Christmas Shadowbox - Decor Item

Hello everyone!

In this Instructable I will show you how you can make this beautiful Christmas shadowbox! It's a beautiful gift for a friend who loves Christmas, or for yourself!

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Supplies

Tools I used:

- Jointer/planer

- Tablesaw

- Sander

Materials I used:

- Wood glue

- Clamps

- Craft paper

- Utility knife

Step 1: The Paperwork

Picture 1: Make a border of 10mm around 4 craft papers (thick paper). On the first paper you need to draw two trees, (left and right) they are easy to do free handed.

Picture 2: On the second paper you need to draw 2 more trees, beside the ones on the first paper. You can check by laying them on top of each other.

Picture 3: Cut out the trees with your utility knife.

Picture 4-7: Here you can see what it looks like when you're done. For the reindeer and the christmas tree you can search on google for some easy silhouettes.

Step 2: Assembling the Inner Box.

Picture 1: To glue up the shadow box you need wooden spacers. These need to be as long as your paper is, I'm using the standard A4 format. So I used 2x 190mm long sticks and 2x 277mm long sticks. All the spacers need to be 8mm wide x 10mm thick.

Picture 2: Use a little bit of wood glue to glue the spacers in between the different layers of paper.

Picture 3: At the back I'm glueing a white craft paper with some holes in it to let the light through.

Step 3: The Wooden Box - the Woodworking Part

Picture 1:

My dimension of my wooden planks:

2 x 8mm thick, 6,6cm wide and 21cm long

2 x 8mm thick, 6,6cm wide and 31.7cm long

Cut a groove for your plywood panel of 4mm thick. You can do this with a tablesaw or a router.

Picture 2: For one of the short pieces cut all the way through, so you can access the inside of the box by sliding away the plywood backer board.

Picture 3: Plywood backer board: 21,7cm wide, 30,7cm long.

Step 4: Assembly Time!

Picture 1: Now it's time to glue the inner box to the outside box.

Picture 2: Because I didn't used miter cuts, I'm making a miter border to go on the front of the shadow box. the dimensions of the slats: 22mm wide, 8mm thick. This way the paper border is also nicely covered.

Picture 3: Round over the edge of all the slats on the routertable and glue them on the box.

Picture 4: Make a little knob/handle for the plywood back.

Picture 5: Put some LED-lamps at the back. As you can see, I'm just using some ugly painterstape :).

Picture 6: Slide the plywood in place, and you're ready to shine with your shadowbox!

If you liked this instructable and the video, don't forget to give me a vote in the "Holiday decor speed challenge" contest.
Thank you!

Happy Holidays!

Comments

[SmileLove]

That's beautiful!

[spiritburner]

this is really great, I have done something similar but using my K40 laser to cut out wood and arrange in a layers with spaces and its makes a nice 3d look but obviously paper allows for the light to shine through beautifully, I still have my Diode cutters as well and this cuts card as well as wood and I may give this a try on fine card or even a fine ivory acetate , it looks very nice and with a programmable set of leds and specific colours you could replicate a dawn to dusk to night shadow which would look lovely as well. I think you have done a lovely job. these were first made many years ago as a form of entertainment in the evenings and on special holidays like Christmas, its something you can bring out every year and cherish.

[Creatiedroom]

Thank you so much! Yes, great idea, you can try to do that!

[tercero]

Very nice. I like that you can change the colour temperature in the background to give it a different feel.

[Creatiedroom]

Thank you, yes if your lights are able to do that, that would be cool! But I like warm light :)

[gmartonic]

as other commentator expressed....blue for cool winter color

[Penolopy Bulnick]

Wonderful job putting this together :)

[Creatiedroom]

Thank you!!