks at economical prices. The Discount Holiday Cardstock is on sale this month so grab it up and start creating!