Hummingbirds Light Up Life

Good morning! Who doesn’t love Hummingbirds? Sharon here and hummingbirds are are one of the critters I adore so when I saw these cutting files on Etsy I couldn’t resist.

Isn’t it stunning? The best thing about this is it is very low cost to make and only uses 3 products. Classic Crest Neenah Solar White Cardstock in 80lb weight, some Tombow Mono Glue and Super Sticky Red Tape. You also need either a cutting machine or an Exacto-knife. I also add 2 sets of battery fairy lights at the end.

This starts its life as 12 pieces of Neenah Cardstock, it need to be white so that the lights will show through. The design comes as 12 different pieces so easy too add to your cutting machine and cut out.

First section is the outer box – I love the vase shape of this.

I don’t want the fold sections as dotted line as this can weaken the design so I score all these manually and fold ready to construct. It is so straight forward once the pieces are folded starting with the bottom I add double sided tape and glue the tabs in place.

I shape the outer side sections by curling with a crease tool. The little teeth looking tabs all have wet glue on them and I gradually place these around the edge holding in place until the glue grabs.

The same process makes the front of the box except the frame section is the top of the box. You could add an acetate layer in between the frame layers – this will also keep the image layers free of dust.

Now to move on to the layers of the image.

There are 6 layers, 5 of these have tabs that need scoring if not done on your machine. This pattern also comes with a shadow PNG set of layers that you can cut with a knife. My hands aren’t steady enough for all the fine detail cutting!

Each section needs the tabs folding on the score lines and gluing into little boxes.

This gives height for each layer and separates them. You could trim off the tabs and use foam tape if you prefer. I use the tabs.

Place glue on the tabs and add each layer. These do have numbers cut in to them so you know how to stack them but it is pretty straightforward anyway.

Once the layers are dry they then need fixing in to the box lid. Add glue to the inside of the top box and lay the inner against it.

I just love the layers. The back of the box fits inside the front, the side edges of this needs glue so it stays in place.

That’s the design completed but it looks so much better with lights. I use 2 strings of tiny fairy-lights. I don’t unravel these I just thread them through the hole on the back of the outer box.

So they stay in pace I add double sided tape to the battery packs and . position them so the switches are accessible.

These boxes look amazing in a dark place once lit up. It’s hard to believe they are so simple to make and just from white cardstock!

Hey and when you are finished, Don’t throw away all the scraps from cutting the images out.

I have a great tip too! Classic Crest Solar White is great for stamping, coloring and die cutting so you can use these for other makes. Sentiments stamp great on the thin sections and small images stamp on the larger ones!!!