Learn to make this really fun little scene that is also a greeting card
It's my sons birthday soon and as he really likes axolotl's, I thought it would be fab to make him a little tank with some axolotl's in. He can keep it forever and never has to feed them !
The little shadow box makes a great display item but also can be used as a greeting card and it can fold flat to be posted. I've used axolotl's but you could put your recipients favourite animals or objects into a shadow box if you have a suitably sized stamp.
Follow the below link to find out how the card was made
You will need
- Shadow Box Card die set by Lawn Fawn
- I Like You (A Lotl) stamp and die set by Lawn Fawn
- Lovely Mystery 12x12 scrapbook pad by Craft Sensations
- White and sand/beige coloured card
- Black, green and blue ink pads (my black ink pad is by Ink it Up and the others came from Stampin Up - wild wasabi and island indigo)
- Green, pink and peach colouring medium (I use promarkers - pear green, pale pink and soft peach)
- Birthday banners stamp and die set by Stampin Up
- Die cutting machine (I used Bigshot by Sizzix)
- Stamping aid (I use Stamparatus by Stampin Up)
- Glue, Double sided tape and double sided foam pads
- Using the shadow box die, cut two from the wavy blue paper from the scrapbook pad.
- Cut another from white spot on blue background paper. Cut another but this time place the largest rectangular die within the shadow box die and cut another one from white dot on blue background paper. (This creates your aperture in the front of your shadow box)
- Put double sided tape on the tab on the white dot paper (the one without the aperture) and stick it to the other white dot shadow box piece to form one long continuous piece as per the below photo
- Cut along the score lines of the wavy blue paper shadow box pieces. You will need one longer rectangle and two shorter ones only. Glue them to the inside of the white dot shadow box. (this creates a sea like image in the inside of the shadow box)
(Inside of the white dot on blue background paper is purple) 
- Use the two panel dies and cut out from sand/beige coloured card
- Put double sided tape on the tabs at each end of the panels
- Take the tape protector of the left hand side tabs and stick to the shadow box as per the below photo. I lined the base of the panels to the base of the shadow box and then just placed them spaced out along the short side
- Pull the tape protector off the right hand tabs of the panels and fold the righthand side of the shadow box over. Press down. This will ensure the panels stick in the correct place.
- Put some double sided tape on the remaining tab of the shadow box, fold and stick to form a cube
- Using black ink, stamp two axolotl's and three plants onto white card. Colour them in and die cut them out. I coloured one of the axolotl's pink and the other peach.
- Put double sided foam pads on the front of the peach axolotl and stick him behind the back panel in the shadow box
- Put double sided foam pads on the lower back of the pink axolotl and stick to the right hand side of the front panel in the shadow box. Attach the plants to the panels too using double sided foam pads
- Stamp the banner and Happy Birthday greeting onto white card using green and blue ink pads and then die cut out
- Glue the banner to the top front of the shadow box
As you can see from the below photo, the shadow box folds flat so you can post it.
Using the small rectangular die from the shadow box die set, I cut one from white card and stick it to the reverse of the shadow box - this is where you can write your message.
By changing the colours of the patterned paper you could change the design to make it suitable for any other animal that your recipient may like. For example, you could make a greenish box and have the panels in a brown card and then add birds, insects or reptiles to the brown branch panels.
